Is a Do-Over Vote in the Cards?
This past Tuesday was intended to be the last day fans could vote on the winner of the Sonic Birthday Contest. But this Thursday evening, no one is certain on how Sega will proceed after allegations of vote rigging crossed both sides of the Atlantic, and were confirmed by Sega last week.
It has been 10 days since Sega first acknowledged the suspicious activity. It took three days after that for the plug to be pulled on public voting. Ever since, fans clamoring for an update to the matter have received very little guidance from Sega representatives–and a terse update offered Tuesday by community manager Julian Mehlfeld–in now typical mysterious style–did little to quell concerns.
“We will have news soon,” wrote Mehlfeld on the Sega forums under his Clumsyorchid handle. “Sorry I can’t go into more detail, but we’re working hard to get everything squared away.”
Nothing official has been disclosed since. Still, the one thing fans may be able to take away from the statement is in the latter half. If nothing else, it may indicate a desire to re-open voting to the public, albeit with tighter security.
We will pass along anything more we hear.
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I have a feeling that Sega is just gonna decide who is the winner. I hope so…cheaters always find a way to cheat at these kind of things.
It’s tough, I think. If they do decide it, they undercut the whole point of the contest–to have the fans decide. I suspect they will also have to contend with a faction crying foul or cronyism, especially in Britain. I, for one, would hope they disclose the scores given internally to the entrants in that case, in the interest of transparency.
And if they don’t decide it and re-open it to the masses, like you say, who’s to say the process can’t be undermined once again? It’s a clear no-win for Sega, its community team, and its IT and web departments. It’s why I wonder if outright canceling the contest (which they can do) would be a cleaner option.
While I agree that you can’t foolproof this stuff once it’s turned over to the masses, you can find a way to make it as secure as possible. Had they done that in the first place, I don’t think we’d be here.
-T
You have an interesting point.
Well, whatever happens, I hope someone still wins out of all this. I know if I was an entrant and got this far that I’d be really upset if all my hard work went to waste.
Let’s hope Sega makes the right move on this one.
Dear SEGA,
If you choose the winner yourself, just don’t pick the shitty Sonic Intervention video. I think we could be straight after that.
My comments never get approved here.
I wasn’t reached for comment on our forums or by email, which Tristan has and could have easily checked. Someone on our forums happened to ask though and since I typically reply to people who ask nicely, here’s the response:
http://forums.sega.com/showpost.php?p=6040299&postcount=540
Thank you for sourcing or forums though, that’s something new.
Julian: Given how you and your colleagues have treated me and this site of late, I’m not sure I would have received a substantive response out of you or anyone else anyway.
By the way, you can’t pass off a follow-up, equally cryptic, that you posted many hours after my story was published as a means of counterargument. We went with the information available, and nothing you said was taken out of context. Nothing new you said changes the meaning of this story, either.
And you wonder why your comments don’t get approved here.
-T
I do wonder why my comments don’t get approved here. This being one of the only ones that have made the cut (and I’ve made many) and I wonder if it’s because I called you out on it. Do I need to play the drama card to get something approved on this site? If so, that’s unfair to me and my other non drama statements, it paints me as a different person through censorship.
For the article, I would have been happy to respond, but was never reached out to. In fact, no one on our team was reached out to. I made a response to the person who asked for more info on our boards. If I was in a position to give you more non-cryptic info, by golly, I’d give the full statement – but as you can see, I’m not.
I care deeply about the Sonic community and generally communities, really people, in general who feel passionately about things. So for this contest, I’m give a heads up, I’m telling people that we haven’t forgotten, are working on a solution, and you know, it’s something that’s important to us to.
Holy crap, that sounds like a story! With context no less and something that’s not skewed negatively. That’s a quote you can use, exclusive to Tssz.
And that’s why you’re not being reached out to–because I know you’re not going to say anything other than “hold on,” or some announcement of an announcement or something ridiculous like that.
The whole “we’re working on a solution” rhetoric is now eleven days old. It is not new. It is no different from what Kellie told me when I *did* reach out to her once this matter broke, which throws out your “we don’t reach out to people for comment” argument. It is the same shit, on a different day, and it’s starting to border on incompetency when there are easy options available to rectify the matter. Why in the world would I reach out to you or anyone else on the team when I know exactly what you’re going to say? And if I don’t know what you’re going to say, you all refuse to tell me and clarify, solely in the interest of protecting your precious release schedule?
When I have any feeling you or anyone else will tell me actual information, you’ll get an E-Mail. Be assured of that. Of late, however, it’s very clear you and most everyone else on Community doesn’t want to communicate anything to this site. If you want to treat me and everyone else here that way, that’s your prerogative. Seeing as the lot of you can’t even hold a contest without problems, what I write and how I write it should be the very least of your concerns right now.
-T
> Sega
> Delivering on a promise
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA… That’s funny. They’re gonna ‘fix’ sonic 4 too, just like the fans (who aren’t getting their prizes) keep asking for. Nah, just kidding. They’re gonna sit around and enjoy the free exposure sonic 4 got.
Seriously people, stop getting worked up by sega’s empty promises. The only thing sega cares about are its japanese customers overseas. They’re gonna get all of the profits and development time raked in by this awful capitalization of the western fanbase.