Lurker > DidYouMWISMe

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What are you people VOTING for?! The correct vote is Fluttershy!

Nobody's stopping you from voting! (Ninja'd)

Bummer re: the mods. I wonder if a mod could inform us the account was an alt without informing us whose alt he was. I don't even remember how alts were found out back in the olden days when I used to run contests on B8; I want to say way back when mods were able to speak out, as I do remember alts were banned with some degree of frequency.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Offhand, I'd have no idea whether that's an alt account for someone who's voted already.

red13n: do mods have the powers or the ability to search whether this guy has multiple accounts?

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

*sigh*

If the round lasts more than 24 hours, I'll enable double-voting.
Is that what you want to hear?

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

...are there even 26 unique voters in this contest?

Yes.
Of course, whether are not they actually show is an interesting question, but I'm more than willing to leave this open for 24 hours+. It's one of the final rounds. It should last longer than usual.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

I clearly passed that rule solely and explicitly to piss you off, Karo. :P

...Or maybe it was because with only three ponies left, enabling folks to vote twice defeats the purpose of a "Save My" contest by effectively enabling voters to anti-vote the pony they dislike most, as opposed to enabling them to actually support the pony they like best.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

IMPORTANT: You may now only save one character. Better choose your favorite!

The Element of Magic has fizzled out.

Everyone else, we need to build an exact replica of Ponyville right over there!





RULES:
You can save 1 pony per hour.
Each pony requires 13 saves to advance.

You may no longer double-save a character. (Don't even try it!)
You may now only save one character. It's the final rounds, so make sure your vote counts!

No alts or rallying is permitted. If you're caught, you're banned (as Pinkie would say) For-EV-er.
Vote trading is NOT permitted. If you attempt to trade your votes or even imply a potential trade you will be banned for this round and the next one.
I must wait an hour after topic creation before I can vote.
Anyone can update the thread as they wish.
Only I may post new topics, unless I notify otherwise.
The rules are subject to change in later rounds.


One pony of each race remains:

Pinkie Pie
Rarity
Fluttershy

4th Place: Twilight Sparkle
5th Place: Rainbow Dash
6th Place: Spike
7th Place: Applejack
8th Place: Gummy
9th Place: Princess Luna (Nightmare Moon)
10th Place: Apple Bloom
11th Place: Angel
12th Place: Big Macintosh
13th Place: Princess Celestia
14th Place: Braeburn
15th Place: Sweetie Belle
16th Place: Trixie
17th Place: Owlowiscious
18th Place: Spitfire
19th Place: Derpy Hooves
20th Place: Photo Finish
21st Place: Vinyl Scratch (DJ P0N-3)
22nd Place: Cheerilee
23rd Place: Scootaloo
24th Place: Soarin’
25th Place: Zecora
26th Place: Steven Magnet
27th Place: Hoity-Toity
28th Place: Pony Joe
29th Place: Winona
30th Place: Doctor Whooves
31st Place: Octavia
32nd Place: Bon-Bon
33rd Place: Opalescence
34th Place: The Mayor
35th Place: Sheriff Silverstar
36th Place: Philomena
37th Place: Lyra
38th Place: Little Strongheart
39th Place: Snails
40th Place: Prince Blueblood
41st Place: Gilda
42nd Place: Chief Thunderhooves
43rd Place: Sapphire Shores
44th Place: Snips
Last Place: Twist

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

I actually think Applejack's characterization would be ruined if she had some crazy quirk like Crazy Pie or Angryshy.

As the Element of Honesty, I dunno, it just feels like she's supposed to be the most stable of the ponies. She's a little stubborn, yes, but she's not supposed to fly off the handle.
In fact, the episode where Applejack is overworked and actually does start acting strange is one of my least favorite episodes precisely because I find her actions in that episode so unbelievable. I can see Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy or even Rainbow Dash losing themselves due to a lack of sleep, but Applejack's too responsible for that.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Pinkie Pie's too divisive to be most popular. There's a core contingency who rate Pinkie Pie #1, but among those who don't rank Pinkie Pie #1, she's generally among the bottom-ranking members of the mane cast. I suppose she's wacky and has a unique sense of humor, and you either 'get' her or you 'don't.'

Twilight actually has the exact opposite problem. Everyone likes her, because there's so little to her that's offensive. But because the's the main character and often plays a straight and narrow role in interactions, she tends not to be the character that anyone loves most.

So in the "Save My" contest, for example, Twilight almost never gets anyone's first votes (everyone always prefers another pony more) but she'll always make a huge late surge once everyone can vote again, because she's usually everyone's "2nd favorite" of the remaining mane characters. Pinkie on the other hand almost always starts off very strong when her core pushes her to victory, but then her support drops off the face of the Earth, because almost no one views her as their "2nd favorite" pony.

...And Fluttershy typically dominates throughout because she is by far the most popular, and she also benefits from a personality that very, very few fans rank outside their top two or three. When it's down to only two or three mane characters, everyone who supported the mane characters that were eliminated usually rallies around Fluttershy. No one holds a grudge against her if she eliminates their favorite character, because she's adorable.

First time it was Fluttershy > Rainbow Dash and second time it was Fluttershy > Spike in the finals, so at least we'll get a new final match this time.

...I have run far too many of those contests to have microanalyzed them so much.

Edit: The two biggest differences I've noticed between B8's MLP fanbase and others: Rarity is more popular here than the norm, while Spike is less popular here than the norm.


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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

No, I'd say all of the main characters are liked almost equally. If I had to guess which one's the most popular I would say Rainbow Dash, but that is extremely debatable.

Results of the "Save My" contests I've run here and the past almost uniformly support the notion that it's Fluttershy.
(everyone loves the Moe)

--
The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Shaq

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

For me, Pinkie's at the top.

That being said, "Feeling Pinkie Keen" is actually one of my least favorite episodes in the series, and I'm a man of faith (so you'd think I'd dig the theme.)

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

"Pinkie at the bottom"

...Wow, it's like we're watching two completely different shows.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Oh hey look it's a place for all the folks attending elite schools to act all arrogant, self-centered and pompous in declaring their affiliations to all the lesser folk. "Well, seeing as I attend Dartmouth already..."

(So says the guy attending an elite law school)

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Martin has said in interviews that he wishes he had made the kids a bit older; that's part of why they were aged up for the show.

Haha, it's cool to think that even Martin would agree with me in viewing the kid's ages in the HBO show as pseudo-cannon when reading the story.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

eh, people are just ridiculously young in Song of Ice and Fire, just something you have to get around.

Yeah I actually think the ages of the characters on the HBO show (which I've only seen snippets of) is closer to how I personally imagine them.
Martin writes a few of his kids too young -- maybe he just doesn't remember what it's like to be eight years old, or maybe he ascribes to that belief that in the medieval era, "kids weren't kids" as long as they are now.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Tag.

Good timing too, as I happen to be about 300 pages through Game of Thrones. (Though I'm rereading the series, so there's nothing fresh for me...I still find I'm learning new things I didn't realize the first time around.)

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Neh. Mercs was about team matches. This is 1 v 1.

And Mercs was too complicated. Too many variables that were unique in each match, plus "special powers" that could KO / injure / have other effects.

I guess if you stripped all the extra powers stuff from Mercs and made it completely vanilla, yeah, that'd be more accurate. But I wouldn't describe it as "Mercs Lite." I'd describe it as "MPFC but with characters at their average, prototypical, power levels, the levels they'd actually be expected to be at 95% of the time" VS "Which character has the better crazy godmode?"

The former actually objectively attempts to determine which character, on average, would be expected to defeat the other.
The latter is just "Which character has the craziest godmode?" And all it does is really reward the characters with the craziest Marty Stu uber-powers.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

most of those scenarios are covered in the rules - characters are considered to be at "peak power," Sonic is usually specified as being Super Sonic, etc.

Ah. Well, I'm not sure I'd agree with all the rules, then. But, eh, so be it.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

I have no problem with anything you're sayin', Ed.
At this point I think I'm arguing less against you specifically and more against most of the MPFC voters, who disagreed with even your approach when it come to "more physically overpowered vs. intelligent characters."

I'll gladly vote the 'underdog' if the underdog with lesser 'powers' in a match actually has a track record fighting against overpowered but less-than-bright foes and wiping the floor with them. Mind you, if it's a more powerful opponent who also is just as smart or just as strategic, that's generally when I can't coherently support that underdog. But at the risk of offending some fans of some of the crazier animation series and video games out there, (western and japanese) a lot of very 'overpowered' characters aren't very smart, precisely because in many circumstances they aren't really challenged outside the immediate comfort zones of the type of fighting they're used to, or because they just plain aren't strategic or smart combatants.

And I say this despite liking some characters. I like Cloud a lot, but I could easily, easily imagine circumstances in which he was outsmarted by a tactical soldier even if that soldier lacked all kinds of awesome materia. I could see Batman taking out Cloud, for example. Really. Truly. I wouldn't commit to it offhand, but I'd do research into Batman's record against medieval-style sword-and-sorcery opponents with magicks.

I like Sonic a fair deal, but many times people are like "SUPER SONIC IS SO FAST!" while conveniently forgetting that in every videogame and anime series ever Sonic is portrayed as arrogant to a point that he's easy to dupe, and he can easily take damage from all kinds of silly slow robot attacks and pits with spikes. The Sonic the Hedgehog we know and love is a deeply flawed character. He's better for it, but that means he doesn't always win.

Of course this brings up another problem which is: What are the circumstances of the fight itself? Do the opponents meet in an open field knowing that they are in fact going to fight to the death? Is the terrain variable? Does either combatant have time to plan? Are we basing this on cutscene or in-game footage? Do the characters have their special charged-up attacks all ready to go or will it take time before a Limit Break is available?

Someone like Sonic may well win often if he's just thrown into an open grassland and Snake is standing right in front of him and the Mortal Kombat announcer says "FIGHT!", but place Sonic and Snake in a massive abandoned metropolis with multiple buildings and sniping spots and where stealth is more important than raw speed and it's a different result. Give Sonic and Snake pictures of each other and tell them to start hunting each other when they begin on different sides of the planet, or different corners of the universe, different result still. Can Snake access his stealth suit and infinite ammo bandana? Can Sonic go Super-Sonic from the bat? Are we basing Sonic on puny in-game a few hits from robots and he's dead Sonic, or uber-fast cutscene invulnerable mistake-free **** your **** Sonic? Hell, is it MGS4 or MGS1 era Snake? Does Snake have time to plan a method of assault? Can he actually outwit Sonic into making a crucial tactical mistake, such as running over a series of planted claymores or luring him into a collapsible building and then exploding a skyscraper on top of him with C4? Does Snake know from the beginning what Sonic is capable of? Does Sonic have a similar knowledge of Snake's modus operandi? Do Sonic and Snake necessarily know who they're supposed to be fighting against from the beginning?

I'm just saying, it's often a lot more complicated than voters pretend it is when they just say "X is more powerful than Y, the end."

--
The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

I think Ed Bellis' approach really underestimates the 'power' of intelligence, to be frank.

There's a reason why Batman can, in fact, go up against enemies who ridiculously overpower him and win. And that reason is not (always) just because "LOL plot shield."

That being said I do agree that we as voters should be able to at least imagine the strategy or the tactics capable of ensuring a win for our projected victor. Like, just saying "Batman because he always thinks of something" isn't sufficient.

However, saying "In Comic X Batman clearly proved he can in fact easily outsmart this enemy with these powers through a strategy employing _____, it is reasonable to expect Batman would achieve this again in typical circumstances" shouldn't be against the rules at all. Heck, that kind of research should be encouraged. Ideally, it wouldn't just be "he did this once, so he'll automatically be just as lucky again" but instead something more akin to "I've studied Batman's performances against all enemies with fire-based superpowers. His record is 9 wins and 2 losses. 5 times, he was surprised and had no time to prepare, and he still was victorious. Against an enemy with flame powers it's reasonable to presume Batman does..."

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

For me, the absolute worst part about the MPFC was very much an opposing phenomenon: because power was generally rated 'objectively' and creative arguments for procuring victory were generally disallowed (for example, a smarter character who had less 'conventional' powers generally never was allowed to 'outsmart' his opponent), what generally happened was that the 'more powerful' character usually won.

Which is cool and all, and I suppose technically meets the qualifications of the contest, but the problems were:

1: It's predictable. Really, there's no reason whatsoever to run the MPFC more than once unless a substantial number of powerful characters are excluded for some reason, as it's not like the power hierarchy is going to arbitrarily change. The most powerful characters remain powerful. It's the predictable repetition of the regular GameFAQs contests all over again.

2: Even worse: A disproportionate number of the most conventionally powerful characters in fiction have the following traits:
* Because they are written with overwhelming cosmic powers, they tend to be the relatively poorly written characters, because most of the better writers out there actually build flaws into their protagonists and antagonists.
* Because they are written with overwhelming cosmic powers, they tend to fit the definition of Mary Sues and Marty Stus.
* Even the most powerful characters from well-written series tend to be Deus Ex Machina types -- not major characters with personalities and substantial roles, but nameless monsters or obscure deities that make a token appearance to kill tons of ****.

Obviously there are exceptions, but the general point is this: The most powerful characters in fiction tend not to be the better characters in fiction.

Like, I get where Ed Bellis is coming from, but whereas he is angry with the people who try to find crazy loopholes to assist their favorite characters, I'm sympathetic with them, because the MPFC essentially tends to reward crappy characterizations and punish good ones. It's only natural for people attached to a well-written, superbly developed but flawed character to seek a loophole if he's up against Annoyingly Perfect Marty Stu from a Crappy Series.
We should root for well-written characters and reject those written by bad authors solely because "LOLZ MAXIMOM PUWERZ."

And really, at the risk of angering Bellis further: If the answer to a match is so obvious that you deem the match's results indisputable, why hold the match in the first place? I mean, if you're truly convinced that the Doctor has no business beating Flash, so much so that the results of the match are quite frankly unforgivable...isn't that a sign that the match itself is absolutely meaningless and could simply be skipped?

(But hey man if you're gonna knock on LoS, I reserve the right to return fire!) :P

--
The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Markin' down Ed Bellis as my archrival

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

For me, the most noticeable shift as I watched the series was how much I grew to like and appreciate Spike as a character.
I liked all the ponies more or less from the start (and my favorite and least favorite ponies remain the same from the first episode to the last, but I did shift around a few in-between them.)
But I wasn't really sold on Spike through the first few episodes.

He grew on me tremendously as time passed.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

I'd rank the mane cast myself, but I wouldn't want it held against me in the "Save Your Little Pony" thread.

Just about every mane cast character is absolutely brilliant, though; so much so that despite my melodramatic suggestions to the contrary, I'm actually not the slightest bit surprised at their continued dominance in the "Save" contest. The pony in the mane cast that I like least is still a pony that I like an awful lot.

--
The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

Only real men watch Friendship is Magic

I understand however that the show might be too manly for some of you to handle

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h

One of my favorite Mafia stories: It was relatively early in my Mafia career, so I made silly mistakes, but this one ended up paying off. I was dayvig (Sawyer in Lost mafia; dunno why Sawyer was dayvig.) I had one shot that I had to take during the day, and that's all I could do.

Took a wacky gambit and laid low and never took my shot. My strategy was to act scummy enough that scum would keep me alive so I was always a viable lynch target, but basically escape actually being lynched through superior argumentative ability when I was pressed. This strategy was 'aided' by the fact that our Cop was an N1 kill. Several days in I was finally pressed enough to be forced to claim, and I deliberately claimed I was Townie 'nilla (chose a redshirt character to claim) in hopes that if I got too close to lynching I could announce a sudden daykill and we'd have even more information of who was likely scum (who was on the lynch-MWIS train.)

Instead scum actually left me alone. Scum actually left me alive under the premise I was 'unconfirmed' and therefore a viable lynch candidate; better to keep me around because I was antagonistic enough to draw town's fire.

When it was me, two other unconfirmeds (both of whom were scum) and several confirmeds left, I finally had a lynch train on me that'd do me in, so to everyone's absolute shock, I typed "Dayvig (Name)" in the standard format there.
Keep in mind that at this forum incorrectly typing the Dayvig message if you were not in fact a Dayvig meant a Modkill, so the actual assumption was that I had just Modkilled myself (in some sort of rebellion for clearly about to having been lynched.)

Instead I killed the scum and basically won the game for town.

Hysterically, this was something like my third or fourth game there, and since I was a newbie at least one or two established Mafia players still got on my back for being foolish enough to have not taken my shot earlier. Like, I had literally won Town the game with my play, and yet I was still to blame for taking the risk that I'd be nightkilled before taking my shot.

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The Legend of Snake: http://tinyurl.com/3cal86z
The LoS Instruction Manual: http://tinyurl.com/3jlax8h