I think it would be a great idea to include players in the selection of new themes. I have noticed myself and others have sometimes been a little disappointed with some chosen festival themes, and thus have less interest in collecting them. The selections sometimes also do not follow what players are (sometimes unanimously) listing as their favourites in the "favourite submissions" thread.

And favourite submissions = more desire to collect = more time in-game ;)


It's a tough one but maybe a fair way to do it could be something like this:

(1) Admin look through all submissions and choose their top choices (say top 5-10?)
(2) A poll is created where players vote for their favourites or even rank them all in order
(3) Admin choose the winning themes based on admin choices plus player votes or a combo


At the very least this could show if any of the (1) admin selections are unanimously liked/disliked before final selection. Of course it's all at admin discretion, but it might be nice to have a bit of player input in the selection process too?

What do y'all think? :)

Even if a player vote wouldn't work due to the potential for underhanded vote-buying, I propose a team of admin select themed designs together just to have more eyes on designs and more objectivity on the ones chosen :)

I like the idea of a vote, especially since Krin has said that he tries to pick designs he thinks everyone will like. Why not reduce the guessing game and actually make a poll?? Because nobody is a mind reader, and it was clear that a vast majority of the Spring Fest Garden pets this fest were a huge bust. I think a player poll, and admin/moderator oversight would be good to implement. Give players a voice/choice too instead of thinking one person knows what everyone else wants.

And even if it becomes a thing where someone is doing a vote-buy thing, if cheating of some sort is determined, then just eliminate that one theme choice. Hopefully a consequence like that will be enough to deter any remaining cheaters. He fixed the issue with the Tournament of Themed board when a lot of people were cheating, and it still gets to stick around, so just adjust polls as needed~

There are always going to be opportunities for players to cheat, and I think this would do more good than harm for a vast majority of the player base.