Suspicious activity in the portal

[AethosGames]

have you guys noticed that every submission thats come into the portal today has been massively downvoted?

I know its normal to have the score fluctuate from like 4.2 to 3.8/ 3.9 after leaving judgement, but something has been happening today that I cant put my finger on.

Every submission today has been voted down by like .6-.8 points. We're talking high quality games/animations going from 4.1/ 4.2 to less than 3.5

This animation suffered a huge downvote, from around 4.1 to around 3.2.

My game also suffered a huge hit, from 4.18 to 3.38 (and the game has a 3.91 on Kong, a site that's less than generous with their ratings)

This animation and its part 2 started at the 3.9 range and are now at less than 3.1 (the 2nd one is at around 2.9)

From what I've seen of my game, I've been getting a new 0 vote every 4 minutes for the past 10 hours (about 300 suspicious votes total)

The only game that I've not seen get downvoted today is this game.

I'm not accusing anyone of anything, but it does seem extremely suspicious that this persons game remains unscathed. Then again, who knows?

I've never known NG users to do anything like this to this magnitude, so I was wondering if any of you found it odd/suspicious as well?

[XenonMonkey]

K, what now?

[HungarianSupermarket]

People 0-vote stuff all the time. This isn't a new trend.

[Drukeneshishm]

Well, this sort of thing coukd be considered "abuse" and as long as there is a voting system there will be "abuse"

[razorbladesigh]

I voted 0 on your game. That is what you wanted us to do, right?

[AethosGames]

At 9/13/10 11:30 PM, XenonMonkey wrote: K, what now?

It's called reading =P

At 9/13/10 11:31 PM, HungarianSupermarket wrote: People 0-vote stuff all the time. This isn't a new trend.

True, but I've never seen 0 voting to this degree. Its not easy to get a group of 300+ people to 0 vote every game in the portal

At 9/13/10 11:31 PM, Drukeneshishm wrote: Well, this sort of thing coukd be considered "abuse" and as long as there is a voting system there :will be "abuse"

Like I said above, I've never seen this kind of abuse on NG. I know that it happens, but this is an entirely different degree. If I were a conspiracy theorist kind of guy, I'd say that someone has a bot/dynamic IP that they're using to down vote everything. This seems too big a scale to be normal abuse.

At 9/13/10 11:32 PM, razorbladesigh wrote: I voted 0 on your game. That is what you wanted us to do, right?

You seem like a Kongregate user to me for some reason.

[Drukeneshishm]

At 9/13/10 11:39 PM, PsyFlash wrote:

At 9/13/10 11:32 PM, razorbladesigh wrote: I voted 0 on your game. That is what you wanted us to do, right?

You seem like a Kongregate user to me for some reason.

aren't "kongregate user" and "faggot" interchangeable? at least, that's what i've picked up from how much ng hates that place

[razorbladesigh]

At 9/13/10 11:39 PM, PsyFlash wrote:

At 9/13/10 11:32 PM, razorbladesigh wrote: I voted 0 on your game. That is what you wanted us to do, right?

You seem like a Kongregate user to me for some reason.

I'm so hurt.

[Psychopath]

What's happening is that people are mass voting giving high votes to multiple submissions to ensure save points, then once it doesn't matter how people vote on your submission they vote on it fairly, based on it's actual content rather than it's icon, description, file size and medium.

In other words, the majority users are voting on content in the portal based on generalizations and only after it escapes Judgment is when it truly receives just and appropriate criticism.

[nakedxbabe]

At 9/13/10 11:31 PM, HungarianSupermarket wrote: People 0-vote stuff all the time. This isn't a new trend.

exactly.
most of the stuff people make is shit though.

[AethosGames]

At 9/13/10 11:36 PM, MuyBurrito wrote: That game sucks anyway.

Maybe to you, everyone has different tastes. My average review score is 9.33 (not counting the guy who's been flagged 3 times today for the same comment), so it must not be that bad. But its not normal for a game to go from a post 4 score to 3.25 (My game has gone down by .13 points since I started this topic, which has only been about 20 minutes).

At 9/13/10 11:42 PM, Drukeneshishm wrote: aren't "kongregate user" and "faggot" interchangeable? at least, that's what i've picked up from how much ng hates that place

Haha! Sometimes they are interchangable. I've found that sometimes, Kong users can be as tolerable as NG users. NG is usually a very helpful place in terms of feedback. Kong is usually not so much.

At 9/13/10 11:44 PM, razorbladesigh wrote: I'm so hurt.

I'm sorry. No, really!

At 9/13/10 11:45 PM, phsychopath wrote: What's happening is that people are mass voting giving high votes to multiple submissions to ensure save points, then once it doesn't matter how people vote on your submission they vote on it fairly, based on it's actual content rather than it's icon, description, file size and medium.

In other words, the majority users are voting on content in the portal based on generalizations and only after it escapes Judgment is when it truly receives just and appropriate criticism.

If you take a look at the portal, you'll notice that no submissions are blue, in fact, very few are even green. I know that happens and games usually fall after they leave judgement. But not a whole points worth. I've never seen anything like what happened today. if you were around at the beginning when they were still at their real scores you would know this. If you'd play my game or watch any of the noted submissions, you would realize that the score they deserve is much higher. If it was just my game that this was happening to, I would take this differently. however, its happeining to everyone (with the exception of the one who I mentioned earlier who has stayed about the same score all day)

A day without even one blue submission is an odd day regardless, but its even more odd when every game goes from blue to negligible.

At 9/13/10 11:58 PM, MisterWonderful wrote: exactly.
most of the stuff people make is shit though.

What worries me is that its happening to the good submissions too.

[razorbladesigh]

At 9/13/10 11:59 PM, PsyFlash wrote:

At 9/13/10 11:44 PM, razorbladesigh wrote: I'm so hurt.

I'm sorry. No, really!

No, it's too late. You already hurt my feelings.

You're tearing me apart.

[Jolly]

At 9/13/10 11:30 PM, XenonMonkey wrote: K, what now?

This guy seems to be able to get anything too pass. whut.

[Genocide]

be honest, this thread is really just about you feeling like your game isn't getting the right kind of votes, isn't it? you don't give a shit about other submissions, you just feel victimized and raped by the system.

well welcome to newgrounds, where we rape everybody, equally.

[AethosGames]

At 9/14/10 12:45 AM, Genocide wrote: be honest, this thread is really just about you feeling like your game isn't getting the right kind of votes, isn't it? you don't give a shit about other submissions, you just feel victimized and raped by the system.

well welcome to newgrounds, where we rape everybody, equally.

Yeah, I am pretty pissed that something took my game that is 4+ quality and took it down to a 3.23, not only ruining my NG release but also essentially destroying my viral distribution of the game which deserves way better.

But dont get me wrong, I do feel sympathy for the other games in that some were quality, and their release is also ruined. It takes a lot of work to make a game and having your game receive this kind of voting is incredibly destructive if your game is any good. For animations its not as important because they are less of a market in and of themselves. However, their NG release is incredibly important for this reason as well. They have no other revenue streams for the work they just did if the NG version flops (due to lack of distribution avenues).

In any case, I was using other submissions as a reference to prove that it wasn't just me. And I'm not sure how you cant see that this isnt the normal down voting. You cant honestly tell me that the submission that came out of judgement with a good score deserve what they have now. What happened today has never happened before from what I've seen.

I've been around NG for a while now and have never seen this.

I'm sure as a fellow developer you'd be rather upset if the game you just spent 2 months on and has gotten incredibly good reviews/ratings from other sites suddenly started dropping almost a whole point in score.

[Bladezguy]

Why do you care so much? I mean were you really on ng that long to notice that happening?

[AethosGames]

At 9/14/10 01:00 AM, Bladezguy wrote: Why do you care so much? I mean were you really on ng that long to notice that happening?

I develop games as my full time job right now, so my livelihood depends on it. Thats why I care so much.

The most important time for a flash game is the week after its release, especially the first day. So yes, I've been checking my games progress, analyzing my gathered metrics, talking to potential sponsors about licensing opportunities and other things of that nature ALL DAY. I closely watch the competition to track my progress as opposed to theirs because other portal owners will usually only take the best couple games to use for their site, which is a critical component in the distribution of a flash game.

So yes, I've been watching this weird s**t happen all day long. There were 3 entries on the 13th that started above a 4. Now they've all been reduced to less than 3.25, some reduced to less than 3.

[Urban-Champion]

"Guys, my game is SRS BISSNISS and it means more than anything else on the site and now because I am hurt that I lost MNAY score on my flash I shall bring attention to it on the BBS in the vain hope that people will VOET FVIE!!!"

Yeah? Get over it. If your game is truly worth something then NATURALLY, by other users viewing it on the portal by themselves, it shall return to it's original score.

But now, since you brought it to the attention of the BBS, you basically screwed your game's score over. wasted effort, your only hope now is to have Tom front page it.

[Urban-Champion]

At 9/14/10 01:06 AM, PsyFlash wrote:
I develop games as my full time job right now, so my livelihood depends on it. Thats why I care so much.

The most important time for a flash game-

HOLD IT!

You better find yourself a second job, there isn't much money potential in Flash Games. I suggest just using Flash to make iPhone games. If it's good, you could earn a fair sum of money. I mean, a dollar a download.

[AethosGames]

At 9/14/10 02:37 AM, Urban-Champion wrote:

At 9/14/10 01:06 AM, PsyFlash wrote:
I develop games as my full time job right now, so my livelihood depends on it. Thats why I care so much.

The most important time for a flash game-

HOLD IT!

You better find yourself a second job, there isn't much money potential in Flash Games. I suggest just using Flash to make iPhone games. If it's good, you could earn a fair sum of money. I mean, a dollar a download.

IDK about that. I've made over $22000 from flash games. iPhone games are a viable market, but there are more failures in the iPhone market than the flash market and more money to be had as well. But you're not a developer, so I'd not expect you to know anything about that.

At 9/14/10 02:34 AM, Urban-Champion wrote: "Guys, my game is SRS BISSNISS and it means more than anything else on the site and now because I am hurt that I lost MNAY score on my flash I shall bring attention to it on the BBS in the vain hope that people will VOET FVIE!!!"

Yeah? Get over it. If your game is truly worth something then NATURALLY, by other users viewing it on the portal by themselves, it shall return to it's original score.

Also, this is a gross exaggeration of what I said. I said before, you arent a developer so I cant expect you to know, but if a game doesnt do well on the first day, it tends to never see the light of day again. Therefore, it wont get enough views to get it back to its original score. If it were to be frontpaged, that would certainly fix the problem with the exception of the mob mentality that exists on most portal sites (which basically means people will vote based off the scores of the majority). However, due to the rigged voting that occured, it is extremely unlikely that it will be frontpaged.

But now, since you brought it to the attention of the BBS, you basically screwed your game's score over.

Why is that I wonder? Any smart, logical person would be able to analyse the data I have collected and come to an educated conclusion. Those kinds of people who play the games or watch the animations I listed would notice something incredibly unusual about the situation and attempt to correct it.

Instead, people seemingly take what I've said ONLY as complaining (which is only part of the case, not the whole larger predicament). Interesting, no?

[BaronVonBadGuy]

THAT IS SUSPICIOUS!
I'm calling the serious business police now to look into this situation.

[AethosGames]

At 9/14/10 02:50 AM, BaronVonBadGuy wrote: THAT IS SUSPICIOUS!
I'm calling the serious business police now to look into this situation.

Haha. Nice to get some humor after all the absurdity.

[BaronVonBadGuy]

At 9/14/10 02:55 AM, PsyFlash wrote: Haha. Nice to get some humor after all the absurdity.

Bones have nothing to do with such seriousness.

[Urban-Champion]

At 9/14/10 02:49 AM, PsyFlash wrote:

IDK about that. I've made over $22000 from flash games. iPhone games are a viable market, but there are more failures in the iPhone market than the flash market and more money to be had as well. But you're not a developer, so I'd not expect you to know anything about that.

I do't exactly consider Actionscript 2.0 a hard programming language to learn. In fact for my Computer Sci. 20 class we are supposed to be making a game in Scratch (awful language) but I chose to do a Flash game instead called BitRACER+. I'm still new to AS 3.0 (not 2.0, I know a fair amount of that), so this will probably consist of a single plane for the track and low poly mini car models. It won't matter anyways because I plan to have the camera angle from a sort of GTA Chinatown Wars perspective, just not as top down.

Also, this is a gross exaggeration of what I said. I said before, you arent a developer so I cant expect you to know, but if a game doesnt do well on the first day, it tends to never see the light of day again.

Not true, I've been on NG long enough to see games go from a 2.3 to a good 3.7.

Therefore, it wont get enough views to get it back to its original score. If it were to be frontpaged, that would certainly fix the problem with the exception of the mob mentality that exists on most portal sites (which basically means people will vote based off the scores of the majority).

Legit argument, most internet users are like that. I did a small test on YouTube where I made a comment that had a lot of negative votes into a positive one, and all of a sudden people went from "lol look at this fag" to "LMAO win dude". Then again, YouTube is a breeding ground of low I.Q.

However, due to the rigged voting that occured, it is extremely unlikely that it will be frontpaged.

Not true. Tom looks for quality in a game, not the score. That, or if it's based on current events then Tom front pages it.

But now, since you brought it to the attention of the BBS, you basically screwed your game's score over.

Why is that I wonder? Any smart, logical person would be able to analyse the data I have collected and come to an educated conclusion. Those kinds of people who play the games or watch the animations I listed would notice something incredibly unusual about the situation and attempt to correct it.

No, I meant that the BBS rejects almost anyone who likes to bring attention to their own work and usually ends up Zero bombing it.

Instead, people seemingly take what I've said ONLY as complaining (which is only part of the case, not the whole larger predicament). Interesting, no?

Well, you are complaining. People on the BBS take complaining as complaining.

[Psychopath]

At 9/14/10 03:06 AM, Urban-Champion wrote:
Not true, I've been on NG long enough to see games go from a 2.3 to a good 3.7.

Yeah that's called "Self-Voting."

[iamgrimreaper]

It's cause Pimp's continuing to vote.

[DontExplain]

Yeah, I am pretty pissed that something took my game that is 4+ quality and took it down to a 3.23, not only ruining my NG release but also essentially destroying my viral distribution of the game which deserves way better.

I'm sorry, but someone has a bit of an ego here. It is far from a 4+ game. Hell, you've got 3.23/5, I wouldn't even give it that. Maybe a 2.5ish, its only average. It DOESNT deserve better. Stop expecting all your stuff to be godly.

[PenguinKommando]

Maybe some humility will do you good you condescending douchebag.

[physicsman09]

Not to be a jerk or anything, but you might want to consider a different career path other than "flash programmer."

Sure you made 22000 dollars, but in comparison to a job with an annual salary, that's nothing.

Any job with a college degree will easily make more than that, not only will you make more, but you will have a steady source of income that won't be based on how much people like you.

[IsaacKawasa]

I think this is a lil suspicious, in my opinion.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/548129This game had a lot of 10 point reviews, and yet was deleted "by the user" or whatever it says.
Doesn't that mean that we the users voted badly on it to get it deleted?