CC's Play Pen for Tots

[thegreekdog]

Isn't there something about soccer where the worst team in "League One" has to go to the suckier "League Two" and the best team in "League Two" goes to the better "League One?"

[BigBallinStalin]

It is a bad idea to have a clan designated solely to train players up to join a better clan.

Why?

[Mr Changsha]

In my view the fundamental issue is that over the years the site has been designed for Great-Ollie. Playing around 9,000 games a year, it is crucial that such a player never ever becomes bored. Therefore, we have a never ending search for more medals, an almost unlimited supply of maps to, no doubt, gain medals on and a range of settings ever increasing. This has happened of course because the design of this site is community led and the great majority of those who participate in that gradual evolution are fellow hardcore players.

This means that the site has year by year moved away in its design principles from the casual player. It also means that this is the principle cause of the drop in overall membership. Sadly, efforts to better include new players have generally been done in the sanctimonious way that hardcore players typically treat the noob (which btw is a word you will rarely see me use unless in ironic italics!).

How to fix it?

1. For the new player the available options on this site need to be hugely limited. It should be impossible for them to join any of the sorts of games our high rankers max their scores on. Their options should be limited to basic maps, standard (yes just standard), no cards, flat or escalating..up to 12 players.
2. The rest of the site should not become available to new players until they have gained the lieutenant's rank.
3. These players should have a seperate scoreboard, not with a patronising name like 'Play Pen for Tots' (you see the problem BBS?) but something more muscular and manly, if faintly homo-erotic, like 'Young Bloods'.
4. Crucially, I would give such players (nay all players) a choice to opt in or opt out of the wider site. This seperate scoreboard should only track the basic settings and the basic game. Players new and old can choose to concentrate on that game, achieve something meaningful within the basic game (this has always been a key point for me) and avoid the hardcore game which I maintain has been created for a hardcore minority.

So to conclude, I would split this site in two. Players should have the option to opt in or opt out of the basic, casual game. Opting in, the whole site in its hardcore madness becomes available to them and they are placed on to the main scoreboard. Opt out, and they are placed on the 'casual game' scoreboard. New players should be on that scoreboard until they have achieved a score of 1600.

[BigBallinStalin]

How to fix it?

1. For the new player the available options on this site need to be hugely limited. It should be impossible for them to join any of the sorts of games our high rankers max their scores on. Their options should be limited to basic maps, standard (yes just standard), no cards, flat or escalating..up to 12 players.
2. The rest of the site should not become available to new players until they have gained the lieutenant's rank.
3. These players should have a seperate scoreboard, not with a patronising name like 'Play Pen for Tots' (you see the problem BBS?) but something more muscular and manly, if faintly homo-erotic, like 'Young Bloods'.
4. Crucially, I would give such players (nay all players) a choice to opt in or opt out of the wider site. This seperate scoreboard should only track the basic settings and the basic game. Players new and old can choose to concentrate on that game, achieve something meaningful within the basic game (this has always been a key point for me) and avoid the hardcore game which I maintain has been created for a hardcore minority.

So to conclude, I would split this site in two. Players should have the option to opt in or opt out of the basic, casual game. Opting in, the whole site in its hardcore madness becomes available to them and they are placed on to the main scoreboard. Opt out, and they are placed on the 'casual game' scoreboard. New players should be on that scoreboard until they have achieved a score of 1600.

"Play Pen for Tots" is for garnering attention. I wasn't seriously suggesting that be their name. "Newb" is shorter than "newcomer" and really isn't that offensive.

I like the separate scoreboard idea. One would be called "Basic," the other... "Exploiters"?

Farmers would love the Basic world though, but they lose the ability to make exploitable settings, so who knows what the distribution in each world would be.

[Dukasaur]

Farmers would love the Basic world though, but they lose the ability to make exploitable settings,

Explain the logic. If they lose the ability to make exploitable settings, why would they love the Basic world?

[BigBallinStalin]

Farmers would love the Basic world though, but they lose the ability to make exploitable settings,

Explain the logic. If they lose the ability to make exploitable settings, why would they love the Basic world?

Farmers would love the Basic world though (but they wouldn't because) they lose the ability to make exploitable settings.

Sorry, messy writing.