BuzzerBeater Forums

I remember that situation from a couple years back over here.

I was pretty demoralized. I still would be. I still wonder why they can't spread new people out a bit more, or dump demotions at least together a bit.
But one day, I logged in, and suddenly the computer league had become all live people.
That was a shock.

And long story short, I did get out of V and back into IV, where I'm a perennial playoff competitor.
I'd still rather not have gone done so far that I might as well be talking to myself... but at least the other posts were right in suggesting rather quick recovery generally.

Hey man, I know it seems crappy to be where you are, but let me tell you what happened with my team.

In season 9 I started a team and was placed in a US D5 league that had a few humans, but at least half bots. Not a lot of competition as most human teams weren't active. Promoted into D4 in season 10 and it was a bit more active, but I still managed to go through only losing 2 games all season and sweeping the championship series. Honestly I wasn't ready for D3 and i promoted into III.2 and it was widely known as the toughest D3 league.....and I wasn't ready. Didn't know the game well at all. I learned a ton during my stint in that league from the guys that were in it and have recently relegated into a VERY competitive D4 league.

I say this to tell you that it will be more beneficial for you to have an easy year to make plenty of cash, train freely, and learn the ins and outs of the game. You will then promote next season and be ready to compete at the next level. Unfortunately for me I relegated into a tough league so I may not get back to D3 very soon lol.

good luck and sorry you might have a boring season...

Yeah thanks for the advice guys, i will definably be scouting and training hard this season lol

Good luck for the season guys!

It is a terrible situation having the 3rd division filled with uncompetitive teams.

It is a terrible situation when getting to II is nothing worth celebrating, it is only something which will be gained given enough time.

It is a terrible situation when in a country you have about 20 teams worth competing against.

It is a terrible situation when you can keep your spot in the top league as long as you want it.

It is a terrible situation when you are the best in a country with 500 active users or less. Whoopee, best of 500. Big deal. Tell me when you accomplish something worth talking about.

It is a terrible situation when there are countries much worse off even than this. Scotland has 34 active teams! Wow! A new user is really going to feel excited and want to stay in such a lacklustre environment isn't (s)he? Are you having much fun up there my Scottish friends?

So, if the competition is not enough for you and you are tempted to quit, go right ahead. It ain't going to get much better. The UK is no hotbed of basketball.

Why can't the BBs get rid of these pitiful little countries and agglomerate them with bigger entities roundabout them? There are only 50k users in the game. Split them into 10k pots, maybe on a continental basis, and let competition commence. Such a system would make the game more fun and equitable for all. Maybe it will enhance growth as well. One might be tempted to stick around for a challenge worth mentioning. And as an additional bonus we will not have to witness the whining of our Italian and Spanish compadres when a Ghanaian outbids them on the TL or for a staff member.

Last edited by CorruptCop at 3/29/2010 7:42:29 PM

because the time and effort that would be required outweigh any net benefit, which i'm not convinced would even be a net benefit, given that you'd be mostly playing against people who didn't speak the same language. Buzzerbeater at its core, like most online games, is about community. Sharing a language and a culture is a good place to start building a community. I'm afraid that is a fundamental assumption of ours that simply isn't going to change.

You seem like a real bundle of laughs. Wish I was in your league!

I mean no disrespect.

But I do not see people joining games for community and culture. My opinion is people play for the competition first. That is why they join. As time goes by the community becomes more important, and is what ends up retaining the players, long after they have satisfied their competitive urges. But many are going to leave, and never know the pleasures of community, if the competition is not worth bothering with.

I agree grouping by language makes sense. So can we please join the UK with Australia and North America. Let all French speaking countries have their pot, the German ones their pot, the Spanish and Italian ones their separate pots.

Most people in the world can speak one of these languages. Portugal can probably join Spain.

If the game starts growing madly maybe then you can start looking at breaking the pots into countries. But as I see it, many countries are a joke, and will remain permanently so. It is not fair on their users.

...

I'm sure you wish you were in any other league. You have my sincere sympathy, sir.

Last edited by CorruptCop at 3/30/2010 2:03:31 PM

I'm fine where I am. Any online game is only what the players make of it, so I just choose to be positive or not play at all.

There are a lot of practical reasons why your idea wouldn't work, but even them aside I don't think you would get your desired effect. Even in a league where every team has an active human manager, you will find it can be very quiet as well. Some managers don't like to interact, many only log on a few minutes a week, managers are always quitting and new ones take their places, especially in lower leagues.

Of course it would be nice to be in a league with 15 super active people who's life revolves around the game (well maybe not that nice), but it's just a utopian ideal that wouldn't happen no matter how you group the countries.

But I do not see people joining games for community and culture.

Then you haven't been looking at the right place. One of the most enduring browser games out there survives for more than 10 years with close to 900,000 years despite its horrific gameplay.

Why can't the BBs get rid of these pitiful little countries and agglomerate them with bigger entities roundabout them? There are only 50k users in the game. Split them into 10k pots, maybe on a continental basis, and let competition commence. Such a system would make the game more fun and equitable for all. Maybe it will enhance growth as well. One might be tempted to stick around for a challenge worth mentioning. And as an additional bonus we will not have to witness the whining of our Italian and Spanish compadres when a Ghanaian outbids them on the TL or for a staff member.

Do you not see how it's funny to play without rivals?
(i'm ironic...)