Congressional Election Game Mechanics Change- Why we need it?
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by Tiacha
Are you sick and tired of having nobody's win just because of their party? I know I am. Every month, we get people who are grossly uninformed elected to Congress. Why is that? We have an ICCCR which have been voted into the top-5 in the media for the past two months. Why is it continuously ignored? Why are good candidates like Rich Brophy of AL or Zorba of RI not winning right now? Well, lets get to the point--- there are a variety of in game mechanics which have been ignored by the admins for months which causes good candidates to be ignored because of vote empathy and party-line voting. I'm calling for the following reforms which need to be changed now to ensure the fairness of every Congressional election.
1.The admins need to change the voter page so that voters see the candidate first, not the party. I like most of the USWP. But come on, how many states do they win month after month because people just vote for the party and not the candidate. I know they're trying to model this off of the UK where people vote for the party and not the person, but that doesn't work in eRep. It leads to ill-informed people elected to Congress who don't know what an MPP is or what PANEC is.
2.Randomize the order in which candidates appear on the voter page. Is it fair that the party first in the alphabet always has the first candidate on the screen? We wouldn't even have this problem if we got rid of the party first on the ballot system. And if we got rid of this, we should randomize the way candidates appear on screen to avoid the first candidate problem. In many studies it has been shown that voters who do not care will often pick the first candidate on the page. This needs to be changed.
3.Let 6th parties run candidates. I've been saying this since the beginning of V1.
(link) If you're gonna model a European style legislature, you need to allow candidates from 6th parties to run. Many many voters get confused when a candidate who runs under party A switches back to party B after the election is over. Lets get rid of confusion and promote democracy now by allowing 6th parties to run.
You all might not agree with me, but I'm sick and tired of seeing good candidates defeated because of silly game mechanics and apathetic voters. Admins, I beg you to finally make these changes eRep so desperately needs.
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I agree. Good idea.
I am in full agreement with you Tiacha, and I may be the most benefitted by the system. Part of this game is campaigning, and truly...I call to the voters of Florida, I believe I can represent you well, but do not vote for me because I am in a certain party...I beg of you to vote for me only if you believe it too.
Do your homework everyone, look at the platforms and the candidates and then decide...
I would rather win or lose because my focus did or did not align with that of my constituency than because of the party that I chose to call home (though I do think it is the best).
Voted most enthusiatically...thanks Tiacha!
Well I do agree with you Tiacha ,but I don't believe that is purely why certain people are winning.
This was my first congressional election, I reside in Fla. because my employer suggested I move there, as stupid as it is your avatar offended me and kept me from voting for you (Ananias)
Agreed.
Part of this is the need for citizens to actually get involved in the politics of the nation.
Makes some good points. Voted.
@George - Sorry for that, for your benefit, it is my actual real life dog and undoctored in any way the photo just came out that way. I thought it was funny and absolutely fit with his daily damage to my socks. Given your avatar I can fully understand your repulsion 🙂
I agree with the gist of this article.
As my first congressional election I was surprised with the format. I though it would look more like the results page, which is actualy nicely done. I would just like to see all the names and avatars at once and be able to browse throught their platforms. it is set up to make the party most important, not the person, which in my opinion is a mistake
New auto-updated dynamic world map:
Please vote this article up!
I apologize for the spam, but I'm sure it's worth a click:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/new-dynamic-world-map-always-up-to-date-762660/1/all
let everyone run thats level 12 how bout that
I liked this article so much, I voted 30 times!
However, I have slightly different views on a couple of the points. But, the main point of get rid of the party selection part first is paramount and needs to be done ASAP.
In terms of how they are then arranged, it should really be alphabetical by name. Since your name begins with a T and mine with an E, perhaps you see this as less fair. But, really, it is unbiased and is how many other fair things operate. The "billing" for a movie, etc., after any top billing, is typically done alphabetically by last name. I suppose if you were taking an alias, perhaps a last name starting with A or Aa would be best for these cases. 😛
In terms of more candidates, I am totally confused why each region doesn't operate like the Presidency. If a particular Top 5 party choses not to run a candidate, it should fall to the next party to potentially offer a candidate for that region. This would have the same effect of much of the current candidate crop but with much more reality in terms of what parties people actually belong to. If you can convince the AAP to let you run under their party today, you should be able to just as easily convince them to not run their own candidate in that region. Then, you can run from your party. If they want to limit the number of "qualified" candidates in a region to 5, then fine. Really, for the US, 5 seems too little. But, in smaller countries, 5 is almost too much. Also, they don't yet give Party President's the ability to DISALLOW a candidate that just recently joined their party from running for a particular region where they have no current candidate. They should allow this. IanJohnLockeIV asked for this last election, but it fell on deaf ears.
I agree with everything you said Tiacha, especially point 1. Even if the Admins are trying to limit joke candidates they could expand to the top 10 parties being allowed to run. Once again you've come up with a well written article to point out an important issue. Voted, already subscribed, and I hope this article makes the top 5.
I agree Tiacha. We have Congressmen running around without a clue what to do because they happened to be in the party viewed most favorably in the race. In New Jersey, there was the debate between the you and newyorker, and after a much more stronger performance than him, he still did relatively well because of the USWP next to him.
Make it mandatory for all the platforms to be read before you vote, and display names before parties. Congressmen and Congresswomen need to be voted in on the issues, not party.
Couldn't agree more. Especially with number 3. Just one more thing to add to my wish list though. Allow other parties to endorse each others congressional candidates as well. I don't mean make it like the presidency where you can just pick anyone, but let them support a like-minded and intelligent candidate in a region where they aren't running anyone, who has already been proposed by another party, or since the admins will never actually implement any of this, their own candidate running under a different party.
Yeah, I agree with Vincent, as well. That has been mentioned as potentially a good option, again in Ian's article last month.
Nothing came of it then, though.
I also agree that it's silly that you can't see a candidate unless you click on the party first. The screen should just say the name of the candidate and their party, and if you click it it asks you to submit your vote. So you have to click twice to confirm your vote and you're done.
But to be honest, I think the ER system is more broken than just that. Election bombing is a major, major problem and it's at the top of the list of things that need to be fixed.
Proggy, for once, you and I agree. Election bombing changed many elections yesterday and needs to somehow be addressed.
An easy way to get around peoples worry about 10+ parties being represented would be to simply change it from the top five to a certain number of members needed. A serious and active party would have enough members to hit a pre-determined member count. Good article tiacha.
I have nothing to add. Well said.
Voted and 100% agreed.
I think that candidates should be voted in, not parties.
Congressional Recap:
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/congressional-results-a-breakdown-763670/1/20
Good article, hopefully a curious admin will find this.
Voted for justice.
Hey thanks Tiacha! I needed something positive said about my congressing. That new election page really is about as bad as it could possibly be.
It is flawed, but experience shows that when the admins change something it gets worse, NOT better. In truth the system favors those who get friends to move and vote for them. It isn't necessarily a case of Party voting.
Plus the fact that every Congressional election SOMEONE complains about the flaws. I personally believe people had plans riding on certain individuals and when they lose these plans fall behind, so it is typical to complain because you didn't get as you wish. Typical human behavior. Complain when things don't go your way, I'm guilty of it and so is everyone.
Voted
Please VOTE.
You can play and have fun to😇
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/do-you-need-fun-round-2-764095/1/20
Tnx!
I agree. Nice idea, Tiacha.
Zorba didn't win RI because the actual people in Rhode Island voted for Sam Wystan. Zorba didn't even vote for himself.
Regardless, the guy who won Rhode Island is permabanned now.
I agree, an easy way to order the names is experience.
Loved every minute of it.
"cultivated a good brand"
i lol'd
great article T!
Quick Analysis
http://www.erepublik.com/en/article/why-the-uswp-failed-to-score-a-landslide-763381/1/20
Definitely agree that the "vote for party" system is deeply flawed. Changing it so that people vote for individual candidates instead (while still listing the candidate's party) may allieviate some of the problem (as notable names may get more votes because people recognize them, whereas the people who are going to vote on strict party lines will still be able to do so).
In some ways, this is how elections are run in the US (the real one), and eRep could definitely benefit from a similar system.
Voted and sub'd. Good ideas that NEED to be implimented.
Agreed on all points. Voted.
I agree with you to but I would like to add something.
Let every party in the game to have canidates this will break the hold that other parties have because they can control who runs.