BuzzerBeater Forums

There was once an American football MMORPG called Goal Line Blitz. It had inherent flaws, but it was still reasonably fun - until managers started complaining about the game every time something went wrong for their team. This allowed them to blame their troubles on the game, instead of taking responsibility and working to succeed within the current game. Admins listened to too many of these complaints and changed the game rapidly, causing new problems every season, and the game is now a ghost town, where even the most dedicated managers only play because they bought too many "flex points" and don't want to waste their money.

I love BB because it's avoided going down this path. However, I've been troubled by some of what I've heard around the BB forums. The salary floor, for example, was implemented as a response to complaints about tanking teams - a noble cause, surely - but it ignored the plight of teams promoting into leagues they can't compete in anyways. The 2-3 zone is said by many managers to be "broken," even though there has been little to no use of the defense with forwards with OD and a center with SB. If 2-3 is changed because of the complaints of managers who are just upset they lost games when they tried playing it with a 4 OD PF, that might be it for me.

Changes should not be reactionary. I think the BBs generally do a great job of this, but seeing that this offseason contained quite a few changes, I think it would be wise to halt any non-cosmetic changes for a calendar year. The strategy of over-tinkering with the game engine, financial system, etc. will only result in another GLB, a dying hulk of something once great, but destroyed from within.