Alright, so much for the idea that all these matches would be close. At least after the 128 division it's nice to see one of the games I expected to do well before the contest began actually doing well. Sheesh.

This is the first result that truly disgusts me. I could accept The Legend of Zelda losing a close match...but this? This?

You know, I feel the opposite way. I find the results of this match encouraging. The SC/WW outcome notwithstanding, I was worried that too much of the voting for the 8-bit games would be based on series votes. And with that in mind I was afraid of the totals getting pushed in the direction of 2002's Mario vs. Link. But to see SMB3, probably the better game, doing so well is a relief (even though I much prefer and voted for LoZ). I wouldn't have felt the scores were as legitimate if the match had been 50/50. I know you don't like SMB3, which is too bad, but to me this win just feels right. That's ridiculous, I know. Sorry. ;P

On second thought, I due kind of have a reason for thinking that Ocarina of Time might beat Final Fantasy VII easily. ... Ocarina of Time gets a lot more respect than Final Fantasy VII. If it is about respect, Final Fantasy VII will lose.

This I agree with. Actually, I think you've finally made me realize why I picked OoT to go all the way. When I was making my bracket I wanted to go with FFVII, but there was just a part of me that couldn't see OoT losing. I think it might be the impression that OoT commands a certain amount of respect as being "the greatest game of all time". Has a game ever been praised as highly as OoT? (Maybe Half-Life.) It just feels like OoT has an invisible edge. On second thought, maybe I should have gone with FFVII. ;)
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

And I wish people would stop complaining about Battle.net. This isn't a GameFAQs contest to begin with, guys. It's a goddamn site poll and anyone who has an internet connection has the right to vote in it. Stop acting so elitist.

It is not elitist at all to want the integrity of the contest to remain intact. Vote rallying is fine, and has impacted matches before (Cloud vs. Mario), but if Starcraft makes the finals, that would obviously be too much. It isn't too much yet, but come on. Starcraft should not be able to make a stand against Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VII on GameFAQs. On other sites, sure, but not here.

Battle.net isn't making the contest more of a joke, it's drawing more traffic to the site, which is the entire purpose of having the contest.

Exactly. The Summer Contests were a big hit in drawing traffic to the site, and this one has probably helped to cushion the recent traffic declines. However, do you really think any of those people are staying? The site's declining traffic shows otherwise. The site isn't making any money from this, because it is also highly unlikely any of those people are clicking on the ads.

And honestly, a lot of this is probably repeat voting by the same users through dynamic IPs and macros/scripts. That is cheating. It would certainly explain why Starcraft does so well late--even if Battle.net were being spammed, you'd still expect less Starcraft votes when it is very late; just a slower decline than for other games with less night-oriented fanbases. Starcraft votes being steady late indicates something is amiss. We don't have proof of real cheating, but common sense indicates it is probably present.

These polls are supposed to determine the "Best. Game. Ever." not the "Best. Game. Ever. As Judged By GameFAQs Regulars".

Well, obviously, they always have been pretty much the latter. These contests are more or less to determine which things are most popular among GameFAQs visitors, they've never been anything more than that.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

Ulti:
Call me crazy, but what is the Koren Netblock?

That just means the Korean voters, I would assume.

solarshadow:
I wouldn't have felt the scores were as legitimate if the match had been 50/50. I know you don't like SMB3, which is too bad, but to me this win just feels right.

I know what you mean, SMB3 was the most dominantly popular game ever. It makes sense for it to do well in a popularity contest. I just can't accept the match not being closer, because The Legend of Zelda was one of the original console classics, and my bias against SMB3. Who doesn't remember going into the caves? Tossing the boomerang around? Blowing up walls with bombs? The music when you opened up a dungeon door? Stuffing Dodongo with bombs? Getting your shield eaten by those annoying *****es in that one dungeon? Navigating through the Lost Woods? Getting the Magical Sword from the graveyard? All that, is barely good enough for 43%.

It also pisses me off that if SMB3 faces Chrono Trigger, and the match is close late, we can guess what will happen.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Who doesn't remember going into the caves? Tossing the boomerang around? Blowing up walls with bombs? The music when you opened up a dungeon door? Stuffing Dodongo with bombs? Getting your shield eaten by those annoying *****es in that one dungeon? Navigating through the Lost Woods? Getting the Magical Sword from the graveyard?

Quit it, you're making me weepy. Now I'm going to be stuck in nostalgia mode all night. :)

Oh, and Like Likes, dungeon 6. Getting eaten by a stack of pancakes was never so painful.
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

It is not elitist at all to want the integrity of the contest to remain intact.

Oh, the “integrity” of the contest is in question? You mean people who don’t normally come here shouldn’t be allowed to vote because it disrupts the integrity of the contest?

Vote rallying is fine, and has impacted matches before (Cloud vs. Mario), but if Starcraft makes the finals, that would obviously be too much. It isn't too much yet, but come on.

All vote rallying by individuals should be acceptable.

Starcraft should not be able to make a stand against Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy VII on GameFAQs. On other sites, sure, but not here.

Why not? If it gets more votes, why the hell not? Not that I think Starcraft would win but any game that gets more votes is the rightful victor.

Exactly. The Summer Contests were a big hit in drawing traffic to the site, and this one has probably helped to cushion the recent traffic declines. However, do you really think any of those people are staying? The site's declining traffic shows otherwise. The site isn't making any money from this, because it is also highly unlikely any of those people are clicking on the ads.

The whole point is to get them to the site. That’s all I’m saying. How often do *you* click the ads? I bet 80% of the clicks are made accidentally and a visitor has just as much (or more) chance of doing that as a regular user.

The purpose of the contest is to entice other people to come to the site, not to delight the regular users. This contest isn’t *for* the usual board members, it’s for others who are drawn to the site by the poll.

And any advertisement is good advertisement for Ceej. He’s basically getting free advertisement to thousands of people on Battle.net who don’t normally come to the site. The whole purpose of the contest is to get more people visiting.

And honestly, a lot of this is probably repeat voting by the same users through dynamic IPs and macros/scripts. That is cheating.

Yes, and it has nothing to do with Battle.net per se. Ceej can detect massive cheating from a single individual and he says there wasn't any. If some people make 5+ votes each, how is that any different from those who vote using multiple accounts? Multiple votes is a problem with the system, period, and has nothing to do with whether it is a board user or an outsider voting. Either can cheat just as effectively without getting caught.

It would certainly explain why Starcraft does so well late--even if Battle.net were being spammed, you'd still expect less Starcraft votes when it is very late; just a slower decline than for other games with less night-oriented fanbases. Starcraft votes being steady late indicates something is amiss. We don't have proof of real cheating, but common sense indicates it is probably present.

And when is it not?

These polls are supposed to determine the "Best. Game. Ever." not the "Best. Game. Ever. As Judged By GameFAQs Regulars".

Well, obviously, they always have been pretty much the latter. These contests are more or less to determine which things are most popular among GameFAQs visitors, they've never been anything more than that.

So what’s the problem if it is more than that? We’re supposed to take these factors into account, as Ceej tells us when we’re making our brackets. It’s what spices up the contest.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

Woah, there's people who DON'T like SMB3? o_O

This is...an entirely new concept for me.
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"Thank you, Mario. But our princess is in another castle."
-Toad in Super Mario Bros.

It can only beat weak games on its own, and needs Bnet to come and save it whenever it gets in trouble.

*Sniff* That's what I said, and I got bashed. :-(
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Welcome to SpC2k4, where you suck if you presume someone else's opinions.- Tai.

All I'm saying is that there are quite a few schools that will be out by the time the match takes place. I still think SC can take SSBM, though, even on a normal, in-school weekday. Its chances are good.

Regardless, the match is still on a thursday. Even in the summer, the number of people battle-net is much lower on weekdays that on saturday. I would be surprised as anything if managed to pull as much of a comeback as it did against WW.
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80 points.
SMB3 vs. LoZ

Smitelf makes some good points, but I think creativename's basic complaint is valid. This is primarily a contest for GameFAQs users. We filled out the brackets, we provide most of the voting. We're not interested in what battle.net users think the best game is, because I think we already know. We're not the most objective group ourself, but our voting preferences are a little more varied and at least represent the users of this site (largely). Having battle.net come in to rock the vote isn't as much fun. I guess they should be allowed, but they shouldn't be encouraged. Let 'em play in their own yard.
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

I agree with it spices up the contest, but I think the feeling is B.Net shouldn't control the gamefaqs polls. I'm not saying they can't vote, but I guess its just irritating to have that many people who will nearly always vote for that game if its in trouble, but then again, I'm kind of wondering why no one else has thought that it could just be the strength of starcraft. Just because we don't acknowledge the game here as much as it deserves, doesn't mean voters don't. But still it is irksome that it has such a potentially strong fanbase at any given moment.


and all of that can really be simplified to = I'm bitter Starcraft won, and may continue winning.
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Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

Woah, there's people who DON'T like SMB3? o_O This is...an entirely new concept for me.

I don't know if that was directed at me too, but let me just say that I loved SMB3. I have never been more excited to get a new game than I was when I got SMB3. I just liked LoZ much, much more.
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Contest Stats: http://solarshadow-stats.tripod.com

"That's what I said, and I got bashed"

Yes, well, at this point the chances of you getting bashed for saying anything at all is likely pretty high. Past experience dictates that your opinion is highly biased.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

Tnotez Take takes it first loss, so my pride weeps, by my 8 bit division bracket is perfect. Time to strive for 16 bit division bracket perfect, with another... Tnotez Take:

Wow. That is all I have to say. I believe SMB3 is the favorite over the 16 bit winner. 57% with 4 hours to go? Unreal. Especially when you take into account how Link has made Mario his *iatch in these contests. I still think FFVII/OoT winner takes it all, but this is definitely encouraging for future barnburners. Now some were shocked by the LttP victory over "the greatest FF" (I personally still find IX to be the best, with VII soon to be my new favorite when I begin it in 5 days). Man, I am going to begin FFVII right as it wins the title! So cool! Anyways, LttP has the most impressive win out of this division, but Chrono Trigger has to be considered a slight favorite. It has numerous well-respected characters, and most imporantly, I think CT/SMB3 will be a very close proxy to Crono/Mario III.

GunPoint Prediction: Crono Trigger with 53%

This past match tells me two things:

SMB3>>>Mario AND Link>>>Legend of Zelda

So is Chrono Trigger>>>Crono? My perfect top half of the bracket depends on it...
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Contest: 91/104; Division 128 absolutely pwned me... Perfect Division 8!

Oh yeah, can anyone who said anything to the effect of "damn you for making me choose SMB3 when I originally had LoZ and now I'm gona loose!!11!!11!" please say so. I'm just curious as to who had faith in the board, lost that faith, then got rewarded for having the faith they had.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

Yes, well, at this point the chances of you getting bashed for saying anything at all is likely pretty high. Past experience dictates that your opinion is highly biased.

I knew someone would say something as [........] as that. But [....] those [.....]. They know it's true.

Infact...they know I served them. HARD! My post was genius. They could do nothing but bash me!

: )
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Welcome to SpC2k4, where you suck if you presume someone else's opinions.- Tai.

"They could do nothing but bash me!"

That had more to do with the poster than the post.
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ChichiriMuyo is officially the Discussion Guru Encyclopedia - UltimaterializerX
And I'm 23/24 myself. My loss was all part of Alucard's plan. - BigCow

Just want to say that I agree with creative - was gonna say all that myself about us filling in the brackets based on Gamefaqs popularity, not worldwide popularity, but I couldn't be bothered! Thanks creative for reading my mind!

I think it's still fair to say that on gamefaqs that starcraft is not as popular as WW (and probably Halo too). Of course, the question is, how do we then define gamefaqs? The regulars? The casuals who come here to look up a faq? Or people spammed at battle.net to come and vote for the game they're playing?

Still, nothing we can do about it except bear it in mind for future contests, but that doesn't mean we have to like it.

Chichi...

Oops. That'd be me. I don't know if I threw in a "damn you," but if I did it was all in joking fun. You people are the men (except for the women, who are in fact the women). But Zelda looked so strong, whipping everyone...
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Contest: 91/104; Division 128 absolutely pwned me... Perfect Division 8!

You mean people who don’t normally come here shouldn’t be allowed to vote because it disrupts the integrity of the contest?

No, I don't.

All vote rallying by individuals should be acceptable.

All vote rallying up to this point has been. I was talking about a what-if scenario. *If* the vote rallying is so extreme as to get Starcraft to the finals, then it's too much.

How often do *you* click the ads?

Regularly. Though I refuse to click the ad that took the spot of the poll, of course, and I've started to click less since the layout change. Just my own way of protesting.

This contest isn’t *for* the usual board members, it’s for others who are drawn to the site by the poll.

The primary traffic impact would probably be in generating regular visitors--those who visit the site already, but now have reason to visit every day, rather than only semi-regularly--rather than generating new visitors who have never been to the site.

Ceej can detect massive cheating from a single individual and he says there wasn't any.

It is almost impossible for him to detect macros/scripts that utilize dynamic IPs. He can only detect obvious cheating such as that which comes from exploits allowing votes from the same IP.

And when is it not?

It seems clear that this is a much bigger issue with Starcraft than with other entrants. It could be because the fanbase is better versed on how to do such things. There is a clear relation between the RTS/Blizzard fanbase and the "hacker" mentality, though I don't want to stereotype any individuals (nor is the hacker mentality necessarily a bad thing in general, most of us probably have some experience with that anyway).

We’re supposed to take these factors into account, as Ceej tells us when we’re making our brackets. It’s what spices up the contest.

Starcraft getting to the finals would indeed spice up the contest, causing massive levels of excitement. It would also piss off the vast majority of the users of the site. Upsetting your stable, loyal customer base is a no-no.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

4:20 bro!!!!!!!!

I kilt iT
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"Jesus Christ on a Bicycle!" -- }}}:-(

<semi-offtopic>
Just wanted to bring this up and felt that this was the best place to do it...

I've noticed the growing propensity to refer to this board as Board 8, and B8, lately... and this led to my musing that I suppose this makes us all B8ers ;)

Appropriate on more than one level across the board, I can't help feeling! Aaah, life.

Phediuk:
Woah, there's people who DON'T like SMB3?

Not necessarily "people", just me ;)

I hated it as a kid because it was so over-popular. Everything was about SMB3 back in the day. There were plenty of other NES games that were awesome, but SMB3 hogged all the glory. I still resent it today, though my feelings aren't nearly as strong anymore.

This is probably similar to why many hate Final Fantasy VII, except that Final Fantasy VII was of course not nearly as praised and didn't get nearly the attention that SMB3 did back in the day. Final Fantasy VII overshadowed older RPGs in North America, but SBM3 overshadowed an entire generation of games.

solarshadow:
We're not interested in what battle.net users think the best game is, because I think we already know.

Yeah :)

We're not the most objective group ourself, but our voting preferences are a little more varied and at least represent the users of this site (largely).

Yes. And what this site cares about is Nintendo and Square. Having Final Fantasy VII or Ocarina of Time lose to Starcraft should be sickening to us all, because it would mean that the voice of the people of GameFAQs was not heard; that it was drowned out by manipulators who sweeped in during the dead of night and vanished again, without contributing anything :P Thankfully, that is extremely unlikely to happen.
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Nominate Frog from Chrono Trigger for the Summer 2004 Character Contest!
http://SC2k4.com/frog (click on the galleries)

Upsetting your stable, loyal customer base is a no-no.

You know what else upsets its stable, loyal customer base?

An all-Nintendo or all-Square finals, which usually leads to loads of people announcing that a certain block of fanboys have destroyed the integrity of the contest. :p

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The last thing I see in my lifetime is that fixed smile crawling out of the television, as my brain explodes into tiny, sobbing pieces.
-Videogame Recaps

That had more to do with the poster than the post.

No. Listen, did you even see the second post (the one after the topic post) that I posted? I don't mean the very first post to start off the topic.

If you did, you'd know it was the fact that the Koreans just resented I said. Go ahead, see it.

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=8&topic=14334202

Don't tell me they hated because of my biasism after you read the post. DON'T.

XD

Ok..now where were we?

Having Final Fantasy VII or Ocarina of Time lose to Starcraft should be sickening to us all, because it would mean that the voice of the people of GameFAQs was not heard; that it was drowned out by manipulators who sweeped in during the dead of night and vanished again, without contributing anything :P Thankfully, that is extremely unlikely to happen.

If Starcraft gets past SSBM, I'll be horrified for whichever one wins (OoT or FF7). X-Box is hated. Disney..hated? Not sure. WW, as far as I heard, is not what people liked. But people acutally liked SSBM. I bet people wanna learn all the best moves to use for each character, or how to get any secret ones..heh...heh..so I'm sure SSBM is popular on GameFAQs, right?

It has ALL the Nintendo characters, man! If Starcraft beats that, I can't help but being highly concerned for FF7 or OoT. I'm not saying Starcraft can beat them too..wait, yes I am. But really, SSBM is actually POPULAR on GameFAQs. It's the game people wanna play at friend's house, or at a party. It's pratically a party game! Come on...If Starcraft beats that..who knows what it can do to OoT or FF7.

You say it's because it would mean the voice of the people in GameFAQs would not be heard, but if you also look in my topic that's above in my post, I think there's reason to believe that's already happened by Starcraft going this far. Halo was at the verge of winning, then outta nowhere, BNet comes! WW had Starcraft on it's knees, then it calls up BNet, and Starcraft blows Link to a million pieces with Mass Carriers. The question is: Has or has not the word of the people that inhabit GameFAQs has already been broken or not? And so far, it looks like it really has: and by BNet.



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Welcome to SpC2k4, where you suck if you presume someone else's opinions.- Tai.

Come on...If Starcraft beats that..who knows what it can do to OoT or FF7.

I`ll tell you what it can do. Nothing. That was easy no?
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

I agree with Heroic Mario, and Tai!

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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

I gotta say something, SMB3 really hasn`t been able to catch that day vote as of late. Against Final Fantasy it went down 2% throughout the day and against The Legend of Zelda it went down 4% throughout the day, funny because I always suspected SMB3 to be a big day vote getter before but now it looks like it drops everytime it hits daytime.

That should be taken into consideration when it faces CT/ALttP later this week.
---
Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Yeah, but didn't it also have nice percentages going into the morning with both those matches, or at least LoZ?
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Silly Rabbit...Trix are for....kids.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.-Old Klingon Proverb

Well, awareness for the contest IS growing across the Internet.

And guess what, it's not among the LttP circles. But the Starcraft ones. Many major Starcraft sites redirected here against WW, and we can only expect more against SSBM.

Problem for Starcraft is, from what I hear, traffic on Battle.net is down by ONE HALF on weekdays compared to Saturday nights, when the traffic hits its peak... and most unfortunately Wind Waker likely got beat by the calendar, not Starcraft.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

SMB3 may have a semi-bad track record, but CT's is downright horrid. CT actually has yet to win the day vote. Yes, it lost it to SECRET OF MANA. (By that, I mean SoM got a higher percentage during the day than during the night, not that SoM got above half of the vote at that time.)

We should keep that in mind while tracking CT's whereabouts... if it wants to win, it WILL need to get an early thousand-vote lead, or something near that.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

These time votes really bother me. How is it that a game gets more votes during a certain time of the day?

Is it because all the gamefaqs users vote early in the day, then the foreigners are the only ones voting by the afternoon?

That's my pitiful, most logic guess.

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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

No, that's because the major vote base is American, and thus certain games will be advantaged because a certain age group is up at certain times. Yes, the "kiddies waking up" theory. However, it can only provoke lead changes in very close matches, such as DK/Aya.

The games that are usually advantaged by that vote are the more "familiar" ones such as the Nintendo or Sonic games.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

Smitelf makes some good points, but I think creativename's basic complaint is valid. This is primarily a contest for GameFAQs users. We filled out the brackets, we provide most of the voting. We're not interested in what battle.net users think the best game is, because I think we already know.

But you’re missing the most important point. The only thing that is happening is that individuals are going to a place with Starcraft fans to ask them to come support their beloved game. This is exactly the same as someone going to a Nintendo message board or chat and saying “Vote Wind Waker!” except that it is more successful. The fact that it is more successful does not make it wrong.

Putting ads on the front page of a site is another thing entirely. I know at least one Starcraft site did that and, despite thinking it was cool at the time (it was for the Halo match, I think) in hindsight I’d say it’s just as wrong as putting up an ad on a Nintendo site like what was done for Mario. Individuals, however, have every right to call up Aunt Sally and Cousin Ben and tell them to vote for Starcraft. This is the same theory. The fact that Starcraft fans are more zealot-like in their application of the theory and have a larger willing audience to voice it to doesn’t make it wrong.

I agree with it spices up the contest, but I think the feeling is B.Net shouldn't control the gamefaqs polls.

Battle.net isn’t controlling the polls – voters are controlling the polls, just like always. I don’t have a problem with anyone voting as long as they only do so once.

I think it's still fair to say that on gamefaqs that starcraft is not as popular as WW (and probably Halo too). Of course, the question is, how do we then define gamefaqs? The regulars? The casuals who come here to look up a faq? Or people spammed at battle.net to come and vote for the game they're playing?

Precisely! If you want a contest about what GameFAQs thinks is the better game, then confine the polls to board members. Otherwise, people from Battle.net have just as much right to be here as those just passing through to vote because they heard about the contest elsewhere. How do they differ? How is one a member of the GameFAQs community and the other an “outsider”?

All vote rallying up to this point has been. I was talking about a what-if scenario. *If* the vote rallying is so extreme as to get Starcraft to the finals, then it's too much.

That’s ridiculous. The right to rally is a right, regardless of how well it works.

Regularly. Though I refuse to click the ad that took the spot of the poll, of course, and I've started to click less since the layout change. Just my own way of protesting.

I’d wager you’re one of the few.

The primary traffic impact would probably be in generating regular visitors--those who visit the site already, but now have reason to visit every day, rather than only semi-regularly--rather than generating new visitors who have never been to the site.

Fair enough, but what gives one group more right to vote than the other? Again, if Ceej was intending this contest to be for regular visitors (who likely have a GameFAQs account if they are interested enough in the contest to visit every day) then he would only allow signed-in users to vote. He’s not, which means the polls are not made specifically for regular users, but for everyone.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

So you say that the Koreans, to the west, wake up at about night time in US eastern time, and contributes to the voting?

Whoa, that means SC's victories must be especially apparent at night. But then again, the Japanese have WW...

I don't understand what you say about LttP circles, but I partly agree that WW was defeated by the calender. But....I still think Koreans contributed the bulk of the votes at night.


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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

It is almost impossible for him to detect macros/scripts that utilize dynamic IPs. He can only detect obvious cheating such as that which comes from exploits allowing votes from the same IP.

Ah, okay, now we’re on the same page. But again, I ask, how are Bnet users to blame for this? It’s not just Bnet users who would utilize dynamic IPs. It’s not a problem caused by Bnet rallying although some Bnet voters do use this method to cheat.

It seems clear that this is a much bigger issue with Starcraft than with other entrants. It could be because the fanbase is better versed on how to do such things. There is a clear relation between the RTS/Blizzard fanbase and the "hacker" mentality, though I don't want to stereotype any individuals (nor is the hacker mentality necessarily a bad thing in general, most of us probably have some experience with that anyway).

As I said before, just because a previously accepted method of garnering votes is working better for Starcraft than for other games doesn’t make it unacceptable. And yes, I’d definitely concur that Bnet users would be more likely to use hacks to get more votes…except I doubt that a significant number of them care enough to do so. They might click the site and give one vote, but bothering to cheat for Starcraft’s victory on a site they don’t give a damn about is another thing entirely.

Starcraft getting to the finals would indeed spice up the contest, causing massive levels of excitement. It would also piss off the vast majority of the users of the site. Upsetting your stable, loyal customer base is a no-no.

Ceej can’t do anything about this whether he approves or not. He can’t affect advertising on other sites. It would be stupid to get upset with him.

Has or has not the word of the people that inhabit GameFAQs has already been broken or not? And so far, it looks like it really has: and by BNet.

Again, if you want a contest that abides only by the rule of the “inhabitants” of GameFAQs then make the polls for registered users only. Since this is not so, nor is it likely to be in the near future, everyone has the right to vote, including Bnet users.

Many major Starcraft sites redirected here against WW, and we can only expect more against SSBM.

I don’t like that at all. Sites shouldn’t advertise this contest. Individuals doing it is fine but sites is a bit much even for my taste.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

I don't understand what you say about LttP circles, but I partly agree that WW was defeated by the calender. But....I still think Koreans contributed the bulk of the votes at night.

This site is about 2% Asian. I would be surprised if it were even .5% Korean.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

Well, keep in mind that I don't have any data on traffic fluctuations within the day - however, not every Starcraft player is Korean. In Korea it was Sunday afternoon by the time the poll closed. This is extremely confusing, actually.

See why we're all saying Starcraft matches defy logic, math, and are borderline unethical?
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

We're talking B.net spamming, smitelf.

And I've been thinking about the possibility of Starcraft getting something like 45% against FF7/OoT myself - y halo thar 1-seed next year if it turns out like that.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

CJayC has made no special announcement about BNET, or foreign-country voting, so naturally, he doesn't object the SC madness. We shouldn't either.

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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

Final Fantasy X
Super Smash Bros. Melee 14.18%

Starcraft
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker 7.91%

ON a side note, if SSBM wins, about 9% will have got it right. If SC wins, then about 5% will have got it right.

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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

Actually he did. He said Koreans were one of the biggest voting blocks in this poll, and the most pro-Starcraft, at... get this... 65-35. This seems ungodly low, since they make it sound like it's to Korea what hockey is to Canada. And sclegacy.com mentions this factoid as well, and agrees it's just too low. A lot of WW votes out of spite for the spammers? Hmmm... doubt it.
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SpC2K4 Status --- Points: 081/096 --- Matches: 48/56 --- Rank: 00578/40940 --- Today's pick: SMB3

We're talking B.net spamming, smitelf.

Uh, yes, and that's what I was talking about as well, unless you meant my third post about .5% of GameFAQs being Korean. If that is the case, let me just say that Battle.net =/= Koreans, even if there *are* plenty on there. If he meant Battle.net then he should have said Battle.net, not Koreans. I'm not a mind reader.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

Actually he did. He said Koreans were one of the biggest voting blocks in this poll,

What? No way. I read his post and I didn't see that. I was under the impression that he just mentioned the Koreans in a "fun fact" kind of way as opposed to them being a major voting block, in opposition to the AOL users. I may have read it wrong so if you have a copy of his post it would be appreciated.
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3

SMB3 may have a semi-bad track record, but CT's is downright horrid.

That is very true. I had forgotten about CT`s downright terrible track record. So I could see SMB3 gaining some, but not a whole lot against CT.

We should keep that in mind while tracking CT's whereabouts... if it wants to win, it WILL need to get an early thousand-vote lead, or something near that.

In a match between SMB3 and CT it would be interesting to see which the day vote favors. I think if it favors either it would be small because both of them have bad track records with the day vote. By the way, does anyone know how much CT dropped during the SMW match? That`d be a better way to judge.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

CJayC has made no special announcement about BNET

Actually he did during the Halo vs. StarCraft match. He commented on how there was no mass cheating and then gave a short sentence talking about battle.NET or rather how battle.NET`s presence was felt.
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

Oh and thats it for me in this StarCraft discussion I hate talking about that game. <<
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Nintendo® - We Make Games Worth Playing
Dodongo Dislikes Smoke - Old Man; The Legend of Zelda

I may have read it wrong so if you have a copy of his post it would be appreciated.

http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=8&topic=14329938

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The last thing I see in my lifetime is that fixed smile crawling out of the television, as my brain explodes into tiny, sobbing pieces.
-Videogame Recaps

My bracket dies if,
CT beats LttP, SC beats SSBM, FF7 beats OoT.

And I don't think SC is solely played in SouthKorea. SKorea is an economic tiger, importing many goods, being dependant upon the US as much as Taiwan is. It would surely have imported other games too...

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Ñïñtèñdð²®
<><»»Jesus is cool.

Hmm, well, I've been pwned about the Koreans then...Jesus...
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Married to UltimaterializerX on 5/21/04
Current Sp2K4 Score: 79/96, Next Winner: Super Mario Bros. 3