Does anyone care about non-prize tournaments?
I've noticed a pattern that isn't too surprising...nobody is playing non-prize tournaments. I realize it's fun to play and get something, but is there no fun in playing in tournaments just to win? If most folks are only interested in playing for goodies then I'll reduce the number of non-prize tournaments and it will make my life a whole lot easier.
Or if we went back to the standard leaderboard...would that motivate folks to play when there's nothing at stake? Do bragging rights mean anything?
posted by Brian at
11:06 PM
14 Comments:
I do! I also play in the Guitar Hero.com tournaments, and they're always won by the same group of players; even above-average players count themselves lucky just to finish in the top 20. Let's not kid ourselves; there are a few out there who honestly want nothing more than to test their skills against others, but the vast majority of us play to win. Cutting back on the tournaments decreases those opportunities. As for getting more players to play the non-prize tourneys, the only other enducement would seem to be the leaderboard, which makes Brian's job 10 times tougher. But I'm sure he's up to the task... :)
July 27, 2008 10:12 AM
I enjoy every tourney here...if there's a prize, it's just a bonus to me. I play more for comparing my skills against others, for interacting with others, and for bragging rights. I usually join 2-6 tourneys per week, but only if I'm pretty sure I will actually have to opportunity to play in them.
July 27, 2008 3:54 PM
I like playing in all of them although some times I'll wait till I see one or two have all ready signed up so that there is a good chance that it won't get canceled.
July 28, 2008 6:17 PM
i love playing tournaments, whether they are prize or non-prize. i sign up for most of them--just not the tournaments with set lists that i just can't stand. unfortunately, i've gotten used to tournaments-surprisingly both prize and non-prize-being canceled on me. instead of canceling the tournaments, do you think it would be possible to just push back the end date??
July 28, 2008 7:50 PM
Thanks for your feedback everyone...
- I think I will reinstate the leaderboards. But instead of just the number of wins, it will be a win/loss percentage or something. So you may have won 10 tourneys, but if you entered 50 and didn't (or didn't show up) that will effect your rank. The thought here is it will encourage people to actually play in the tournaments the sign-up for.
- Please don't wait to sign-up for a tournament. I know the urge to just wait to see who/how many will enter, but the others might be doing that too, so if everyone is waiting to see who goes first no one will go!
- Tournament canceling happens automagically and I can't really change that because I have to mind when tourneys are rescheduled. There only needs to be 3 people entered to no get canceled, so please sign-up early and tell your friends to join too.
Even in cases where non-prize tournaments get more than 3 players and start, the actual turn out for a tourney can be low. Yeah, 7 people may sign-up but at the end of the time only 1 or 2 people have actually played and submitted scores. That's just no fun for anyone really - I just don't know how to avoid or discourage not playing.
July 29, 2008 9:20 AM
I'll be honest, I'm rather selective about what music I play. Prize or no prize, if I don't enjoy all 3 of the songs listed, chances are I won't enter the tournament. Not just the music, but the note charts as well.
I wouldn't enter a tournament with the song Avalancha due to the fact I hate the song. Sure, I can 100% it with my eyes closed, but I just don't like the song itself. Same situation, but with a song like I'm In The Band. I love that song and play it frequently, but chances are I wouldn't enter a tournament with the song there. Why? Because aiming to get 100% and follow star paths just to get a high score for the rankings would be very strenuous on my hands and patience.
July 31, 2008 3:13 AM
I totally agree, for me too the songs make a big difference. But obviously everyone likes different songs.
But the way you've put it, it sounds like you won't enter any tournaments because you a) don't like the songs, or b) when you do, it's not worth the effort to play.
And if you're after 100% and 5-stars all the time, then I might suggest that the brackets aren't about getting perfects on songs, it's about beating someone else. You don't need 100% to win. I never aim to get 100% on any song playing in a tournament, I just want to be better than the other guy. If I'm after 100%s I'll play solo so I can try over and over again.
If you're looking to prove you can get 100%s and 5-stars consistently on songs, then you don't need tournaments, you just need a leaderboard.
July 31, 2008 10:40 AM
Instead of just having specifics tournaments for prizes, what about the implementing of a point system that works for ALL tournaments? People would accumulate points for how well they did in a tournament and then could redeem them for whatever they wanted (from a list) after they had enough.
Just an idea. I think it would definitely help bolster activity in the tournaments. It would also be cool if there was a leaderboard based around the total number of points you had achieved. Bragging rights always gets people to participate. :)
July 31, 2008 2:49 PM
Good idea, Jason. But I'm not sure I can support a points-based system because I can't always guarantee there will be stuff to "purchase" with the points.
A new leaderboard is at the top of my list right now, that will show win/loss record.
Thanks for all the feedback! Keep it coming!
July 31, 2008 4:00 PM
Even still, Jason, to generally have a good chance at winning, you should be able to combo the song somewhat decently. But even still, unless you get your scores in as soon as the tournament starts, due to errors with both sites, the most recent example being the tournament at http://www.angryedison.com/index.php/tournamentdetail?id=553
"Comin' Atcha Live", I got all 3 of my scores in at about 11:44PM, in which they were updated to my GH site page at 11:48PM (verified by the guitarhero.com RSS feed). The score list on Edison claimed to have updatedat 11:51, as well as 12:01, yet two of my scores never showed up, and thus I lost the tournament in which I thought I would finally have won my first.
Such problems as these discourage me fro participating in any tournaments at all, seeing as they end up being a waste of time.
August 4, 2008 12:19 AM
Looking at the log, Koopa's score for "Lay Down" was recorded at 11:11p on Sunday.
Scores are checked every 10 minutes, as you noted, from GH.com. But what I can't verify is whether or not scores actually got recorded. That's not up to me, that's up to GH.com --- if GH.com times out or takes too long to load, your score might not get recorded. But it's funny that one score would be found but another would not.
Can you post the link for your RSS feed? I thought the XML service went offline when they redesigned...? I haven't asked anyone about it, so it could be back. If it is back online that could help me a lot in trying to troubleshoot issues like these.
The other thing that makes these problems hard to fix is that occurrences like these don't happen for everyone. If everyone's scores were not updating, then it's one thing - but one-off cases...its hard to figure out. Although, I might suggest as a good rule of thumb to not wait until the last minute to play your songs.
August 4, 2008 9:58 AM
I'm just tired of the default GH3 songs.
Get the downloadable songs as an option and I would be happy to play for fun.
August 7, 2008 5:28 PM
Brian, in one of your comments from July you mentioned the idea that the brackets are more about head-to-head play than individual achievement. But I think it's hard to get into the head-to-head thing if you're not in the same room with him or playing at the same time online, as you do in the Faceoff modes on XBL. You don't even know who your opponent is until the tournament is over, since the brackets aren't seeded until then.
Flashfrost is right about the GH3 songs getting stale, but there are a bunch of setlist and bonus songs that are rarely used in the tourneys; perhaps some of those could be worked into the playlists. But the problem with the downloadable songs is that you'd be excluding prospective players who haven't bought and downloaded them, not to mention the Wii players, who can't download anything.
September 12, 2008 1:53 PM
I agree that in-person playing is much more exciting. The brackets just provide another way to compete when you don't want to face-off. One reason I did the small brackets was because I didn't like how GH.com tourneys had hundreds of people playing (and could play over and over until they like their score).
The hook with the AE tourneys was you get one shot to be good and that they were quick. You just play and move on --- no wasting time playing over and over, especially when you're someone (like me) that doesn't have a lot of time to play on a regular basis.
GH3 has gone stale. When I do boot up and play it's usually my favorite 5 songs and that's it. But that's video games...hot for a while then not. I'm looking forward to GH4 quite a bit.
I totally dropped the ball on Aerosmith, I admit, but half of that was my lack of time to add it to the site. Then throw on that GH4 was coming out same year and it really made me consider how much more effort to put into the site.
To be honest, I've shied away from the DLC because I have a Wii and can't get any of those songs, so there's no way to test, for one. I could probably add those songs and schedule a few DLC tourneys, but at this point it's almost futile.
But I will say that if you leave GH3 for a while (few months) and then come back, you'll find a lot of those songs are a lot of fun. If you burn hard real fast then it does suck a lot sooner.
And while the public tournaments are not a happy anymore, the PPTs seem to be going good and let some groups have some fun between themselves...so when that free time comes I'll probably refocus Angry Edison to be more about scheduling private brackets than open tourneys.
I have some thinking to do and will be posting some more thoughts in another entry I hope soon.
Thanks for all the feedback.
September 12, 2008 3:58 PM
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