Your Favorite is Rarely Most Popular - Here's Why

[@AstralNic]

I have no interest in politics, but this video is really well done. I like that you used Mario Kart to get your ideas across and I’d like to see more videos in this style :)

[@HDRookie]

Gotta know what the home crowd wants. I def wouldn't do political content, but I see this as more adjacent to it than actual political content. I think at the end of the day, knowledge of alternative systems is very important to get into the mainstream mindset. The point is, we don't always have to limit ourselves. I'm glad you could enjoy this topic despite it not being something you probably expected to engage with when starting the day 😊

[@jesusmijares8614]

Me neither, but it is still interesting

[@20000dino]

Having no interest in politics is so bizarre to me. Like why are you indifferent to who governs you? I’m far from the most politically active person, but I’d be embarrassed not to care at all lol.

[@jesusmijares8614]

@@20000dino Probably because.... Idk man, I am just enjoying life, but I will (maybe) when I get a bit older search...

[@SparkingSparks]

​@20000dino For me, I have little interest in politics because I feel ultimately the difference between what happens depending on your choice is fairly minimal. Of course, some changes will take place, but for the average person, it's a bunch of little things. Also, I'm not old enough to vote anyway, lol.

[@floofzykitty5072]

With the Minecraft Mob Vote, I often see comments complaining about how people never seem to like the winner despite voting for it. What these people don't consider is that the mob votes are always extremely close, only a few % difference between each choice. Because only 1/3 is selected, what ends up happening is that ~60% or so ended up never wanting the winner to begin with, well over half of the players voting.

[@HDRookie]

That is the premise of RCV in a sense - a winner must hit a majority in the end. The thing is, whether or not that majority is actually a true one is a different question. STARs runoff technically forces a majority also between 2 popular candidates.

[@indiana47]

Another thing is people are left to guess aspects like how good will the wolf armor from armadillos be or how far away will the crab claw let you place blocks and will it let you place them from that distance too or do you get the claw by killing it. I am guilty of this when I voted crab since I thought the crab could also drop crab legs if added and it would be a simple thing to add in. Like how the armadillo and wolf armor was paired with more wolf breeds.

[@sovi_2]

​@@indiana47 (don't get me wrong i really love how they made the wolf armor, but) the reason i didn't vote for armadillos is because even if wolf armor basically made wolves invincible, the problem with them is that their AI is so sтuрid that even with all of that extra protection, they still somehow end up dуing against all odds. it's not wolf armor that they should be adding, it's updating their AI to make them a little less sтuрid

[@KitKitsuneVixen]

i thought this was going to be a video about the psychology behind "favourites", then i thought it was going to be a video about what's people's favourite Mario Kart track, then i thought it was a video about real world democracy

[@frostyclouded]

something that i feel also exacerbates strategic voting in youtube polls is the fact that you can immediately change your vote after seeing the results, so you don't need to guess what the "right" choice would be. i'll sometimes be between two options and then change my mind after seeing the numbers. anyways, congrats on tricking me into watching and enjoying a video about american politics through mario kart analogies LOL

[@HDRookie]

You're 100% right. There have been times where I'm interested in seeing the results and I click something and unclick it. There have been times where I have selected something after the fact solely because I find it to be underrated and deserving of more support, even if it's not necessarily my first option.

[@Hario338]

BREAKING NEWS: Mario Kart players organise in large numbers to advocate for electoral reform! Jokes aside, this is a really good video, thank you for putting this our there! I've known that voting was kinda messed up but I didnt know about the STAR system until now, and I think it would work quite well especially here the UK where voting for third parties is alot less of a waste than in the states lol. Getting something like this passed is difficult because the people in charge at any given time are usually the people it would benefit the least, but if enough people are educated and want this it would be a seriously good change.

[@HDRookie]

You nailed it on the head haha. This issue would be one of the only ones our major parties would be aligned on. That said, their arguments don't hold up to scrutiny very well. It's easy to make fun of them for being against it, because the claim is that they know they're unpopular and not representative. Unironically we might have to taunt them a bit to try to get them to prove they're pro-people.

[@carimeslockdownedtree2654]

Came to see why my fave isnt the most popular, stayed to understand voting systems. This is the very first time i understand why 1 vote ≠ 1 point in any country's voting system.

[@0necraftyninja256]

There is a quote that goes "perfect is the enemy of good" and that applies a lot here, it is easy to get hung up on all the problems that face other types of voting systems and easy to forget that they are all better options that the one the U.S. uses know.

[@HDRookie]

Yeah, it almost feels harsh to criticize RCV for being broken, when the system we have already is broken. That said, we probably should just be arguing for the alternatives that truly work.

[@ogpandamonium]

Thats also a good quote for when people don't vote. They go "Well Kamala Harris still isn't amazing so I'm not gonna vote" but that just means they're letting someone infinitely worse win

[@justindishaw3219]

​@@ogpandamoniumwhy should we have to choose the lesser of two evils? If I could vote for no one I would but I'm not going to cast my support for any person that only means to make life harder for the people.

[@ogpandamonium]

@@justindishaw3219 it sucks that we have to choose the lesser of two evils, but it's the world we live in. and while we live in a world in which thats one of the only, and most important, ways in which we can change things, we have to choose the lesser of two evils. Otherwise we sit back and let the greater evil win over our corpses. A vote isn't personal support, it's a vote. You can vote for someone you don't wholely agree with and it doesn't mean you love the candidate, it just means you'd prefer them over the other

[@michaelbowman6684]

In short, vote for who you like. The ballot had 5 people on it, so research the candidates and vote honestly, if everyone did that instead of only voting for who they know or who is most popular, we wouldn't be living in a two party system. Obviously it'd be nice if we had STAR voting, so I believe that we simply need to have a _very_ unsatisfying majority for people to actually wake up and push for the system to be changed.

[@Altra_duck]

Another issue with the "other" option that wasn't mentioned is that it also takes more effort for both the candidate and the voter to vote for it, because the voter needs to care enough about the candidate to both remember and consider them unprompted, and that means that the candidate needs to stand out a lot more. The overall video does a great job showing why there's a lot more than just that going on and strategic voting probably is where the issue starts, but the extra effort involved in being perfectly honest would likely exascerbate it

[@average_youtube_commenter]

Thats such a well made analogy. Smart for posting it on election day

[@Zetact_]

On the "Greatest of All Time" ranking it also is important that the framing of "Greater" compared to "Favorite" it does account for legacy/significance rather than personal preference. My "Favorite" Roman Emperor is not who I would say is the "Greatest" Roman Emperor. It's a difference between "someone who I think I would get along with, who I would like to talk to, who I would want to support if given the option" versus "someone I would want to live under."

[@HDRookie]

That's fair also. I do think that is a prevalent issue though, many people interpret the question differently to begin with. Most deserving vs best is always a contentious topic. It's funny how election night had no company on this regard. The college football playoff rankings reveal last night are always based on this debate as well.

[@keganmemestar4465]

I just wanted to comment that this is a damn good video. Your ability to explain voting systems using MarioKart as an example made it easily digestible. It’s like if TierZoo made videos about politics using MarioKart instead of zoology using video game terminology.

[@HDRookie]

I never thought about it that way, but I like the comparison! It's probably for the best if you have a certain type of audience, but want to dabble with a new genre for a video.

[@xj-may]

Great video, super well articulated, bringing up an extremely important topic that not enough people care about in a way that’s easy to understand. Being a part of the sample size made me love this video a lot too, because I had no idea it was gonna be used for this and I absolutely loved it

[@legitsalt]

Really great video! I like how you frame (at least part of) the video by emphasizing the importance of semantic reflection (i don't know how to say it -- basically that the action, here, voting, is doing what it says it is doing; for voting, representing how people feel on things). I find it difficult when the words being used to describe things have accumulated other meanings or intentions. What I understand as you clarifying the action of voting by decentering strategic voting from it's mechanics is what I'm gesturing at. I don't know how to say it but I liked the video :D

[@HDRookie]

I think I understand what you're saying here. The idea of "strategic" voting is inherently disingenuous, and we've let the system take us away from what it's original purpose was. The sad reality is that establishing FPTP early on was probably a mistake originally, but an easy one to make. George Washington even had a warning about the two party system in our country, and how he saw it as perhaps a natural evolution of FPTP. That said, we didn't really listen very well it seems. Hopefully we can self correct over time, but it is hard to get stuff done with this level of division within the country. Holding out hope though that we can actually get back to the basics (answering honestly) by embracing what's difficult (a deeper system itself).

[@RasmusVJS]

Whilst this video is *mostly* about finding the winner of a poll, it is worth mentioning that in the context of elections, only determining who is the most popular isn't necessary. In Denmark, we have a proportional voting system, where any party that gets at least 2% of the vote sees some level of representation in the government, more the more votes it gets, and whichever party gets the most votes makes whatever coalitions are necessary with its most like-minded parties to reach around 50% of the parliament. This system basically completely removes strategic voting, since the party you voted for doesn't have to win to benefit from your vote (though, specifically in our system, if you voted for a party that gets less than 2% of the vote, your vote is "lost", but that isn't inherent to proportional voting systems).

[@HDRookie]

@@RasmusVJS proportional systems to be pretty good overall, when the office is applicable of course

[@BowserJrFan-1]

1:04 Pink Gold Peach. All the way. I'll do anything to get away from Baby Rosalina, I'm sorry to those who find interest in her, I just can't see her appearing in the next game.

[@EGRAVEN-ge4nj]

I know what i want to add. the ability to customise koopa troopa shells. i want to play as red shelled koopa troopa. not an extra character slot tho

[@HDRookie]

Paratroopa still awaiting his grand return.

[@EGRAVEN-ge4nj]

@@HDRookie Better be an alt skin not a character slot

[@netherwarrior6113]

Just have all the koopa troopas alts, Red/green troops, red/green/blue paratroopa, and of course Drybones my beloved

[@RoninCatholic]

Just a palette drop down for some characters (Yoshi, Koopa Troopa, anyone who frequently uses powerups like Fire Flower, Ice Flower, and Bubble Flower). Extra character slots can be for those who actually use multiple models, not just different color arrangements/textures. And yes, I'd put the Metal _ variants under this instead of character slots as well.

[@leftfootfirstpolitics]

I've cared about voting systems for years, and this has the clearest and most persuasive explanation of STAR voting I've yet seen. Awesome video!

[@JohnLattanzio98]

I looove statistical analyses like these, especially with Nintendo games. Its one of the reasons u subscribed to you

[@treehousegames7903]

Okay so you know how in Kirby in the Forgotten Land, Kirby can wrap his mouth around the roof of a car to drive it?

[@HDRookie]

Is he gonna throw the items too?

[@metal_pipe9764]

Kirby Ratatouille.

[@treehousegames7903]

@@HDRookie No, Remmie from Rattatouie will be throwing the items.

[@CyberDrewan]

I highly recommend looking up Arrow’s impossibility Theorem and Gibbard’s theorem. They are social science theorems basically state that there is no perfect voting system that is also truly reflects the cumulative choice of the community. I’m over-generalizing on the specifics of those theorems, but it can be important context to the overall discussion of voting to remind everyone that no system of voting will be 100% perfect

[@HDRookie]

I have, and understand. That said, I do think we can do better than others. A goal should be strategic success being equally as likely as strategic backfire. STAR at least gets pretty close in that regard

[@CyberDrewan]

@@HDRookie I completely understand your position, and I mostly agree with your conclusion based on your evidence. I mostly mentioned the theorems to see if you’ve heard of them; however, I think it’s still an important point when talking about voting systems because i think we can always do better. There might be a better voting system to use in a different context or even a system that has yet to be invented.

[@octopodes7619]

​@@HDRookie There is a system that is strategyproof despite Gibbard's theorem etc, and it is essentially unique. It works like this: after ballots are cast, select one at random, and the top choice on that ballot wins the election (sometimes called "random dictatorship"). While it's not suited to electing a president* or youtube polls, it's good when used to elect a lot of members (e.g. the house of representatives), since the randomness averages out. Of course, it is random, which understandably gives most people pause, but it also solves all common problems people have with voting: it gives proportional representation (on average), makes gerrymandering impossible and is completely strategyproof. Plus, like I said, it's essentially unique: the math is begging us to use it. *technically, the US doesn't elect the president, and the electoral college is big enough for the randomness to average out... but still probably a bad idea.

[@nrlvo]

hi!!! your video appeared on my feed and i clicked it bc i saw luigi on it, haha!!! but it was a nice video, your research is summarized in such a way that anyone can understand it, and i liked that u applied it with mario kart related stuff since it's simpler to comprehend. good luck to everyone up there with their voting, im mexican so i cannot do much, but i wish u the best! keep it up and thanks!

[@HDRookie]

Hey, thanks for the words. Really though, it's not just a USA thing also - this applies to really any election, or any poll or any of that. Glad you enjoyed the video though!

[@logansmith2703]

Baby Rosalina. Pink Gold Peach feels more like a skin to me. She can be used to build hype for the inevitable DLC

[@lemonking3851]

I think another thing to touch on with the "other" category is that voting for it didn't really feel like you were actually voting for your course but all the other available courses. This is becuase even though your choice was recognised in the comment it wasn't reflected in the poll for example. If the "other" category one but most people voted for Excite Bike Arena but you hate that course and in the "other" category you were actually voting for Thomp Ruins it would feel as if your vote was misplaced since you helped something you disagree with win.

[@HDRookie]

Could definitely see that - weirdly, there's a lot of dishonest methods you can use to incentivize certain responses. Even in the question wording sometimes🫣

[@LuciustheDragon]

@@HDRookie As someone in Psychology who has done some research stuffs, this is an ever-present issue with research methodology-namely surveys. Question wording, order of questions, how many qustions, the order of options, the scaling of options (think: absurd hypothetical daily sleep survey where options are 1hour of sleep, 2 hours of sleep, 3 hours of sleep, and 4 or more hours of sleep)... it's a whole thing. Even with no immediate incentive to answer dishonestly, there are so many things that can unintentionally skew answers.

[@PuppyLuver256]

"People might complain that they'll have to do more research on the candidates" Weeellll let me tell you something. Back in...May, April, March, whenever the Kentucky primaries were, I got my primary ballot and stood my ass at the voting booth and I stood there and stood there and stood there, phone in hand, browser open to Ballotpedia and any other information sources, looking up every single candidate on that ballot that I wasn't already familiar with (which was Basically Everyone aside from like...Biden maybe because adblock + not watching normal broadcast TV much meant I wasn't getting blasted with campaign ads). I did my damn research right then and there, and I'm pretty sure if this were an urban polling place on the main election day and I wasn't literally the only voter there at that time I'd've gotten kicked out for taking too damn long. But I did my damn research regardless, and if I can take that time so can anyone else. Hell, it prolly woulda been better to research before heading out to the poll in the first place, but I can never remember when the primaries are until like the day before and I am a distract 6_9

[@HDRookie]

Yeah, prior knowledge is typically the way to go. I think when it comes to stuff like presidential elections though, the candidates typically should not be a surprise. I do understand that research becomes a bit more difficult at the local level.

[@PuppyLuver256]

@@HDRookie I mean, I can't exactly remember who the primary dem options for president were, but yeah the final president options are Never a surprise. And while this ballot I voted all dems for obvious self-preservation reasons (and also I'm registered as such, as obvious because being in a state where your primary options are restricted to your party), I remember for one of the local ones in my area, I think it was school board? All non-partisan too, not that common from what I've seen in my time voting. Point being, that was the only one I had No lead on and None of the candidates seemed to have any internet presence.

[@dallaswalker340]

Really well done! Hooked me and kept me interested the whole time. This is really effective and I hope a lot of people see it.

[@maddiemcnugget1076]

I love this because it's like the CGP Grey video on the animal kingdom voting, but with the characters I love! And also in more detail because you did polls of your own in this video

[@kota8045]

Something this video really did actually put into perspective for me was how much weight one voter actually does have. I know these sample sizes aren’t exactly close to the sample size of presidential campaigns but I’ve struggled a lot with that feeling of my vote not doing anything, be it due to strategic voting or just the sheer amount of voices mine would get lost in. You showing how one person voting differently changed the results in the way that you did really gave me something to think about. Incredible video!

[@HDRookie]

This won't always be true still, but in close races, especially if you have more options than one or the other, a voter can have a lot of say when ranking or rating things highly vs lowly. In some CGP Grey video on RCV I believe, he proves that every election technically has a "dictator", and how he votes will determine everything. I think I pointed out in response that it ultimately still is democratic, because the dictator will never actually know that they are the dictator, and being a dictator isn't an inherent feature (it could be anyone). Does make you think though.

[@leonpgut]

This is by far your best video yet. I didn't expect this to be so informative ^^

[@HDRookie]

I put a lot of effort into this one compared to usual even, researching, editing, all that. Appreciate the kind words!

[@Window_seatspotter]

HDRookie! This is honestly a well made video and the timing is honestly perfect! Congrats man!

[@theguyman256]

Came for the character popularity discussion, stayed for the FPTP voting discussion video

[@JayEyedWolf]

This was a very interesting and practical demonstration of this idea, thank you. I hadn't heard of STAR voting before, and it's very interesting to learn about. ...Also my Mario Kart pick was a Pianta with color selection, like Shy Guy and Yoshi have.

[@HDRookie]

A true Gamecube era classic right there

[@birodactyl_of_the_web]

Came for luigi, stayed for the discussion of the pros and cons of various voting systems

[@MeloniestNeon]

This was an amazing video! Thanks for introducing me to STAR voting, as well as proving to me that Mario Kart players will do anything to avoid the random chance that Excite Bike or MooMoo meadows get picked for the 100th time over the other actual maps, even create a political reform movement.

[@potatoheadpokemario1931]

I feel like strategic voting is dumb for opinion polls of little conquenses, it's not like it's going to ruin your life or even day to see your least favorite is picked

[@HDRookie]

The actual problem is in regard to real elections for sure. But it's still for the better if there are ways to minimize it even for the polls that don't matter as much too;

[@Peppizza73]

I'll NEVER forget the poll where Mario isn't listed as the #1 most popular character.

[@invertebrado]

Your voice do matter, the small ideas may take long, but they can achieve greater heights. It only takes a single conversation to changes someones view about anything

[@HDRookie]

Ultimately, this is why the upload was necessary. I just needed to change one perspective. Early returns are showing we mightve reached even more, so that is very promising

[@spongyoshi]

Really didnt expect that pivit but as someone who loves Mario Kart AND hates the current political voting system, it was amazing and a very interesting conversation! Thank you for exploring those subjects, the star system is way more interesting than I thought!

[@catisticallyspeaking]

The character I picked was Vivian from TTYD but no way in hell is she making it in. I'm completely sold on STAR voting now!

[@HDRookie]

Vivian is awesome. STAR is not perfect, so don't go with the assumption that's it's infallible of course. That said, I think it limits any downsides incredibly well.

[@complexrolls]

Get over yourself. I picked Dr Goomba Stack

[@poopgaming6970]

i picked baby rosalina

[@Warclam]

Best girl Vivian! That was my choice too.

[@asowas7802]

not me picking pink gold peach and getting excited at the choices…

[@HDRookie]

@@asowas7802 Sounds like you were the right person for the job 😁

[@kza6648]

It needed a really interesting set of circunstances for that walugi win tho, cuz waluigi voters prefer luigi over wario, wario voters slightly prefer waluigi, and luigi voters heavily prefer wario. Had any other character lead during r2 like waluigi had, the tie breakers would MAKE SURE that character would win. Really wacky race where whoever loses decides who wins

[@HDRookie]

@kza6648 I was excited that this example naturally occurred on a poll with only 4 options. Really just goes to show how matchups can work - which of course would be fair if it was a game where matches could be played... but in a general popularity poll it misses the point. The second preference of the finalists probably should matter too!

[@envar1]

Hey, just wanted to say, great video man. I’m Canadian, and I see a lot of flaws in our countries voting system, so to see the pros and cons of other systems presented through the Mario medium is pretty cool

[@daddyzoidings5435]

This vid is so cool you deserve more attention !!!!!!!!

[@BensonGilmour]

My choice is Lumi from Outcore: Desktop Adventure

[@ComedySpike]

I mean if you're seeking more honest approaches in voting, you could try 1 on 1 voting, or voting for individual characters (scoring) and then adding up the totals when comparing and contrasting. You could ask for expression alongside the votes as it helps clear up honesty. Ofc you could also be less specific when referring to the class of the vote. In theory, these should all dim out or make strategic voting less applicable because it's harder. It will likely take longer to get a final anwser however. There is many formulae for votings, and they're all likely to be different, but at the end of the day, it's good exposure and explanation because a lot of people could be unaware of this. Good video Rookie. 👍 P.S. I knew you'd pick bWP, I KNEW IT-

[@rozzzarukon]

the Everybody Votes Channel music was very fitting for this topic... that channel was such an........ experience

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

0:22 Kirby, I guess? Can I choose the little armored guys in Halo Reach? Or the aliens?

[@HDRookie]

Whoever you want

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

@@HDRookie Abraham Lincoln then.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

@@HDRookie On second thought, Genghis Khan.

[@Plaguedwithdeath]

This video is unironically peak, like I am baffled by how amazing it is. Mario Kart KZbinrs are built different I swear.

[@enbyprawn]

I’d never seen your content before but this is absolutely amazing and informative video and I’m glad your educating people on this

[@HDRookie]

Thanks for the kind words, highly encourage researching it all on your own! At the end of the day, it's about starting a conversation.

[@Mixxium]

You know when I was a kid in school and the teacher wanted to see what movie we wanted to watch, it was never worth keeping up with making sure each person only voted for one movie. If you got to vote for every movie, more often people were happy with the choice.

[@HDRookie]

Approval voting might be even more simple than FPTP!

[@GoldenYoshi1]

I'm all for seeing more polls from you, Mr. Rookie 👑

[@lovemykids570mommyvlogger]

Pink Gold Peach deserves her own game

[@HDRookie]

Finally someone brave enough to say it 👏

[@Chillguy37]

Where did she even come from though

[@luigigordovermelho1063]

​@@Chillguy37 from nothing

[@ezrel6477]

Go eat a banana! Worst take ever >:(

[@Doc27901]

​@@Chillguy37 She came from the concept of Metal Mario, as in "if there's a metallic mario, what would a metallic peach look like?" Just like how baby Rosalina came from the concept of the baby Mario, Luigi, and Peach.

[@Jobor2]

6:09 omg this is so true, My fav is electrodrome but I just voted cloudtop because I think it's a 2nd or 3rd for me!!

[@HDRookie]

As mentioned, strategic voting is everywhere, maybe we even do it without realizing it when we open this app and see the polls 🤷‍♀️ All we can do is try to learn from it and try to find the systems that minimize it!

[@somnvm37]

one interesting thing is that whenever people discuss voting, the first thought isn't just voting in politics, but voting for a president which kind of, is the exception of how polls work. People care about their favourite president winning, or at least there's a large group of people who are very passionate about this, and one candidate may have a more active group of supporters. While, in every other area of life, people are just kind of handled a poll with options to choose and they may not care about it all that much. In terms of that mario, luigi and etc voting, people don't really care about who would "win", and if there is some complexity they're much more likely to just choose a random option.

[@HDRookie]

Yeah, the stakes are lower, so it'll never be exactly one to one. Can't do anything about voter strategy and all that, you just have to send them the hypothetical best system and hope it works. Probably best if the poll captures a topic that the sample group tends to care about.

[@stevedenny7887]

This was a great video. It was informative, interesting, poignant, and entertaining- great job!

[@conductorfishy]

honestly I'm not certain how good it is but if I remember correctly, Ireland uses multi-member districts with proportional voting.

[@HDRookie]

Proportional voting is cool, and works extremely well with Approval Voting I believe as well.

[@Cornman6425]

As someone who lives in a place with rank choice voting im glad to see it being discussed more!

[@alexrobi1176]

I wonder why he'd pick today to do this video

[@HDRookie]

IDK, the idea just spontaneously came to me or something 😮

[@JohnLattanzio98]

6:49 never knew that fun fact, I'll keep an eye out for that!

[@LuigiFan2]

Pretty neat video, thanks for the content! Applying the concept to Mario Kart is nice. I think it takes away some of the initial bias/reactions related to anything in real life politics, and helps to keep the point of the video clear. Also... I've been of the opinion that FPTP can be pretty flawed for a long time, but STAR voting was new to me. Actually might look up some stuff on voting systems now. Thanks. :)

[@HDRookie]

For sure. I think it's pretty legit. There are some electoral rules it breaks like Later No Harm, but no system can satisfy every criteria and be "perfect". I think this limits the impact of tactical voting pretty well though, and makes the most warranted sacrifices.

[@Mage_Nichlas_]

For my returning character I want Charles Martinet. Man's a character in the roles and I miss him dearly.

[@lePirateMan]

Cant believe they wouldnt let me add Sans undertale from undertale

[@L3m0n_Ju1c3]

i cant believe mario tricked me into a video about voting systems xD great video dude, i don't live in the US but i turn 18 next year and the idea of doing more research into politics/voting etc isn't something i look forward to tbh, but it's gotta be done this made it all seem a little less daunting :)

[@foolofdaggers7555]

I'm only 3 minutes into this video as of the time of writing this but your opening thought experiment made me realize that Tron might be perfect for a fighting game like Smash Bros actually: - lots of potential for a unique and interesting moveset (I think so anyway, although admittedly I don't know shit about the movesets in Smash) - good canon options to draw from for alternate costumes (mostly just different circuit colors, but still) - he's canonically an incredibly proficient fighter so he wouldn't be out of place in a fighting game - could come with a stage themed after the arena from Tron: Legacy, which would look cool as hell, not to mention the soundtrack possibilities for said stage - idk i just like him - in conclusion put my boy Tron in the next smash bros game I think he deserves it

[@HDRookie]

@foolofdaggers7555 Glad I could help in this super specific way. It does sound like you like Tron a lot if he came to mind so quickly. Knee-jerk reactions are often honest ones!

[@Mima-sama]

It's funny because it's the system use on touhou charactere popularity pool. And I like it very much.

[@Accrovideogames]

I've always wanted something like this, even before I knew it was called star voting. I wasn't even old enough to vote when I started questioning the fairness of the voting system. Being forced to vote strategically is anti-democratic. Let's take a previous municipal election for mayor as an example. I changed the names, removed unimportant candidates or combined very similar ones, and kept some of the details vague or slightly altered to preserve my anonymity. I'll try to be as objective as possible. Context: The previous and independent mayor just resigned after being bullied out of office by the only party. The party works as a clique. Every single candidate looking to replace the mayor are independents except one. Three of them are elected council members, including the party's candidate. The party is looking for loyal yes-men, and most of their members were elected solely because of their association with the party, with no actual campaign. This is however never the case for the one running for mayor. Amy is the party's candidate. She's controversial because she contracted a company with a bad reputation for a municipal project. Her boyfriend also works for that company. The fact that her party is uncooperative with independent council members also doesn't help, as it slows down processes. The other council members running for mayor are Clara, and Patrick. Also notable is Dennis, a former mayor who got out of retirement to "clean up the mess". He's seen as the most likely candidate to win against Amy. There's also Robert, someone working for the federal government who has a strong media presence. Less popular are Martin and Nolan. They have a good campaign, but they're inexperienced in politics. Martin does however have the advantage of being the president of a public municipal company, so the transition makes sense. Unfortunately for him, he's extremely unlikely to win based on his results in the previous election. Everyone else are nobodies with nearly invisible campaigns. They're pretty much unknown variables. I personally supported Clara, Patrick, Dennis, Robert, and Martin, but I had a huge preference for Clara and Robert. Patrick and Dennis were good, while Martin was decent. Any of them was much better than Amy in my opinion. I didn't like Nolan, but I preferred him over Amy. There's no way I would have voted for the nobodies. Below is how I would have ranked everyone. 5: Clara and Robert 4: Patrick and Dennis 3: Martin 2: Nolan 1: Amy 0: Everyone Else Yes, I'd rather have a bully with a conflict of interest than someone I know nothing about. Many people strategically voted for Dennis. In the end, Amy won with less than 40% of the votes, with Dennis closely behind, followed by Clara, then Robert, and then Patrick. Everyone else were very far behind. I blame Dennis for diluting the vote, but I blame the shitty voting system more for allowing things like that to happen. There's no way Amy would have won if a star system was used. My example perfectly illustrates the problem. I believe a lot of people voted for her because they were tired of all the drama. By electing a member of the party, things would run more smoothly, but at the price of sacrificing democracy. People feared that another mayor would be bullied out of office again. They wanted stability. In other words, they conceded by letting the bullies win.

[@HDRookie]

It's not so much about who is popular, but who is able to rally a base of loyalists in this system. I'm sorry it happened to you. Infuriating how even at local level we can't get to solutions for obvious problems. And I bet Amy sat and acted like everything was completely fair too.

[@caiviofficial]

i thought about shy guy first, but then the lack of rules was mentioned and my mind jumped to steve

[@yfjliydskiu2864]

Good video, thanks for the information it was very insightful! 👍

[@Sierra_Waterr]

i’ve wanted raphael the raven in mk for SO long and the worst part is that is feels like it could happen, i loved the part in paper mario 64 with him as a kid

[@HDRookie]

That would be such a wild card. Feel like they would put in King Bobomb first though, for the big round black ball rep

[@myosotisvalentine]

That's what I thought Why am I watching a video about alternative voting systems while also watching just a liking mario kart guy's vid. Great content. I will send this vid to people when explaining those voting systems.

[@OrangeToadGamer]

Wow, never thought I'd learn so much from a Mario Kart voting video, thank you HDRookie!

[@victoryjamz]

I was thinking about Octoling Kid. because why just Inkling Kid? also i'd pick baby rosalina over PGP because i hate the reskins getting into mainline mario kart games and not just Tour.

[@MSCDonkeyKong]

I follow a lot of fighting games, and I remember a while back seeing some DBFZ combo guides from a youtuber I really like, and they ran a poll on which character should get the next guide. The poll's winning character was Cooler, but the comments were really opinionated and wanted UI Goku to get a combo guide, because he's a low-tier character who has fallen off a lot in recent seasons, and who hadn't had many great resources made for him that reflected his changes in recent patches. The comments showed that the UI Goku playerbase wanted something that would allow more newer players to find interest in their character. Cooler was fairly popular in that patch and IIRC had some alright resources, but not quite on the same level as the stuff the youtuber made. So, the youtuber decided to actually allow UI Goku to have a guide made first, and then to do a Cooler guide immediately afterwards, because the comments about UI Goku were common enough and gave really strong reasoning. So he intentionally went against the vote of the "majority" to go with the playerbase that clearly needed it more and was willing to leave more feedback and reasoning than just clicking a button. A decision I supported as a Cooler player, because I only had to wait for a few weeks. My character didn't have as much need for a guide, despite the majority of people being more interested in learning the character. It's something I come back to sometimes in my mind, because its an example of when people taking the time to actually provide detailed feedback had more power than people who just went with a convenient vote with little thought behind it. Which raises the question, does clicking a check box actually do anything to make your voice heard? Does the people clicking a box actually give you power, when the person actually calling the shots can choose to just not listen?

[@HDRookie]

It's supposed to. But even the US voting system has faithless electors, which is a bit of a problem of its own. That said, I can't blame the streamer. He likely did it for feedback, but recognized that maybe the minority here needed it more than the majority. Creators have been pretty good context when considering their demographics.

[@meekaman]

Rookie you are one of the best KZbin content creators out there! Really love your videos - I enjoy that they are longer too. I like to have them streaming on my second monitor as I work or surf the web! Wishing you continued luck. Really love your Mario kart content!

[@HDRookie]

I really need to get back into shorter form content again, but I feel too many details in these videos now. I can only upload like once every 2 months now but I hope it's worth it! Thanks for the kind words 🙂

[@willrichardson7100]

This was a fantastic video in so many ways

[@HDRookie]

Appreciate the kind words!

[@Magikarpador]

i think the best method for these kind of things is just ask me. i will choose. i have well honed opinions that are very accurate.

[@KirbosPlanet]

at the start, i just started yelling "kirby", despite him having a mii costume, it's not enough... i want, NEED the pink boy in ball form in MK9 YESTERDAY

[@garmo1968]

i got distracted by the text at 26:44 because it feels so familier to me is that kdenlive video editor? something about that cyan + outline, the segoe ui font, that inner top right positioning with right align? feels very familiar to me. it's basic and common enough to be anything but it just vibes kdenlive

[@HDRookie]

I do all my editing in Sony Vegas, so it was just coincidental I believe

[@garmo1968]

@HDRookie i actually swapped from Vegas 11 to decline cause I find the effects interface easier to work with but I don't regret my time spent using vegas. I'm just impressed kdenlive is free and comparable

[@Youwillseesomething]

I used to like Luigi more than Mario because he was less popular than Mario, also he was green, but later down the line I started to realize that I actually liked Mario more because his personality resonated with me more, the fact that he was popular clouded my judgment rather than me judging him based on his character.

[@hahaoriginal6921]

This is something that I really thought of and have a suggestion that I haven’t seen replicated: The Dorkly Madness bracket. The Madness bracket, which I think it’s pretty known, is the type of poll that the website UwUFufu used to become popular. Two options are pitted against each other and the loser is discarded. Then a second round comes with all the winners of the first round against each other in pairs and so on. Now, the defunct geek website Dorkly had, I think, a great idea for a madness bracket. There are no rounds in this version but let’s say my 1st and 2nd favorite Mario character are up first. In Dorkly madness I’ll pick the 1st favorite character and the 2nd one gets a strike and is reshuffled in the mix. This way, you can have a matchup later with say your 2nd favorite and 7th favorite in which the 2nd wins and gets a point. I don’t know how the system of points worked at all but I think it’s the closest to a perfect ranking This Dorkly Madness bracket should be recreated somehow cause all other systems, unless they’re very detailed, don’t give a good ranking to individual players. This system will obviously have your 1st favorite at the top but it also has the approximation of the options in 2nd, 3rd, etc. That’s why I think it’s the best system of polling/ranking/whatever. I really wish it was used by other websites at all.

[@HDRookie]

@hahaoriginal6921 I think I vaguely remember this. And it is the flaw with single elim brackets: they only find the correct winner hypothetically, 2nd place could actually not even be popular. Double Elimination also helps with this, but it kind of sounds like this was reminiscent of it.

[@tankfarter]

Great video as someone who likes politics i didnt know about star run off

[@covereye5731]

I struggle/fail to follow all the 'ifs and thens' while you quickly bringing them up with just a single image of a big sheet.

[@aperson6676]

We could even debate how much we should do the 1-5 system. You could see a different outcome of the Star system with 1-100 vs 1-5 due to preciseness.

[@HDRookie]

Hypothetically the most accurate way would be to include more numbers, but there are two major disadvantages. 1) For accurate opinion to hold, this would require way more research. We are better at rating things from 0-5 than 0-100, because we can attach 4 = good, 2 = mediocre, more easily to values. What exactly is the difference between a 58 and a 55? 2) It would just make casting a ballot more difficult. Simplicity matters a lot, to be honest. It might not be ideal, but it is reality.

[@Katlove687]

This was really cool, last time i saw a voting systemd video this interesting it was a video where animals were voting for their rules.

[@HDRookie]

Sounds like a CGP Grey video, I think I've watched it too. Was a good summary!

[@Katlove687]

@HDRookie yes!!

[@LegendStormcrow]

Luigi and Waluiginare actually my favorites. The only characters that beat them for me are Sht Johnson, Jim Raynor, Link, and pre 343 Master Chief. And as it stands the main parties were bad enough in my state that I voted 3rd party this election.

[@projectmessiah]

Honestly most of my favourites are usually like top 5 most popular in a series and if not it tends to be number 1

[@ornofthetalon1]

I'm not a mario kart person, but this changed my opinion on ranked choice voting.

[@HDRookie]

RCV is not the worst system out there! Someone has even responded, saying it can be salvaged if the results were used to determine head to head matchups between every other option. That said, I do think being able to score gives us more say overall still.

[@ornofthetalon1]

@HDRookie I wonder if complexity actually works in these systems' favor when considering strategic voting. Strategic voting in first past the post is pretty intuitive. While it can be done in ranked choice voting, it's less intuitive and seems less reliable.

[@RoninCatholic]

Voting shouldn't be open to everybody, actually. Universal suffrage was a huge mistake.

[@HDRookie]

The important issues usually are far beyond the grasp of the average person, so I understand the want for a "benevolent dictator". The problem is, I am not sure there is any path toward getting there. The job is incredibly unappealing to anyone, unless said person feels that what they gain out of it is worth it. Those people are the exact people you shouldn't want in a position of power, but they're often the only people who volunteer to have it. Democracy at least gives us the chance to hold bad leaders to a standard. But the misinformation age is definitely making that responsibility more difficult.

[@Ciurk]

didn't expect the topic good video

[@sillyswrdd]

Thank you for making this

[@theramendutchman]

Or, hear my European butt out here for a sec, maybe it's a crazy idea that one person governs most of the most important decisions of a 330+ mil populated nation? With only two options to boot?! How about this; any amount of presidential candidates, everyone votes JUST their favourite, there are some nicely divisible like 120 or 144 or 150 seats, the votes simply get divided percentage-wise over the seats. Did one of the candidates receive 12% of the votes? Then their decisions for the next 4 years make up 14/120 presidential decision making power, for instance. Of course more goes into this, but what I'm saying is that a ministry without a single head of state would work a million times better. Just look at Netherland's, Japan's, or many other nations' systems of deciding a head of state.

[@theramendutchman]

Although this star voting system is nice

[@HDRookie]

This would be a little bit redundant because what you're describing already kinda exists in the form of Congress (though local FPTP elections still decide those seats, rather than proportional vote). It seems to be the same type of end goal. They check the president's power. That said, and I've tried to keep actual politics out of this video, there are many people wanting to expand the power of the president as is, by essentially allowing him to fire a bunch of people in our administrative state, to be replaced with president approved people. The people who work for these agencies are typically responsible for setting lots of the rules for the government at large. It is definitely alarming, I would say. I'm not saying your idea isn't better too, just want to add context.

[@theramendutchman]

@@HDRookie Ok I see this was out of the scope for this video, now. You do make a good point, and yes that does sound a teensy tiny bit quite alarming (^^;

[@charlesbaker8929]

Thank you for such an interesting video. My prior experience was mostly with preference-ballot methods (Borda, Copeland, Hare, . . .) and not with star voting methods, as this is enough to talk about Arrow's Theorem and the like. If you want more reading material about voting theory/social choice theory in general (as opposed to star voting in specific), perhaps the next step would be Jordan Ellenberg's *How Note to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking*, Chapters 17 (and a bit of 18), which lays out some of the voting methods and paradoxical situations in an approachable way. A more thorough (but more demanding) text would be Alan D. Taylor and Allison M. Pacelli's *Mathematics and Politics: Strategy, Voting, Power, and Proof*. Also, just to give a little bit of translation between the social-choice-theory language and ordinary language: (At about 11:12): Ballots where you give a first choice, second choice, etc. are called preference ballots. They can be used in various voting methods, either in the method discussed, or in methods assigning a point value to each rank, or in counting head-to-head matchups. (At about 11:32) The elimination method discussed in ranked-choice voting is called the Hare method. The Coombs method is the alternative rule where you eliminate the candidates with the most last-place votes per round. (At about 18:17) This examples shows that the Hare Method (Ranked-Choice Voting) violates Monotonicity: changes in favor of a candidate on individual ballots can cause the candidate to do worse overall. (Monotonicity is basically the assertion that this can't happen -- you cannot reduce a candidate's social ranking by improving the candidate's ranking on individual ballots.)

[@HDRookie]

Very informative stuff, and thank you for sharing some sources. 🙂 The last place elimination thing is interesting, but I also feel like it would still be susceptible to the exact same issues, no? I do think there is an argument to be made that a utilitarian approach is better for optimizing happiness at the end. Simple majority solutions can lead to selfish outcomes I think. For instance, there's a game out there. I forget the name. But there's 2 players and there's a round. If both players do nothing, they get 3 points. But if one attacks. They get 5 points, unless both attack where they both get 1. It's not a direct comparison but sometimes society would be best if we could all pick up 3s consistently, but if there's a majority who tries to see 5 as their best personal option, we will never maximize overall utility.

[@evanpereira3555]

​@@HDRookiethe prisoner's dilemma (or at least a variation of it).

[@HDRookie]

@@evanpereira3555 That rings a bell, I believe it is that.

[@superjumpbros64]

Marjo and Luigi

[@elio7610]

If only the government cared to ensure voting was fair.

[@HDRookie]

@elio7610 They will naturally resist because the current system is convenient for them. Voting reform is unfortunately an issue that needs to not just be favorable on a ballot, but popular and well known by the average person too. It will be a challenge, but it *should* be popular enough in theory since it really benefits everyone. But then again, the government will try to scare people about this stuff. It'll be called "communist" lol

[@LuciustheDragon]

This was really cool! Thank you! I care!!

[@HDRookie]

It's always hard to express this stuff since many people hate talking about the political process. Gotta just find your spots to share and inform though 🙂

[@LuciustheDragon]

@@HDRookie Absolutely. It's a really delicate art, and I appreciate the thought and work put into informing people! I'm gonna rewatch this and show my mom! I'll have fun explaining a lot of the Mario context, and my mom has wanted to learn more about alternative voting practices already anyway. 😁

[@LuciustheDragon]

Update: my mom LOVED the video! The only critique she has is specifically about the character names. Obviously, in the Mario gaming sphere, Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi are fully distinct, discrete characters. We wouldn't ever mix them up. Without visual cues, it was easy for my mom to get mixed up. That being said, this was a spot on video for your intended audience, and I wouldn't expect consideration for every possible iteration of audience. It was just an interesting perspective about something I took for granted: distinguishing characters with very similar names. This tickled me.

[@HDRookie]

@@LuciustheDragon As much as I would've loved to make a general video, I just want to make sure the video has a chance to get viewed more than anything else, lol.

[@Jelly_shy_guy_man]

But shy guys been in 4 Mario kart games so that’s cap.

[@shadowbadgercat]

I dislike it when other isn’t an option on a lot of these polls or they don’t specify “of these options”

[@anwyl42]

It seems like you could rig star voting with anti-spoilers. If Group A at around 46% of the population ranks C1 and C2 as 5, and the rest as 0, and Group B at 54% ranks C3 and C4 as 5 and 4 evenly distributed, then ranks C2 and C1 as 0 and 1 evenly distributed, those may indicate their preferences, but the runoff will be between C1 and C2 due to the lack of 5s for C3 and C4, and extra 1s for C1 and C2. If either C1 or C2 dropped out then the runoff would be with either C3 or C4, and either one would win against C1 or C2. With star voting it seems the best strategy is to vote 5 for the candidate you like who has a chance, 0 for any candidate you dislike, and then 5 for your actual preference. That strategy dominating would turn it back into approval voting.

[@HDRookie]

There's always going to be some level of strategic voting that can happen under any system, but my argument is that it's significantly harder to pull off under this system. It would not really be possible to collaborate to this level with any larger voting population, but even if there were to be a candidate that tells his loyalists to give everyone else a zero, not only will not everyone listen but that only really assists in getting someone to the runoff phase. If they are still only liked by a minority they can easily lose that if their numbers were inflated by strategic votes. Your thought is the way to navigate is to try it with 2 candidates in a sense. To fully control the runoff. This could maybe work but there's nothing stopping Group B from countering that effort with 2 of their own. But even if it does work, most operations who run like this would still have voters who do have a preference. They would have to decide between losing that preference or not running the strategy properly. Again, this is how strategic voting can backfire. The goal of the best systems is to make strategic backfire nearly as common as successes. I think that's why while not perfect, this is a system I can live with, as opposed to FPTP.

[@backupchannel8865]

The advantage of first past the post is that all of these questions have to be asked and answered before voting, coalitions must be made and common ground achieved even before voting starts, giving the vote more nuance that what it would look like at first glance. That's why toy examples don't work for first past the post.

[@HDRookie]

Real world examples don't work very well for FPTP either - it's why voting has become such a widely stated unsatisfying experience, and why we always say "lesser of two evils". Its only advantage is simplicity, but the price we're paying for that is well... not representative of the opinions of the public.

[@SuperStarEevee]

I imagined Fawful from BIS. Any Mario RPG rep would be cool, though.

[@envar1]

Wow. Okay so this whole video kind of became an allegory for the flaws in our voting systems, two-party or plurality ones.