Currently there is something of an issue with the House Leaderboard which directs players to create cheap, fast houses with little or no originality in order to get more likes.

Here's a previous rant/explanation for this occurrence here, from this thread for context.

Spoiler

People 'like' automatically in many cases. Just because there is a dearth of experienced players who recognize what goes into making a 'good' house (or are tired of codeshops and know where to get codes online), the players at the top of the leaderboard are the ones who advertise for longer hours in public places. Some players even have secondary accounts to direct flow from a smaller codeshop to a larger, main codeshop in order to garner more likes.

The simple reason, so far as I can tell, is that there is no incentive for players to NOT like a house immediately upon entry. There is no limit to the number of likes they can give out, and no benefit to liking a quality house with intricate design. I've found that designing my house layout actually LOSES likes over time, when compared to others who are on the board, because I am not standing out advertising or spamming invitations like other players.

In a way, this incentivizes making a crappy codeshop on a secondary account, spamming new players with invitations, and not changing up your layout, purely because there is money to be made from players wandering through the bushes in your house, and the higher on the list you are, the more people wander through. Funny how that works...

My proposed solution is:

• Keep the leaderboard intact, with seasonal cycles
• Allow players to "like" only one house per season.
• Allow players to change their vote at any time by simply "Liking" another house.
• Involve a prize similar to other leaderboards
• Alter the 'Lock Gralat' function in houses to allow only the owner to increase gralat values when locked
• Create a tutorial section in some area of the game that introduces the system

By doing so, players will be encouraged to come up with interesting designs, purchase new house layouts, and participate without the benefit of running other players through a maze of locked bushes in order to generate income.

Players will also still be able to 'lock' gralats while farming personally, create codeshop-style houses, and participate in the seasonal ladder.

The added leaderboard prize is enough to create interest in participating, though not enough to spend time 'bribing' other players for votes.  

I think 1like per season is way to less, house ratings shouldn't be really competetive in any way, also a huge amount of the game would skip the tutorial and just end up liking every house  

The leaderboard would reflect who's able to game the most likes, not who has the best house, so that's the largest and most obvious issue (which is already present in the current iteration of the leaderboard). If anyone was around for honor points, you know how that went. Anything that leaves competitive placement up to the community is basically opening up a pandora's box of exploitation. It'd be subject to all kinds of manipulation from guilds, large groups of friends, etc.

It's an issue that's similar to a rating-based spar leaderboard. The purpose would be to show who the best sparrers are, but it wouldn't function like that and it'd instead reflect who's able to spar the most carefully, seek out opponents they can beat, etc. I think the most important thing when suggesting anything competitive is looking at every angle of how it can be manipulated or exploited and molding your suggestion around minimizing or completely eliminating all instances of that.  

I dont play Classic much anymore, but I have noticed that most of the 'best', 'most liked' houses are actually (no offence, aweful) compared to some I have seen. The most liked houses seem to just be boring codeshop houses, whom the owner just afks with a codeshop shield for a huge amount of time.

The owner gains gralats and likes from just being afk, and the houses are usually average if not worse. Real houses should be ones that have taken a huge amount of time to design and create, using vast amount of imagination.

If you want a shield or a sword go to TailorRichards rather than wasting your time in a codeshop jeez.  

Posted by Thallen

I think the most important thing when suggesting anything competitive is looking at every angle of how it can be manipulated and exploited and mold your suggestion around how to minimize or complete eliminate all instances of that.

That's why I thought 1 like per season... agonee might be right that this is less... maybe 1 per week? Anyway, my logic was that if some one is going to get scammy and try the honor point scam, the fact that they could find another house they like more and apply their 'vote' to that one could cause the tactic to backfire... again, bribing or inexperienced players was the issue with honor points. An hour cap could be implemented for like/vote eligibility.  

just add a dislike button  

Posted by xXtcikotciXx

just add a dislike button

Yeah I think we need to try adding a dislike button to see how that goes. Maybe also add a like and dislike count, on the corner, of the player's house we enter.  

A dislike button would only lead to hate and drama.  

Posted by Agonee

A dislike button would only lead to hate and drama.

this would force players making "real" houses instead of making **** just to get likes.  

If you feel a house is a blatant code shop / farm, report the house.

We can and have reset people's house like counts before.

There are plans to put together a list (curated by staff) of 'featured' houses to help showcase some of the talented community member's houses.

Due to the way standings lead themselves to snowballing there are no plans to award people like we would spar, baddy kills, pks.  

Posted by fp4

If you feel a house is a blatant code shop / farm, report the house.

We can and have reset people's house like counts before.

There are plans to put together a list (curated by staff) of 'featured' houses to help showcase some of the talented community member's houses.

Due to the way standings lead themselves to snowballing there are no plans to award people like we would spar, baddy kills, pks.

Oh cool so admins will be the judges? That would be nice. But probably more work to staffs?  

Posted by fp4

Due to the people.

Hopefully this is after the new guild system?  

Posted by xXtcikotciXx

this would force players making "real" houses instead of making **** just to get likes.

It wouldn't, it'd end up people disliking houses of competitors or people they just don't like  

Posted by Thallen

It wouldn't, it'd end up people disliking houses of competitors or people they just don't like

that's the point duh  

Making gralats unable to be locked in houses would, in my opinion, completely fix the issue. I don't know how difficult this would be to do though.