Author Games: Ace of Spades

**IMPORTANT NOTE**

Hello everybody,

I hope you're all having a nice day today. I'm also sure you're wondering what this page will be about.

As you all are well aware, the voting page went up recently, and we underwent our voting period. We have to admit, we are greatly disappointed with what occurred during voting. There were a few voters who voted strategically, undoubtedly, and additionally, there were a few votes that were particularly incriminating to a certain competitor. These votes were extremely suspicious, and we are suspecting vote-begging as a heavy influence.

We will not mention who this competitor was, so as to spare their reputation from ultimately being shattered, but we can assure that we are currently taking action, and this will not go unpunished.

However, that being said, we are very disappointed with what happened during our voting period. There were multiple people who voted strategically, and there were again fishy votes that came from accounts that were only recently created. On top of that, we had votes from others that we are all well aware were not previously following the Games in any way, had not voted prior to this single voting round, and had not read any entries to our knowledge. To say the very least, we are disappointed.

On the voting page, we posted a note about fairness, and we are a bit upset on how that message went ignored. Out of all the votes that were sent in, only 3 or 4 people actually voted unbiasedly and unstrategically, even going as far as voting for people whom they "couldn't believe they were actually about to vote for." That was commendable, and we are happy that not every person voted for self-gain.

But it does not take from the fact that our disappointment levels are fairly high. We cannot express how hard a lot of the eliminated competitors worked on their entries, and how much we wanted to give them all byes. To say that these hard-working competitors had a lot of biased votes against them and vote begging affecting their place in the competition is very upsetting.

I, myself, on behalf of the rest of the Gamemakers, cannot express or emphasize how important voting fairly is. The thought that you could work 6 hours on an entry, editing, and getting critiques so you have a good enough entry to send in, only to lose during voting to a person who spent 2 hours on an average-at-best entry, is frustrating. I've personally been voted against strategically, where I scored consistent 11s but got balloted harshly, and lost during voting to a person who got 7s and 8s, and was up for votes prior to that round. I know how stressful it is, and I know that it's very frustrating. To those of you whom have never had to deal with voting biases, I cannot stress enough how heartbreaking it is when you work so hard on something, only to lose to a person who barely worked hard and only moved on because you were too much of a threat to the others. Not only has this happened to me, but I've seen this happen to a handful of people currently competing in these Games, and I know that they also know how it feels to lose because people were strategizing. It comes to us as no surprise that the people who have had this happen to them also happen to be the ones who voted fairly.

Any of you who are regular Gamemakers should also know what it's like to see good competitors get shot down because no one wanted the stiff competition. It's sad when you see so many people vote for personal gain, and that's how all of us are feeling right now.

When you vote, you should vote for the person who worked the hardest, and who is most deserving. For those of you who voted biasedly or strategically (you know who you are), what are you really saying about Author Games, or even life itself?

Are you saying that it's okay to let hardworking people lose out to lazy people, because you benefit from it? What does it really say about your character, voting a certain way for self-benefit? What does it say about you when you vote for your friends when you are well aware that someone else did better? It's basically saying that you are 100% okay with life being unfair. This doesn't apply to just Author Games, it can be applied to real life. I sincerely hope that in real life, none of you are only involved in things that you can benefit from in some way.

Sure, life may never be fair, but I am a firm believer that certain things can be made fair, if everyone is willing to make it so. Things are what we make them, and I know that every single person who voted and who is competing in these Games know what it's like to be treated unfairly at some point in their life. That being said, knowing how it feels, I ask that you remember this feeling when you vote.

Sure, this is just a simple Author Games, but that's no excuse to treat others unfairly and do things for your personal benefit and your benefit only. It's a call to the world that life is unfair, and it will always be no matter what.

It only takes one person to set an example for others, and it only takes one person to create a ripple. I hope that one of you can be that ripple effect.

Don't vote strategically, or for your friends. Vote fairly or not at all. You should all value fairness, and I know that here at TRE, this is our biggest goal. Have Author Games that are fun, but also as fair as possible. Do not just vote for friends. If they're mad at you because you wanted to be fair, there is something seriously wrong right there. Ray, aka Ace of Hearts, has notably voted against me, and I have also voted against her in the past. We voted strictly based on fairness and who worked the hardest, not on our friendship, and it has not dented our friendship with each other in any way, nor do we ever take it personally when one of us votes against the other. We hope that this can be the same in all your friendships.

Fairness is something we are going to actively enforce, and we hope that in the future, vote-begging or voting only for your friends isn't something that will regularly occur. We are not going to tolerate things like this in the future, and if this continues to occur, we will deny certain people voting rights, rights to compete in our Games, and go even as far as to automatically eliminating people if vote begging or voting strategies are seen.

The competitor put in question for vote-begging will not be eliminated, but will suffer an alternate punishment that could very well lead to elimination.

Additionally, we are welcoming back TheShineOfTheMoon's character, Dawn Everhart, as their place in the Games was jeopardised by what took place during voting.

If you have read this important note, in the following voting round, please name your favorite ice-cream flavor to go along with your vote. Any votes without this password will not be accepted.

Thank you for lending us your time to read through this, and thank you for following our games.

Sincerely,

Lindsay aka Ace of Diamonds

UPDATE: Due to suspicious activity, we have eliminated two competitors from the Games. In addition to that, we're bringing back Soft_Serve7's character, Addilyn Devella, bringing the remaining number of players to six. We hope that everyone else will vote fairly, whether it be in our Games or others'.