Fun!

[slime]

Earlier today I stumbled upon a very old website, the Fun League! For those who don't know what the Fun League is (rather, was) it is a league that makes fun matches sort of...official. Referees report the final score of the fun match, who participated in it, and the match is able to be ranked from 1 to 10 on a 'fun' scale. Anyway, I thought it would be neat for the Fun League to be brought back.

A lot of people have been wanting something 'different' as of late, perhaps another league. Well, the Fun League wouldn't necessarily bring about a new map, but it would bring about a change of pace, something I think would be good for the GU League, as well as the other leagues. In my opinion, the Fun League would also be a great way to introduce newer players to the league system.

Here's a short description from the Fun League page:

An offical fun match is very similar to the Ducati and GamesUnited league matches.
But different to those league matches, in the fun league you are not a
permanent member of a team. So instead of the team rating, this league tracks
the individual rating for each player. Your individual rating depends on
how many matches you have won and how strong your team members and
opponents for those matches were.

So anyway, just wondering what everyone else thinks of bringing back the Fun League. As stated in the name, it is a FUN League, so I believe it would bring back some of the fun into the league system that some players are missing at the moment. No need to try your very hardest and get stressed out over a match, because it is just for fun. Plus, the layout and the idea/concept is already there, so not much work would be needed to get it back up and running.

Comments/Constructive criticism welcomed..

EDIT:Here's a link to the site: http://fun.bzleague.com/index.php?link=home

[plasma kaz]

wowsers. one thing is for sure that its ancient.. looking at the list i see players like ski on it

dunno.. I'm surely not against it, but im not sure it would attract much attention to certain players that are looking for more competitive play.

one thing i want to ask is are you proposing that we just make it active again? or do you want to create a brand new site with new admins etc? cause i look at the contact list and notice most arent active..

[Monster]

I'd really like this thing brought back:)
Im pretty active nowadays and most of the time I'm "only" able to get a funmatch started instead off an official one. With the FUNleague brought back FUNmatches would be even more FUN if your efforts are in some way recorded
wfg Monster

[zaphod]

neat idea! but i see the problems of teams ::: in the sense you have to have a mate around and then why not playing offi instead?!
it would be just an idea (and i dont know how it could work ranking vise) to have like a player:based:ranking:system instead of giving the team the score ...
so that in the end of Fun-League FM each player gets a score (based on kills and caps?).
the advantage would be to just join a game without looking for mates and having "serious" fun FM!
but then again ::: its a whole new league idea?! isn't it?!

[slime]

but im not sure it would attract much attention to certain players that are looking for more competitive play.

You're right, it probably wouldn't. But in a sense, I figure that's more or less a good thing. While a lot of players in the league bring a more competitive aspect to the game, I feel a good number also play simply to have fun. This would give each player-base something different: For the players who play just for fun, it would give them the chance to get their fun matches recorded; For the players who play competitively, it would give them the chance to take a break for a bit and play with some new people in a fun match, but still have their efforts recorded.

one thing i want to ask is are you proposing that we just make it active again? or do you want to create a brand new site with new admins etc? cause i look at the contact list and notice most arent active..

If you take a look at the league site, you will notice that some of the site links are down (such as each player's personal profile, the team page). Mainly what I would be proposing is to have someone fix these errors, as well as add new, active referees to report matches. Of course, all this is pointless if there is no enthusiasm for it, which is why I am asking your opinions now

it would be just an idea (and i dont know how it could work ranking vise) to have like a player:based:ranking:system instead of giving the team the score ...
so that in the end of Fun-League FM each player gets a score (based on kills and caps?).

Personally, I would like this method of ranking. However, I just don't think it's plausible. Obviously, it would take a lot of work to enter a single match on the part of the referees, as well as any player reporting the match to a referee. They would have to include each person's personal score, remember how many caps they got, etc. But, I assume you mean that someone makes a plug-in that records all of this information? It's a nice idea, but one that would take too much work and too many changes for something as trivial as this, at least in my opinion.

[Grace F]

Things tend, no matter what the intention, to become competetive in the end.

Not saying all matches/players are like this, I've been in some great fun matches where noone felt the need to want to "out perform" their opponent. It was generally a great shoot out.

I don't think this would hit off as well the second time.
I would like it to, however, because I see it as a place for players to go to as a "break free" from the League. Almost seperate from the GU League.
Obviously, there isn't much change from normal FM's we have today but who knows, it might proove beneficial for the league.

It couldn't hurt in trying to bring it back.
Good idea, Slime.

[ducatiwannabe]

The Open League and Fun League overall systems didn't really work for me... I might join if for some reason the Fun League was resurrected, but I most likely wouldn't be very active in it. I tend to think that when people can "rate" how fun a match is, there is always going to be abuse.

[dexter]

I doubt that bringing the Fun league back will attract a lot of attention for several reasons:

1. No point in denying it, but no matter what kind of match you play, you don't wanna lose. There's always going to be a certain degree of wanting to perform.

2. Sadly, most players just get on these days to play official matches, I don't see anyone getting on with the intention to play a fun match.

3. Best thing about a fun match is, that you can forget all about it afterwards. That's what relieves the pressure. Nobody knows what happened in a funmatch three days ago - having matches recorded builds up the pressure of performing again.

4. The term "official fun match" is just an oxymoron. If you really want your match to be reported, play an offi!

5. As far as I know, most players like to play with specific team mates against specific teams, so I'm not so sure how much alternation this would bring about in team match-ups.

6. Every once in a while I feel like playing with somebody else and usually arrange an fm then, but that doesn't accur very often so I don't think it'd be necessary to have a whole seperate league.

I definitely support the idea of getting more fun matches going, because it usually takes out the whole competition aspect. There are also plenty of positive aspects, I just feel that they aren't strong enough. Because really, even in fun matches a lot of players have disagreements and fights about shot-throughs and lag. I'm afraid that this idea would rather turn into a GU/DUC league without points.
There are obviously reasons why this league isn't active today. I'd register if it were brought back, but I think we should maybe invest the time in thinking how to make the GU league more attractive and fun, instead of re-starting a whole new league.

slime said something about players missing the fun in the GU league at the moment, I really think that is due to the lack of activity from certain teams that really make this league fun. We're just going through a little phase, I'm sure things will be great in a months time or so..

Just my two cents!

dex

[slime]

Thanks for your great thoughts about the matter so far! Let me try to address a few of the issues being brought up here..

Things tend, no matter what the intention, to become competetive in the end.

1. No point in denying it, but no matter what kind of match you play, you don't wanna lose. There's always going to be a certain degree of wanting to perform.

There will always be competitiveness to some degree in matches that are played. My thoughts are that the Fun League would reduce the 'drive' to do anything it takes to win a match. I think we can all agree that losing a GU League match to some people would be much bigger of a deal than losing a fun match .

I tend to think that when people can "rate" how fun a match is, there is always going to be abuse.

Too right you are. I think the rating system would have worked better when the league was smaller. If the Fun League was ever to be brought back, I agree there would most likely need to be a change to this feature, if not remove it altogether.

2. Sadly, most players just get on these days to play official matches, I don't see anyone getting on with the intention to play a fun match.

Perhaps this would change that!

[Monster]

I thought the FUN league would work like zaphod proposed :/
After reading through your several messages I agree with dexter.
No point in bringing it back, if it was jsut a gu/duc league without points.
I love the idea of a site/league wich records the funmatches and rank them somwhow, but I think it isn't worth the effort.
wfg Monster

[dexter]

I know I sounded a little pessimistic in my post above, but that was just to point out the difficulties and to remind everyone that this has obviously failed before.
If we're able to figure out a good solution for e.i. the ranking system and other bugs with the site, I'd be happy to help getting the league going again.
I'd just like to say this: a project like this might be taken more seriously if some player with authority in the BZleagues (e.i a gu admins) would take control of this. That would also take care of the whole Admins/Refs problem too.
Players with less authority tend to be taken less seriously by the community and end up not being able to make something like this really happening.

[Mucho Maas]

The main reason why the fun league became inactive was not that people stopped playing fun matches, but that I simply forgot the password to maintain it (don't ask ).

AlliedArmour and Grand slam proposed about a year ago to reactivate the Fun league. I didn't manage to login then. But I managed today (yay).

I don't know where the now occurring error messages come from, but with menotumes help (who has access to the underlying SQL database) we may try to fix it, or to reinstall it. But problem as always is time....

Though the servers being played on follow the rules of the associated leagues (pillbox, ducati and GU), the Fun league is not GU league. I wouldn't mind to have a bit wider base of people to enter matches there, and preferable some that have not yet been banned (Hi Death Barrel, hi Molez ).

[dexter]

Alright, I'm happy to say that the fun league has official relaunched! \o/ Foo, meno and I spent the day working out the bugs and other things that needed tweaking. The site isn't perfect yet and there are still some adjustments to be made but at least you don't get any more errors and all the info is up to date. The first 'official' fm has been played in over 2 years, lets get some more. I urge all of you to go and register there now so we can actually enter all the players that take part in the funmatches. Foo will probably have more to say on the topic later.

So far,

dex

[Mucho Maas]

http://my.bzflag.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13705

[Zelgadis]

cool, cool. The forum is not working, a sql table is missing i guess.

[Mucho Maas]

Use this forum for now

[Pizzahead]

I signed up, and i have: Check out the FUN League at fun.bzleague.com in my email link.
I suggest you do so too.

Pizza

[AlliedArmour]

That's neat, I'll remember to try get FM's recorded .

Foo, I'll have something to say about a certain event that kept Funleague dead for 2 years. You can guess the rest.