Join the new world

A couple of weeks ago, fuelled by boredom and whimsy, I set up the P*ss Off Plato fund (“POP” for short).

The idea was pretty simple - start up a prize pot, fund it with money won from other people’s competitions, and then give it away as a prize to someone who manages to irritate Plato into doing something that changes the game for the better.

Since then the response has been, frankly, extraordinary.

Not only did did it catch the imaginations of people across the eWorld, it also caused many people to do something I specifically told them not to - start donating to the fund. And that has had two results.

Firstly, it has rekindled my flagging faith in the eRep community. Clearly there are plenty of people who dutifully log in to this game every day, but who - like me - are exasperated to see it in decline, while the admins do nothing (or make things worse).

Secondly, and crucially, it has caused the POP fund to swell to over half a million cc! Is that the biggest single prize ever to be given away in eRep? I don’t know, but I don’t recall ever seeing one larger.

So, all of that means that now seems like the ideal time to officially launch the competition that started all this off.

Which I shall do.

Now...

Welcome to the P*ss Off Plato Competition! (let’s call it POPcom for short)



What’s this competition all about then?
Glad you asked. I’ll go back to the description I’ve been using from the start…

The winner of the P*ss Off Plato competition will be the person who “Does something that p*sses off Plato so much that it directly and demonstrably brings about a tangible improvement to the game.”

In other words irritate the admins into action. Force Plato to change things for the better. And don't get banned in the process.

In fact you don’t even have to p*ss Plato off if you don’t want to - if you can come up with another way of making him take action, that’s good too. It’s the directly and demonstrably brings about a tangible improvement bit that’s important, not the p*ss of Plato bit.

Ultimately, how you choose to influence Plato is entirely up to you. You may decide to start a campaign on the official forum. You might choose to spam utilise the support ticket system. I imagine there’s a good chance that articles involved. You might even go as far as breaking into the eRep HQ and changing their source code directly - actually, you probably shouldn’t do that. There’s no right or wrong way, so do whatever you think will work best.


Errr … OK. That sounds a bit vague. Are there any rules?
Not many - I don’t want to cramp your style 🙂 However, inevitably, there has to be a few rules, so here they are...

To win the competition and walk away with a prize of over half a million cc, you have to do something that directly and demonstrably brings about a tangible improvement to the game.

By “directly” I mean that you have to come up with a change and, by any means you choose, convince Plato to implement it. So you can’t just get away with moaning a bit and then claiming that a change was your idea.

By “demonstrably” I mean that you have to prove, to me, that you were the one who brought about a change. That means supplying proper, verifiable evidence of your actions. It also means you’ll have to work for this; if Plato makes a change you won’t get away with just saying “I came up with that idea in a feed post nine months ago. Here’s the screenshot”.

By “tangible improvement” I mean something that clearly improves the game for a large number of people. This is all about benefitting the game and, by extension, its players. Not just a small group of players. Not just a specific type of player. This has got to be big and good, so forget about getting Plato to change the colour of the Fight button introducing a translate to Klingon option.

Meet those criteria and prove to me that you personally caused something good to happen, and you could be the one walking away with over half a million cc



By the way, I am the sole judge of this competition. I alone will be the one reviewing the entries, deciding how good each entry is and - ultimately - deciding who walks away with the loot. So it’s me you need to impress if you want to win.


Half a million? Are you kidding?
Nope. The POP fund currently stands at 508,924 cc. Impressive, huh? And - who knows - it might get even bigger than that.

Here’s where the fund came from…


At this point I would very much like to thank all the donors who have helped turn it into such an astonishingly large lump of cash. Obviously I’m keeping their names secret, so that - if this all turns sour - they don’t get caught up in any fallout.

Also - bizarrely - I need to thank Plato himself. He endorsed my first POP fund update with 50 gold (which, obviously, got added to the fund). Whether he did this to shut me up, because he has a sense of humour, or in an effort to provide tacit support for this little scheme I have no idea. But it bodes well, don’t you think?


I can’t be arsed to do anything, but I like the idea. Can I still donate?
Yes. Yes you can.

Just send your donation to me, and - preferably - send me a message as well. This thing has got a lot bigger than I expected, so it helps me keep track of what’s going on.


I don’t have any money, I can’t be arsed to do anything, but I like the idea. Can I still get involved?
Yes. Yes you can.

Just because you don’t want to spend the time required to make a change, doesn’t mean you don’t have any good ideas.

So if you have an idea, post it in the comments. If you don’t want to follow it through, maybe someone else will. And who knows, if they win they might even chuck you some of the loot. Do deals!


It’s all a bit English language, isn’t it?
Unfortunately that’s true. My previous dabble with using Google Translate didn’t go very well (who knew that it would be so bad at translating the phrase “p*ss of Plato”?), and I’m not blessed with gift of multilingualism.

However, you’re more than welcome to take this article, translate it, and publish it in your own country and language. In fact, you’re positively encouraged to do so. I’ll even send you the English language markup if that would help.

All I ask is that you post a link to your version of the article in the comments of this article. And also ask your compadres to add their comments, suggestions and entries directly to me (or in the comments on this article), otherwise I probably won’t see them.


Others have tried to do stuff like this. It will fail.
Bah humbug to you too.

I’m aware that others often try to improve things, often without success. But, in response, I’ll say three things:

1. Just because others have failed in the past, doesn’t mean they’ll fail in the future.

2. I’m not aware of previous attempts being backed up with a half million cc incentive.

3. Plato has already endorsed my previous article with 50 gold. So there’s a decent chance that we’ve got his ear on this. Who knows, maybe he’s up for it?




However, if - ultimately - this whole thing fails I’ll simply return everyone’s donations and we can all move on, no harm done.


Anything else?
Yes.

I really don’t want this to be limited to a small number of people - I’d like as many people as possible to have a chance to improve the game and be in with a shot of winning the prize.

For that to happen, I need this to go global. And for it to go global, I need you.

So, please, Please, PLEASE shout this article is as many places as you can! On you friends feed. In your MU. In your party. In articles. Get the word out to as many people in as many countries as you can!

After all, a competition with a half million cc prize has got to be pretty newsworthy, surely? 😉


I’m really looking forward to seeing what people come up with. I imagine this will take a long time, but that doesn’t matter - I’m pretty much just two-clicking my way into oblivion anyway. At the very least this should provide us all with some entertainment 🙂

So get to work. Come up with some ideas, and then start p*ssing off Plato until he does something about them. And don’t forget to keep the evidence.



I’ll post update articles every now and then, keeping everyone informed of any progress.

Enjoy the show.