I've read the books that have been placed around and heard the complaints of GM fixing ect ect, and am saddened by the state of uo. When something goes a way that a Person does not want, automatically someone has a GM in their back pocket. Conspiracy theories abound and those who feel wronged resort to ugly accusations on unfounded facts.
Take a step back, take a stiff drink, wait 90 days and run again. Don't blame the opposition for things out of their control, and make up untruths to besmirch their good name.
We ran a trial of direct voting online on Europa for Lord Protector, and quickly found it degenerated into who could find the most people with trading accounts and cross shard item collecting characters... a lot of ill will was generated by watching waves of 20 or more identical, let's call them "Bob" characters recall into the voting box, leave, and "Bob 2" appear. I pointed this out when the system was announced, the threads detailing the developing disgust are still on the Europa forums and I linked to them, but the Devs were determined to push ahead with the idea all the same.
The actual test of whether the system has generated actual serious candidates will come when you see how many of them bother to turn up to engage in the Council meetings with Lord Blackthorn. That many shards will get actual committed Governors may be more to do with a combination of low player numbers, and the fact that Red PKs can't access the bonuses at all due to needing to claim it in Trammel, so few except the genuine roleplayers bothered. We'll see.
However... At least two people on Europa were calling up traders on Atlantic to use their alts on Europa to manipulate the Yew elections a few hours before deadline; I know this for a fact
because one of them told me directly they'd been doing it after claiming they'd got characters stealthed at the stones to watch the results, and had seen the other candidate bringing a trail of bot accounts to vote, and felt the election needed de-rigging. I have no idea if the previous results actually were manipulated; but I personally was the candidate those retaliatory votes went too. I neither asked anyone to do this, nor wanted to see the elections turn into a personal peeing contest, and was actually off making a video for Stratics posters on piracy during the final day, and was asleep when the drama kicked off. I did however see that every time I got an honest lead, the votes would suddenly gain around a 10% lead to my opponent. On the final night that I'd swung around 15% points ahead in votes by about midnight... and I know now exactly who got them onto my tally, because it was explained the next day ... and also that I then woke up to reams of ICQ messages from 4 of the other governors outraged about the manipulation in the last 3 hours of voting that had counter-acted it.
The two individuals involved had a blazing argument about it in General chat whilst I was asleep, with the eventual winner apparently threatening to "destroy you" the other... which will be interesting as the other side of the squabble won a number of the other seats. The only hope, which I suspect is likely to prove a fact, is that the winner in Yew probably won't come to EM events, because they've not been to any of them in the last 3 years that I've been there.
Appeals would already have been made to King Blackthorn, so the other Governors stated... except we have no EMs to do so. So I was told, again via ICQ, they've already escalated up to Mesanna. Do you want to know the worst part of this horrible mess? I'm aware of a few applicants for the vacant EM position.
And some of them are the same individuals again.
Disgusted with the UO community? You're not even close to what I'm feeling about it all now.
They should never have bothered with an election system with bonuses that appeal to the win-at-all-costs pvp types and mixed it with the roleplaying framework. Doing it at the same time the EM program started to fall apart was an added element of bad luck... but even so, the roleplay and community spirit on Europa is going to be absolutely atrocious for some time because of these elections. And it was so, so easily avoided.
Run again in 90 days? I wish I was so utterly naive I could wake up and just imagine a much nicer world where every individual was somehow a swing voter in a computer game; "Oh, 90 days later and I suddenly feel a Swing Speed Increase isn't actually useful after all! So I won't just ask the same people again and get identical vote totals a second time, or use the same dubious antics to 'destroy' my opponents."
No wait, correct that; there will be
some change. The decent people will drop out with disgust, just leaving either relatively unopposed roleplayers, or the continuing arses who lack the finer human emotions and are determined to stay in and "win" for their side. You know,
just like real life, where we live in an arseocracy where the worst rise to the top. I know I personally don't feel like going through the whole charade again in 90 days just to have my name dragged into the mud with the same filth, and then lose anyway.
And pity the poor sod who becomes Europa's EM and has to sort all of that out. Or worse... they employ one of the chief combatants themselves.
I love that comment. Its a shame so many folks have no clue how old that term truly is, how vile the actions were & still are, or what the reference even means. Not saying folks posting here..... but people as a populous. If only.....