Hotel Infinity v. Who's Mind: DEATHMATCH!

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

Moderators: Scott McCloud, Moderators

Locked
AaronSw

Hotel Infinity v. Who's Mind: DEATHMATCH!

Post by AaronSw »

A humble suggestion: Since so much money has been spent on both of these suggestions, perhaps you could do both?
MrBlarney

Post by MrBlarney »

Hmm... I can't say I'm terribly fond of 'Hotel Infinity', since it reminds me of the mathematical tale of the Hotel Infinity...
Guest

Post by Guest »

I spent all 99 cents on "the mighty undo"... Likewise on "Bad art day". I really wanted to see what scott would do with these. Instead, I've wasted 2 bucks.

Hummph.
User avatar
Greg Stephens
Forum Founder
Posts: 3862
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Greg Stephens »

I like to spread my votes around a little. In the last round, I initially put some voted in for "Whose Mind," but when it turned out that it didn't need any more help from me, I decided to see if I could give any help to the (until that point) ignored "Like Ships in the Night."

In the previous round, I did dontate all my votes for "Bucket Full o' Kittens," but I confess that my expectations for what the comic might have been about and what it was about eventually were confounded.
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
wansley
Frequent Poster
Posts: 55
Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2002 11:55 am

Now, is this any kind of atitude?

Post by wansley »

Anonymous wrote:I spent all 99 cents on "the mighty undo"... Likewise on "Bad art day". I really wanted to see what scott would do with these. Instead, I've wasted 2 bucks.

Hummph.
Here is the perfect example of what's wrong with the method Scott has chosen for soliciting donations for The Morning Improv. Because, as a "Thank you" for your donation, Scott allows you to vote once for each penny you donate on the a title for the next Improv, it becomes all too easy to think of this as buying votes. I even think of it this way myself, if I am not careful. And, if you think that you are buying votes, then it becomes all too easy to think you've wasted your money when the title you voted for doesn't win. And this leads to bad feelings and resentment.

But you are not buying votes, you are donating money to help support Scott McCloud so he can afford to continue putting his time into working on The Morning Improv. So, you didn't waste your money unless you feel that the entire Morning Improv project is not worth $1.98 to you.

I do sympathize with you. Only one title that I have voted for has been selected and it can be quite disappointing when one you really like doesn't get picked. But the non-winning titles have not been permanently discarded, so you may get another chance to see Scott tackle one of your favorites.
William Ansley
Haze
Regular Poster
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2003 10:57 pm
Contact:

Post by Haze »

I still wonder how it would go if the vote totals were kept secret until the end. so far, it seems 2 or 3 quickly rise to the top and everything else gets ignored because of the "buying votes" mentality. see some title you like, but it's 900 cents behind? why bother? I'd feel like it's more of a donation jar and less of a presidential ballot if it was all secret, and I didn't have to worry about "which of the top 2 ranked names do I like better?" just what I think.

*insert joke about butterfly ballots and Bush v Gore here*
Connor Moran
Frequent Poster
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:02 am

Post by Connor Moran »

The problem with keeping it secret is that the close deathmatches inspire people to donate. I donated to "who's mind" because I liked it a lot better and as of the update right before I donated, it was behind by like 15 cents. So I donated fifteen cents. Also, it may just be me, but it seems like recently the numbers have been going up a lot faster (like this last one had nearly as many votes as the contest that lead to "The Accidental Dentist," which was spread out over the length of But No One Ever Noticed the Walrus), so this really seems to be a "ain't broke, don't fix" situation.
Alexander D.
Consistant Poster
Posts: 177
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: MA
Contact:

Post by Alexander D. »

On the other hand, "Whose Mind is it Anyway?" and "Hotel Infinity" both sounded pretty good to me, so I didn't bother voting at all -- I was perfectly happy with either of the front runners.

I did vote in the previous one -- I don't remember what for. really cast *against* "Bucket Full O'Kittens," which I had no interest in. Hmm...much like my voting in the 2004 election will be, and I fear equally futile.

This time round, I suspect a lot of people are voting against "Nipples on Parade." "Mimi's Last Coffee" just happened to be the other front runner, and is benefitting from the unpopularity of the runner-up. It's my second choice, though, so that's fine (though I do favor Infinite Jones). Again, I probably won't vote unless the title I don't like starts to catch up.

In any case, I do think the voting would be more interesting with secret ballots. But I also think you're probably right that secret ballots wouldn't bring in as much money. Perhaps if there were a primary -- done secretly -- and then a run-off between the top two from the primary. But that's probably making the whole thing too complicated.
Cyborg Caveman
Frequent Poster
Posts: 54
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2003 12:30 pm
Location: Somewhere in the Pleistocene Era
Contact:

Post by Cyborg Caveman »

Alexander D. wrote:This time round, I suspect a lot of people are voting against "Nipples on Parade." "Mimi's Last Coffee" just happened to be the other front runner, and is benefitting from the unpopularity of the runner-up. It's my second choice, though, so that's fine (though I do favor Infinite Jones). Again, I probably won't vote unless the title I don't like starts to catch up.
Heh. Whereas I'm the direct reverse. Mimi's Last Coffee strikes me as a pretty dreadful title. I wouldn't vote for it no matter what the runner up. Seems like it taps into the whole "possibly yet another improv about death" phenom. Even Nipples on Parade would be better (envisions Scott doing a "titillating" R. Crumb riff) Infinite Jones could be cool, and really, I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more votes what with the popularity of Hotel Infinity from the last line up. Seems to me it's similar enough to where it should've gotten some spillover from the voters in the last race.
Greg O.
Alexander D.
Consistant Poster
Posts: 177
Joined: Fri Feb 15, 2002 7:00 pm
Location: MA
Contact:

Post by Alexander D. »

Cyborg Caveman wrote:
Alexander D. wrote:Seems like it taps into the whole "possibly yet another improv about death" phenom.
Ah, whereas I saw this as the starting point for a story about employer/employee dynamics and office politics. But then again, that's what *I* write about.

Of course, a lot of my favorite improvs have been death improvs, so I'm not opposed to more on that theme.

Regardless, what I really like about "Mimi's Last Coffee" is that it sounds like the starting point of a story, rather than a gag.
User avatar
Greg Stephens
Forum Founder
Posts: 3862
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2001 7:00 pm
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Contact:

Post by Greg Stephens »

Alexander D. wrote:Ah, whereas I saw this as the starting point for a story about employer/employee dynamics and office politics. But then again, that's what *I* write about.
And I was thinking more along the lines of caffeine addiction. Alternatively, the "last" coffee could merely be the "previous" coffee, as in- "Remember the last time we had coffee together?" Mimi could be recalling a traumatic event that happened while she was drinking coffee and now doesn't drink coffee.
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
kaos_de_moria
Consistant Poster
Posts: 161
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2003 9:49 am
Location: Switzerland

voting graph

Post by kaos_de_moria »

it would be intresting to have a voting graph when the voting is finished, showing which title had how many votes after a certain amount of time. as the data is there anyway, this should be easy to compile. it should be even possible to automize it. besides it would be cool to have the (not painted) runner ups mentioned in the MI archive.

kaos
Locked