mp leagues

[zullojer]

Man seems impossible to recruit for leagues these days. The online community has seem to have shrunken quite a bit. Add to that the long time owners retiring and it seems like bleak times ahead for mp leagues. I hope not, i hope for a resurgence.

I have been thinking lately how cool it would be for a brand new league to start with the 2009 current nfl rosters. I wonder if there is enough interest in the community though. Might give some long time owners stuck in leagues without there favorite team a chance to get their home town team.

[sidthelid]

Maybe the new patch if it ever arrives will stimulate some new interest, the game needs freshning up in a number of areas before people start coming back to MP IMHO. I think perhaps another league would encourage people to drop a league they are already in rather than get new MP players, but i could well be wrong

[Disturbed]

I do agree it is getting harder and harder to keep people in leagues. For me I just joined too many leagues and cutting back was the best thing for me. At one point I was up to 8 leagues. That is just way to many.

I find that with fewer leagues I get more into my teams and learning the players.

I actually have more fun with fictional players because its not like having Peyton Manning and knowing your team is going to be good unless you just have a run of bad luck.

[Dutch]

FOF has not upgraded it's commissioner tools in 6 years. It would be nice if Jim made it easier for would-be commish's to...well, want to become a commish. Right now, it's damned near a full-time job. Who can do that? And do it for a long enough time to be interesting to 32 committed owners?

The next thing to worry about is the length of the season. 3-4 months per season! Keeping 32 committed owners around for 3-4 months for one season is asking a lot.

Speaking of the season length, 3-4 months is way too long to keep most people's interest. I would suggest that Jim needs to come up with solutions for how to get the season down to 1.5 or 2 months long. Get rid of mid-weeks. Optimize the off-season by merging the boring stuff (Staff Hiring/Stadium/Pricing) into other stages.

Just some thoughts...

[zullojer]

well you can do most of that without jim. I've been in leagues that do what you are saying. combining stages, no interims 4 games a week. It is a 2 month process for a season, but you still have turnover, and risk less team articles and weekly write ups.

[stevew]

Just comparing FOF to OOTP, there's no way I'd ever have the desire to try to run an FOF league again. Whereas OOTP is so friggin easy, you almost do no work other than to process a few trades, and hit a few buttons.

Like the OOTP league, we can run a complete season cycle in 2 months. Each offseason is roughly 2 weeks. And we sim 15 days 3 times a week. Which I don't find that pace to be all that fast, at all.

[QuikSand]

Get rid of mid-weeks.

I think this isn't really something Jim built into the game, it's just something that sort of evolved from the leagues on their own.

All but one of the leagues I play in have eliminated midweek stages, with either no or negligible ill effect. With just a little preparation and understanding by the league owners, it ends up being a very smooth transition to no midweeks, even if you're used to them. (People just need to remember stuff like "new free agent signings show up as active" and that sort of thing... no higher order math or anything)

Of course, for a league whose administration is willing to run stages every day, if you get rid of midweeks, you invite the question "why not run a game every weekday?" And, I suppose, that invites divisiveness among those who think that's a fine idea, and those who hate it. So it goes.

[Disturbed]

Midweeks suck.

I don't think long seasons make it hard to keep people. I do think it is always best to speed things up during the post season to keep people interested. I know a few leagues have gone to posting the postseason files as soon as all the owners who have games have exported or said they are ready.

Subby and I are a good example of this in the GEFL. Each of the last two seasons we have met in the Franchise Bowl and the games were ran the day after the conference title games because we were both ready.

I think what causes me to lose interest is when you run each FA stage individual. I love a FA that runs like this...

day 1 - stage 1
day 2 - stage 2
day 3 - stage 3
day 4 - stage 4/5 - start draft
day 5 - stage 5/6
day 6 - stage 7/8
day 7 - stage 9-12
Finish up the draft.

Another thing that I have noticed is that a few of my FOF friends are saying they are burnt out because they tried to hard to perfect every little detail about the game instead of just sitting back and enjoying the community.

[Steel]

Midweeks suck.

I don't think long seasons make it hard to keep people. I do think it is always best to speed things up during the post season to keep people interested. I know a few leagues have gone to posting the postseason files as soon as all the owners who have games have exported or said they are ready.

Subby and I are a good example of this in the GEFL. Each of the last two seasons we have met in the Franchise Bowl and the games were ran the day after the conference title games because we were both ready.

I think what causes me to lose interest is when you run each FA stage individual. I love a FA that runs like this...

day 1 - stage 1
day 2 - stage 2
day 3 - stage 3
day 4 - stage 4/5 - start draft
day 5 - stage 5/6
day 6 - stage 7/8
day 7 - stage 9-12
Finish up the draft.

Another thing that I have noticed is that a few of my FOF friends are saying they are burnt out because they tried to hard to perfect every little detail about the game instead of just sitting back and enjoying the community.

Agree with this 100%. Especially the off-season statement. Gets boring when you spend over a full month in the off-season... and yes I have experienced that.

[sidthelid]

I'd like to see more info shared amongst owners, there are some very good GM's out there who have been playing a long long time and no loads of secrets, i respect they have learnt these the hard way and maybe don't want to give there secrets away, but when you have the newby owners who have got over that initial burst of "hey MP's leagues are great" they can drift away from the game as they feel out of there depth up against the really good GM's. The game needs to attract new players but also keep the one's it has.

[cuervo72]

Another thing that I have noticed is that a few of my FOF friends are saying they are burnt out because they tried to hard to perfect every little detail about the game instead of just sitting back and enjoying the community.

Ahh, you hit on my buzzword - community. I enjoy FOFL and FOBL because of the greater community - even if there is less activity on the forums than there used to be, these are guys I have known for a number of years, many of which I chat with multiple times a week. I am going to be checking in there daily regardless, so why not stay in the leagues? I haven't completely soured on the game (some have), and I come up with little side projects to keep myself involved (outside of, you know, simming). And I do still like the competition.

More and more we have had to reach outside of the FOxL community for owners, as many of the original owners have just gotten sick of the game and/or dissection of the game (Shaw, PineTar, Critch, alhill, Daimyo, CubsFan, Simms, Buddy Grant, Ryan S, Malificent, pbot, Morgado...) So we try to look here. Some owners become part of the FOxL community (RKG, Ben, Ramzavail, DD, digamma, Fonzie, MrDNA, etc. etc. I'm not naming you all) These guys stick. Others think of it as "just another FOF league", and these guys don't. You can only have so many communities that you are a part of.

[cuervo72]

I'd like to see more info shared amongst owners, there are some very good GM's out there who have been playing a long long time and no loads of secrets, i respect they have learnt these the hard way and maybe don't want to give there secrets away, but when you have the newby owners who have got over that initial burst of "hey MP's leagues are great" they can drift away from the game as they feel out of there depth up against the really good GM's. The game needs to attract new players but also keep the one's it has.

This can be a problem too. Say you *do* uncover someone new to the MP scene. They join, and they are in a division with someone who has been at it for three years on this version, more with others, and know the game inside and out. If that new guy isn't a quick study (or sometimes a little lucky), they could have a very uphill battle. Get smacked around for a couple of seasons - or even one, if seasons are a few months - with a bad team (some of these teams are in states of disrepair when they come in) and you may not have much incentive to stick around.

[Disturbed]

I tend to share my knowledge.

In one league I even posted all my offensive game plans and defensive game plans including ones I won championships with.

[Firefly]

Maybe there isn't less people, but more leagues?

[Ben E Lou]

Maybe there isn't less people, but more leagues?
This is what I suspect.

[cuervo72]

Empowered by Ben's code. ;)

[DeepPost]

This is what I suspect.

How about merging a few leagues? I think it would be pretty cool, if you could work out the logistics.

[OldSchool]

I tend to share my knowledge.

In one league I even posted all my offensive game plans and defensive game plans including ones I won championships with.

Yeah, but on the other hand we just had a megathread where people said you'd have to pry their fof secrets from their cold dead fingers so sharing doesn't seem to be the norm, and given the effort required to gain said secrets I can't say that I blame them. That said there's plenty of info that's been posted here if they have the patience to do a little forum digging.

Personally I think its the combination of an aging product with a relatively unfriendly MP interface.

[RedKingGold]

Want to know what's important for a short-pass offense? I'll tell you what I think based on my experience.

Want to see the actual numbers in my gameplan? = dead cold fingers.

Rinse/repeat for any other information asked/requested that I know of.

[Dutch]

Want to know what's important for a short-pass offense? I'll tell you what I think based on my experience.

Want to see the actual numbers in my gameplan? = dead cold fingers.

Rinse/repeat for any other information asked/requested that I know of.

Yeah, that's about right. When I left GEFL, I PM'd Subby to make sure the FNG didn't see my old gameplan. :)

[Yoda]

Yeah, that's about right. When I left GEFL, I PM'd Subby to make sure the FNG didn't see my old gameplan. :)

Not sure what PM'ing Subby has to do with it. I could still access your GP's.... if someone were to pay me enough. ;):p :popcorn:

[Dutch]

Not sure what PM'ing Subby has to do with it. I could still access your GP's.... if someone were to pay me enough. ;):p :popcorn:

I PM'd Subby because I figured him kind of an expert on the subject as a commish. But in any event, you could access my old gameplans?

[Yoda]

I PM'd Subby because I figured him kind of an expert on the subject as a commish. But in any event, you could access my old gameplans?

I could access the one that was in the last gameplan file when the change over was done. As can RKG, as I believe that Todd gave him access to the same files.

Why? do you want it? If you want it, I will load it up and get it for you. Other that that, I have no intention to load it up.

[Dutch]

I could access the one that was in the last gameplan file when the change over was done. As can RKG, as I believe that Todd gave him access to the same files.

Why? do you want it? If you want it, I will load it up and get it for you. Other that that, I have no intention to load it up.

Well, no, I don't need those particular GP files...I just expected some sort of privacy of GP's during ownership changes, but I suppose not. Another MP feature that could use some support from Solecismic.

[RedKingGold]

I could access the one that was in the last gameplan file when the change over was done. As can RKG, as I believe that Todd gave him access to the same files.

FWIW, I deleted everything I have from GEFL off my laptop months ago and never accessed any data file from that league at any time from when VPI gave me the files to when I left the league.

[Yoda]

Well, no, I don't need those particular GP files...I just expected some sort of privacy of GP's during ownership changes, but I suppose not. Another MP feature that could use some support from Solecismic.

The GP's are saved in the commish GP file. The only reason I have access to it, is because I still have the original files that I got from VPI that I keep just in case something happens.

Like it did yesterday, as my main PC died.

[zullojer]

i like a lot of the suggestions about simming speed. We are talking league wide about implementing some of these changes like 3 games a week M W F with no interims, as well as combining free agency stages.

We have a handful of open teams and want fill up with elite owners.
FLFL recruiting (open teams) - Front Office Football Central (http://operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=74600)