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No button please! You opened a thread where we should discuss how to get more users no how to change BB. People that doesn't want to spend some hours testing the game and writing in help forum cannot survive a lot even if you create the God button.

I definitly agree with that, no button please "Ciarls" :p

no "god button" to me too, but some help. I argue with thenewchuckd about HT to be mindless. It can be, while BB cannot, but if you put your brain and use tools you can improve performances up to 30% above common sense - the reason why I was close to the promotion without having a solid team.

Closing this OT, I would act on two directions:
1) stimulate and support newbies: which are good attackers? or defenders? which is the suggestion you can have to play a R&G offense (good passers, solid shooters in G, ect). Just common sense, nothing more. Or a newbie can get lost in attack and defense alchemies. Then no automated button can replace your brain ... Hope so at least! ;) So, you can apply your favourite style - as a newbie, following common sense suggestions at the beginning, than applying your experience and enhancements. If you don't agree, consider to eliminate any suggestion to the player: as of today, system tells you if a player can be considered as a PG or a PF, not a scandal to argue about - although just a suggestion.

2) support proficient users, with enhanced statistics (raw data, not evaluation). Show latest match backwards; enable selection of LP/friendly/RS/PO in player statistics; simplify access to per-match statistics; show your team's and opponent's stats (5/11 is good against solid defender, bad against a poor one). Or just enable download to any spreadsheet. Here you can loose your time when trying to force your team's capabilities over the top: I spend much time studying opponents, just navigating through pages and taking notes on paper

I came to BB by way of a banner ad on HT, a game that I had been playing for a short while but stopped completely once I started this one. I am a casual soccer fan and a big basketball fan, so for me the choice was easy. What caught my eye was the sport, not the GE or the site slickness or what have you.

My suggestion is to put your ad budget into basketball websites- fantasy basketball forums, real basketball forums, NBA.com, etc. There must be plenty of dedicated basketball web boards, blogs, etc. in many languages where many people who A) use computers and like basketball spend their time.

Good luck. I think this is a fantastic game and hope to see it grow. To me the game is not very complex. I wish there were box-and-1 and half court trap options, a flex offense and an isolation offense. I also think a wider variety of announcer comments would be a great idea.

Last edited by somdetsfinest at 1/7/2009 11:20:01 PM

I think this game is very good, and the amount of time invested in it can be quite a bit early on with the learning curve. I think it would be good to have a turtorial that gives some hints/suggestions/examples to help the newbies. New users that get frustrated will drop out before they catch on a lot of times.

As for referrals, I think it would be good to give out some extended supporter.

just my 2 cents worth.

No button You opened please! a thread where we should discuss how to get more users no how to change BB. People that doesn't want to spend some hours testing the game and writing in help forum cannot survive a lot even if you create the God button.

yes. this is a thread how to get more users. does it appear to you that we are talking not about to change the game because we are unhappy but to help new starters? this is a HUGE difference in my opinion!!!

To grow the game I think you must define the type of user you are aiming to attract.

There have been comments about HT in this thread and as a die hard football fan I cant for the life of me see what people still see in this game. I played for a number of seasons with moderate success (highest ranked for the month I started 95% of the time) yet the progress was slow and tedious and there was even more of an economic simulator feel to the game and for the younger generation, although it is easy to pick up and play you need to be online to buy your trainees at the right time or you are doomed.

I then found BB via my brother and the immediate comparisons to the above seemed true at the beginning but after a short period of time I became engrossed in the intricacies of the match engine and despite my lack of knowledge on basketball I grew more fond of the interface/close knit community and seasonal tweaks to make the game better and better.... but as 1 or 2 have commented it is for me starting to get a bit stale.... the decision to slow training speeds down is the one that frustrates me the most and unless this changes back to the speeds of late 2007 the game for me will all but die out as it simply takes too long to see the fruits of your labour.

Give teams ubermonster players let them go bankrupt if they cant afford wages... as it stands at the moment teams are all growing in almost identical ways with the top teams growing slower so that the chasing pack can catch up. It is then rock, paper scissors (3-2, Man to Man, 2-3) to see if you win in close games - thats all.

So for me improving the game engine continuously may please some hardcore fans of the sport but wont appeal to the masses which i think is why you started this thread.

My view my be slightly tainted by the fact i now play FootballManagerLive and for me this is so far ahead of anything ive played before it is difficult to compare. Perhaps unfair even to compare as the communities are between 600-1000 people and most are like me die-hard fanatical football fans and I would imagine the average time spent playing is into the hours per day not minutes. None the less the depth that this game goes into puts hattrick back in the dark ages and that is for me what wins the day.

Back to the overall point of my response - if you are looking for managers who will log in for 10-15mins every day then you currently have a model where anyone can achieve success by doing this. But i fear that you will only find a limited number of people to do this unless a big step up in options in tactics and player creation.

To get people online buzzing (no pun intended) everyday and to continuously recommend friends you need a global ranking system and the ability to challenge and accept challenges anytime of day with anyone that is online. (like FML)

Only then will you create different communities of managers that spend various times online.

Today there is no need for many teams to use the transfer market (recent player development is so slow the market has died) coach market (cant be bothered or not exciting enough). We can log on to pray that minutes are accurate for training watch an occasional international game and if you are in a less active country then until there is parity in the teams rosters you can only really get your kicks out of PL games.

This is in no way meant to be a critical view of the game as I always come back for my fix of BB.

I would as mentioned above like to have the ability to play anyone, anytime and want faster growing players to re-ignite the transfer market and add more variety to the types of players possible to create.

All of us (no exception) writing in this thread are BB-enthousiasts. And I am prett much convinced that this is the actual value in BB (depending on game, GE, community, whatever you think).

I then would not recommend generic banners (although some creation of awareness would be relevant). Viral marketing is the best way to maximize the impact of our genuine excitement toward potential new users

I think you should provide newcomers some kind of instantaneous fun, since many players can create their teams and wait for several days for a game. If someone starts before the all star game, for example, it can take like 5 days for his team to play for real, since the newcomer won't be familiar with the idea of scrimmages and everything.
What I mean is: a newcomer should be given the opportunity to start playing a few minutes after he gets his team. He could be offered the choice of, for example, playing against himself a few times, when he wants, using his own players, just to feel the game, before his interest fades out when waiting for the real stuff. He could also be offered some nice features, like a 3PT competition using his own players, just for fun and for him to start to feel familiarized with the game.
Just some ideas, I hope it doesn't sound stupid, but I really think that something should be done to avoid newcomers to abandon the game just because he is not able to have some fun quickly.

What about a list on each country's page with new teams from the past (f.ex.) 7 days?

From time to time I contact new users when I stumble upon them, welcoming them to the game, and give them a few tips on where to find info on training, tactics and perhaps my own view on which players to go for, and which to get rid of. I wish someone did that for me when I first joined, since I knew nothing about the game or basketball in general. This way managers with spare time and/or interest in more players in their country can give a little of their knowledge guiding newcomers into the warmth of the BB-community. And getting personal mail from someone who cares about your success and joy with the game makes it a little harder to quit after the first few log ins.

Steel Fidel was one of the first managers that helped me understand the game, and 23Larsen's posts in the norwegian forum about famous players and managers in basketball history (american b-ball history so far) have entertained me a lot and heightened my interest. The National forum should be more visible as well since it for some may be easier to understand things in their own language.

What about a list on each country's page with new teams from the past (f.ex.) 7 days?

Brilliant idea :-)

I believe that giving away Supporter package for some time would something that would increase interest of new players. But not for just 14 days....it should be 1 or 2 months.

Some other games have given away 14 days supporter, and I think that by the time this ends new players are just starting to get to know the game.

And more supporter stats.

Last edited by Blacksword at 1/8/2009 2:51:24 PM