BB going to two teams?
That would greatly increase cheating opportunities, not just double but possibly even exponentially. By far the greatest fatal threat to the game is cheating. Decreasing revenue can be addressed in a multitude of ways. Cheating could be addressed, but BB does not appear to do so. I have found more than one cheating team already and even made a report to BB … and nothing happens. The idea that “sooner or later we catch cheaters” is in no way sufficient. Unless and until BB gets serious about policing the game as it exists now, ANY idea that carries added cheating opportunities as a side effect is poison to the game … (though I can understand why some people would try to minimize the threat that cheating represents for reasons of their own).
When an idea generates a lengthy thread dealing mostly with how to try to limit the damage that implementation of the idea would do, with very little discussion of the benefits the idea would bring, that itself is pretty telling. The “solution” is worse than the perceived problem. There are far better solutions out there.
Even the idea of throwing every new team into one stinking stew and calling it Utopia does not impress me, as it merely represents a protected playground for cheaters to hone their skills and try out new and more creative ways of cheating, which they can then import to their BB team. And BTW, the biggest threat to small countries from second teams is not simply that the country will be over-run by foreigners, but that a cabal of foreigners will move in and take over that corner of the game, much as skinheads and survivalists run corners of Idaho.
Improving the fundamentals of the game (e.g. game scheduling; *boards; training) is a sounder way to increase revenue, with the added advantage of improving the game experience of every honest player.
*Sorry, but organization of the boards in this game is incredibly poor. Finding an interesting thread (such as this one) is purely a matter of accident, and finding a particular thread a second time appears almost impossible to this newbie. So if someone wants to engage me in a discussion, this is not a likely forum. How did I find this thread in the first place?
I have read all the posts … and find the argument against second teams to be compelling. I vote NO.