BuzzerBeater Forums

What Knect said.....

In 2010 it was (almost) up to the technological standard. It has become an oldtimer now.

The engine needs an overhaul, the gameviewer needs a HTML5 version, ... So much to do and adding customizable courts after like 10 years is no big deal really.

Messing up Utopia was a big mistake - where did this money go? 10k made with the first batch of users, could habe funded an App EASILY.

Also...the lack of options in 2010. There are better games on my iPhone now. The football app I am playing is basically the same thing as BB....train players, buy players....but one big difference...I CONTROL THE PLAYERS WHILE I AM PLAYING THE GAME.
No stupid text, no Xs or Os....real time, I control everything.

No chance to buy decent prospects, no chance to add players with a long term perspective... If I start a game I want a carefree, fun experience, not a week long drag just to win my first game...

Got ganged up a couple of years ago for saying it can't take over a year in order to be competitive. At the end of the day some compromises ought to be made:
-a full arena shouldn't cost $7 million, irrespective of whether such a large arena is useful or not (I'm just going to observe that those who say you don't need a 20k arena are also those who say you should expand the arena as much as you can as there is no drawback to it)
- a new team shouldn't just have a trainable player, it should have 2 trainable players (allstar or better and in micronations superstar or better) and another 2-3 decent players. Make a waivers list for new teams where they can pick up FA who are not eligible to go on the TL because they are too bad
- people made forums post in the past to help new managers, maybe that could have been incorporated in tooltips

There is a million things that can be done to help new managers, what has been done (the trainee) is something but I don't think it's nearly enough. The hurdle that you need to play for months and months before you can actually feel like you're getting somewhere is the main issue here.

Last edited by Lemonshine at 10/4/2016 6:16:55 AM

Please don't agitate me on the trainee. The guy I got on my Utopia team is more or less hot garbage.

$ 7 million for the arena is a bargain, considerin how much players cost these days. The expansion is the least problem actually.

Well it is a problem when you know you have to pay that eventually, but I agree that inaccessible TL prices are even worse.

Is that true? I mean, do you know of any apps out there that only cost $10k?
I'm asking both out of honest curiosity and based on some unrelated app development conversations I've had where they are many times more expensive.

It depends on the things you want an app to do, prices range from a few hundred bucks to 500k. I had interest in a pretty complex gaming app and got offers from freelancers ranging from 5-15k. Unfortunately a pretty similar game was released in the meanwhile, so my plans did not materialize.

An app that would allow us to set lineups and watch the games would be quite cheap I assume, but the problem would probably be the very outdated infrastructure we have in this game.

If you want to buy existing apps/games and get them redesigned:
https://flippa.com/apps
http://www.chupamobile.com/

Get somebody to code for you:
https://www.freelancer.com
https://www.upwork.com/

If the BBs WANT to do something, there are ways to get it done. I think wasting the ad money for an app, would have been much more successful.

Thanks for the perspective. As with most things, the details matter a lot. I think the app I was looking at developing was pretty complicated, as far as apps go.

A Buzzerbeater App would be nice, of course, or what about making the website itself mobile friendly?
Personally, I've never had an issue logging on and changing lineups, checking for Friday morning pops, watching games, and all that jazz. It is very small on the screen of course, so being a mobile friendly interface would make it easier on the eyes without having to zoom in all the time.

I think the discriminant would be whether you consider the changes major improvements, minor improvements or no improvement at all. Changes don't automatically make a product better and some of the largest issues with the game have not been addressed at all. The game only had 1 significant GE change 5 or 6 years ago. Sure small improvements do help, but it really isn't something that alters the perception people have of this game.

Improve the GE, improve the website and viewer, improve the game balance (as in make all tactics viable and well defined, not just minor patches here and there), improve access to new users, solve the micronations conundrum with a solution that works depending on changing number of users. All of these would be significant improvements. A little boost to SB, overextension tax, GDP, GS hit after a sale, a little boost to outside shooting, removal of blanks, TL search by TSP, forum notifications, FA policy are not major or groundbreaking changes really.

Last edited by Lemonshine at 10/5/2016 5:30:41 AM

the game when viewed on its own merits is a quite a bit better now than it was in 2010. Since that time there have been a lot of upgrades and fixes made to make it better. There's obviously still room for improvement in many areas, but when viewed in a vacuum I don't think it's fair to say that the game is actually worse now.

Acutally I think the game is a lot worse than 2010.

In 2010 tactics, salary formula and many other things were not fully figrured out, we had more managers and a much better experience overall - the game viewer was state of the art and the game was much easier to play. The few tweaks that have been made in the meanwhile have been of mixed success I would say and the only major upgrade (Utopia) is a borderline fail in my opinion.

The game has become really hard to endure - especially for new users it's a huge drag and thats why like 99,9% quit during the first few weeks. It's no fun to play a full year until you can buy a semi-decent declining old fudge. What's the point in this? Give the people something to cheer about.

Also the tendency to shy away from big changes, just because someone could be offended (micromerger) is a bit awkward - maybe that's why Utopia has become such a lukewarm compromise - it was the least controversial change...