From: appelo@dutiak.tudelft.nl (C.J. Appelo)
Subject: ** NET PC GAMES TOP 100 * DOCUMENTS ***
Organization: Delft University of Technology
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 10:20:00 GMT


THE CHART...

The Net PC Games Top 100 is a weekly chart for PC games, compiled from
votes that are sent by e-mail. Every game player in the world, having
an e-mail account, is allowed to send his or her votes. The chart is
published every week on Usenet in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games newsgroup.
Whenever possible, the chart is sent automatically to every voter.

THE VOTES...

When you send us your votes, you are allowed to spread a total of
20 points over several games. Different games may get a different
amount of points, but not more than 5 points may be given to one game.
As a result, at least 4 games should get points when all 20 points are
used. (It is allowed, of course, to use less than 20 points.)

THE MESSAGES...

The chart is compiled automatically by a program that reads and
processes e-mail messages. When sending your votes, be sure to have
the word "votes" in the subject of your message. Only points may be
given in messages having the subject "votes". Send comments and
questions in different messages using different subjects.

THE SYNTAX...

The message holding the votes should have one game on every line. The
first thing to appear on the line is the number of points, second the
title of the game, third the publisher(s). The line has to be ended
with the ID (a 4-digit number) of the game which can be found in the
chart between brackets []. This ID is quite important, for it is the
number used by the program that compiles the chart. Only for new
games, that are not yet in the chart, the ID-number may be left out.

THE EXAMPLE...

Here's an example of a message:

Subject: votes

> 3          Ultima underworld            Origin/Mindscape [1019]
> 4          Wolfenstein 3D                      ID/Apogee [1013]
> 5          Push-over                               Ocean [1030]
> 5          Lure of the temptress                  Virgin [1046]
> 2          An American tail                     Capstone  
> 1          Comanche: Maximum overkill          Novalogic [1101]

Be sure to have the ID-number in square brackets []. A character at
the beginning of the line, like '>', is allowed.

The easiest thing to do is to reply to the message containing the
latest chart. Copy the chart and delete all lines, except the ones
containing your favourite games. Delete the numbers that hold this
weeks and last weeks position and the number of weeks, and put in your
points instead. This way you don't have to worry about titles,
publishers and ID-numbers.

THE COMPILATION...

For compiling the chart, the Top 100 from the previous week is used.
The games get points corresponding to their position in this chart.
Then all the points of the voters are added to achieve movement in the
chart. When a game gets few or no points from voters, it will
automatically drop in the new chart. So, it is not the case that the
game that gets the most points will automatically be number one.
Instead, it will be the game that does the best climb up the chart.

This compilation system introduces a chart that is robust. Games can
only reach the top when they get many points for several weeks in a
row. The more usual "most points is highest position" system would
cause very strange things to happen, when the number of voters is
limited, like in this case. In our opinion, another advantage of the
system adopted by us, is that it is more exciting. Voters can
carefully watch the movements of their favourite games, and influence
the movements by balancing their votes.

More detailed information on the compilation process, concerning the
scaling of votes and an exponential point system, will be given later.

THE RESTRICTIONS...

It is not allowed to give more than 20 points to the games or more
than 5 points to one game. Extra points are automatically discarded by
the program (at random).

You may send us more than one message a week, but only the latest one
will be used. (This can be useful when people change their mind.)

Do not forget to mention the publisher when giving points to a game
that is not already in the chart. There may be games around that even
we have never heard of.

THE REPETITIONS...

We understand that your votes will not change much over the weeks and
that it may be tiresome to send us a message every week. Therefore, we
use everyone's votes for 4 weeks in a row. So, when your list of
favourite games does not change, you only have to send a new message
after 4 weeks. However, votes for games that are not in the chart yet,
are used only once. The reason for this is the lack of an ID for these
games. This may be changed in the future. New votes can be sent
anytime. Your previous votes will be automatically discarded.

THE DEADLINE...

Every week, the deadline for the chart is on Friday, late in the
afternoon (GMT). Messages that come in after the deadline are used for
the next week. The new chart will be compiled and published on Monday.

THE PUBLISHER...

Jojo Productions
P.O. Box 3077
2601 DB Delft
The Netherlands

correspondent:
appelo@dutiag.twi.tudelft.nl