As we know, the monthly contests are judged by the average ratings of each game. As we also know, the top positions in these contests are almost invariably won by games made as part of a series using pre-programmed engines like RPG Maker MV- in particular, the Medieval Angel series and Tales of Nezebem. I think leaving the winners of the contest purely up to player votes doesn't create a system that particularly rewards creativity or game quality. Rather, the system is easily biased in favour of games which take advantage of an existing fanbase rather than trying to create something original, and games which have so much premade that they can spit out a new edition each month with very little effort. It also causes a huge bias in favour of RPG games, which easily attract fandoms. Medieval Angel in particular has a legion of fans that'll automatically vote 5 on any game, regardless of quality or originality. It doesn't help that all of the Medieval Angel games are basically just the same game with a new story, or that very little of the game is actually made by the developer (all the programming is done by RPG Maker MV and the art by ama-chii, which are some of the most time-consuming aspects). These games also have few merits on their own- you need to play the whole series to understand them- and a series will almost always have an advantage over a standalone game by sheer amount of content. These games are mostly rated based on the series they're a part of and not the quality of the episode itself. I don't see the problem with Medieval Angel winning one or two of the monthly contests (by all means, it's popular, it deserves it) but when nearly every contest is being won by what is essentially the exact same game, I feel like there's a problem. The worst part about this is, it cheats out developers like Bartbonte and the CrounchyBrothers who create a variety of genuinely original, clever games with a clear amount of effort put in- and can't put out games at nearly the same rate due to the amount of completely original content they need to create to do so- and lesser-known developers with quality games who don't have any pre-existing fanbase at all. I think there should be restrictions on how often a game by a certain developer can win the top 5 spots in a monthly contest, and/or how often a game within a series can win the top 5 spots a monthly contest. This would give other developers a chance in the spotlight, reduce the advantage given by rapidly releasing hundreds of very similar games, and encourage developers to put more time into creating games of a high quality rather than going for quantity and depending upon their fanbase to push them up to the top. Another possibility is using player votes to shortlist a selection of games, and having a team of judges go over them and decide the final positions (and possibly a "people's choice" for the game with the highest raw score). Judges can still be biased, but less so than player votes. Most contests do use teams of judges rather than player votes for this reason.

Ehh I'll bite. I have mixed feelings about this. Ever since Kongregate switched over to just Monthly contests, every game VasantJ (Dev of the Medieval series) has came out with has gotten at least in the top 3. That's 9/15 months he's made it onto the top 3 so I can see where you're coming from. It's one thing if someone has been doing that consistantly well and were making completely different games, however it's just one game being made in little parts that could easily just be put into one game total. It wouldn't work out well though because why only get the reward one time if you can get it on multiple times throughout making it. While I agree with most of what you said, I don't think what they are doing is breaking any rules and they aren't even bad games either. They are just doing it in a way that in my opinion isn't the right way to go about doing it and ruins the purpose of these contest.

> *Originally posted by **[Holy2334](/forums/1/topics/1674549?page=1#12729426)**:* > ... I don't think what they are doing is breaking any rules and they aren't even bad games either. They are just doing it in a way that in my opinion isn't the right way to go about doing it and ruins the purpose of these contest. > > Oh, they're not breaking any rules, no, and the games aren't bad, I just don't think the same game should be consistently winning the top places over and over. That's why I'm proposing changes to the judging of contests so this wouldn't be a problem rather than saying VasantJ should be punished for it.