GDU Points System

[Marked 197]

This topic is in reply to the following post: http://www.gdunlimited.net/forums/topic/8230-animation-ideas-help-plz/page__view__findpost__p__70578

 

I was thinking about it and came up with some ideas while I was doing dishes last night :P

 

How to get points

Points depend on your contribution. The more valuable the content, the more points you receive. For example (and this is just an example, I have no idea regarding actual numbers at this point)

• post/comment: 1 point
  
• receiving a reputation point: 2 points
  
• topic 2 points
  
• gallery upload: 3 points
  
• audio upload: 5 points
  
• referral: 5 points
  
• project submission: 10 points
  
• Tutorial submission: 15 points
  
• Script submission: 20 points (because this forum struggles with that)
  
• completing a job through the jobs system: predetermined amount
  

What can you spend points on

Anyone here played crash bandicoot? I broke my leg once in the 90's when I was a kid and my mum brought home a PS1 with crash bandicoot and i loved that game. I eneded up collecting them. Anyway, you get a crystal for completing a level and a gem for breaking all the boxes in a level. So, these will probably change, but just think of the concept and the reason for buying these as opposed to buying what you can do with them. So imagine you can buy gems and crystals

• Crystal
  
  • Crystals can be traded for advertising space. Say that 1 crystal is worth 1000 pageviews. A member with 5 crystals can trade in to advertise a personal website, or more likely, a project/team recruitment etc. After the ad is displayed 5,000 times, it disappears.
    

  [*]Gem

  • Gems are used to purchase subscriptions. Say 1 gem equals 1 week of a subscription, meaning your accounts user group changes to 'subscriber' for the specified period and you get all the privileges of a subscriber (which are yet to be decided). There will be different gems that equal different periods of time.
    

What is the point of gems and crystals, why not buy directly with points?

The main idea is for the staff to have controls on the system. It's imperative that gems and crystals are valuable to members and therefore need to be rare. Staff members will have the ability to award gems and crystals, mainly through contests such as member of the month and otherwise. Therefore winning members can use the gems and crystals themselves, sell them at a below-par price, or trade them for services in the jobs section. Its also to make the purchasing decisions a little more interesting.

 

Thoughts + suggestions?

[Bigace360 38]

Wasn't really a fan of the Crash series, I like Jak & Daxter better. Also love the ideal of the point system, since other sites have it and I always found it an interesting piece to a website. Still haven't even started writing that tutorial I was think of and I've only just started releasing scripts. Actually get points for those instead of just a "Thanks, I'll credit you", will be a lot better.

Edited January 23, 2012 by bigace

[Wyzrd 12]

I love the crystal and gem idea. I am a huge fan of Crash series. Look for forward to GDU as a whole.

[Polraudio 122]

I like the points idea and the cystal/gem idea. The only problem with giving people points for resources is that people will just upload any old resource even if it exists just to get points.

[Marked 197]

Wasn't really a fan of the Crash series, I like Jak & Daxter better.

Naughty Dog

I like the points idea and the cystal/gem idea. The only problem with giving people points for resources is that people will just upload any old resource even if it exists just to get points.

Yeah that's always going to be a problem. I'm still going over in my head regarding original resources. Quantity vs Quality, there's a level I have to find... But my answer to this is moderators and expensive gems/crystals with lower points for gallery uploads. There's things you can't stop but its our job to ensure points are well deserved. The system will be designed to do this as much as possible and hopefully the mods can catch the rest.

 

The advertisements will also need to be screened by a moderator and comply with a set of rules. We're totally going pro

[Polraudio 122]

Maybe we should do a points wipe once GDU opens up to ensure the points economy is at a ballance. Right now points are kind of useless because most people have tons.I berly did much to get most of mine and yet i have 36k points.

You are able to get at least 1 gem/crystal a month from member of the month. So there going to be rare alright. Just got to figure out what one to give them. Maybe we could get another monthly contest going. Have gems being given out at motm and crystals being given out at whatever other contest we can find to do.

[Foxkit 4]

Love the gems idea :) some thoughts/ suggestions (not that I can give much)

• You could split the motm contests into a series of 3, such as most active motm, most donating motm(putting resources/scripts into the archive) and most helpful motm(helping out people through events or digging up scripts and the like)
  

otherwise I'm very exicted about GDU coming online. :)

[forcebreaker 0]

ok im still farely new, so this is a valid question for me. What the heck are points for?

[Jon Bon 43]

This is an amazing idea. From what I have read so far you guys are really making this site into something useful.

 

1. Will the number of reputation points a user can assign be limited by day, week, or month in order to avoid exploitation?

 

2.I personally think that points for pictures should not be given at all, people will still contribute and upload as they do now, but won't be inclined to attempt to exploit the system by uploading work they do not own.

Same with audio, although people do make unique forms of music, there is so much free rights stuff out there that it would be very easy to upload audio without others ever knowing where it came from. See number 6 for explanation.

 

3.I am not sure how the referral system would work, but I would hope the person referred would need to be active for X amount of time after the referral for the person who invited to get any points. Otherwise I see massive room to exploit this system. Or even better only award points to referrals where the person then subscribes(may be how you want it already).

 

4.The gems and crystals idea is a good one as well. Will points still be trade-able, in other words will there be a sub economy between the users for points? So will 5 people be able to pool their points and use one account for their subscription purposes?

 

5.Will users still be allowed to submit their own shops for creation or is the job section sort of a more effective reverse of this?

If so, will it be possible to make a needed job as a user and offer my own points as payment for the completed job.

 

6.As a user will I be able to add content(Games/Media) to GDU and then offer it for sale for GDU points which are given to me when the game is 'bought'? (This way instead of awarding points for submitting pictures and audio you can simply allow the users to 'sell' their graphics and audio for GDU points)

 

7.Obviously a subscription can be bought with real life currency, and GDU points are earned, Gems are bought with GDU points, and gems trade for subscription status. But can GDU points ever be bought with real life currency?

 

Suggestions for subscription benefits.

• GDU point discount, X% off all products on site that cost GDU points.
  
• X amount of dedicated file hosting(not sure if this is possible), but would allow people to launch their game through the site.(have it done per file, and by size, so like X number of files and no more than X amount of mb)
  
• Automatic entry into a monthly contest where you award either a product you sell(for points) to the winner for free, or possibly reinvest some of the money from subscriptions into an awards system, maybe send a T-Shirt with site logo on it, or a mug, etc. Vista Print, is an excellent site for that stuff.
  
• Not sure if the chat room will have a size limit but, gauranteed place in the chat room.
  
• Asthetic bonuses, ability to change(color) and customize(font) your forum name, Forum Avatar border, animated gifs avatars enabled, and other minor things, much like other sites.
  
• Higher reputation awarding cap(see number 1).
  
• Help Desk-Using your already exisiting staff, or hiring/volunteers(pay in points or real money) whatever spots needed, make a team of 'experts' the subscribers would have access to. You would tell the subscribers to post their problem in the form of a thread much like normal but allow them to select from a list of experts by title(scripting, eventing, graphical, audio, etc.) to assign the problem to. The expert(s) would then recieve an email and be able to contact the person with the problem in order to render assistance. Alot of the time the problem might even already be solved. If the problem remains unsolved by the community, the subscriber is then contacted by the suggested expert(or next available one) and together they decide a time for a metting, they meet in chat or where ever agreed upon and the expert helps them the best they can. As far as paying the experts, which ever currency you choose, you could have it be a case by case scenario where first come first serve gets paid.
  

Well that is pretty much everything that immediately came to mind when I read this. These are of course just my suggestions take em or leave em, but I must say this is definietly going in an excellent direction. I have been dying for a good game making subscription site, and unlimited seems to be shaping into what I am looking for, I knew I picked the right community, keep up the excellent work Marked and staff.

[Kange 0]

are we talkin for the new site or this one as well?

[Bigace360 38]

@Kange: The new site.

[Wyzrd 12]

Jon Bon as some really good idea. He put some thought into that whole post.

 

 

I really agree with the number 3 he posted though about referrals. There needs to be a set amount of time or there could be mass abuse.

[Jon Bon 43]

Hey thanks Wyzrd, I appreciate that.

I got so swept up in what I envisioned the points system to be, I forgot to mention that I am also for a complete wipe out of the current points. It only makes sense since they wont really be the same systems.

 

Before the swap over you could always have you and your staff offer silly things for really high rmxpu point costs. Like 100k points and X staff member wheres a (blank) and takes a photo for community. That kinda stuff, and make it fun for everyone, that way you can drain most of rmxpu's points before the reset and people feel as though they earned something with them. It's also a great way to get the community together before the new launch etc.

-Cheers

[Marked 197]

ok im still farely new, so this is a valid question for me. What the heck are points for?

They are mainly for messing around in here: http://www.rmxpunlim....net/other/shop

Maybe we should do a points wipe once GDU opens up to ensure the points economy is at a ballance. Right now points are kind of useless because most people have tons.I berly did much to get most of mine and yet i have 36k points.

This was the plan from the beginning. We could start at zero for everyone. But what I was thinking is actually calculate the points like the system was always in place, ie start by giving every member a point for each post, then 2 points for each topic, etc. until they have the amount of points they should have earned under this new system. Interest will kill the system obviously, so that's going.

1. Will the number of reputation points a user can assign be limited by day, week, or month in order to avoid exploitation?

I hadn’t planned on a limitation of reputation points. Without the incentive of points, members largely ignore the reputation system and I don’t expect that to change because there is nothing in it for those giving the rep. The exploitation is in the members 2^nd account, where he/she will go around rep’ing all the other accounts posts. This is relatively easy to spot. A member receiving reps of all his posts that are average to begin with. When can find which account gave the rep and cross check the IP, remove the rep and points.

 

2.I personally think that points for pictures should not be given at all, people will still contribute and upload as they do now, but won't be inclined to attempt to exploit the system by uploading work they do not own.

Same with audio, although people do make unique forms of music, there is so much free rights stuff out there that it would be very easy to upload audio without others ever knowing where it came from. See number 6 for explanation.

I suppose with these very easily exploitable uploads, there is a tradeoff between stopping the exploitation and rewarding the honest uploaders hard work. I still do want to offer incentives for artists to upload. The only thing stopping me from having the author only upload there work is my doubts about whether than can succeed. So this is really problematic

 

3.I am not sure how the referral system would work, but I would hope the person referred would need to be active for X amount of time after the referral for the person who invited to get any points. Otherwise I see massive room to exploit this system. Or even better only award points to referrals where the person then subscribes(may be how you want it already).

It would be a registration link that would give us the referrers ID and therefore we could give them points. We could advise them to place the link in their signatures on other forums, so any registration through that link would give that user points. When I think about this… just linking to the site is a positive thing, so as long as set the points correctly I don’t think it can be easily exploited. Unless you are thinking that same member creates accounts through his link? I think we can stop that. Either through checking the IP, or by using a cookie to determine the referral.

 

4.The gems and crystals idea is a good one as well. Will points still be trade-able, in other words will there be a sub economy between the users for points? So will 5 people be able to pool their points and use one account for their subscription purposes?

Yup, if they wanted to give their points up to one member. Members will be able to exchange points as they please.

 

5.Will users still be allowed to submit their own shops for creation or is the job section sort of a more effective reverse of this?

If so, will it be possible to make a needed job as a user and offer my own points as payment for the completed job.

I think the question is will the jobs system replace the current shops forum? The answer to that is yes. Ahh.. I never thought of making a job requests system. That’s a good idea J I think we should definitely include that in the jobs section.

 

6.As a user will I be able to add content(Games/Media) to GDU and then offer it for sale for GDU points which are given to me when the game is 'bought'? (This way instead of awarding points for submitting pictures and audio you can simply allow the users to 'sell' their graphics and audio for GDU points)

I’m not too sure about selling resources for points. Firstly, I want guests to be able to take resources they need from the site. I don’t believe in having an account to block them, because 1. Less people are going to get the resources because not everyone will be bothered making an account and 2. Those who make an account will make it, take the resources and go, wasting database space. There’s just no point to that. Secondly I want to accommodate commercial game makers so there will be possibility of selling their stuff for actual money. In making this site I am assuming that it will be popular enough for such a system, there is no point in spending all this developing something and assuming its not going to be popular enough for certain features.

 

7.Obviously a subscription can be bought with real life currency, and GDU points are earned, Gems are bought with GDU points, and gems trade for subscription status. But can GDU points ever be bought with real life currency?

That’s a possibility. I guess that would have to come in way down the track, once the points system is properly collaborated. It will take several long months to get the system where the points received per type of content is the best possible amount of points, and that they are properly valuable (rare) enough, just like money, to price things like gems and crystals. Its like supply and demand in economics, we may have to alter the price of what’s for sale to accompany the amount of points in circulation.

Suggestions for subscription benefits.

• GDU point discount, X% off all products on site that cost GDU points.
  
• X amount of dedicated file hosting(not sure if this is possible), but would allow people to launch their game through the site.(have it done per file, and by size, so like X number of files and no more than X amount of mb)
  
• Automatic entry into a monthly contest where you award either a product you sell(for points) to the winner for free, or possibly reinvest some of the money from subscriptions into an awards system, maybe send a T-Shirt with site logo on it, or a mug, etc. Vista Print, is an excellent site for that stuff.
  
• Not sure if the chat room will have a size limit but, gauranteed place in the chat room.
  
• Asthetic bonuses, ability to change(color) and customize(font) your forum name, Forum Avatar border, animated gifs avatars enabled, and other minor things, much like other sites.
  
• Higher reputation awarding cap(see number 1).
  
• Help Desk-Using your already exisiting staff, or hiring/volunteers(pay in points or real money) whatever spots needed, make a team of 'experts' the subscribers would have access to. You would tell the subscribers to post their problem in the form of a thread much like normal but allow them to select from a list of experts by title(scripting, eventing, graphical, audio, etc.) to assign the problem to. The expert(s) would then recieve an email and be able to contact the person with the problem in order to render assistance. Alot of the time the problem might even already be solved. If the problem remains unsolved by the community, the subscriber is then contacted by the suggested expert(or next available one) and together they decide a time for a metting, they meet in chat or where ever agreed upon and the expert helps them the best they can. As far as paying the experts, which ever currency you choose, you could have it be a case by case scenario where first come first serve gets paid.
  

There’s some really useful ideas in here J One idea I had hours before reading this, was just like the layout/customization idea you had: “Asthetic bonuses, ability to change(color) and customize(font) your forum name,”. My idea was actually that you ‘unlock’ these as your post count gets higher. But what we could do instead is use points and you permanently unlock these features on your account. I had always planned a high level of design customizability. So yeah, I think this would be a really cool feature.

I have been dying for a good game making subscription site, and unlimited seems to be shaping into what I am looking for, I knew I picked the right community, keep up the excellent work Marked and staff.

We still have a very long road ahead of us before GDU really comes to life, but I hope it fulfils all your expectations. We are certainly aiming high.

[Jon Bon 43]

I hadn’t planned on a limitation of reputation points. Without the incentive of points, members largely ignore the reputation system and I don’t expect that to change because there is nothing in it for those giving the rep. The exploitation is in the members 2^nd account, where he/she will go around rep’ing all the other accounts posts. This is relatively easy to spot. A member receiving reps of all his posts that are average to begin with. When can find which account gave the rep and cross check the IP, remove the rep and points. And anything stolen and gauranteed to be downloaded should be recognizable enough already.

I was more thinking guy A and guy B agree to rep all of each others posts in an effort to raise points. I was also thinking only limit the number of rep able to give to like 3 a day or something, that way it doesnt change much other than the fact that you can't over rep, makes rep more rare and there for more appropriate.

 

I suppose with these very easily exploitable uploads, there is a tradeoff between stopping the exploitation and rewarding the honest uploaders hard work. I still do want to offer incentives for artists to upload. The only thing stopping me from having the author only upload there work is my doubts about whether than can succeed. So this is really problematic

 

I understand and agree with not selling the work for points etc.

You could always have the uploader rewarded with points for each individual IP who downloads their picture/audio etc. that way people wont just upload crap only to get the points.

 

We still have a very long road ahead of us before GDU really comes to life, but I hope it fulfils all your expectations. We are certainly aiming high.

 

No doubt mate. Anything good is worth waiting for.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Cheers!

[rgangsta 43]

Points, gems and crystals? Sounds awesome. This idea worked great on another site I'm a member of. Basically you get a currency called Gald. The Gald can be given to people for doing a service for you and you gain Gald by posting, being active and etc. To see this system on GDU will be awesome because it sounds like it's been taken a step further with subscriptions and all. I can't wait to see this in action.