What are some things that you feel can make it happen? 
I'd go on a hiring spree and only keep a few of the current employees.
Then I'd personally email every user that left/quit and convince them to come back.
I'd offer those that left/quit compensation for all the mistrust and scandals that went on here.
IMO these are a few musts:
1.Get a game manual together for all users.
2.Update all outdated game information
3.Update outdated threads that contain any information
4.Fix the current issues with the game/sim itself and don't use the excuse we're out of beta can't do it.
5.Admins/Moderators act professional in the forums....sarcastic responses/trolling attempts call for sarcastic user comments and user troll attempts...just don't do it.
Originally posted by tpaterniti
These ideas all work together.
1.) Improve the new user experience without alienating the current base. How? Make it so that there are two ways to build a player, Detailed and Relaxed. You would choose at player creation and new users would be strongly encouraged or even required to build relaxed.
-Detailed - exactly like we do it now
-Relaxed - no ALGs, archetypes are for favored SAs only. Make SP adjustments to compensate. Would take a little work to balance out. You could probably do it in 2-3 weeks.
Players who build in Detailed mode could make players around 5-8% better than building in Relaxed mode. The idea would be that new players aren't shooting to build the best possible player who is going to make it to WL. Maybe they think they are, but they don't yet know enough about the game to do it. They just want to build a player who won't suck. This allows them to build intuitively and at the end their player will be Regional Pro quality. Elite builders could still enjoy the current system and build the way they know how.
2.) Provide better building tools. The ALGs remaining and the VPB should be added. They are essential for building as it currently is and would probably be relatively simple to add. It would give users a chance to make mistakes without it taking lots of time and frustration. There should be a better manual for how to build both ways. For Detailed, it would explain ALGs and provide some strategy tips and much more - it would need to be well organized and comprehensive. For Relaxed it would mostly focus on what attributes do since ALGs are not a factor. Of course the Detailed manual would have some of this as well.
3.) Change the pricing scale to make it better reflect the experience. This is a no brainer, make the pricing scale more like GLB2 (cheaper players, less flex returned). Allow people to build more players. It will help every aspect of the game in many ways to have more players around.
3a.) Contests and Sales. Have creative contests and sales. I play the Big Win games on the iPhone and those guys know what's up when it comes to contests and sales. Periodically they will have contests where they hand out huge amounts of their equivalents of FPs to players who place high enough. What would it look like on GLB? Probably like the tournaments, but with big flex prizes for the top 5 places, the most to the 1st place of course. You could do flex sales, weekends where players at a certain position cost half as much as normal (maybe coordinate these up with high demand positions to encourage more of them to be made), and so on. Make it more or less random so that people don't wait for specific times to do things.
4.) Commit to add features every season. I am mostly thinking of new plays and formations. There is low potential for problems with these. You should be adding 1 new formation and maybe 10-15 plays for it (or 10 plays for it, 5 for existing formations) each season. This keeps the game fresh and keeps people excited to play and coordinate. Right now one reason it's stale is that nothing about the playbook has changed for so long. When you make interesting new formations, it gets people excited and even makes them want to build players for those formations. Think about how many TEs have been created thanks to Big I and Singleback Big.
5.) Add some fun features in addition to the game experience. 2K4 football had a Crib (so did 2K basketball). Something like this would be awesome and people would love it. Have team facilities with a trophy room and different aspects that could be upgraded. In addition, make team records not reset, so that each team has a sense of history and meaning. Allow teams to make their own page using a template (you can choose a basic layout, what things about your team you want to add, and so on). These are just ideas I am brainstorming, but in games like this, you have to provide a sense of meaning and history to keep people involved. In the online 2K football league I play in, just adding a wall of champions made a huge difference. If you play, win the league, then 1 month later no one remembers or cares, how boring is that! If you know that winning gets you immortalized, then it makes it special. If you know that team records, player performances, and so on get immortalized in some way, it adds a lot of meaning to the game and keeps people engaged.
Those are some things that I think would add to the game. Sure, advertising would be nice, but you need a great product to advertise. The better the product, the more word of mouth will prevail and the less you will need trying to advertise.
Originally posted by chefs
I'd say the game needs new blood, the old have left the building for various reasons and they probably won't come back after breaking free. Hard to say what people really want and that is I thing what is troubling the staff of WGG, they feel beat up on and I can't blame them totally for losing interest in fixing stuff just to see it bashed to death. We did that ourselves, many of us, but if the game wasn't like paying off your bookie after a bad week, I think it could have corrected itself. The problem was when you take, take, take and say oh, here's the product we are giving you because we just wanted to keep the profits and not really put much back into our loyal customers. Then frustration sets in for the employees, customers and owner. Everyone loses in the end if this fails. Possibly hire a few good graphics artists as in modelers, animators and try to actually compete with Madden. The concept had a ton of potential as we all bought into it, just we wanted more and then they went South and abandoned us here to rot.
Originally posted by chefs
Reprogram it from start to finish.... Remove VAs from the game or lower the max per slot to 10. As it stands 15 in one slot is too much I feel and it's just way too difficult to balance a sim that is based on a rolling chance system if the dots are designed to specifically get INTs and FF. I mean I know it's not supposed to be a realistic sim but it could also be the order of roll progression that is the issue. If a dot rolls for a INT before the player has a chance to catch it, then it's always designed in the defenders favor and should be more equal based on position.
For example of an issue that I see would be when you have 2 close route patterns where the defender is in man coverage versus the WR. The QB throws the ball and you get picked off by a CB that just suddenly comes off his route that was covered well to make a pick on that 2nd route being run when he couldn't have even seen the ball as he's watching the WR and covering the WR in their route. The pathing AI is just not optimal and deeply hurts the QB rolling to pass as the CB has eyes in back of his head and the QB gets hosed. .
Originally posted by Time Trial
Make it so that no matter what day they build their dot, they are at no short or long-term disadvantage.
Make rosters smaller so that every player has more impact.
Expand the archetype system so that dots have traits that affect the salary you have to pay them.
Make a hard salary cap with no way to go over.
Make games happen 2/3 days instead of every other day.
Make the offseason no more than a week.
Make 100 a hard cap that you can't go over with ALGs or equipment, maybe just take out equipment.
In fact, take out ALGs because they make building entirely end-game dependent (even mid-level builds are fucked if they don't play the cap and train system correctly). In exchange for ALGs, give us 9 SP per level instead.
Probably take out training too and give 11 SP instead of the 9 previously mentioned.
Probably need to play with the SP caps at that point and make the cost of skills be based on a continuously progressive scale, but make the skills cheaper based on the traits you chose (instead of the ALGs from the archetype).
Balance the Special Abilities better so that LBers don't have such awful choices. Maybe just let us choose instead of giving us trees.
Make SA activations more clear with pop-ups the way you get with Spin, Surge, etc.
Maybe give more player specific attributes...
I don't know, I think those would all be advancements to this game that would make it easier for new players.
Originally posted by Theo Wizzago
What was missed (and probably cannot be adjusted to achieve) was the sweet spot. I agree that instant dots wouldn't be all that great. At the current cost (and I doubt that cost would change just cuz you created instant dots) for a fully built dot, only those with a shitton of money and not a lotta smarts would spend enough for GLB to continue on successfully. The many here that are NOT wealthy and halfwitted would simply not go that route and those that did would fracture the userbase even more. Perhaps if the number of 'instant dots' were limited (say 2 per agent just like Free Dots), then it just might work.
But, I also think the length it takes to take a dot from creation to plateau is also WAY too long. If the length were reduced by about 1/3rd of the current time, I think that'd be close to the sweet spot... the spot where you can maintain interest over the duration and where you don't feel like your running in a sprint... just a nice steady marathon. And you'd also feel the cost still worth what you get out of the game, which is the key. If instant dots ruled the roost, I sure wouldn't feel like the few seasons I get from what I'm doing would be worth the cost for the dots I build and I'd simply go elsewhere (something I am in the process of doing anyways due to the lack of a growing userbase and burnout from a static game that no longer changes even in the smallest of ways from season to season.)
I'd go on a hiring spree and only keep a few of the current employees.
Then I'd personally email every user that left/quit and convince them to come back.
I'd offer those that left/quit compensation for all the mistrust and scandals that went on here.
IMO these are a few musts:
1.Get a game manual together for all users.
2.Update all outdated game information
3.Update outdated threads that contain any information
4.Fix the current issues with the game/sim itself and don't use the excuse we're out of beta can't do it.
5.Admins/Moderators act professional in the forums....sarcastic responses/trolling attempts call for sarcastic user comments and user troll attempts...just don't do it.
Originally posted by tpaterniti
These ideas all work together.
1.) Improve the new user experience without alienating the current base. How? Make it so that there are two ways to build a player, Detailed and Relaxed. You would choose at player creation and new users would be strongly encouraged or even required to build relaxed.
-Detailed - exactly like we do it now
-Relaxed - no ALGs, archetypes are for favored SAs only. Make SP adjustments to compensate. Would take a little work to balance out. You could probably do it in 2-3 weeks.
Players who build in Detailed mode could make players around 5-8% better than building in Relaxed mode. The idea would be that new players aren't shooting to build the best possible player who is going to make it to WL. Maybe they think they are, but they don't yet know enough about the game to do it. They just want to build a player who won't suck. This allows them to build intuitively and at the end their player will be Regional Pro quality. Elite builders could still enjoy the current system and build the way they know how.
2.) Provide better building tools. The ALGs remaining and the VPB should be added. They are essential for building as it currently is and would probably be relatively simple to add. It would give users a chance to make mistakes without it taking lots of time and frustration. There should be a better manual for how to build both ways. For Detailed, it would explain ALGs and provide some strategy tips and much more - it would need to be well organized and comprehensive. For Relaxed it would mostly focus on what attributes do since ALGs are not a factor. Of course the Detailed manual would have some of this as well.
3.) Change the pricing scale to make it better reflect the experience. This is a no brainer, make the pricing scale more like GLB2 (cheaper players, less flex returned). Allow people to build more players. It will help every aspect of the game in many ways to have more players around.
3a.) Contests and Sales. Have creative contests and sales. I play the Big Win games on the iPhone and those guys know what's up when it comes to contests and sales. Periodically they will have contests where they hand out huge amounts of their equivalents of FPs to players who place high enough. What would it look like on GLB? Probably like the tournaments, but with big flex prizes for the top 5 places, the most to the 1st place of course. You could do flex sales, weekends where players at a certain position cost half as much as normal (maybe coordinate these up with high demand positions to encourage more of them to be made), and so on. Make it more or less random so that people don't wait for specific times to do things.
4.) Commit to add features every season. I am mostly thinking of new plays and formations. There is low potential for problems with these. You should be adding 1 new formation and maybe 10-15 plays for it (or 10 plays for it, 5 for existing formations) each season. This keeps the game fresh and keeps people excited to play and coordinate. Right now one reason it's stale is that nothing about the playbook has changed for so long. When you make interesting new formations, it gets people excited and even makes them want to build players for those formations. Think about how many TEs have been created thanks to Big I and Singleback Big.
5.) Add some fun features in addition to the game experience. 2K4 football had a Crib (so did 2K basketball). Something like this would be awesome and people would love it. Have team facilities with a trophy room and different aspects that could be upgraded. In addition, make team records not reset, so that each team has a sense of history and meaning. Allow teams to make their own page using a template (you can choose a basic layout, what things about your team you want to add, and so on). These are just ideas I am brainstorming, but in games like this, you have to provide a sense of meaning and history to keep people involved. In the online 2K football league I play in, just adding a wall of champions made a huge difference. If you play, win the league, then 1 month later no one remembers or cares, how boring is that! If you know that winning gets you immortalized, then it makes it special. If you know that team records, player performances, and so on get immortalized in some way, it adds a lot of meaning to the game and keeps people engaged.
Those are some things that I think would add to the game. Sure, advertising would be nice, but you need a great product to advertise. The better the product, the more word of mouth will prevail and the less you will need trying to advertise.
Originally posted by chefs
I'd say the game needs new blood, the old have left the building for various reasons and they probably won't come back after breaking free. Hard to say what people really want and that is I thing what is troubling the staff of WGG, they feel beat up on and I can't blame them totally for losing interest in fixing stuff just to see it bashed to death. We did that ourselves, many of us, but if the game wasn't like paying off your bookie after a bad week, I think it could have corrected itself. The problem was when you take, take, take and say oh, here's the product we are giving you because we just wanted to keep the profits and not really put much back into our loyal customers. Then frustration sets in for the employees, customers and owner. Everyone loses in the end if this fails. Possibly hire a few good graphics artists as in modelers, animators and try to actually compete with Madden. The concept had a ton of potential as we all bought into it, just we wanted more and then they went South and abandoned us here to rot.
Originally posted by chefs
Reprogram it from start to finish.... Remove VAs from the game or lower the max per slot to 10. As it stands 15 in one slot is too much I feel and it's just way too difficult to balance a sim that is based on a rolling chance system if the dots are designed to specifically get INTs and FF. I mean I know it's not supposed to be a realistic sim but it could also be the order of roll progression that is the issue. If a dot rolls for a INT before the player has a chance to catch it, then it's always designed in the defenders favor and should be more equal based on position.
For example of an issue that I see would be when you have 2 close route patterns where the defender is in man coverage versus the WR. The QB throws the ball and you get picked off by a CB that just suddenly comes off his route that was covered well to make a pick on that 2nd route being run when he couldn't have even seen the ball as he's watching the WR and covering the WR in their route. The pathing AI is just not optimal and deeply hurts the QB rolling to pass as the CB has eyes in back of his head and the QB gets hosed. .
Originally posted by Time Trial
Make it so that no matter what day they build their dot, they are at no short or long-term disadvantage.
Make rosters smaller so that every player has more impact.
Expand the archetype system so that dots have traits that affect the salary you have to pay them.
Make a hard salary cap with no way to go over.
Make games happen 2/3 days instead of every other day.
Make the offseason no more than a week.
Make 100 a hard cap that you can't go over with ALGs or equipment, maybe just take out equipment.
In fact, take out ALGs because they make building entirely end-game dependent (even mid-level builds are fucked if they don't play the cap and train system correctly). In exchange for ALGs, give us 9 SP per level instead.
Probably take out training too and give 11 SP instead of the 9 previously mentioned.
Probably need to play with the SP caps at that point and make the cost of skills be based on a continuously progressive scale, but make the skills cheaper based on the traits you chose (instead of the ALGs from the archetype).
Balance the Special Abilities better so that LBers don't have such awful choices. Maybe just let us choose instead of giving us trees.
Make SA activations more clear with pop-ups the way you get with Spin, Surge, etc.
Maybe give more player specific attributes...
I don't know, I think those would all be advancements to this game that would make it easier for new players.
Originally posted by Theo Wizzago
What was missed (and probably cannot be adjusted to achieve) was the sweet spot. I agree that instant dots wouldn't be all that great. At the current cost (and I doubt that cost would change just cuz you created instant dots) for a fully built dot, only those with a shitton of money and not a lotta smarts would spend enough for GLB to continue on successfully. The many here that are NOT wealthy and halfwitted would simply not go that route and those that did would fracture the userbase even more. Perhaps if the number of 'instant dots' were limited (say 2 per agent just like Free Dots), then it just might work.
But, I also think the length it takes to take a dot from creation to plateau is also WAY too long. If the length were reduced by about 1/3rd of the current time, I think that'd be close to the sweet spot... the spot where you can maintain interest over the duration and where you don't feel like your running in a sprint... just a nice steady marathon. And you'd also feel the cost still worth what you get out of the game, which is the key. If instant dots ruled the roost, I sure wouldn't feel like the few seasons I get from what I'm doing would be worth the cost for the dots I build and I'd simply go elsewhere (something I am in the process of doing anyways due to the lack of a growing userbase and burnout from a static game that no longer changes even in the smallest of ways from season to season.)
Edited by Team Nucleus on Sep 9, 2014 18:12:26
Edited by Team Nucleus on Sep 5, 2014 02:44:23
Edited by Team Nucleus on Sep 3, 2014 18:48:16
Edited by Team Nucleus on Sep 1, 2014 19:49:14
Edited by Team Nucleus on Aug 31, 2014 02:40:51
