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Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 11:20 am
by kajo
Bullet Catcher wrote:I am aware of the social club aspect of leagues, but right now it seems like we have too many players chatting and not enough playing matches. As the saying goes, "less yap; more cap."

Monster, what value do you see in league members who choose (for whatever reasons) not to play official matches?
Chatting and fms played etc. keep this league alive,not the amount officials. limiting that will do no good.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 1:35 pm
by Bullet Catcher
kajo wrote:Chatting and fms played etc. keep this league alive, not the amount officials.
I may be completely out of touch with the player base on *why* they want to be in the league. It isn't too late to add a question like this to the survey:

What is the most important reason you are a league member?

* to play official matches
* to play fun matches
* to chat with other league members

I'd make it a "choose one" type.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 1:40 pm
by hj
Bullet Catcher wrote: What is the most important reason you are a league member?

* to play official matches
* to play fun matches
* to chat with other league members

I'd make it a "choose one" type.
It's honestly a combination of the three, with chatting being an important portion. The one thing that leagues have that is unique - the thing that has kept them active over all these years - is the community.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 2:14 pm
by kierra
hrj wrote:
Bullet Catcher wrote: What is the most important reason you are a league member?

* to play official matches
* to play fun matches
* to chat with other league members

I'd make it a "choose one" type.
It's honestly a combination of the three, with chatting being an important portion. The one thing that leagues have that is unique - the thing that has kept them active over all these years - is the community.
Totally agree with hrj....a combination of all 3

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:01 pm
by NTH
Frank wrote
I'm not adverse to A & B but how we get to make up A & B.
How do fun matches take place today, 4 people who look at each others strengths and join two colours. So Red = "A" and purple = "B" and you let the players do the hard part.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 4:59 pm
by Bullet Catcher
I have assumed that activity is measured by the number of official matches played, but if FMs and chatting are just as important then lets measure them, too, so we know that there is a payoff for the effort invested in creating and running the league.

Recording fun match results by team color should be an easy enough extension to BZiON.

The League Overseer could measure socialization by counting the time (in tank-hours, of course) players spend connected to game servers, or it could even count words per minute to distinguish between idlers and chatterboxes.

Neither of these changes is a high enough priority to expect completion before the leagues are merged.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 5:07 pm
by dauphin
Bullet Catcher wrote:
hrj wrote:people won't want to play with someone below their skill level because they'll fear losing points for their own team.
It seems to me that the biggest obstacle (that league leaders have the power do something about) to increased activity is the fear of losing team points. The simple solution to this is to penalize teams for inactivity, which can be done in several ways including:

1. reset all team scores at the beginning of each season (perhaps keeping a history of previous season final scores)

2. only count recent match results in team scores

3. gradually lower the value of match results as they get older

4. increase team scores by a small value for a loss, a medium value for a tie, and a large value for a win

This is the type of change that does not have to be done at the time of the merger. It can be done whenever BZiON is modified to make it happen.

I don't think it's a good idea. Players play official matches because they can or want to, due to their availability or their desire to play. They'll do it willingly and to have fun. That system, imo, will somehow force many players to match when they don't feel like it (if they can't, well they can't). Playing official matches will become more a duty than something fun. Moreover many players sometimes become busy at some periods of the year due to work, exams, or other reasons. That penalty system doesn't really make players play for fun.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:52 am
by Monster
We are quite off-topic by now, aren't we? Maybe we should rename this thread "How to increase activity".

As to your question BC: Every member of the leage who opens BZflag and joins a server from time to time is a valuable member. Even if they don't play and just observe they push the server to the top of the list which makes more ppl join the server. Every presence on the hix and the ducati map promotes the playstyle we try to build a league around. So, while I don't agree with increasing activity at all cost I still think that we need to work on a concept to make more officials happen, which is why I liked the idea of Team A/B vs regular teams.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2015 7:05 pm
by macsforme
NTH wrote:How do fun matches take place today, 4 people who look at each others strengths and join two colours. So Red = "A" and purple = "B" and you let the players do the hard part.
This. Problem solved. If one team is a little stronger in a FM let that team choose the color that's currently ranked lower.

Re: Concept Idea for activity

Posted: Mon May 04, 2015 10:01 pm
by kierra
Referencing the how to increase activity thread: What creates activity? If you have 40 players in the league, and we change textures and team colors, we still have 40 players in the league. Those things, (though a visual change) do not increase activity. Players committed to playing in the league add to activity - as well as a steady influx of new players.

The only real way to increase activity (short of adding a bunch of NEW players to the game) is to add to the league structure of today...using Team A vs Team B.
If you want to play a match and have 30-40 min today, the best you can have is a FM.....why not play that FM and have it mean something.

Officials today are harder to occur because you need a minimum 4 ppl, 2 ea from each team to be on at same time with the same time available to play.

When the critical mass of players is small, the officials happen less and less and fms happen more & more. Time for fms to count toward league activity.

For those who still want to play a regular "Fun Match".....you still can. This is all about choice; no one forcing one type of match on anyone.

I don't care for public display of player elo's as seen on Trinity servers.....and wouldn't want that for Team A & B.
I would recommend Team A & B - even be re-picked, maybe twice yearly? with assigned captains, no elo needed, all community based.

The thing to keep in mind is flexibility and an open mind.