BuzzerBeater Forums

Good game design, LOL. That is NOT what BBs random expiring auctions is about. Its about lack of respect for peoples daily lives.

It's not about lack of respect for people's daily lives. It's about becoming a part of people's daily lives. You can be perfectly on top of this game by checking in once every other day. And on top of that you have to be willing to schedule some odd times to be on to snag a player or staff. That's not a huge sacrifice. Part of what makes a game engaging is that (to a certain degree) you can't predict what's going to happen. That's what randomness gives you. It builds interest.

I'm also making the argument that it's financially beneficial. Because BB gets money from advertising, it is advantageous to design the game in such a way that people want to access a page many times. So making the staff stream random is also good business, because it adds to the list of things users want to check often.

I hate to bring up another thing that Hattrick has added to the game(it seems like every week there is something new) but I have to. What they have done is added a MAX BID space under the current bid where you type in the max price that you would pay for the player(only if you have said cash) and what it does from there is AUTO bids. So if you are not on and someone raises the bid it automaticlly raises it by one click. As the bidding war heats up, it will raise all the way to the max bid you typed in. I got a really good keeper like this last week.
Here is a good question....why is it that HT can add stuff during the season and BB always waits until the offseason?

Someone had their Coffee extra bitter this morning

All three of you are correct. There are some issues with BuzzerBeater although to give credit they have made some of the changes we have been asking for such as raising the salary floor dramatically in the top leagues making tanking there a much less attractive strategy. As pointed out Hattrick does have that massive player and designer base whereas we have BB-Marin toiling away all by himself. Why they don't hire someone from a third world country who they can pay five dollard an hour is still a mystery to me. Don't forget the range and quality of games available is ever expanding. I recently got an I-Pad and the app store is full of thousands of games that are free or have a trivial cost and can be downloaded in a few moments. To keep the attention of players in a game where it takes three real time months to get result is obviously a difficult task. I think this is a great game but obviously could do with some upgrades. True of false the percieved superiority of the look inside offence especially when combined with a blank lineup is a problem.

Interesting that Hattrick has gone with the ebay style auction. This is much better in real life but for a game where a bit of randomness adds to the fun occasionally getting a bargain is good for the game and while I am no fan of day-traders they have their way of playing and enjoying the game.

Last edited by yodabig at 1/25/2013 2:49:14 AM

I agree with most of your ideas. I really hate moments in a game that is only there to make you log in once in a while. The bidding game for staff members fills no function in my opinion. In previous system you bought a staff member for a fixed price and I definitely want that back. Sure, BB will have to adjust the price regularly but that does not need to be manually done.

My suggestion is:
1) Offer staff at a fixed price for a fixed salary.
2) Increase salary like it is done right now. This means that you will sooner or later have to renew staff member.
3) Once a day or once a week, adjust prices so that they are increased if demand is too high for staff at a specific salary and level. In this way BB can keep a balance between how many users that have a staff member at different salary levels. Each user could look at prices once a day or once a week and decide if price is good.

It really is utterly boring to search for new staff members considering how strange the current system is.

I very much would like to have a simplified version of the player transfer market as well to reduce the time it takes to keep looking for a player for a good price. I do not have a better solution than the current one though.