Bracket fun for all, a new v2.0
Okay, okay...after stepping back a bit I realize that I was trying to wrap two games into one with Fantasy League 2.0, which was leading down a tricky path. So I'm just going to focus on the one thing I know we can all have fun with - brackets.
Pulling from everyone's ideas, including a few of my own, here's what v2.0 could shape up to be.
The racing
- Bi-weekly tournaments, 16-cars; 8 week season
- Tournament winners earn spot in final championship tournament, 16-cars; Winners are removed from pool
- Tournament runner-ups earn spot in final runner-up tournament, 16-cars; Winners are removed from pool
- Final tournament winners go head-to-head to determine season champion; Super champ is retired
The game
- Picking round winners earns points (+5, +10, +15, etc.)
- Picking perfect bracket earns double points
- Picking the tournament winner earns bonus points
- Weekly and season leaderboards
- Prize for top season player by points
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There you go. Simple fun for all.
And I'm stoked...more than before. Is collecting, trading, and garages cool? Yeah, I think it would be fun, focusing on bracket play can be a lot of fun and is open to a lot of interpretation. Having theme tournaments, random picks, hand picks and everything in between. Even mail-in mod tournaments aren't out of the question now.
I may have scaled back from the garage management I think would be fun, but having bonus achievements still adds enough "game" that it will be fun. I have room to play with those achievements too, beyond the simple perfect bracket and such. It all revolves around bracket play. Heck, making picks is all about chance right? Adding some sort of betting feature in the future isn't that far of stretch...you wager points on how sure you are about your tournament picks...or something...
I think having a championship bracket at the end of the season is also pretty cool. The best fight it out to get into the Hall of Fame. And after several seasons a Hall of Fame Tournament!
This version is going to be FAST too. Small tournaments means I can do 2 a week, a mid-week and a weekend. All players have to do is return to submit brackets. It's as lazy as you can make it without being a complete set-and-forget game like some other fantasy leagues.
Although I'm wondering if this still qualifies as a "Fantasy League" it's not much of a "Fantasy" is it? I associate the "fantasy" part with you having a team of all-stars. Without that I think it's just a "virtual" racing league...but we can get into semantics later.
Thoughts?
Discussion
Just to be sure...you're going towards all picks and no garage management to simplify the game? If so it's understandable. I suppose the important thing is to get everyone as involved as possible. Having to pick winners twice a week will keep the players involved without too much 'management' for those who don't have time.
Question: "How much time will we have to make our picks between tournaments?"
I simplified to brackets for lots of reasons, all of which we've discussed before. I makes it easier for me to manage (not be selfish, but hey) and I think it keeps the game simple for *everyone* - hardcore and casual alike. Since the tournaments will be pulled from a wide range of cars, we'll see lots of cars we didn't otherwise see in the current game with garages. Plus I think the requirement to submit brackets rather than picking a garage and letting it sit all season is nice...keeps people on their toes
My thought is that I would post brackets one week before the race date, so you'd have a week to submit your picks. No more deadlines versus race dates and such. One bracket, one date, easier to remember.
I'm really looking forward to the themed brackets. From simple themes like "Muscle Car" to even ones like a Donation bracket that is made up of all donated cars.
If the bracket-only model seems to be lacking once play begins, we'll look at what we can add to spice it up...if that means returning to garages or something, it's all possible at this point.
Managing a garage (picking and trading for the cars you want to represent yourself) is the biggest aspect for me. I'm not a very spectator.
Having a season allows you to fine tune your garage and evaluate your car choices. It also give you a sense of accomplishment when you do well. Unless I am missing something, this new version seems like more of a day at the horse track. Just some opinions for you to roll around.
Jason
You're exactly right, Jason...it will be much more casual than managing cars from week to week.
I think the move to a tournament is a big part of simplifying the game and is something I see as a better foundation to build upon. The challenge now is how to make the tournaments fun.
Simple bracket picking is the start...if there's a way to integrate garage management while maintaining the fun and fair for everyone, I'm all for it! It just has to work within the frame of a 16-car tournament.
It's not too late to change plans for v2.0...I've only started building the bracket stuff, which is going to stay regardless. It just has to have obvious scoring and simple rules.
I'm all for adding back the manually entering a car in each race, limited to the first 16 takers. But there would have to be a checks system in place to limit players from monopolizing entry or using the same car over and over. And then it's about how to handle scoring. To players entering cars get bonus points, or is it still just bracket picking?
I'll go back through all our threads about v2.0 again and see if there's some way to rehash an idea into something that will work.
I appreciate your passion, guys It means a lot. I don't want to disappoint anyone with the new version, so I'm going to work to make it what you guys want...you ARE my audience, but there needs to be a hook in the game to draw in new players as well.
Okay, I went back to the drawing board a bit and came up with something in the middle, I think...what do you guys think of this?
Still 16-car bi-weekly tournaments, themed (Muscle, Ferrari, etc.)
Players can *choose* to enter a car into the tournament. Only the first 16 entries are accepted. Players can pick *any car* that fits the tournament theme and enter it...but one car per entry only, no duplicate car entries allowed. If you want to enter a certain car, you gotta be first to do so.
Any spots in the tournament not filled by player entries will be filled at random from the population of cars.
Once the tournament is seeded, players will submit brackets picking all the winners.
Once cars are raced, players get points for each correct bracket pick (just as outlined before). If the car YOU entered wins the whole tournament, you get extra bonus points on top of whatever points you earned for the bracket. No double or triple bonus points, just a really good pay off if your car wins the whole thing.
And as outlined before too, cars that win tournaments are retired to the final tournament at the end of the season.
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This doesn't restore the full garage management of the first season, but it still lets everyone pick the cars they want, more like what a real world tournament would be.
Since most of the points will still be from bracket picking, it keeps it easy and simple for everyone that doesn't want to worry about entering a car.
And since there won't be any double or triple points, it doesn't matter how often you enter the same car over and over if you want. You'll "know" that your car will win, so you'll get easy bracket points...but others players can cash on that too, if they're paying attention. The car you pick only really pays off if you win the whole tournament, at which point the car is retired anyway.
Thoughts thoughts thoughts?
I get confused. Is bi-weekly twice a week or every two weeks?
If it is twice a week, I will make an effort to pick a car for the
mix but I won't have that much time to make really educated
guesses.
I do think it is a good plan to give players more of a vested interest
in the matches and giving them bonus points if their racer wins
its heat is a good plan.
Bi-weekly is twice a week...
I'll just say twice a week now I'm even confusing myself thinking about it. Sorry for any confusion.
8 weeks of racing, 2 races per week. 16 races total that yields 16 winners for a final tournament at the end of the season.
As I thought more about the enter-a-car model, I think garages can serve as nothing more than a quick list of cars you want to enter...like a Favorites bookmarking thing.
The garage has no bearing on anything in the game, but you can select cars to add to your garage and then when it comes time to enter a car into a tournament, you just hit your garage and quick add from there, rather than searching for cars at the time. The garage would have handy filters for sorting and tell you if a car has already been entered by someone else.
And it still lets players kind of "collect" the cars they want without being a requirement...which I like.
Yeah. You can collect cars and then enter them in the tournaments if you so wish or you can just collect for the sake of collecting (because they are shiny and look cool, that's why! )
As I thought more about the enter-a-car model, I think garages can serve as nothing more than a quick list of cars you want to enter...like a Favorites bookmarking thing.The garage has no bearing on anything in the game, but you can select cars to add to your garage and then when it comes time to enter a car into a tournament, you just hit your garage and quick add from there, rather than searching for cars at the time. The garage would have handy filters for sorting and tell you if a car has already been entered by someone else.
And it still lets players kind of "collect" the cars they want without being a requirement...which I like.
Okay, so it's picking brackets for everyone, to earn the majority of points, and ALSO (for the 'most involved' players ), entering a car into the tournament for some potential bonus points.
Question: so for example if it's a muscle car tournament, will we be entering one of the cars from the existing pool, or will you be adding a whole new batch of muscle cars? The reason for my asking is because if it's the existing pool, most of us already know which muscle cars will dominate the tournament.
My contribution to the new league: I'm going to be sending in a batch of cars in time for v2
Could be cool to have a Players Championship too. Take the top 16 players (by points) at end of each season and let each of them pick one car from the stash to enter. One last tournament to determine the top dog.