Wow, I'm very surprised!
The idea of the voting was to involve more people in a new way. I thought this would be fun, and almost like a different type of competition where we get to do stuff together. We get to discuss the levels, what we like about them and then vote, and see what happens. Of course it would be easier for me to just pick my own favorites, but this idea has been around for awhile and we just haven't done it yet because of the extra work. Normally when the create levels are released, it's not clear if anyone ever plays them! You'll notice that it hasn't been unusual for a competition to go unjudged for quite some time (well, not this year yet ), so I didn't think it would hinder the new create competition in any major way. Even in the first post I said "if there are at least four entrants, we might have a public vote on how to rank the levels", though I apologize for not clarifying that "submissions will be judged in the beginning of April 2013" did not mean the same thing as announcing the results right then.
I want to try it this way this time. If you do not want to rank the other levels for some reason, I can't make you. Personally I like analyzing others' levels and giving feedback on them. I don't quite understand how having one's own levels in the mix debilitates one from evaluating the others fairly when you don't need to compare them to your own at all. I did release the names of the designers which could have a small effect on the voting, but to balance it out the voting is done in private, and additionally I didn't want the guessing of who did what to distract from enjoying the levels normally. If I keep getting an antipathetic response it lowers the odds of trying this communal voting thing again, but without having tried it, I would not have guessed all of your contention against it.
-Miika
The idea of the voting was to involve more people in a new way. I thought this would be fun, and almost like a different type of competition where we get to do stuff together. We get to discuss the levels, what we like about them and then vote, and see what happens. Of course it would be easier for me to just pick my own favorites, but this idea has been around for awhile and we just haven't done it yet because of the extra work. Normally when the create levels are released, it's not clear if anyone ever plays them! You'll notice that it hasn't been unusual for a competition to go unjudged for quite some time (well, not this year yet ), so I didn't think it would hinder the new create competition in any major way. Even in the first post I said "if there are at least four entrants, we might have a public vote on how to rank the levels", though I apologize for not clarifying that "submissions will be judged in the beginning of April 2013" did not mean the same thing as announcing the results right then.
I want to try it this way this time. If you do not want to rank the other levels for some reason, I can't make you. Personally I like analyzing others' levels and giving feedback on them. I don't quite understand how having one's own levels in the mix debilitates one from evaluating the others fairly when you don't need to compare them to your own at all. I did release the names of the designers which could have a small effect on the voting, but to balance it out the voting is done in private, and additionally I didn't want the guessing of who did what to distract from enjoying the levels normally. If I keep getting an antipathetic response it lowers the odds of trying this communal voting thing again, but without having tried it, I would not have guessed all of your contention against it.
-Miika