NSB Pick Em 2022 MASTERTHREAD

[Tatabanya]

I will probably repeat a lot what Koba said.

I think the game may suffer if we don't have multipliers.
They add drama, they add chance for people that maybe picked number of fights wrong at the start of the game. Because how many of them will stay in the game even though they don't have a chance? (of course the motivation here can be different for everyone)

I am curious what changes will be done because there are many directions we can go. Should Pickem focus more on luring and adding more and more players or should it focus more on the current ones. Because I am totally not against gamification of Pickem and removing multipliers will be step backwards, imo. I think the game should be fun first and foremost.

My thought was why not reward the most accurate picker as an extra (based on total win percentage, number of perfect picks). So he/ she will have a bragging rights and place among the top three. That way the "hardcores" should be satisfied and more "casual" players will have their multipliers.

The final suggestion is brilliant. Accuracy should be always rewarded, regardless of the actual standings.

However, without multipliers even those who pick a number of fights wrong at the outset will not be left behind in such a way as to be demoralized by a huge gap in points (which is what happens when they get it wrong at the beginning, and see someone else shooting up to a bazillion points because of a couple of x3 multipliers played well).

[Citizen Koba]

I will probably repeat a lot what Koba said.

I think the game may suffer if we don't have multipliers.
They add drama, they add chance for people that maybe picked number of fights wrong at the start of the game. Because how many of them will stay in the game even though they don't have a chance? (of course the motivation here can be different for everyone)

I am curious what changes will be done because there are many directions we can go. Should Pickem focus more on luring and adding more and more players or should it focus more on the current ones. Because I am totally not against gamification of Pickem and removing multipliers will be step backwards, imo. I think the game should be fun first and foremost.

My thought was why not reward the most accurate picker as an extra (based on total win percentage, number of perfect picks). So he/ she will have a bragging rights and place among the top three. That way the "hardcores" should be satisfied and more "casual" players will have their multipliers.

The final suggestion is brilliant. Accuracy should be always rewarded, regardless of the actual standings.

However, without multipliers even those who pick a number of fights wrong at the outset will not be left behind in such a way as to be demoralized by a huge gap in points (which is what happens when they get it wrong at the beginning, and see someone else shooting up to a bazillion points because of a couple of x3 multipliers played well).

FWIW when we had a functioning User points system on the Scene before the revamp last year I used to dole out prizes in Userpoints for most accurate player by % best streak, most perfect and so on... I was gifted a coupla million points for POTY a few years back and just gave em out of my own fund. Unfortunately not only are User points now meaningless cos you can't actually do anything with em anymore, they even took away the facility for giving / donating them so that plans a no go.

I could go cap in hand to Big Poppa for more cash prizes but I'm not convinced he'll bite unless it can be shown that he's actually getting some ROI... we did have a little bit of discussion end of 2020 I think it was about the possibility of monthly prizes to improve engagement but I suspect I misstepped a little when I suggested that if he was actively looking to make the game a semi-official part of the site and profitting from it the CREW should probably be getting some recompense too. He's been a little terse with me since then.

That said running some kinda monthly thing could possibly have some traction... the fact that there's 12 rounds in a Championship boxing match and 12 months in year is kinda gimmicky too but could make it fun maybe... again not sure how to reward people without BPPs involvement unless we're happy with bragging rights?

Anyways, all this kinda stuff is all ideas in the bank that we can all mull over over and chat about over the next few months , see if we can come up with some good changes for next year

[siablo14]

You know me already. Less fights. Less multipliers.

[Tatabanya]

You know me already. Less fights. Less multipliers.

That's what I call minimalism

[Citizen Koba]

That's what I call minimalism

In both style and content.

[NC Uppercut]

Far be it from me to imply elitism.... I was more thinking of the difficulty (especially yours!) of having to keep up with excessive arithmetic and participatory fragmentation. Of course, I am also happier if we can get more people seriously involved. Ultimately, only the strong survives...

I myself have tried to invite more people to the Pick Em Party. I also feel that we have most control over issues of racism and trolling, which as Tatabanya has stated, plaques most of NSB, within our game. I definitely don’t want it to be elitist or drive away the potential semi-casuals, etc..
Be safe on your voyage my friend! I’ll keep this together until you return.

[NC Uppercut]

The final suggestion is brilliant. Accuracy should be always rewarded, regardless of the actual standings.

However, without multipliers even those who pick a number of fights wrong at the outset will not be left behind in such a way as to be demoralized by a huge gap in points (which is what happens when they get it wrong at the beginning, and see someone else shooting up to a bazillion points because of a couple of x3 multipliers played well).

I agree with MikeyG here. I truly think we need to keep the multipliers in place personally

[NC Uppercut]

In both style and content.

Koba, I personally would prefer that we keep our multipliers. Maybe, if needed, we can drop the amount of them down….but ultimately that has been a part of this game from day 1. I actually believe we will lose a few players over taking them out. Just one man’s humble opinion.

[Tatabanya]

I myself have tried to invite more people to the Pick Em Party. I also feel that we have most control over issues of racism and trolling, which as Tatabanya has stated, plaques most of NSB, within our game. I definitely don’t want it to be elitist or drive away the potential semi-casuals, etc..
Be safe on your voyage my friend! I’ll keep this together until you return.

You're talking to Tatabanya, my brother... and I ain't leaving home

[Citizen Koba]

Koba, I personally would prefer that we keep our multipliers. Maybe, if needed, we can drop the amount of them down….but ultimately that has been a part of this game from day 1. I actually believe we will lose a few players over taking them out. Just one man’s humble opinion.

I don't think there's any immediate plans to scrap em man, least not unless there's a torrent of support for the idea, and even if we were eventually to go that way it'd be incrementally rather than all at once I think... but really that's not what I'm personally thinking about, more looking at ways in which they can be tweaked to make them more of a complement to skillful and informed picking than as an alternative to it... ie getting away from the obvious tactical use of them in waiting for extreme favourites, which may earn points but tells us little about the skill or knowledge of the player.

My favourite option is possibly both reducing the overall number of multipliers somewhat and making it so that all multipliers (and not just x5s) can only be used on Underdogs... that should make folk think a lot harder about when and how they're used and make em more meaningful. It;s all up for discussion though... it's more like I wanted to get the ball rolling now cos too often I don't start thinking about potential changes until late on in the year, usually December when everyone's distracted anyway and we don't really get time for everyone to have proper input.