Lurker > LusterSoldier

Lightning Strikes posted...

Really, dont think of indie games as distinct from other games. They are just games without a publisher or big company attached. They are taking the place of small to mid-size games and games from smaller publishers that have become less frequent.

The issue that indie games face is their general lack of pre-release promotion relative to the AAA games. At events such as E3, indie games are generally relegated to the indie game montages in the E3 press conferences, which is a rapid fire segment showing at most 15-30 seconds of gameplay from each upcoming game before moving into another game in the montage. Thus, indie games face an uphill battle to garner the attention of gamers. Combined with the huge availability of so many indie games means that it's harder for any specific indie game to get widely played on this site.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

"whoops"

I guess we were way off on Hollow Knight, even for those who picked it to win here. Kleenex has the best Hollow Knight pick so far, and even he was off by more than 5%.

So this is how I end up starting my string of Guest appearances for this contest, getting a debated match wrong. I don't really regret picking Berseria as most indies are going to have to prove their strength first. There weren't many indies I would have taken over Berseria. Shovel Knight is one of those games I would have picked, and the same goes for the likes of Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, and Celeste.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

_SecretSquirrel posted...

https://gamefaqs1.cbsistatic.com/images/contest/gotd-back/107502.png
https://gamefaqs1.cbsistatic.com/images/contest/gotd-logo/107502.png

I wonder if there's any significance to these numbers that might let us figure out the rest of the match pics.

I thought it might have been the board number for the game on this site, but that's apparently not the case as seen here:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/189707-

BotW's board number is 189707, which isn't the same as the number used for the match picture.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Ngamer64 posted...

@LusterSoldier could you send a ticket asking SB to fix the Elite Eight part of the brackets?

Sure, I'm on that right now.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

creativename posted...

I think my tiebreaker is off though. I went with 2.65 million, wish I'd gone with like 3.5m.

2.65 million is looking far better than 3.5m with the way the vote totals are going so far.

When the bracket first went up, I originally recommended 1900000 to 2300000. This was later revised and changed to 2100000 to 2500000 after seeing the slightly higher vote totals in the regular polls as a consequence of the ongoing coronavirus situation, which I assumed would probably carry over to this contest.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Yuri_LowelI posted...

or could be the awful starting times.

We had similar starting time for the last contest (7:00 PM EST initially, changing to 8:00 PM EST after the DST switch), so the comparison to the previous contest is fine.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

15 minutes into these matches, and we're already close to 200 votes behind the first matches from Day 1 of the 2018 contest. The forced voting in all 4 matches could be affecting the vote totals in this contest, at least for the early rounds.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

1st vote, 1st for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
1st vote, 1st for Halo: Reach
1st vote, 1st for Final Fantasy XV
2nd vote, 1st for Tales of Berseria

https://i.imgur.com/O8ckiv7.png
https://i.imgur.com/50JFvSW.png
https://i.imgur.com/VvTRmD7.png
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Tales of Berseria - 55.84%
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/gotd_bracket
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/gotd_mybracket
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/features/gotd_stats

All of those pages are officially online. Assuming the stats page is accurate, it seems like we have 8702 entries for this contest. That is higher than the previous contest which had 7221 entries for that contest, although we had the benefit of a yellow site alert running for a combined length of about 8 days. Plus, the rather long bracket entry period due to the 2 contest delays, and possibly even higher site traffic due to the ongoing coronavirus situation.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Source code I use for making First Vote attempts:

<form action="https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7915-" method="post">
<input type="radio" name="opt" value="1" class="radio" />Option 1<br/>
<input type="radio" name="opt" value="2" class="radio" />Option 2<br/>
<b>Key Value:</b> <input type="text" value="" name="key">
<input type="submit" value="Vote" />
</form>

Save that to an HTML file and then open up the HTML file in a browser. Remember that you'll have to update the Poll ID for each contest match, so don't leave it at 7915 for the entire contest. You'll also need to have 4 separate HTML files for making First Vote attempts, one for each contest match that will happen on any given day (in the early rounds). I have 3 other HTML files for the other 3 matches happening on the first day of the contest, but with poll IDs 7916, 7917, and 7918 instead.

The "Key Value" can be obtained from almost any form on GameFAQs. The easiest way to find it is to view the source code of the GameFAQs homepage and look for the following piece of text in the source code - <input type="hidden" name="key" value="[Key Value]" />

Copy the text that shows up for the "value" and paste it into the First Vote HTML file that you have open in your browser.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

The biggest disruption related to 9/11 would probably be all commercial airliners were grounded for several days following the event, then it was back to business again. Also, schools in the New York City area were closed immediately following the event, though I'm not sure if the school closures were extended to the rest of New York state.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Bracket entries were locked down exactly at 7:00:19 PM EST.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

@creativename

Remember to get the updater configured for the start of the contest. Here's the important Poll ID milestones to know:

7915 - First Poll ID of contest, 4 matches per day
8011 - Start of 2 matches per day
8026 - Last Poll ID before the 6 day break begins
8027 - Contest resumes again with 2 matches per day
8039 - Start of 1 match per day
8041 - Final Poll ID of contest

All matches in this contest have a start time of 8:00 PM EST. The first matches will start later today.

Hopefully the contest doesn't get delayed again, after being previously delayed 2 times.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Ngamer64 posted...

(though it took 5 hours of concentrated listening to reach Luster's wonderful advice, so honestly I can't hold it against anyone who didn't get there)

The tiebreaker range should have been revealed at the end of part 1, not at the end of part 2.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

No poll today related to filling out a bracket for this contest.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

As with past contests, I will be involved on the stats side of the contest discussion. Last contest, I provided registered/anonymous user voting results and I'll be doing the same thing for this contest too. I have already created the spreadsheet for this contest's Registered/Anonymous user vote splits right here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kFS3SfH6sAhPdS85H7BpuFIkr9SayeF7AhMw-wrEBng/pub

Another side project I'll do is make trend charts based on just the raw vote totals (excluding registered user bonus), but I won't be posting those trend charts publicly although they will be located on this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TpCHE9QWTuASBemQxDBHzEJDTt4gOddgPSlE8ne0zvc/pub
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Yes, I think this is already bigger than 9/11.

9/11 may be a bigger single day event, but coronavirus is a bigger overall event due to the length of time it will be affecting the daily lives of so many people. 9/11 was also a more localized event (being based in the US), compared to coronavirus that is an international event.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

https://pastebin.com/ZbKYtSPT

Tiebreaker: 2026706

I would like to be added to the Guru site under the username "Luster Soldier" (with a space in the name).
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

LeonhartFour posted...

oh yeah I guess I should get my trend charts ready

I also need to get prepared for the stats related stuff I'll be providing over the course of the contest. Last contest, I provided registered/anonymous user voting results and I'll be doing the same thing for this contest too.

Another side project I'll do is make trend charts based on just the raw vote totals (excluding registered user bonus), but I won't be posting those trend charts publicly although they will be located on this spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TpCHE9QWTuASBemQxDBHzEJDTt4gOddgPSlE8ne0zvc/pub
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

foxhead84 posted...

@LusterSoldier you must know this.... Does it starts in 4 hour or 28???

Tomorrow night.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Yuri_LowelI posted...

That was the Summer though. Too hot to stay inside

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3425-
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/3974-
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/4793-
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/6293-
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7654-

The "None" option consistently got between 8% and 11% in all of the above polls. The time of the year didn't affect its percentage at all. So it's pretty apparent that the coronavirus situation is forcing a lot more people into a situation where they haven't gone outside at any point during the past 24 hours.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Sorozone posted...

Never got tested, but I'm pretty sure I had it in early February. If I did have it I would have been the 2nd case in AZ.

I had all the symptoms, and was bedridden for a bout a week, but couldn't actually sleep because it was horrible. After that it took about another 2 weeks to fully recover. I was also spitting up pink phelmgt, that's the main reason I believe I had it. At the time I just thought it was just the regular old flu, but looking back it's a possibility. Guess I'll never know.

Did you experience a loss of smell or taste around the time you had other symptoms? I have heard that a loss of smell or taste is one possible symptom of coronavirus, and is the only symptom experienced by some people who don't get any of the other symptoms.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Today's poll is pretty interesting. When it comes to past polls, this is the most similar one I can find:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7654-

Though the options are a bit different from today's poll. In the poll above, 8.43% stayed in their home for the past 24 hours. In today's poll, it's currently 49.58% instead.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

_SecretSquirrel posted...

This poll is dumb because I am both #3 (laid off from work) and #4 (was going to WrestleMania week).

That isn't a problem unique to this poll. Other polls would have the same problem where more than one option could apply to someone, but the polls don't support multi-select (being able to select more than one option).
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/7911-

We're getting a re-run of this poll only 11 days after the original poll. This is one of the few exceptions where you could re-run so quickly after the original poll because coronavirus is a rapidly evolving situation. There's also been a huge change in results in just 11 days, with the "Not really" option being cut almost in half from the previous run of this poll.

The Geolocation results will be interesting to see, though. The quarantined option already got 25% in Italy in the previous run, so it will probably be even higher this time around.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Mr Lasastryke posted...

false. the youth vote compared to '16 increased.

but the old people vote increased as well - and like tenfold - which led to biden destroying bernie.

I suspect this is from a lot of Republican voters crossing over to vote in the Democratic primaries to vote for Biden in the event Trump loses re-election, so at least those voters end up with a new president that is closer to Trump on the political spectrum than Sanders would. Trump is also pretty much assured to be the Republican nominee as he has incumbent status in the Republican primaries, making it far easier for Trump voters to skip the Republican primaries to vote on the Democratic side instead.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

UltimaterializerX posted...

Good. Fucking trash can company.

Meanwhile, Hobby Lobby remains open even though it could be considered a non-essential retail store chain similar to GameStop. I suspect it's only a matter of time until Hobby Lobby is forced to shut down, whenever there's at least one state willing to take the same action against them that Pennsylvania did to GameStop.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

My recommended tiebreaker range when the bracket went up was 1900000 to 2300000. I have since revised the tiebreaker range to be 2100000 to 2500000 after seeing the slightly higher vote totals in the polls this month.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Halo: Reach
Final Fantasy XV
Tales of Berseria
Monster Hunter: World
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Mass Effect 2
Fallout 4
Borderlands 2
Horizon Zero Dawn
Resident Evil 2
DOOM
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Bloodborne
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Marvel's Spider-Man
Minecraft
Undertale
Shovel Knight
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Super Mario Odyssey
Grand Theft Auto V
Cuphead
Persona 4 Golden
Red Dead Redemption
Xenoblade Chronicles
Overwatch
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

This was the last time we had a poll similar to the one today:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/poll/5724-

Although that poll covers what already happened, where as this poll is asking you to predict the amount of time spent playing games. Compared to the poll above, we're seeing a huge drop in the "Less than 1" and the "1-4" option. "5-8" is pretty similar to the 2014 poll, while the last 3 options are all doing better today.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

I've already locked in my bracket nearly 2 weeks ago, and I don't want to change my tiebreaker because that would change the submission time of my bracket and make it harder to appear on the leaderboard during the contest.

But I would certainly recommend increasing your tiebreaker if you haven't finished your bracket yet. Previously, I had recommended a range of 1900000 to 2300000, but I will revise this and increase the range to 2100000 to 2500000.

We are already seeing higher vote totals in the regular polls this month compared to the polls from February. The average is only about 700 votes higher, though.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Good news, our average vote totals for March is about 700 votes higher compared to February. We're currently averaging 11014 votes in March. Seems like the coronavirus situation is helping out the vote totals so far.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

@creativename

If you have configured the match updater to start today, you'll want to postpone that by changing the starting Poll ID to 7914. The contest was delayed for a second time earlier this week to make room for a server migration move.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

tennisboy213 posted...

Luster are we going with the Red Grunting Boneheads again? That was a name from a random generator but it was pretty cool.

Sure, we can re-use that name again for our team name.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I get it that moving the server to the cloud might be important, but it seems Allen really screwed up with the scheduling for this.

GameFAQs will be moving over to the Google Cloud Platform this time around. Way back in 2012, Allen moved GameFAQs to Amazon Web Services (another cloud provider) and the site remained there for about 2 years before getting moved back to one of their own in-house data centers.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

ctesjbuvf posted...

I'm so tempted to pick Nier to beat HGSS.

I don't believe HGSS is anywhere near GSC and it would be lovely to expose that before Skyrim. I'm not entirely sure I believe in Nier enough to the job done though.

I already jumped in on the Nier > HGSS pick in my bracket because I figure Nier probably has pretty good strength as far as this decade of games is concerned when 2B turned out to be stronger than expected in the last Character Battle.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild vs. The Outer Worlds - paulg
Halo: Reach vs. Life is Strange - spooky96
Final Fantasy XV vs. What Remains of Edith Finch -
Hollow Knight vs. Tales of Berseria - Luster Soldier
Monster Hunter: World vs. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy - Kotetsu534
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice vs. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - SuperNiceDog
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series vs. Bastion -
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age vs. The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - Sniperdog117

Mass Effect 2 vs. Resident Evil 7: biohazard -
Fallout 4 vs. VVVVVV - LMS
Borderlands 2 vs. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night -
Horizon Zero Dawn vs. Fortnite - Hbthebattle
Resident Evil 2 vs. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair -
DOOM vs. INSIDE - Black Turtle
Fire Emblem: Awakening vs. Deus Ex: Human Revolution -
Bloodborne vs. Call of Duty: Black Ops - ctes
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Pikachu is killing Sephiroth easily on IGN.



At least Sephiroth is somehow in second place here. On GameFAQs, I would have definitely taken Pikachu > Sephiroth based on the 2018 contest, but it would be a lot closer here. Sephiroth looked bad enough in 2018 that he would lose to Pikachu.

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

With this poll being more than halfway completed, I took a look at Italy's results for today's poll. Right now:

Instant - I work or take classes from home 11.69%
I don't have one, because I don't have a job or go to school 18.18%

Even though the no job/school option is higher than the overall worldwide result, this is actually the lowest percentage that option has gotten in Italy during the entire history of this poll. The previous re-runs of this poll had a higher percentage for "no job/school" in Italy. However, the "Instant" option has recorded its highest percentage ever in Italy during the entire history of this poll. The "Instant" option was worth looking at here due to a lot of workers having to switch over to working from home.

Whatever effect coronavirus could be having on this poll, it's an extremely minor effect at best.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

When this topic was posted, "I don't have one, because I don't have a job or go to school" was over 16% at the time. It has now fallen down to 14.43% right now, which is still only about 2% higher than the previous time we had this poll.

In past polls, I have found evidence that suggests the younger people on this site are far more likely to vote near the start of the poll (first hour or so). This would favor the no job/school option, and this is supported by that option having 18.44% at the end of the first hour of voting.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

I suspect the current coronavirus situation could be inflating the number of unemployed users in this poll if you compare this poll results to the earlier versions of this poll we had in the past.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Ngamer64 posted...

What's happening out there in the world is awful, don't get me wrong. But... the next two months are going to be a golden era for gaming.

* steam hit a new record for most concurrent active users this afternoon, at 20 million
* Counter-Strike reached a most active users record at the same time, over 1 million
* Rocket League hit a new all time peak today as well
* 100,000 people were streaming on twitch at the same time this aft, a new milestone for the site
* 2.3 million gamers were watching those streams at the time, also a new world record
And all these numbers are only going to continue rising! Pretty wild timing to have a Game of the Decade bracket running on GameFAQs AND an IGN Character Battle randomly arriving in the midst of this, especially since there will be no normal March Madness bracket this year (for the first time since 1939).

Sounds like the coronavirus is the reason for all of those new record highs. Many people are either off from school or work, in quarantine, or spending more time at home to reduce risk of getting infected. Which would have an impact on online traffic instead.

We could see increased vote totals for this contest due to coronavirus, although I didn't factor this into my tiebreaker. It seems like only recently (last 7 days or so) that the current situation has picked a lot more steam such as cancellation of major sports leagues worldwide.

Starting last Friday, Allen has already started running a yellow site alert for this contest. This means it will be easily visible to new people visiting the site for the first time. I'm surprised at how early Allen has started using the yellow site alert, as this was typically reserved for only the final day of bracket entries. We still have at least 5 days left to fill out a bracket (at the time of the yellow site alert going up). Maybe Allen is trying to capitalize on the coronavirus situation by running the site alert so early.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Today's poll is pretty interesting, especially in the context of the current coronavirus situation. The trends themselves aren't worth tracking, but the results are. If today's result is being affected by coronavirus, the effect should be easily visible in the Geolocation results by looking at Italy (a country with a national quarantine in place).
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

The yellow site alert for this contest also shows up for those not logged into an account, so it will be easily visible to new people visiting the site for the first time. I'm surprised at how early Allen has started using the yellow site alert, as this was typically reserved for only the final day of bracket entries. We still have at least 5 days left to fill out a bracket.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

https://pastebin.com/Vbq1TbMg
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Leonhart4 posted...

The corona virus can't stop Game of the Decade at least

Let's hope so anyway

If anything, it could slightly help out vote totals as a lot more people will be at home instead of working or going to school, plus other outdoor activities are being heavily restricted due to this.
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

Trend charts for the favorite Mario character poll:





Because of the 1:00 AM start and end time for this poll which would affect the FNV and SNV, I handled this by having one less hour for the FNV but giving the SNV one extra hour instead.

Waluigi won 3 consecutive hours over Yoshi thanks to the rally, and managed to tie Yoshi in a different hour as well. The rally was most powerful from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM, after which the rally dropped off in strength somewhat. Even Waluigi's SNV strength was more than double his pre-rally strength, showing that the rally persisted for the rest of the poll after the rally started.

The rally topic was posted at 11:46 AM. Waluigi was in last place at the time. 11:55 AM is when Toad maxed out at a 59 vote lead over Waluigi. It took exactly one hour to get our first lead change, with Waluigi taking the lead over Toad at 12:55 PM followed by another lead change over Wario at 1:00 PM and Princess Peach at 1:05 PM. That's 3 lead changes in 3 consecutive updates, each affecting 3 different characters. The lead change over Bowser would take a bit longer to happen, and it finally happened at 4:10 PM.

Waluigi's percentage was at 5.85% at 11:55 AM, after which the first signs of the rally start to kick in (percentage increases). Waluigi was gaining percentage for the rest of the poll after the rally kicked in, finishing the poll with 11.85%. Thanks to the rally, Waluigi more than doubled his percentage from his pre-rally number. The rally originated from the Waluigi subreddit and proved to be a major success relative to the size of the subreddit (38465 subscribers right now). The rally topic had 781 points with a 100% upvote rate, although it's possible to get like 1 or 2 downvotes while still technically having an upvote rate of 99.5% or better (which would round up to 100%). The 781 total points on the rally was somewhat close to the estimated number of rallied votes (see below), although the potential exists for people to upvote the rally while not actually voting in the poll.

Estimating the number of rallied votes was pretty easy. I used Waluigi's pre-rally percentage as a basis to determine how many votes I would have to subtract from the final vote total for Waluigi's percentage to be equal to his pre-rally percentage. This comes out to about 750 rallied votes, or about 5 rallied votes on average for each individual 5 minute update that happened after the start of the rally. Even without the rally, this poll would have still managed to break 11000 votes on its own (although just barely).

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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 85.20%
Halo: Reach - 53.69%
Final Fantasy XV - 74.95%
Tales of Berseria - 54.84%
Monster Hunter: World - 57.10%
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice - 61.88%
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series - 60.55%
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - 74.50%

Mass Effect 2 - 69.23%
Fallout 4 - 71.11%
Borderlands 2 - 58.55%
Horizon Zero Dawn - 76.90%
Resident Evil 2 - 77.36%
DOOM - 71.49%
Fire Emblem: Awakening - 68.33%
Bloodborne - 72.27%
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Luster Soldier --- ~Shield Bearer~ | ~Data Analyst~
Popular at school, but not as cool as Advokaiser, Guru Champ!