SixPrizes Token System?

Written by | July 18, 2010 | 35 comments | 616 views | Rating: +1

With all this newsletter talk, many people commented that they have little free spending money. One really clever solution was proposed by Travis, the use of “tokens” or “credits” that people can redeem for the newsletter. This way, people can submit great articles for the website and earn credits for a newsletter.

I was thinking that this concept could be expanded as well into a currency that could be used all over the website. Particularly, my ideas are that the tokens can be earned and spent in a number of ways, increasing the ease at which people use the entire SixPrizes website and enhancing the content.

In my vision, the tokens can be spent on:

  • (Prized) online tournament entry fees
  • Underground subscription
  • SixPrizes Memorabilia (Special SixPrizes t-shirts, deckboxes, etc)
  • Traded for cards with other users
  • Forum enhancements and privileges (e.g., access to special avatars or boards)

Some possible ways we could give out these tokens:

  • Submitting high-quality articles for the website
  • Writing articles for Underground
  • Serving as a moderator
  • Trading cards with other users
  • Making donations to the website, to be used toward tournament prizes
  • Winning tournaments or challenges

I think, aside from allowing for a wider distribution of Underground, this system would really encourage people to participate in SixPrizes – sharing ideas, writing articles, etc. Furthermore, a system like this would really smooth out trading, since there would be a common “currency” that people could trade for, rather than having to stockpile stuff like PokeTurns.

A lot of the kids that play Pokemon could buy stuff like SixPrizes t-shirts and trade for cards without asking their parents for money, and a lot of adults could trade successfully without paying massive eBay fees. The forums would also have a significant advantage over any other website, and hopefully SixPrizes Forum could become THE place to trade for cards. This massive influx of people would hopefully help increase the activity in our (as of now) quiet Strategy and Decks forums.

Tournament play is also a big motivation for this. Few people seem to use the Ladder, and Pokemon Premier Tournaments are few and far between. With the SixPrizes credits, we could easily create an online tournament that many people could enter and with significant prize support. People could enter using the tokens that they have written articles, traded cards, or donated to get, and Adam and I could provide Prize support for the tournament as a reward for supporting the website!

I like offbeat stuff, so my idea is that we could run small themed, single-elimination tournaments each week (for example, “Unlimited,” “All Uncommons,” “All Water Pokemon,” “No Energy,” “Base Set to Fossil,” or “Patch Release – New cards only”). Then, maybe once per month, we could have a really big Modified-format tournament (Swiss with Top Cut), with huge prizes (hopefully about States- or Regionals- level) depending on participation. Once it gets set up, we will probably need people that can act as TOs as well!

Would you guys be interested in such an idea? Or have any ideas for implementing it? Post your thoughts!

Image Credits: PokeBeach, Pokegym, and Pokemon Paradijs

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  • Slowdog

    I am annoyed that today's article isn't about pokémon
    On topic: I think the token idea is pretty decent.

  • Flygondrb

    That sounds like one of the best ideas ever! The only problem I can see is finding the software to do that, but it must not behard because lots gameing sites have gold and stuff, but I bet that the rate of people trying to hack into others accounts would dramaticly increase. Lets say that you get 10 tokens for posting a new thread. Don't you think everyone would just post a whole bunch of useless threads? Also I don't know how many people would accually trade cards for credits. But it sounds like a good idea.

  • bittyboy52

    Wow you have some really really good ideas! I really like the idea about awarding tokens to moderators! lol!

    I really like your idea for the online tournament because if people pay something to get in that may convince them to stick to it a little more. Probably even more if there is prize support. How would these tournaments work? Would you do them all at once? Spread it out over a couple days? Anyway you do have some great ideas.

  • bittyboy52

    I had another thought about the forums. You could set it up so that after a person gets so many “Thanks” for useful posts they can receive tokens. Although you would need to work a lot of details out with that so a bunch of friends just don't thank each other to get the tokens. You could make it like you did the rep yo can only “thank” once every so often.

  • Jason

    Yeah the point is not to spam. So, e.g. we may award tokens for stuff like getting an article PUBLISHED instead of just submitting one, or making insightful but not spammy forum posts. In fact, depending how it goes we could actually fine tokens for infractions. I don't think it will get that bad but it just opens up a lot of interesting options.

  • Jason

    My thought is that there could be maybe a couple small tournaments per month with a special theme, so they are different each time, and decent prize support (like: winner receives 8 packs, 2nd place receives 4, top 4 receives 2, plus maybe some extra cards that kind of go with the theme). Then maybe once per month, we would have one large tournament that, depending on participation/donations, would have pretty massive prizes (maybe a two boxes for 1st, a box for 2nd, etc.) For a while I could run them, but if we had volunteer “tournament organizers” which would be like moderators, then they could take over and maybe we could even do some simultaneous tournaments.

  • Jason

    Trading cards for credits seems to be safer to me – if you get ripped, we can investigate and give you back credits if we find proof that you lost your cards. It's also easier, it is easy to trade for stuff like DCEs and PokeTurns online but very difficult to trade for random cards or rare cards that aren't really worth that much. If traders begin to accept credits, it would make life easier for everyone – the challenge for us is to find ways to kickstart the process and make people want to get credits.

  • Pikkdogs

    It seems like a good enough idea where its not up to us its up to you guys and adam.

    If he can get the software for that stuff going and if he has the extra time to keep track of tokens, well then I don't see a problem wiht it.

  • Sledd

    I think this is a fantastic idea! I would love to be a moderator for Sixprizes, too. I have the time to do it and with or without tokens, would be happy to do it.

    The tournament seems like a good idea, too. However, I think the prize support may have to be cut down a little bit, tough, to like cities to states level. Also, I think you should just run two types of tournaments: Modified and Unlimited.

    I think it's all a great idea and 99% i think should really be taken into consideration.

  • Takettsi Johnabaki

    It's the weekend Slowdog, and a Sunday at that. You think someone with your name would know that Sundays are, by nature, a little slow…Right?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1339406775 Matthew Riddle

    You just took one good idea and combined it with a potentially better idea to produce an explosively interesting idea.

  • quaziko

    This sounds like an excellent idea…once implemented. It will take a lot of effort, but its dividends could pay off.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Adrien-Boulet/1166861603 Adrien Boulet

    THIS is a good idea.

  • bittyboy52

    I think you should give tokens to the organizers of the tournaments as well. Also my question was how do you plan to run the tournament you really can't start it in finish it in one day you would have to spread it our a couple days right?

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    I'll post my thoughts on this later, but just to let everyone know this type of thing could definitely be set up.

    The biggest challenge would be integrating it with the new software I bought. Setting it up as a standalone type thing would be no problem though, I may just have to manually keep track of stuff.

  • bittyboy52

    Your pretty organized I am sure you can keep track of it all easy. JWittz is doing the same for people who donate to Prof-it! he keeps track of who has how much points.

  • bittyboy52

    Wow the fine thinks sounds like a good idea but what if they don't have the tokens to pay up?

  • SkyAoiSora

    Dude, stop posting this. We know you want pokemon articles, but there's other stuff to this website than just that. This is actually a system for you to get more better pokemon articles. Stop complaining. Srsly.

  • vennthekid

    The 6P tournaments…. Where would they take place?
    I know that sounds dumb but I'm still fairly new to the site!

  • bittyboy52

    The tournaments would take place online.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1339406775 Matthew Riddle

    Or perhaps, and I'm not trying to put words in Adam's mouth, but maybe there could be one at Nationals or Worlds during off-peak hours.

    edit: Just an idea for a physical tournament.

  • Travis

    im glad some of my input helped the new system out. im new to the tcg and to sixprizes but i hope to become a more active user in the community, and maybe even write some articles.

    love the site guys, keep it up.

  • vennthekid

    As software goes, can you use some kind of 1-use-only coupon code (so it can't be copied) as a token-like thing(?). Something like 100% off your next subscription…

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    This was something suggested to me months ago but I sorta forgot about the idea, so thanks for bringing it up. :)

    Maybe next year at Nationals we can plan for something like that.

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    The aspect to this idea I like the best is online tournaments. I really like the idea if we are able to make it happen.

    I'm thinking something that could be INCLUDED with an Underground subscription is free entry into a monthly tournament supplied with prizes.

    People who don't have a subscription and want to join would need to pay a certain number of tokens.

    I'm sorta lost about how the tokens would be used for trading cards…Jason we'll need to talk about that.

    I really want to give a lot of value with the subscriptions though…I think hosting online tournaments supplied with prizes would be something extra that is pretty neat.

    That would also probably sway how I price it…if we are holding tournaments, then that means people may be less apt to share accounts so they can enter the tournaments. I could lower the price a little bit in that case, as more people would subscribe.

  • Rhin

    You have some really interesting ideas there. I see this definitly has been tought a lot, so i will respond to your hard work participating, lol.
    Well, i particularly like the themed- tourneys, seems interesting. So far so good, keep at it guys, you have our support.

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    Yeah that can be done.

  • mewuk85

    Nice drop with the “Chuck E. Cheese” token. but yeah the tokin

  • mewuk85

    Nice drop with the “Chuck E. Cheese” token. But yeah the token idea sounds very inviting.

  • Xicious

    This idea is ridiculous, the biggest problem with 6p is that it's a trash can now where everyone throws all of their junk. Now it's created such a mess that the website needs a separate premium channel. You suggest rewarding people for submitting trash articles so they can become premium users, that idea seems really counter productive. There needs to be more Administration involvement to filter out this crap but the problem is no one wants to help Adam in filtering this garbage out. The site's no longer respectable and it's right up there with the gym, the site needs committed players who are well known to give out lists and information that they're probably not willing to compromise. A token system isn't the way to go, you also talk about giving merchandise away for free when Adam struggle enough with the shirts. 6P needs to hold tournaments in real life at venues during the off season to generate money for the site while establishing good prize support. I could go on but I think I bashed the site enough as is.

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    Thanks for the input Kyle.

    I'm only going to let good articles get posted to earn credits. Like
    anything that I label as a premium article, that will probably be the only
    kind of stuff that gets to the site besides the Underground stuff. I expect
    submissions to increase when that starts, so I'll be picky.

    Physical merchandise will probably never happen again, it's too much of a
    hassle.

    I hear your concerns though…to get the kind of articles someone like you
    is looking for (a highly competitive player), you're going to have to pay
    for it.

    A lot of people are happy with the content on the site right now, and others
    aren't. It depends on what you're trying to get from the game.

  • Xicious

    I just think your best bet is to give someone who writes premier articles a free subscription to the other premier stuff, if they stop writing articles cancel their subscription. Maybe you can talk to a website that sells pokemon cards and offer them advertising if they can give your premium members a 10% discount or monthly coupons and promotional codes. There has to be enough incentive to join and even more to keep the members subscribed. I really like the idea to have a six prizes tournament, I wouldn't mind helping to organize it. There's plenty of venues to hold it at( A new Alternate Universe store opened in Wilmington and he could use the publicity) we could have a 6p trophy made up and a tshirt to the winner and booster packs as well. We just charge a small entry fee and we shouldn't lose money. Let me know what you think, multiple events could even be scheduled around the country instead of just our area.

  • http://www.adamcapriola.com/ Adam Capriola

    Yo Kyle,

    That's a good idea to give people discounts to online shops, I like that.
    I'll look into it more.

    To be frank I really don't want to deal with organizing non-online
    tournaments. I think Nationals would be the only time I'd consider it. I
    don't want to spend a lot of time organizing a tournament where only 15
    people show up.

    There are enough tournaments during the year as it is anyway, at least in
    our area. In other areas online tournaments would be more suitable anyway
    as not everyone has wheels.

    Maybe after I get other things settled first I'll look into it more, but
    right now it's on the backburner.

  • akerfeldt

    +1

  • http://highsavingsaccount.net/ Saving Account

    well that is definitely some ridiculous stuff