My point is - been already tried with 0 success.

Posted by mullycj on 6/30/2015 5:51:00 PM (view original):
My point is - been already tried with 0 success.

Define success. My guess is that the game enjoyed a few good years of popularity when first introduced and as worlds continued to roll out periodically, but, in the long run, the levels of participation will drop to the level that folks are actually willing to pay to play. That level is the cost per season minus the WIS credits they receive = $X.xx.

I strongly suspect that, as costs and credits are presently handled, it's on average expecting to make the PI Tourney. No reason whatever to suppose that would be any higher than that, so far as I can imagine.

My guess is that users have constructed a "game operator error" narrative about the decline in world/division population to the expected levels, but the only error would be less than optimal construction of the cost of entry / cost of continuation analysis. The easiest way to overcome this is to create new worlds and lower costs of entry (without, for obvious reasons, making it free).

So the idea is to eject the users at D3 that have been there for a long time, so new users can come in and have success?

I don't think there is any game on this site in which you can have instant success, unless you pick up a ready-to-win Dynasty team that has players recruited by someone else. As mully stated earlier, WIS once cut the reward points for the users that had been in D2 and D3 for a long time to get people to move up, and it was such a disaster that they changed it back. If a person plays one season, goes 7-20 and quits, this game isn't for them.

well, the idea i guess is to cut the credits reward for long term coaches, to presumably entice them to move up to D2. I actually think they would just keep playing for half credits - the really good coaches have so many points and credits piled up it doesn't matter really anyway, this actually would hurt the average to above average long term coaches who sometimes get the S16 or maybe an E8 and get a free season finally...

Those that didn't want to move up and cared about the credits might just go to another world and pick a new D3 team and start over, just moving all those super coaches to someone else's front door...

When I first joined I was semi annoyed that I had to start at D3.  I mean I had heard of some of the teams, typically local ones to me, but my thought joining was "great, another sim for sports, college basketball is fun and there really aren't any good alternatives out there."  So I read everything I could find and muddled through a couple of seasons in Maine (clearly starting in a corner for recruiting wasn't the best idea).  (Last night I was driving to dinner with my gf and saw a Willamette bumper sticker and immediately thought of the thread about us and our teams in real life and laughed because now I too know how to properly pronounce it thanks to another coach here meeting someone from there and explaining how he coached the team ... online lol)

Eventually I moved up, for multiple reasons, I now have a bunch of teams spread all around the divisions, and the only reason I stay at D3 in some worlds is because of long history in super competitive conferences.  I've grown to like the process of being able to move up through the divisions.  At this point I typically am looking for oddball type teams to move to - this one has never had a human coach, this one is in a super advantageous location that should provide for "easier" local recruiting, I'd still like to try my hand at Hawaii or Pureto Rico just to see how it is, etc.  

Sorry, I'm rambling.  The point is, clearly all the worlds have plenty of openings for new coaches at D3.  There are clearly things that people would like changed about the engine in multiple ways.  For whatever reason some coaches choose to stay at D3, and have built up powerhouses and while that may seem unfair to the brand new coach, the reality is there's no way to shift that disadvantage without ******* off long term coaches and just moving the problem to another level (the D3 powerhouse guy, while he knows the game well, still has to start fresh at D2 where he will be the new guy and have to compete with those powerhouses).

There will always be a barrier to entry for a new coach, regardless of the current system or changes.  But I think the simplest solution is to work to get more new coaches.  Things will work themselves out.  Some coaches will fade away after the first free/low cost season.  Some will improve.  Some will be like me and stick around for years and get their heads beat in with no title to their name.  The key is more new coaches.  That can be done with no new world and no forcing an exodus out of D3.  In my opinion of course.

Just to mention the OP's preference - it remains idiotic not to create a new 2-a-day world to open in the fall.  The site will make more money.  The worlds have already settled down to their expected population on average.  The only clear way to make more money is to open a new world.

On my point, I decided to look back at the rewards reduction that WIS implemented and found the beginning forum announcement and the end release note (copied below).  So, that program ran from late 2006 until March 2010.  It was far more aggressive than what I am suggesting.  The clear intent was to drive users into D1 quickly.  

On the contrary, I am talking about simply limiting credits after 15 seasons at D3 and making no changes at D2 or D1.  It could be implemented as WIS did in the past, but I would call it something more like after the 9th or 10th NT appearance at D3, the rewards for any future D3 seasons are cut in half.   WIS was trying to move users to D1; my suggestion is to open up rewards for others in D3.  If this were done, then, sure, several D3 coaches would be ****** off.  That's the point!  They aren't crowding other coaches out of jobs; they are crowding other coaches out of rewards without which those coaches are likely to find the game too expensive.

Once the excitement of any new world settles down, there are only ever going to be about 100 coaches at D3.  The question is whether those are going to be the same old 100 or you are going to allow new coaches to believe they might have a chance.  Of course, WIS could just continue to do more of the same, but then FOX will never think it worth it to invest more in development or advertising.  

03/10/2010

• We've made a change to the prizing system. The new details are as follows:
  • Lose opening round game: $3 in credits
  • Lose second round game: $5 in credits
  • Lose Sweet 16 game: $10 in credits
  • Lose Elite 8 game: $15 in credits
  • Lose Final Four game: $20 in credits
  • Lose Championship game: 4,000 reward points
  • National Champion: 6,000 reward points
  
  Most importantly, this change allows us to remove the reduction in rewards for previous postseason appearances. So there is no longer any penalty for a coach who wants to stay in DII or DIII and build a dynasty there instead of moving to DI. 
  
  The credit amounts are pretty much equivalent in value to the rewards in the previous system. These credits are for HD only and will expire after one year. The reward points for making the championship game remain exactly the same as before. 
  
  This change will only affect leagues once a new season starts, so any season that has a signup deadline after 3/10/2010 will use the new system, otherwise the old system will be used.