New user: There sure seems to be a lot days when I have nothing to do.
ADMIN: You'll enjoy the game more if you have two teams!!
NU: Huh?
kcspudevil: I like the downtime. Gives me a chance to ice fish or something.
NU: Well, yeah, I've got other things I can do. Why should I even bother with this game?
cubcub: Just get a 2nd team and all is well!!!!

If it's about new players, the big factor here isn't downtime. It's whether or not the scouting/recruiting process hooks them. It's probably not reasonable to have an expectation of jumping into a college basketball simulation and get to recruit players for use in your first season. That expectation was established by the way the previous version was set up, but it isn't intuitive. New players can start scouting basically day 2 (considering that new player sign up day is specifically for them) for next year's recruits. They're going to make a determination on whether or not to re-up based on 1) is this process fun? and 2) do I feel like I can be competitive at the level I'm interested in playing in a reasonable amount of time?

Exhibition scheduling during the tourneys may help some guys with a boredom factor, but I don't know that too many in their first season are going to decide based on being able to play a couple extra meaningless games with their terrible first team. Other than that, while you could probably compress the jobs change portion a little, and meld the new player sign-ups into RS2, as I laid out on the first page, every compression is going to increase someone's stress or risk of losing progress.

Posted by mullycj on 8/31/2017 4:24:00 PM (view original):

Posted by kcsundevil on 8/31/2017 1:42:00 PM (view original):
Mike's the guy who gives Applebee's a two star Yelp review because it doesn't sell vacuum cleaners and his time is valuable, dangit.

There will always be downtime in this game. I happen to like that there's an actual off-season.

You must remember when posting on these forums, if you don't agree with DB Mike you must be wrong. He has to always be right...just ask him..

..and he will continue posting just to get the last word as if that proves it.

Thanks for your valuable contribution to the topic, you useless turd. My apologies to turds.

Posted by shoe3 on 8/31/2017 3:58:00 PM (view original):
If it's about new players, the big factor here isn't downtime. It's whether or not the scouting/recruiting process hooks them. It's probably not reasonable to have an expectation of jumping into a college basketball simulation and get to recruit players for use in your first season. That expectation was established by the way the previous version was set up, but it isn't intuitive. New players can start scouting basically day 2 (considering that new player sign up day is specifically for them) for next year's recruits. They're going to make a determination on whether or not to re-up based on 1) is this process fun? and 2) do I feel like I can be competitive at the level I'm interested in playing in a reasonable amount of time?

Exhibition scheduling during the tourneys may help some guys with a boredom factor, but I don't know that too many in their first season are going to decide based on being able to play a couple extra meaningless games with their terrible first team. Other than that, while you could probably compress the jobs change portion a little, and meld the new player sign-ups into RS2, as I laid out on the first page, every compression is going to increase someone's stress or risk of losing progress.

Having no reason to check in is a problem. It's a problem for new users. It's a problem for the website. It's a problem for anyone who thinks this site needs more users. No ifs, ands or buts.

Posted by shoe3 on 8/31/2017 3:58:00 PM (view original):
If it's about new players, the big factor here isn't downtime. It's whether or not the scouting/recruiting process hooks them. It's probably not reasonable to have an expectation of jumping into a college basketball simulation and get to recruit players for use in your first season. That expectation was established by the way the previous version was set up, but it isn't intuitive. New players can start scouting basically day 2 (considering that new player sign up day is specifically for them) for next year's recruits. They're going to make a determination on whether or not to re-up based on 1) is this process fun? and 2) do I feel like I can be competitive at the level I'm interested in playing in a reasonable amount of time?

Exhibition scheduling during the tourneys may help some guys with a boredom factor, but I don't know that too many in their first season are going to decide based on being able to play a couple extra meaningless games with their terrible first team. Other than that, while you could probably compress the jobs change portion a little, and meld the new player sign-ups into RS2, as I laid out on the first page, every compression is going to increase someone's stress or risk of losing progress.

Disagree.

There are probably several reasons why user retention is near zero.

But, if anyone wants to argue that having no reason to check in for 8 days after losing in CT isn't huge, I really can't argue with you. You need to take Internet Games 101 first.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/31/2017 2:04:00 PM (view original):
Anyway, since you and Spud seem to be the only people who A) think it's all about them and B) loves some downtime, let's try this. Under this schedule:

1. New sign-up
2. Recruiting Session One
3. Season
4. Tourneys(exhibitions for those not in tourney)
5. Recruit Session Two
6(1). Job change/new sign-up rolled into one

Let #6 be 4-6 days. You and spud can go ice fishing, or scuba diving, over a long weekend since you're not signing up or changing jobs.

HBD has a 6 day break, we call it "Spring Training", but it's in season. You've already signed up for the full 162. You still have things you CAN do but, all in all, it's a wasted 6 days. I like it because everything "important" is condensed into a short time period prior to that. It's a break. Maybe that's how you and Spud feel about HD downtime. Don't know. Thankfully, I can't get into your/spud's mind. But, if I'm a new guy, doing nothing for long periods of time during the season is pretty damn boring.

Mike, if you had any idea what I think or ever posted in the forums, there is no evidence of it in your post. You are so far off base that you can't even see the stadium or hear the roar of the crowd,

"Down time" is thought to be a problem for those whose only life is playing computer games. On this site, no one needs to have down time who doesn't want it. Computer-game-downtime is not a problem for anyone with a life.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/31/2017 3:21:00 PM (view original):
It's not about established users. That's something kcspudevil and you aren't understanding. It's not about the three of us. I play softball 3 nights a weeks, go to the gym 3-5 times a week, have 3 HBD, 2 HD teams, a wife, a grandchild and 4 dogs. I like to play video games. I don't like yardwork but I've got a yard to maintain. WifS could zap HD today and I'd hardly notice.

It's about the new guys, none of which seemingly stay for a 2nd season let along a 2nd team, getting bored with HD because they're doing nothing. Damn.

Read the thread, kcspudevil.

"It's probably not reasonable to have an expectation of jumping into a college basketball simulation and get to recruit players for use in your first season. That expectation was established by the way the previous version was set up, but it isn't intuitive. New players can start scouting basically day 2 (considering that new player sign up day is specifically for them) for next year's recruits. They're going to make a determination on whether or not to re-up based on 1) is this process fun? and 2) do I feel like I can be competitive at the level I'm interested in playing in a reasonable amount of time?"

Shoe, you make too much sense for most of the guys complaining in this thread. Keep up the good work.

Posted by MikeT23 on 8/31/2017 6:36:00 PM (view original):
There are probably several reasons why user retention is near zero.

But, if anyone wants to argue that having no reason to check in for 8 days after losing in CT isn't huge, I really can't argue with you. You need to take Internet Games 101 first.

This one too, kcspudevil.

It's not about you. Internet games NEED people to check in to maintain their interest. I'm pretty sure all the fantasy sim games require you to build a character. You can only build that character by playing the game. It's how Internet games work.

Edit: Role-playing was the word I was looking for. In the role-playing games, you have to build your character. You only do that by playing. It's designed to keep you interest, to keep you checking in. It's why America's youth is fat as hell.

I use the downtime to put more time into my other teams or prepare for recruiting.

If there was less downtime I would reduce my number of teams or at least reduce the number of worlds I am in. Right now I have one team in each of 5 different worlds.

Since I budgeted for 5 teams a month I could decide to keep that money there and still run 5 teams. If I kept going with five teams and downtime was reduced I would seriously consider having them all in one or two worlds.

Having multiple teams in one world is not my preference but would be a necessary move with reduced downtime.

Good lord, I give up. seble, if you're reading this, please sim games once a week and have a 28 day sign-up period. People need less reasons to check in.

i actually agree with Mike on this one. to some extent, i do think success in retaining new users in HD = feeding the addictive element of internet gaming. too much time off diminishes this. obviously there are other ways to help with this, but i think the excessive downtime could definitely be a deterrent to retention.

existing users may not "get" this because they are already hooked and/or have multiple teams, but new users aren't grabbing 5 teams right away. and, beyond this, as I've said many times, i have a few teams, and it's enough. i don't want more teams. when they're all active, it's too much. but being in 3 worlds isn't enough to mitigate all the downtime being annoying to me.

so i maintain that, at minimum, there are a couple dead days that could be removed from the calendar with almost no effect.

I actually agree with mike's main point as well (if not the various side commentary) -- right now, there is a looooooong time between one season's end and the next's start, even if you win a game or two in the NT. Like hippo, I think a couple days could be cut with no issue at all. Not sure why WIS wouldn't do that, as a marginal revenue booster, if nothing else.

And spud, I appreciate you checking in with both your IDs. Way to try to keep up appearances.