Dear Eyewire Staff,
So here is a suggestion to give trailblazing points “fairly” to avoid a political issue with gamers. For example, this morning, I was a trailblazer 10 of my 13 attempts. I felt “robbed” and this feeling motivates me to write and give some constructive feedback to help Eyewire meet it’s goal of creating accurate cells. Take the point of view of the gamer, they keep bringing up points for trailblazing because it fits the “gamer” mindset of “fairness.” Take the Eyewire view of “fairness” that giving out too many points for trailblazing is unfair to the bulk of the gamers doing the later work. So let’s blend the two needs together and suggest to give more than the average 20 points, perhaps 40 or 50 points fixed, a “Goldilocks” amount, is just the right amount and that should put an end to this issue of wanting trailblazing points. I have rarely been a trailblazer and my feeling after all of a sudden having a morning of very low points is demotivating, luck of the draw certainly, but worth writing about.
So here is how the FAQ would look if you implement a “Goldilocks” point strategy, simple to program and add to the FAQ, see the highlighted segment to below:
What is a trailblazer and how many points do they get?
The trailblazer is the first one to do a task. A trailblazer receives 50 points for being first and no more because we can’t give you points based on accuracy because the AI doesn’t have anything with which to compare your work. Everyone is the trailblazer sometimes, so the points will eventually even out.
I hope this contribution is helpful. Kudos to Eyewire for a magnificent solution to involving the gaming community to accomplish an unbelievable complex task of mapping cells! Very innovative! I am happy to contribute!