Automated Guild Raffles - For trade guilds mainly

Sidney

I'd like to know what kind of interest, if any, this idea has with guild leaders or officers. This is mainly aimed at trade guilds but it could be useful for smaller guilds as well.

Idea: Automated Guild Raffle System

Details:

Completely automated behind the scenes
Tickets go on sale in guild store at a price the Guild Master determines
Tickets should be internally tracked and not take up bag space
Can purchase any amount of tickets and they can be purchased in bulk instead of individually
Each one assigned an ID in the background by the system
Guild Masters can choose length of time for raffle
System automatically stops purchase of tickets at the time the Guild Master sets the raffle to end and doesn't become available again until the first raffle is finished
Should automatically inform Guild Master via mail who the winner is
Should have options to also have it carbon copy winner's name to selected officers
When the raffle ends, system automatically checks all tickets that were bought during the run time of the raffle, picks a winner, and sends a mail to the Guild Master and any officers specified
(Maybe) Slot to put item(s) up for auction so they're automatically mailed to winner

A lot of trade guilds use raffles or auctions to get enough gold to bid on a trader each time. It's very time consuming for officers and guild masters to do this constantly and really cuts into their actual play time. It also means that most of the Guild Masters or Officers can't even participate because people will question the validity of their wins.

A system such as this would allow it all to be done behind the scenes without them spending all their time working with raffles and mail, Guild Masters and Officers could participate, ensures nobody has a missed ticket, etc.

Looking for opinions and thoughts on a system like this. What are the flaws in a system like this? How many of you think it would be helpful? What would you change or add?

Arkadius

I'm a bit baffled. I often read "a lot of" trading guilds use raffles to get gold for their traders. However, for some reason, I personally never encountered or even heard of a guild that make use of them. As a very active trader, I've been in several different trading guilds but I have yet to find one that uses raffles. Is this some kind of regional thing? I'm playing on EU, so maybe that's more common on NA?

pecheckler

the entire raffle thing is player controlled and shouldn't be trusted

Psychobunni

I voted yes, but not because of trade guilds....because its something fun in general and good for any guild, trader or not.

Also we did this a few times (social) and no matter how transparent you are with it, I posted the spread, screen shots of the picks, etc....there is always those that feel if they didn't win it must be rigged. I'm all for tools that can help guilds be more social and interactive and make ESO less of a solo game PVE side.

The downsides are: Trade guilds that would make it mandatory and there is soooo much that needs fixing in the game that this while nice is likely never to happen.

Athas24

Xiana wrote: »

I'm a bit baffled. I often read "a lot of" trading guilds use raffles to get gold for their traders. However, for some reason, I personally never encountered or even heard of a guild that make use of them. As a very active trader, I've been in several different trading guilds but I have yet to find one that uses raffles. Is this some kind of regional thing? I'm playing on EU, so maybe that's more common on NA?

I am in 3 trade guilds and I have participated in 2 of the raffles. I have also won 1 time from 1 of the guilds. Most of them also do trivia nights which can be really fun. I play on the NA server so maybe it's more of a regional thing.

Jar_Ek

I have already written an internal guild raffle add-on. It uses bank deposits and you can exclude officers, set times, set ticket prices among other things. It does not send the data anywhere other than to the raffle runner atm, but could probably be improved to do so. I guess I could also make trader purchases of a specific item work as tickets to make it open to non guild members and use general mail to keep everyone informed. BUT it's not finished yet! So you'll have to wait.

Sidney

Xiana wrote: »

I'm a bit baffled. I often read "a lot of" trading guilds use raffles to get gold for their traders. However, for some reason, I personally never encountered or even heard of a guild that make use of them. As a very active trader, I've been in several different trading guilds but I have yet to find one that uses raffles. Is this some kind of regional thing? I'm playing on EU, so maybe that's more common on NA?

@Xiana I doubt it's regional, but there's a lot of different guilds who use different methods. I see auctions used as well. I think each guild has it's own way of doing things and you just haven't come across it yet.

Jar_Ek wrote: »

I have already written an internal guild raffle add-on. It uses bank deposits and you can exclude officers, set times, set ticket prices among other things. It does not send the data anywhere other than to the raffle runner atm, but could probably be improved to do so. I guess I could also make trader purchases of a specific item work as tickets to make it open to non guild members and use general mail to keep everyone informed. BUT it's not finished yet! So you'll have to wait.

@Jar_Ek This is great! Will there be any way for the add-on to interact with itself if more than one player runs it? It would be easy for someone to say they're using the mod to pick the user but not actually use it. I am curious how it will pick up tickets though - like do players send the designated ticket holder a mail with specific text that the mod will read and automatically assign a ticket? Very curious about this add-on.

I think having a system that is build in to the game would benefit more players because not everyone wants to use an add-on. I've come across a surprising amount of players who refuse to use add-ons, which is nice that they enjoy the game exactly as is. It also means not having to worry about people quitting and not maintaining their add-ons which seems to happen constantly.

For the people who voted No you don't think it would be useful, I'd like to know why. What would you change?

Thanks for the input so far, everyone!

ashlee17

Guild raffles often serve two vital purposes. Raffles encourage members to engage and interact in guild while simultaneously raising funds for the guild.

And running guild raffles is ALOT of work.

As a guild leader I want to support this idea as well as any ideas that help guilds grow and bond! The more tools and resources we give guilds and guild leaders, the stronger the communities we can build with them!

Jar_Ek

The add-on is called RaffleHelper and is on esoui. At the moment it only shows the add-on user anything. It also does not hold ticket id information, but rather just compiles a straight list and uses a random number generator. I am happy to update / modify but ticket ids would require a bit of work... not least because assigning them would be difficult. Modifying it to mail people is an option though.

Sidney

Does it track the same person for multiple tickets?

vovus69

All major trade guilds are doing raffles, so this functionality will be nice to have. I am not participating in raffles though, but this is another topic

Acrolas

ZeniMax can't add a raffle feature because they're not authorized, eligible, or qualified to legally run raffles.
Not only could they get in a lot of legal trouble, anyone who purchases tickets or hosts a raffle are subject to fines and/or jail time depending on state laws.

Online gaming does not exempt you from the law. It's illegal in many states for a non-profit, state-authorized entity to even sell, under any condition or currency, raffle tickets online as per gambling laws.

Psychobunni

Acrolas wrote: »

ZeniMax can't add a raffle feature because they're not authorized, eligible, or qualified to legally run raffles.
Not only could they get in a lot of legal trouble, anyone who purchases tickets or hosts a raffle are subject to fines and/or jail time depending on state laws.

Online gaming does not exempt you from the law. It's illegal in many states for a non-profit, state-authorized entity to even sell, under any condition or currency, raffle tickets online as per gambling laws.

Does that mean that people in those states can't play Texas Holdem or Slots on FB too? Because it would pretty much be the exact same thing.

Sidney

Acrolas wrote: »

ZeniMax can't add a raffle feature because they're not authorized, eligible, or qualified to legally run raffles.
Not only could they get in a lot of legal trouble, anyone who purchases tickets or hosts a raffle are subject to fines and/or jail time depending on state laws.

Online gaming does not exempt you from the law. It's illegal in many states for a non-profit, state-authorized entity to even sell, under any condition or currency, raffle tickets online as per gambling laws.

@Acrolas Wat? Right, we can't use our fake video game currency to win fake video game items? Okay.

Athas24

Acrolas wrote: »

ZeniMax can't add a raffle feature because they're not authorized, eligible, or qualified to legally run raffles.
Not only could they get in a lot of legal trouble, anyone who purchases tickets or hosts a raffle are subject to fines and/or jail time depending on state laws.

Online gaming does not exempt you from the law. It's illegal in many states for a non-profit, state-authorized entity to even sell, under any condition or currency, raffle tickets online as per gambling laws.

WHAT?! ^^ Absolutely not. Facebook games and TONS of gaming centers operate using fake currency, which is completely legal. Even bar's in my state (which doesn't allow for gambling) have fake games you can pay to play purely for entertainment purposes and they cost real money. Final Fantasy 14 has an entire casino centered location and there are like at least 10 different gambling styled games available for fake currency using fake currency. Putting horse racing with betting using in game currency or card games etc. would by and large be 100% legal.