O, Fair Poll

[a moderator]

There have been many polls of FF gamebooks at this forum, but all of them have been problematic in some regard. Outcomes have been skewed by tactical voting, or by arbitrary changes of criteria that confused some voters. Participants have been encouraged to pass judgement on books without having read them. It’s even possible that some titles have been downvoted owing to a personal grudge against the author rather than any flaws in the books themselves.


This poll will ultimately cover the 75 books that make up the core of the Fighting Fantasy range: books 1-59 of Puffin’s FF range, the 4 gamebooks comprising Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!, the 6 new FF books brought out by Wizard, and the 6 new Fighting Fantasy gamebooks published by Scholastic). As it is not possible to create a poll with that many entries, it will initially be split into 3 polls of 25, with a follow-up poll combining the results of the first 3 - assuming there's enough interest in a genuinely fair and impartial poll at this forum. If response to this one is poor... that will at least say something about the state of Fighting Fantasy fandom.

The poll will eliminate inappropriate prejudicial factors from the voting process by a simple method: concealing the identities of the books until polling has concluded. Only after the votes have been cast and counted will a randomiser be used to determine which title goes in which slot on the poll, thereby providing a properly unbiased set of rankings for the series.

[The Editor (Alex B)]

Don’t forget, we’ll be running a big poll in the next issue of the Fantazine too (similar to the 2010 poll).

[CharlesX]

You don't seem to mention whether you will include two Clash Of The Princes?

  I still don't understand. Are we voting for a gamebook in the order in which they were published, or an effectively random number which will sort out the order in which gamebooks appear listed?

[terrysalt]

You pick a number from 1 to 25. Then an RNG determines which books each number corresponds to. The idea being that if you don't know what you're voting for, the poll will be entirely unbiased. If it sounds silly, well he posted it today for a reason.

[scouserob]

😂
I've spent more time than is reasonable wondering what on earth the motivation behind this is.
I've come up with about 6 options, though I'm guessing it is neither pure trolling nor a devious puzzle.
Though puzzle inspection-wise that is definitely not how you spell 14th.
It is how you spell 8th but that always looks so very wrong.

I've also spent a similar ridiculous amount of time wondering which song the title of the thread reminded me of.

It was O Green World by the Gorrilaz so in celebration of successfully settling that matter I've slapped the song on and cast my vote.  ✅

[CharlesX]

Apr 1, 2023 9:20:58 GMT terrysalt said:

You pick a number from 1 to 25. Then an RNG determines which books each number corresponds to. The idea being that if you don't know what you're voting for, the poll will be entirely unbiased. If it sounds silly, well he posted it today for a reason.

Yes, because we're human beings we're more likely to pick memorable numbers like 1, 7, 25 and the middle numbers which gives them probably more of an unfair advantage than they would have if we knew what they were. Whether or not excluding Clash Of The Princes was an elaborate part of the joke I don't know (I suspect Greenspine didn't give a cr*p).

[sylas]

I'll pick the first one on the list even if it turns out to be Black Vein Prophecy.

[adrius]

Apr 1, 2023 10:55:28 GMT CharlesX said:

Apr 1, 2023 9:20:58 GMT terrysalt said:

You pick a number from 1 to 25. Then an RNG determines which books each number corresponds to. The idea being that if you don't know what you're voting for, the poll will be entirely unbiased. If it sounds silly, well he posted it today for a reason.

Yes, because we're human beings we're more likely to pick memorable numbers like 1, 7, 25 and the middle numbers which gives them probably more of an unfair advantage than they would have if we knew what they were. Whether or not excluding Clash Of The Princes was an elaborate part of the joke I don't know (I suspect Greenspine didn't give a cr*p).

Reminds me of the "Guess 2/3 of the average" game for some reason ...

[CharlesX]

I think I like the heavily unfair question - not "vote your favourite" nor even "vote your best" but "which Fighting Fantasy gamebook is best" which sounds elitist and insulting to all FF gamebooks which don't get number one, and really all from two onwards, including the top half.

   Given its randomized, if this poll actually proceeds to the end (which I reckon it will) knowing Sod's Law it will probably determine Sky Lord or even Gates Of Death is the best FF gamebook.

[tyrion]

Apr 1, 2023 8:23:36 GMT CharlesX said:

You don't seem to mention whether you will include two Clash Of The Princes?

  I still don't understand. Are we voting for a gamebook in the order in which they were published, or an effectively random number which will sort out the order in which gamebooks appear listed?

That's because clash of the princes are the best gamebooks ever written and are thus fated to win anyway.

[a moderator]

Apr 1, 2023 8:23:36 GMT CharlesX said:

You don't seem to mention whether you will include two Clash Of The Princes?

Including Clash would have brought the number of books in the poll up to 77, and I don't think I need to explain the problems that that would cause.

In any case, the authors subconsciously primed all first-language-English readers to rate both books poorly by making the setting's name such an obvious linguistic corrpution of the phrase "Good? No, bad!"

[tyrion]

I'm so slow. I've just realised that the thread title is an anagram.

[scouserob]

😂😂😂😂😂

[stevendoig]

Apollo fir?

[CharlesX]

Apr 3, 2023 10:38:40 GMT stevendoig said:

Apollo fir?

Lol, pair of!

[a moderator]

Frail loop.