Survivor Appendix E (5e) Authors- Ursula K. LeGWINS!

[Lanefan]

Yesterday, there was some math. Something didn't look right about those calcs, so I modeled it in Excel. [SBLOCK=Because I can't stop beating a dead horse]If everyone "dogpiles" their votes...meaning, everyone upvotes the same option every round, and also downvotes another target every round until it is eliminated then moves on to downvote another target and etc....the contest will be over after X votes, where X = (number of contestants minus 1) x 10. The winner will have received X upvotes, and finish with 20+X points. It would look like this:

Option 1: never downvoted, wins with 20+X points after X votes
Option 2: eliminated after 10 votes
Option 3: untouched for 10 votes, then eliminated in the next 10
Option 4: untouched for 20 votes, then eliminated in the next 10
Option n: untouched for (N-1)x10 votes, then eliminated in the next 10

If everyone upvotes and downvotes the same option every round until it is eliminated, then moves on to upvote and downvote only the same option again, etc., the contest will be over after X votes, where X = (number of contestants minus 1) x 20. The winner will have received zero upvotes, and will win with the original 20 points it started with. It would look like this:

Option 1: upvoted and downvoted over and over again, eliminated after 20 votes.
Option 2: untouched for 20 votes, then eliminated in the next 20 votes.
Option 3: untouched for 40 votes, then eliminated in the next 20 votes.
Option 4: untouched for 60 votes, then eliminated in the next 20 votes.
Option n: untouched for (N-1)x20 votes, and wins without ever being upvoted or downvoted.
[/SBLOCK]Conclusion: mixing our upvotes and downvotes will make the game last up to twice as long as it would if we were to focus our upvotes and downvotes on the same, respective targets--er, options.

Congratulations.

You have just taken all the fun out of this by a) reducing it to nothing more than a math exercise and b) promoting "focus fire" where people will just downvote the lowest.

Oh, and by the way the second formula has problems as you can't upvote and downvote the same option in the same vote. Because of this you have to take two options down together; the first option will be eliminated on the 37th vote and the second on the 39th, with two other options having been upvoted to 21 each (on votes 38 and 39) in order to kill off the second option. Because of that each successive pair will take 39 and 41 votes respectively to go away. If there's an odd number of options to begin with the winner will get 2 upvotes at the end and win with 22; if there's an even number the winner will get 11 or 12 upvotes at the end in order to kill off both the 3rd-last option and the second-last option.

Or something like that.

 

[Lanefan]

Alexander, Lloyd 22
Cook, Glen 19
Jemisin, N.K. 13
Kay, Guy Gavriel 6
LeGuin, Ursula 23
McKillip, Patricia 15
Pratchett, Terry 16
Wolfe, Gene 14

 

[CleverNickName]

You have just taken all the fun out of this by a) reducing it to nothing more than a math exercise and b) promoting "focus fire" where people will just downvote the lowest.

Hey now, be fair: some of us think math exercises are a lot of fun.

You are right about your second point: I forgot that one cannot upvote and downvote the same option. So yep, the math gets more complicated but essentially boils down to approximately 15x instead of 20x...it's still quite a bit slower than using the "focus fire" tactic. Thanks for the sharp eyes!

 

[Tallifer]

Alexander, Lloyd 22
Cook, Glen 19
Jemisin, N.K. 13
Kay, Guy Gavriel 6
LeGuin, Ursula 23
McKillip, Patricia 15
Pratchett, Terry 14
Wolfe, Gene 15

 

[Grognerd]

Alexander, Lloyd 22
Cook, Glen 19
Jemisin, N.K. 13-2=11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 6+1=7
LeGuin, Ursula 23
McKillip, Patricia 15
Pratchett, Terry 14
Wolfe, Gene 15

 

[Nagol]

Alexander, Lloyd 22
Cook, Glen 19
Jemisin, N.K. 11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 7
LeGuin, Ursula 23
McKillip, Patricia 15-2=13
Pratchett, Terry 14
Wolfe, Gene 15+1=16

 

[akr71]

Alexander, Lloyd 20
Cook, Glen 19
Jemisin, N.K. 11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 7
LeGuin, Ursula 24
McKillip, Patricia 13
Pratchett, Terry 14
Wolfe, Gene 16

 

[mortwatcher]

Alexander, Lloyd 20
Cook, Glen 20
Jemisin, N.K. 11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 7
LeGuin, Ursula 22
McKillip, Patricia 13
Pratchett, Terry 14
Wolfe, Gene 16

Calm down there Ursula, no getting that ahead of the pack.

 

[Maxperson]

Alexander, Lloyd 20
Cook, Glen 20
Jemisin, N.K. 11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 5
LeGuin, Ursula 22
McKillip, Patricia 13
Pratchett, Terry 15
Wolfe, Gene 16

 

[Sadras]

Alexander, Lloyd 20
Cook, Glen 20
Jemisin, N.K. 11
Kay, Guy Gavriel 3
LeGuin, Ursula 22
McKillip, Patricia 13
Pratchett, Terry 15
Wolfe, Gene 17