Dragon Release user poll

[Ashes The Second]

I don't support this -- I did initially, but all I think it will do is cause confusion if images are not linked with the first post/poll.

[aangs-sister]

I don't support this -- I did initially, but all I think it will do is cause confusion if images are not linked with the first post/poll.

That's fine. What about the new idea of a theme release (since this seems to be the way the thread is going)?

[xeyla]

Theme Release sounds good. The element of Surprise is still there.

[tyto_alba]

I'd much rather vote on individual dragons over themes. That's just my personal preference, though. I'd much rather see what's in store than still have to play a guessing game if voting on dragons were implemented.

[Syphoneira]

I supported this when it came up before, and while voting on Biomes/themes/generalities sounds interesting, it also doesn't strike the same spark as having any idea of exactly what the vote might result in.

 

So I support this, but do think that even more imperatively, we need more dragons Released, especially of more commons, (in part to help dilute the Blocker pool, assuming that this would be permitted to do so) and that during months where a typical Release might not occur because of Special Releases occurring, for example, at the end of a month, that perhaps a single common could be Released at some point where it would not interfere with the Special Release, and in sufficient quantities that the average person could rapidly get enough to get by on in plenty of time to have room for the Specials, if preceding the Holiday Release, or, if following, with time to make room after the Holidays.

 

We've had too many years of minimal Releases of new sprites, with a backlog of beauty languishing in Completed, and we need to start getting these dragons out and the Blockers diluted so that the biomes move, and the game can truly begin.

 

So I personally think it would be nice if we could perhaps vote on generalities pertaining to a single common to be released on each of several occasions when an ordinary Release might not occur because something else is happening at the end of that month or early in some adjoining month.

 

Then, (in my dreams, lol,) the top few categories voted for could be selected by TJ as the basis for one of each of these additional mini-Releases of commons through the following year, and we'd be adding to progress as well.

 

Then TJ could stick with any original plans for upcoming scheduled Releases and we'd feel we had some degree of input, while some stress-free, single-common-dragon additional Releases could occur to help work on both the Completed backlog and the clogging of the Cave.

[zaverxi]

Think it could be possible vote on dragons made by artists who don't have any dragons in the cave at all? There is indeed a great amount of complaining by people who are tired of seeing the same few people getting dragons in the cave month after month, while other, unknown artists have had their designs moldering in the completed section for literal years.

 

I mean not to say that the ones who have 10+ dragons in the cave already don't have awesome designs, but I cheered when tikigurl got hers in the cave for the first time. Gave me hope for my own design. ^^;

 

Maybe we can have a 'breakout' vote where people are given the images only, without saying who made them, what the dragon is, or what its name is so people can't vote based on favoritism?

 

Not to say that the ones who 'lose' will never get their chance to shine, just keep track of the ones people like the best, say the top ten, and release those as well, just a year or so later. Then the ones that aren't so favorable, bring them out in the voting again at a later time so people can be reintroduced and looked upon more favorably, hopefully.

 

I also approve of the themes, I've noticed that some biomes get more love than others. I'd vote for Jungle over Alpine any day.

 

And as for the 'type' theme, I'm all for that as well. There needs to be more pygmies! Also, drakes aren't getting much love either. All the dragon types in the FAQ could have their chance to shine too, there's many different types now.

[Completely Different]

^ The problem with anything where you're voting on individual dragons is this;

 

You have five chosen breeds. All are obviously high quality, with gorgeous sprites and interesting concepts, or they wouldn't have been chosen. One, maybe two, get's voted into the cave.

 

...what happens to the rest?

 

Either: they get released at a later date, OR

 

they never get released, despite clearly having awesome art. That seems somewhat unfair on both the people who put so much time into making them, and the people who wanted to see them in cave. I suppose the first problem could be alleviated if all the artists/conceptors had to agree to being in the contest, but I still think it would be disappointing.

 

I do see what you mean about get new artists in Cave. Their are a few with amazing art styles I can't wait to see added officially.

[zaverxi]

In response to this, maybe I can elaborate on what I meant.

 

Say, 5 awesome breeds like you said, chosen at random from those who don't have dragons in the cave yet, and voted for.

 

#1 voteswise gets released in the cave within six months, #2 within a year, #3 within a year and a half. And to keep things from taking too long, #4 and #5 get resubmitted to a voting poll within a year to give them another chance with 3 other designs. By then, maybe people will like them better this time, and at the same time give it a chance for them to be forgotten so it's still a surprise. And without a set release time, people won't know when they come out so it'll still have the mystery factor.

 

Another thing, make it be a poll on dragcave itself, not a forum post. That way, the results could be like with the prize lottos, and only be seen by admins. That'd keep the votes from being skewed one way.

 

Also, campaigning shouldn't be allowed, to keep the favoritism down. You can ask your friends to vote for your dragon in PM, but PMing other people should count as harassment, the same as begging for people to give you dragons. Ditto for thread posts.

[Guillotine]

I like the idea of voting for which new artists to be released sooner (as I dislike the idea of simply taking a dragon out of the running entirely). One of the adult sprites for the example with no other information would work best for the poll, I think; if the sprites are all from breeds that are going to be released in the vague future (remember, we don't get many new breeds a year even with the new format), we likely won't remember the dragons that don't win by the time they're released anyway... or at least won't be able to look at the eggs and go "hey, I think it's that one dragon*!"

 

*People do this with hatchlings anyway, so I don't think it's too big a concern.

 

e: And yes on doing a site poll, not a forum poll. The forum's too small a cross section of the site populace for something like this.

Edited September 12, 2013 by Guillotine

[Skellybones]

Perhaps just with egg sprites? ^^

 

But support, this sounds like a nice idea.

[Guillotine]

Well, egg sprites don't really show off the spriter's abilities; the majority are recolors of various bases. If we're voting by spriters we'd like to see, having only an egg sprite doesn't help very much.

[Nectaris]

Well, egg sprites don't really show off the spriter's abilities; the majority are recolors of various bases. If we're voting by spriters we'd like to see, having only an egg sprite doesn't help very much.

Yeah, egg sprites also can be made by other people than the adult spriter. There are many people keen to make egg sprites that aren't ready to do adults yet that sometimes the OP lets them make an egg.

 

Also, the egg doesn't necessarily always reflect the quality. For example, I never liked the turp egg design, even when I first made it. I only stuck with that design because I couldn't think of anything else.

[Obscure_Trash]

In response to this, maybe I can elaborate on what I meant.

 

Say, 5 awesome breeds like you said, chosen at random from those who don't have dragons in the cave yet, and voted for.

 

#1 voteswise gets released in the cave within six months, #2 within a year, #3 within a year and a half. And to keep things from taking too long, #4 and #5 get resubmitted to a voting poll within a year to give them another chance with 3 other designs. By then, maybe people will like them better this time, and at the same time give it a chance for them to be forgotten so it's still a surprise. And without a set release time, people won't know when they come out so it'll still have the mystery factor.

The only issue with this is that it's exactly what TJ wanted to avoid last time - simply releasing things based on current popularity since they're just all going to be released anyway. x3

 

~

 

I too would like to see new artists in cave, but there's two problems I see with this:

-AFAIK, even though it may not seem like it sometimes, TJ doesn't want to choose art just based on artist, so just narrowing selections to artist may not be the best art and would also be favoriting some artist. Also, if people are worried about users voting due to favoritism, I would think this would be even more of a chance if we did by artist. =p

-It still leaves us with a huge selection of dragons and therefore back to the original problem of voting more generally than by specific dragon, which leads back to the same suggestions of themes. x3

[olympe]

You know, another idea would be that an HM prize for any coming raffles (or whatever) could be turned into a wish for a release.

 

Let's say I'd win an HM prize and could choose one breed to be released during the next year. Obviously, I'd forsake an egg of my choice that I'd get otherwise. (Of course, TJ could still decide that my choice isn't suitable for the cave...)

 

Regarding the egg sprite idea - there are some eggs in the cave that don't resemble the adult dragons much. Blunas don't look much like their eggs, neither do hellfires or hellhorses, for that matter. And don't get me started on sunstones, luminas, black teas, glory drakes, duotones, bloodscales, autumn seasonals, magmas or GONs.

Edited September 12, 2013 by olympe

[Fuzzbucket]

I've been sitting on the fence about this all day, watching the thread - and have just decided that I REALLY cannot see it working in any useful and non DRARMAR way.

[Natayah]

I like the idea of giving TJ feedback on what dragon types, biomes and colors we would most prefer to see over others so he can see where the majority (at least of forum users) of the player base is wanting more of instead of just randomly guessing. I also don't like that it seems like the same artists are creating breeds to be released over other artists.

 

I think giving feedback on an hidden results poll where TJ would be the one to see the results and do with that feedback as he best sees fit would be the best result. There is still plenty surprise left, he is not bound to a particular outcome or time frame and he has feedback from the players rather than us just typing in choices as a poll/survey with multiple choices would be much easier to calculate than random responses to a thread and/or fill in open ended survey.

[ulki]

I like the idea of voting once a year based on a theme.

I agree that it should be a site wide poll and not a forum one.

Maybe we could make a mix of options? Like so:

 

* Jungle

* Pygmie

* a red dragon

* Animal like dragon

* scary dragon

 

All the options do not need to be variations on one theme but can be a true mix of themes

[platedlizard]

I really like this idea... well I think it would create drama but every release creates drama so it doesn't matter that much in my opinion. Basically whatever it takes to get the Sun Conure Drakes released lol

[aussieJJDude]

Yes Please!

I really like aangs-sister idea! After all, the users should have a choice too

[earthgirl]

For theme releases: I like the idea and I feel this is already sort of happening. we had light blue dragons this month; last month we had 2 headeds; july - speckly eggs, etc.

 

A mod mayhem for concepts from not-in-cave artists would be neat too.

Or maybe an artist mayhem! I'd so love to have the opportunity to have a say in who gets in! ^^

Yes, I personally love to see new meat in the cave, despite being excited each time I get a release. I am always rooting for new in-cave artists!

 

But at this point it's not for me or other spriters to decide who gets a released sprite. We just get released. TJ picks our sprites depending on what he likes, not by artist. There is no such thing as favoritism and we're not forcing him to release our sprites.

 

I've had my year of glory in 2013, next year people will be complaining about someone else. So is life.

 

ETA: We already have the 'Completed List favorites' topic in which people vote what they like best from it. Maybe I should forward it to TJ?

 

The only problem I see with the userbase voting on dragons is that the userbase is large and tastes vary greatly! There will be say, 100 dragons getting votes. Weeding them down to a few will be hard. There are lots of pretty dragons on that list that I'd love to fill my scroll with! <3

Edited September 13, 2013 by earthgirl

[RainDear]

If we were given a chance to choose, I wouldn't. I went into the completed section once and saw so many dragons that I would love to own. Some of them are amazing. I never looked again. If a dragon I really liked came off the section and I anticipated its release, but it never showed I would be really disappointed. In the same way if I voted on a dragon, assuming I could choose just 1 or 2 from several I really liked, and I'm not sure I could, it would be very disappointing if it weren't selected. Then, it would also remove some of the surprise if I had some idea what the next dragon would be. I will just go on being surprised each release.

[Syphoneira]

For theme releases: I like the idea and I feel this is already sort of happening. we had light blue dragons this month; last month we had 2 headeds; july - speckly eggs, etc.

 

A mod mayhem for concepts from not-in-cave artists would be neat too.

Or maybe an artist mayhem! I'd so love to have the opportunity to have a say in who gets in! ^^

Yes, I personally love to see new meat in the cave, despite being excited each time I get a release. I am always rooting for new in-cave artists! ''' ...

 

 

 

OMG, A mod mayhem for concepts from not-in-cave artists would be fabulous!

 

 

But ONLY if there were extended Floods and good amounts of all kinds Dropped for at least a couple of weeks afterward (pretty new commons, please!) so that people could actually get them, and it wouldn't turn into some horrid ordeal stressing almost everyone out for months/years following.

 

That would get some new artist's sprites into the Cave, ideally without cutting back on the Releases of whoever's work TJ normally happens to select, (including established artists whose work we've learnt to particularly anticipate,) and, one would hope, help to proportionately dilute the Blocker population, apparently unaffected to any noticeable degree so far as biome movement goes by recent small Releases, which do have advantages for regular monthly events but which, however, do not occur every month, and don't get enough of the Completed backlog out to make much progress in any area.

[DarkEternity]

I see no issue with the userbase voting on sprites. If a sprite is favoured by the userbase, it is much more likely that people will spend time on the site hunting for it. This would lead to an increase in potential ad revenue.

[Esmeia]

I'm liking this idea a lot. C:

[Rafaela22]

I like this! It would be great if we players could have a say in what goes on site instead of TJ always picking. Not that TJ isn't picking good stuff out for us, I just want some easterns that I can get actually as caveborns! I'm sad that picking out a particular breed from the completed list might not work, but I guess it makes since since TJ likes suprizes. A theme release would be OK for me as long as it had lots of things to choose from.

Maybe we could make a mix of options? Like so:

 

* Jungle

* Pygmie

* a red dragon

* Animal like dragon

* scary dragon

 

All the options do not need to be variations on one theme but can be a true mix of themes

I like this idea best if we need to do a theme release over just picking what we want. For me, I would always pick a scary dragon over a pygmy or an animal dragon over a jungle dragon. If there was a tie, they could mix the winning two together, like a scary pygmy or a red animal dragon!!

 

We could have the mods or artist pick out their favourites. That's what mod mayheam was right? I want on DC when that hapened but didn't the mods pick out the BBWs, nebulas, hellfires and sunsongs? Those are some of my favourite dragons on site, so I would trust the mods or artist to pick out stuff for us again! Oh,or what if TJ just picked some random 3 DC users and let them each pick one breed of the completed list? He could do something like the shimmer give away, but with only a few people that are on the forum. That would be so cool!

Edited September 15, 2013 by Rafaela22