Which one would you expect to produce faster WE growth in a young player - giving him starts but with very few mins (6-10 / gm), or not giving starts but giving him 15-18 mins / gm?

Going to add a second question: Which would develop the player more, minutes or starts? I'm talking not about WE but about the rest of the attributes.

Posted by salag on 2/26/2012 6:40:00 PM (view original):
Going to add a second question: Which would develop the player more, minutes or starts? I'm talking not about WE but about the rest of the attributes.

don't know about your first question, but starts don't impact player improvement. from dev chat (http://whatifsports.com/devchat/devchat.asp?chatid=77): 

hi seble. thanks once again for your chat the other day. can we look to a future where potential is more diverse? some players growing fast and slow at all age levels? some slow and steady all the way to graduation? (zhawks - Hall of Famer - 1:05 PM)

Potential and improvement are already pretty diverse. Improvement depends on practice time, playing time, work ethic, and potential. It's possible we'll add a little randomness to the process to make it less predictable.

from another dev chat (http://whatifsports.com/devchat/devchat.asp?chatid=72):

Has the Work Ethic become valuable primarily for Offense and Defense. If a player reaches his potential, it seems that WE has little value other than for O&D. (jetsons - Hall of Famer - 9:38 AM)

Work ethic, along with practice and playing time, plays a role in how quickly a player will reach their potential in any given category.

Posted by jtt8355 on 2/26/2012 7:13:00 PM (view original):
from another dev chat (http://whatifsports.com/devchat/devchat.asp?chatid=72):

Has the Work Ethic become valuable primarily for Offense and Defense. If a player reaches his potential, it seems that WE has little value other than for O&D. (jetsons - Hall of Famer - 9:38 AM)

Work ethic, along with practice and playing time, plays a role in how quickly a player will reach their potential in any given category.

both PT and starts affect WE though (from dev chat sited above); though you'll need someone else who's run an analysis to determine which is more valuable to WE:

any chance you guys are gonna add anything to work ethic improvements?say you offer a recruit the starting spot and them start them,shouldn't they increase their work ethic a little? (jang_a_lang - Hall of Famer - 9:39 AM)

That hasn't changed and is already in place - work ethic improves based on playing time and starts.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, jtt. I know all promises help WE, but I'm wondering which one will help more if I have to choose.

Posted by bhansalid00 on 2/27/2012 12:19:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, jtt. I know all promises help WE, but I'm wondering which one will help more if I have to choose.

What do you mean by "promises help we"? Do you just mean that not breaking promises helps, in that it doesn't cause we to plummet? Because otherwise, there is no correlation between we and promises.

Starting doesn't have any effect on ratings improvment (other than the secondary impact of raising we a little bit, which in turns helps improvement a little bit). Playing time, on the other hand, has a very direct and significant impact on ratings improvement (in addition to also having the secondary we impact).

Posted by girt25 on 2/27/2012 12:31:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bhansalid00 on 2/27/2012 12:19:00 PM (view original):
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering, jtt. I know all promises help WE, but I'm wondering which one will help more if I have to choose.

What do you mean by "promises help we"? Do you just mean that not breaking promises helps, in that it doesn't cause we to plummet? Because otherwise, there is no correlation between we and promises.

Starting doesn't have any effect on ratings improvment (other than the secondary impact of raising we a little bit, which in turns helps improvement a little bit). Playing time, on the other hand, has a very direct and significant impact on ratings improvement (in addition to also having the secondary we impact).

Sorry, I phrased that badly. I meant both mins and starts help grow WE, but was wondering which one helps WE grow faster.

This is an interesting topic.  I wonder if Seble just left out the "starts" factor in his answers above, or if it is really simply minutes played.  I am going to submit a ticket.

here is what I sent in.  will update accordingly (likely after multiple levels of them blowing me off first)

Could we get some clarification on whether or not "starting" impacts development? Is it simply playing time that affects growth, or does the fact a player is a starter vs. a bench player also make a difference?

If being a starter does matter, when all things are equal, what is the greater driver of player growth - minutes played or starting status?

http://whatifsports.com/forums/Posts.aspx?ForumID=30&TopicID=452051&page=-1&TopicsPage=5#postBox

Thanks jpmills, looking forward to hearing what they say to you.

Pretty much confirming what has been reported above.  They said - "Starts do not directly impact player development, but they do factor into Work Ethic changes, so in that way there is an indirect impact."

Generally, you don't see HUGE gains in WE (maybe 6-10 pts over the course of a season for starters getting good minutes).  How much that translates into growth vs. straight minutes, still hard to say (I am sure they won't tell us that since it could be a competitive advantage to "know" exactly how the engine works)