I think that 10,000 gold would be waaay too much to ask for since most of the prizes given out are 10,000 gold prizes. That would seem a little counterproductive to me, especially with how slim the chances of winning are. With that price jack, the prize money would have to come up too and that would still lead to possibly bad avatars going in and trying to win. Also, with the 4 votes per IP address ban lifted, that would make people want to down and up vote.
Also with a 10,000 gold entry cost, the arena may become something more elitist and something that the new users of Gaia will eventually dislike because of it.
4,000 to 5,000 would be a good price range. That way there wouldn’t have to be a raise in prize money and it would still deter people from entering with something they just stuck together.
I think that if the ban of 4 votes per IP address was reinstated most of the problems with bad avatars being in the top ten would be fixed.
There is also the fact that the spotlight doesn’t circle to highlight the best avatars anymore. It’s completely random and doesn’t change and rotate in a timely manner. People who enter later in the week don’t even get put in the spotlight at all, so if a really terrible entry is submitted last second and doesn’t advertise and only has a few votes that are all five… well, it’ll get a higher score than the one that is much better but is at the subject of the voters more.
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