Era Poll Booths Update

Hey Era! Those who've been following our announcements and patch notes over at our official Discord for a while now are aware that we sometimes put out large community polls or giveaways through our Era category channels.

And while these tend to be pretty successful, it's much harder to guarantee their integrity on platforms like Discord where results can easily be skewed by bot entries or alt usage. This is largely in part why we've began using in-game raffle systems tied to in-game requirements for the giveaways of higher tier items as some of you have noticed.

But beyond integrity concerns, Discord isn't always the most accessible option when trying to reach our full player base. Many of our players may not own or want a Discord account, some might be banned from the server or unable to access it for other reasons, and some may be outright unaware the server exists or cannot actively keep up with it. This is why we want to rely a bit more on in-game systems when it comes to interacting with our community (Patch notes are something else we want to bring in-game soon!).

So what is this update?

Those of you who play Old School RuneScape may be familiar with the idea of in-game polling already. We're borrowing a page from their book with this release because it's a great way to ensure that the players have more of a hand in shaping the direction the games they love take. And while we won't take it as far as OSRS where every single game decision is polled before it is implemented, we'll definitely start utilizing it for the changes that matter most.

So what sorts of polls can we expect to see?

As mentioned earlier, in-game polls allow us to introduce account requirements. This lets us host community-wide polls with protections against brand new accounts, while also letting us tailor specific polls towards specific communities of the game to ensure all who vote are part of the intended demographic. Such as:

• A poll asking spar players if damage effects or melee range should be disabled spar-wide with spar stat requirements needed to be able to cast a vote
• A poll asking GST players if the team format should follow 12 versus 12 or something different for a given year with MPX requirements or prior GST participation required to cast a vote
• Community-wide polls with minor stat requirements asking everybody to choose between scheduling the Acorn Event or Pumpkin Harvest for Fall on a given year (Or similar examples that let you vote on a year's holiday schedule)!

Cool. How do they work and how can I vote?

They are tied to the old in-game forums system and are used to pull up isolated threads from the new Administrator Polls forum section. When no polls are active, the booths across the map will display with closed curtains and players will need to manually visit the new forum section to see past poll booth polls and their results. When a poll is active, booths will display with open curtains and players will be able to grab them to cast their vote. Those who do not yet have a forum username will need to register one first and have it approved by staff before they can partake in the forums or voting!

So where can I find these poll booths?

Poll booths are live in-game now and can be found in the major North and South hospitals, Start, Spar Complex, and Trade Tables. When new polls launch, there will be Discord and in-game announcements asking players to find their nearest booth, so learn their locations.

That's all for now. We'll have some more announcements for you soon regarding recent or upcoming game changes. Thanks for your continued support of Era, and let's try to make it better together going forward.