Thought for a feature, marketplace for game and mailins
Posting this here in General because it applies to both the Fantasy League and Mail-in events...
Since not everyone plays in the Fantasy League, a quick overview...it's an online game where players pick the winners in weekly tournaments held across the country on home tracks. Players get points and credits for each correct pick. Points determine who the champion is after a "season" of tournaments, while credits are used in the game to unlock new cars that are then added to the game. Simple enough (and very fun, so give it a try if you haven't yet )
I've had trouble coming up with a way for players to spend their credits beyond simply unlocking cars. I was brainstorming with a friend recently and we came up with the thought of an online marketplace where players could spend their credits for diecast goodies...not unlike the old arcades where you earned tickets playing Skeeball and then using them to get a stuffed animal or something. I like this concept as I think it offers more to players and makes earning/spending credits more of a challenge.
The nice part about this concept (and credits) is that by making this a general marketplace we could extend credit earning beyond the Fantasy League games. There's no reason sanctioned mail-in tournaments couldn't offer some Redline Derby credits as a prize (along with other prizes) and then non-League players could also get in on the goodies too...making those mail-in victories all the more sweeter.
The Fantasy League would still offer individual tournament prizes offered only to players, nothing would really change there. This would just extend the credits as a "site currency" that could be used by everyone to get some cool freebies.
Thoughts?
Do you think it's worth exploring?
What sounds good about it, what sounds bad?
Any and all feedback is appreciated!
Discussion
Cool idea.
What I think would be neat, is if some of these mail in tournaments could actually be "Redline Derby" approved. Where the races can be managed through the site. Managed in a way that people could put up the brackets and then people can make their picks and then earn those credits towards these things. Of course they would have to follow established procedures that you put in place with the # of cars, points earned etc...
Being able to post my brackets and let people pick my races is the ultimate redline derby racing website.
These things in real life drive me crazy though! I have seven tickets left, I want two tootsie rolls, the plastic bookmark, and the red Jolly Rancher. Dad, why can't I get the Hot Wheels car? Sorry son, you don't have 40,000 tickets for it. Your time is coming Brian!
Thanks for the feedback, it helps a lot.
I think having a "host your own tournament" is definitely possible and within the cards. I'm not saying that's an easy thing to add but I agree that it's where I think RLD could contribute the most. And since we've opened up the variant photos in the League game, I know people are up to the task of photographing their cars, etc., so some of the work I normally do will be on the shoulders of individual organizers...and maybe that will help determine which ones are "Redline Derby approved" and thus get credit options, etc.
Of course, once this asume stuff happens, the big question is how it integrates into the existing game? Especially when it concerns cars that other people have but I don't. Keeping the data clean is most important so we need to be careful about how it is handled so we don't mess up what has become 3 years worth of racing history for hundreds of cars.
Anyway...good thoughts, please keep it coming!
Sounds good to me.I have another idea as far as getting the two sides (fantasy and mail-ins) together. Brian, you could host a 16 car mail-in race (not a series) for the 2oz cars and add it to the Fantasy League schedule! We've just about got enough racers where they could only send in one car each.
Oooo I like where this idea is going!!! I have another idea though. What if we did a Redline Derby Mail-in tournament where all 16 cars are stock mail-ins which aren't part of the Fantasy League yet? All cars are kept in the redline derby then and of course the winning car would be part of the finals at the end. Would be AWESOME!!!
Kind of indifferent to the original idea. Would be costly for you, Brian, especially if people start to buy a lot of things and then most people would decide not to unlock cars - instead just going for tangible stuff. It doesn't really add any incentive to participate in the mail-in tournaments either as we do them no matter what.
I think there are other things we can use Credits for which haven't been explored yet. For example, I mentioned previously that spending coins to hold your spot in an upcoming tournament would be AWESOME. I constantly miss getting to pick cars because they fill up so quickly and I just didn't have time to access the site at the time. I also mentioned having a feature which would let us unlock cars but not add them to your garage. Maybe half the cost of a normal unlock. I have plenty of other ideas too if you want to hear them, I could probably PM them. But thats enough for now.
Good thoughts, Worpex. The other in-game uses for credits are all good ideas and very possible. Part of the motivation behind a marketplace idea is to cross-promote the mail-in with the game and vice versa. The risk of people going only for prizes and not unlocking cars is real but at the same time I think that can be part of the fun of the game...do you use credits to unlock cars and get more credits? Or just save them up for freebies? That's part of the fun...
You're right that mail-in racers will do those no matter what, and that's great...the hope is that something like this might get some mail-in guys over to the League side of things and vice versa. There's two worlds on the site and I'd like to see them share a little more than they do right now. Plus I think it's something fun and easy to provide to mail-in tournaments that give them something "official" from Redline Derby. It's not intended to be a lure for mail-in racing, more so another way to get people more involved with the site overall.
Good stuff...
Good thoughts, Worpex. The other in-game uses for credits are all good ideas and very possible. Part of the motivation behind a marketplace idea is to cross-promote the mail-in with the game and vice versa. The risk of people going only for prizes and not unlocking cars is real but at the same time I think that can be part of the fun of the game...do you use credits to unlock cars and get more credits? Or just save them up for freebies? That's part of the fun...You're right that mail-in racers will do those no matter what, and that's great...the hope is that something like this might get some mail-in guys over to the League side of things and vice versa. There's two worlds on the site and I'd like to see them share a little more than they do right now. Plus I think it's something fun and easy to provide to mail-in tournaments that give them something "official" from Redline Derby. It's not intended to be a lure for mail-in racing, more so another way to get people more involved with the site overall.
Good stuff...
Part of the reason there are two worlds on the site is because of the site itself. They ARE two different sites. The Fantasy league and the forum both have a different log-in and user account. The fantasy league doesn't associate itself as part of the forum at all and the mail-in doesn't have anything on the other side either. As a web designer myself, I understand the challenges behind linking a forum account with a global website account so I understand why they are different but im sure very few other people here understand that. They both feel like different sites.
In my opinion, a great way to merge both realms together would be to start with getting a single log-in for both and then maybe we can have fantasy league achievements posted under a players avatar in the forum, forum avatars next to the players name in the fantasy league, perhaps some credit unlockable visual effects (like changeable name colors, themes, ect) which would change for the WHOLE site. Just some ideas.
You're right that mail-in racers will do those no matter what, and that's great...the hope is that something like this might get some mail-in guys over to the League side of things and vice versa.
The idea of a mail-in race to be included in the Fantasy League was an attempt for the racers to see the other side!
IMO, if this race was for 'stockers' it would defeat the purpose.
Yeah the forum as a off-the-shelf package is definitely a challenge when it comes to customizing and integrating, and thus it will probably remain as a "stand alone" type thing. If I can find a way to make a single signon I will but that just hasn't been a priority.
And since the forum is somewhat of an island technically, the ideas in my head boil down to making tools and apps that forum users will want to use - or need - and then I can integrate that more easily with everything else. So if there is a "mailin tournament manager" app that will get used, that I can tie into the league and credits and everything else easily. The forum thus becomes a place of sharing/discussion and also an incubator for new ideas, features and apps that can be added to the site.
There's so much cool stuff that can be built that it bums me knowing that development will be slow. I'm a guy that gets jazzed about a cool idea and wants to work on it immediately but I have to focus on priorities since there are things already active and needing regular support. If there was another developer working on Redline Derby things could probably get done quicker. If anyone knows someone that can code in PHP and knows MySQL and is willing to work for free, let me know!
But I digress........sounds like a marketplace isn't a horrible idea to continue to explore
The fantasy league doesn't associate itself as part of the forum at all and the mail-in doesn't have anything on the other side either.
And I'm open to ideas to help solve this problem too! I mean, the League has its own board and during the racing seasons gets regular posts and updates. I can only integrate stuff into the forum so much and only via regular posts.
There is an event calendar on the site (see Events at the top) but it isn't used. I admit that it needs some work and it's not really setup to support a series of dates, but it's something.
Sounds good to me.
I have another idea as far as getting the two sides (fantasy and mail-ins) together. Brian, you could host a 16 car mail-in race (not a series) for the 2oz cars and add it to the Fantasy League schedule! We've just about got enough racers where they could only send in one car each.