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Subject: TSN: How are we doing?
Posted by: Erik B.
- [239592612] Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 12:50
Guys:
We are always looking for feedback on the state of the game. Please let me know how the game looks, what you think of the interface and, most importantly, whether you're having fun.
I'll read posts here and can be reached by email (ebarmack@sportingnews.com) as well.
-ESB
GM/TSN Games |
| 1 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 13:22
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Game appears to be running smoothly since last (Thursday) night. TSN server problems on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, as well as this thread, remind me how much I don't miss the Smallworld operation. Congrats!
Taxman
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| 3 | The Left Wings
ID: 486501617
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 13:50
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Hockey has always been the smallest of the 4 major sports. There have always been a lot fewer teams in hockey than in baseball.
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| 4 | Dan@Work
ID: 585412713
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 13:53
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Yeah, last years Ultimate Hockey had less than 700 teams IIRC!
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| 5 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:01
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walk - Over 17,000 for Ultimate football as of today.
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| 7 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:27
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I don't want to address the specifics about our business, but I will say this: between Pay-for-Trades, Ultimate revenue and Strat revenue, we're in very good financial shape. Expect us to be in business for a long time.
-ESB
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| 8 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:30
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And walk, your revenue estimate is way off...
-ESB
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| 11 | walk
Leader
ID: 338441813
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:37
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I think this post is more appropriate and more accurately conveys my feelings:
Always appreciate the service and your asking for feedback, Erik.
I am not picky and have been playing your hockey, football and baseball games since '98. Each year, your interface, service, technical side, (and cost) increase. So, kudos to you. I still love your games.
Regarding subscribership for ultimate hockey in particular, it's too bad we only got 3,500. I see you got 140,000 for the free game (assuming half become dead teams, that's still nice). The few managers in the ultimate game, while making for some stiff competition (assuming most are so into smallworld & hockey they are willing to spend the money) will likely create some additional variability in the price swings. Intersting managing challenges for us...(!).
Otherwise, I like the stats you have on-line, the speed with which you update the stats, the injury reports, the messenging within a division, and the overall model for the games.
Keep up the good work.
- walk
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| 12 | The Dienasty
ID: 557221718
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:42
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Eric, all seems to be running smoothly after a rough first freeze.
I have a small request. Would it be possible to implement a "Top Managers From Previous Night" stat page? I remember a similar feature from Hoops a few years back where the Top Managers/Teams (i think it was top 10) from the previous nights action were listed, allowing other managers to see which roster setups yielded the most points for that day.
I enjoyed that feature from Hoops and think it would a nice addition to Ult. Hockey.
Good work so far.
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| 13 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 14:52
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Dienasty has a good point. It would helpfull to also have the top point-getters from the previous night as per the TSN baseball game. Broken down between Goalies and non-goalies.
I still would be thrilled if you would show the number of trades acquired other than the 2 per week TSN allocation per manager in the free game, or at least give the manager who forms the league the right to trigger the display of that statistic at the time a division is formed. That would include purchased trades as well as trades awarded as promotions for other manager activity on the TSN site i.e. 15 trades for subscribing to SI for a year
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| 14 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 15:15
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Dienasty:
That would be possible, and we should get to it next week.
-ESB
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| 15 | Hexy
ID: 44748179
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 15:20
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Erik,
Along with the 'top managers' from the previous night, can you also do a 'top point getters' from the previous night as well? It was in smallworld 2 years ago, and I think it helps to drive player interest seeing that type of list daily...
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| 16 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 16:20
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Hexy:
I'll look into it.
-ESB
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| 17 | ukula
ID: 369551115
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 17:07
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Eric - Have you given any thought to increasing the overall prizes? By raising the top prize from $1,000 to $5,000 (for example) you would only need 343 more people to sign up at the 3-team rate. This would be a 10% increase in teams for hockey, but only a 3% increase for baseball. I think that Gurupies alone would probably account for that many extra teams. I think you would definitely get more people to sign up if the prizes were a little more attractive.
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| 18 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 17:17
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Eric .. copied from post 13. Response?
I still would be thrilled if you would show the number of trades acquired other than the 2 per week TSN allocation per manager in the free game, or at least give the manager who forms the league the right to trigger the display of that statistic at the time a division is formed. That would include purchased trades as well as trades awarded as promotions for other manager activity on the TSN site i.e. 15 trades for subscribing to SI for a year
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| 19 | The Dienasty
ID: 557221718
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 17:36
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Wow, "yesterday's best" has already been implemented.
Right on!
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| 20 | rinkwide
ID: 42941118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 18:04
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"Yesterday's" is a great addition. Thanks Eric.
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| 21 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 18:32
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Yesterday's best is even broken down by position.
Fantastic.
thanks
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| 22 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 18:40
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Taxman:
Was avoiding that question ... I think that it's something that, for the time being, we want to avoid doing. I want to think about it a bit more, but that's my gut.
ukula:
The prize bump isn't a bad idea. It's something we've avoided for hockey (too much risk relative to revenue), but isn't a bad idea at all for baseball.
-ESB
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| 23 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 18:49
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Eric:
I think I understand your concerns (somewhat raised in the now deleted post #2). Thanks for revisiting the thought.
Maybe another way to approach the problem is by giving each manager a virginity button displayed somewhere on each managers Roster or Division page (maybe as an "*"or "@" or whatever). The first time a manager acquires an Extra trade, the virginity button is lost (disappears).
Taxman
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| 24 | Greenbelt
ID: 39901117
Fri, Oct 11, 2002, 19:26
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...or maybe a trade(s) history of sorts could appear in the "Your Account" page? Erik, I'd also like to say that while the world's far from perfect, communication's the key! Thanks a mint for patroling these boards!!
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| 25 | J
Leader
ID: 49346417
Sun, Oct 13, 2002, 11:44
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Erik, any chance you can implement the feature from the basic baseball game. Where when you sell a player, he doesn't really get sold until you buy someone. Also, for those of us lazy folks, it tells you exactly how much you have to spend on the replacement. Both were helpful.
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| 26 | Samuli
ID: 3296416
Sun, Oct 13, 2002, 12:03
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J - But both those features are also present in the hockey-game, no?
(Correct me if I'm wrong and/or misunderstood the question/request.)
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| 27 | J
Leader
ID: 49346417
Sun, Oct 13, 2002, 12:07
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maybe in the free game, not in the pay game
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| 28 | Samuli
ID: 3296416
Sun, Oct 13, 2002, 13:27
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Maybe, maybe.
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| 29 | J
Leader
ID: 49346417
Mon, Oct 14x, 2002, 02:19
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also, I haven't yet seen a daily email report, dunno if thats just me though (I know Dan said he hadn't gotten one)
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| 30 | The Dienasty
ID: 557221718
Mon, Oct 14x, 2002, 02:39
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No report here.
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| 31 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Mon, Oct 14x, 2002, 10:30
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I'll look into the email reports. Thx, guys, for the feedback.
-ESB
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| 32 | Arclight
ID: 29911113
Wed, Oct 16, 2002, 03:31
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On the page we get when we sort players by SNP or whatever and get this big list, personally, I could care less if such and such a player has 2 short handed goals, or 4 game winning goals.
What I do want to know when considering whether or not to buy a player, is his total SNP, his SNP for the last 5 games, and his total SNP/$.
If you guys could switch out some of the less useful info for the more useful info, that would be great.
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| 33 | Rogue's Strikers
ID: 18923158
Wed, Oct 16, 2002, 03:37
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How about a 'trades left' column on the division page? I learned in baseball that the # of trades left is a big asset to a team, and the same is true in hockey. Right now, a guy in my division has a good number of points and cash (which looks impressive on the division page) but his 0 trades isn't so hot. Meanwhile, a guy with only a few less points and $ has 4 trades left, which is much more impressive. On the division page though, the other guy looks to be in better shape.
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| 34 | Rogue's Strikers
ID: 18923158
Wed, Oct 16, 2002, 03:47
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Hmm, also, on the "Yesterday's Best" link, the top says 'The Week's Best', when in fact the stats are for yesterday only. Maybe you took the page from the football game and forgot to change the header?
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| 35 | The Left Wings
ID: 1668298
Wed, Oct 16, 2002, 05:46
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What about the "Next 5 games" on each player's page for the free game?
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| 36 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 327481911
Wed, Oct 16, 2002, 08:32
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Arclight, you'll have that information soon anyhow. I'll be taking the Sortables "live" tonight.
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| 37 | Tim G
Donor
ID: 59126280
Thu, Oct 17, 2002, 00:27
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Good job overall TSN but I hope you have no more "routine database maintenance" starting at 9:00 PM PT. This occurs during my trading "window."
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| 38 | J
Leader
ID: 49346417
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 12:15
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2nd day in a row that prices haven't updated at noon.
Thanks for taking care of the email reports Erik, one more question, at some point are they gonna provide info (a blurb) about each player on your team? or just the same info on your team page. Without the info, the email is pretty useless, IMO.
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| 39 | Caper
ID: 48735169
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 12:21
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Eric, is there any chance that you can make your stats sortable? The option of the past 7, 14, 30 days, and ytd for total points and price would be lovely. I know this is being worked on here by our experts on the boards but it seems a fairly easy option to add to your screens?
Just a wish
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| 40 | walk
Leader
ID: 338441813
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 13:46
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J, you got email reports on your hockey teams (a la baseball; a nice feature)...??? I have not yet received any.
Also, still awaiting price updates for today (my guess is that TSN is swamped at this time of year with many games happening simultaneously).
Eric: Any message you guys can post on the main division page about price updates delays and point delays when they happen is always useful (i.e. think of when the 6 train stops in between stations and you hear nothing from the conductor).
;-)
walk
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| 41 | Puckprophet
ID: 54371812
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 14:20
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14:20 no price update
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| 42 | ukula
ID: 31911812
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 15:12
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How are you doing? I'd like to know how I'm doing.... 3:15 no price update.
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| 43 | C.SuperFreaks
ID: 549471213
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 20:48
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Another day another problem. bleh.
I think I'm going back to the old days and getting 10 of my buddies together and do the Saturday afternoon draft. Throw in your $30 pick 25 players etc etc...
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| 44 | Richard
Leader
ID: 2011502111
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 21:03
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TSN - you've missed a pretty important deadline with no explanation whatsoever. I'd have to say you aren't doing too well right about now.
Richard
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| 45 | Greenbelt
ID: 59923188
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 21:44
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...times like this is when I'm glad that I'm only doing the free game ( that, and also trying to take a low-stress-more-fun approach to online sports ). But I gotta tell ya, if I were in the ultimate game, I'd be screaming pretty loud about now! We all make mistakes, but communication is the key!
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| 46 | Dan
Sustainer
ID: 0229323
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 21:47
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SCREAMING LOUD!!!...It's not the delayed update that is annoying me, but the fact that we've heard absolutly nothing from sw, argh!
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| 47 | Guru
ID: 330592710
Fri, Oct 18, 2002, 23:14
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I don't play hockey, as you know.
But I find this very disheartening.
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| 48 | Dr. Doom
ID: 16142182
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 02:23
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Sent an email late afternoon to Eric, Bernie and LarryTSNMemServices. Got an auto-reply from the commish
Dear SportingNews Member,
Thank you so much for choosing to play The Sporting News Fantasy games. We strive to provide the most FUN platform for fantasy sports on the web.
In an effort to show our commitment to you, our most valued member, we will do our best to answer all requests within a 24-48 hour time frame.
Member Service hours are 9:30 AM ET to 6:30 PM ET, Monday thru Friday.
Inquiries sent during non-business hours, may require additional response time.
Once again, thank you for playing The Sporting News Fantasy games!
And, don't forget to check out the best sports coverage on the web at The Sporting News Online!
The Experts' Choice since 1886.
http://sportingnews.com
Sincerely,
The Commish
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| 49 | Bernie H.
ID: 33703110
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 04:15
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Guys, we apologize sincerely for the disappearance of Friday's price update, and even more for the lack of communication. I know we just knocked ourselves down a couple of points on our scorecard.
We severely lapsed on Friday, and it's completely inexcusable. You can count on us to step up our service to make sure something like this doesn't happen. We'd sustained a high level of quality for a long time before this point, and we've worked too hard to get there so we can't let it go down the drain.
Saturday's price update will take into account 2 days' worth of trading activity, and consider it as if it were made over a period of 24 hours.
Once again, we apologize for our lapse.
Sincerely,
Bernie, TSN
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| 50 | Chestergreat
Sustainer
ID: 58224208
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 07:45
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Okay . . . no computer glitch . . no unforseen breakdowns . . . they just plain forgot to do the update.
Oh well. . not sure how the 2 day thing will effect my team. I bought a couple of Tampa players for Friday looking for a nice price increase as they were one of only 6 teams playing . . and were starting a 7 in 11 sched. Now todays trading should water down that increase in $$
Glad to see Bernie is up at 4 am looking after other peoples errors.
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| 51 | ukula
ID: 383222
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 10:07
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Chester - you're absolutely right. I picked up a bunch of TB guys yesterday looking for the price gains. Now I'll get the same price gains as somebody who picks them up today. Great job TSN. Since they used the excuse that they just forgot to do the price update yesterday, I wonder if I could tell them that I just forgot to add all the TB players that banged out 100+ points yesterday.
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| 52 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 14:49
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Updated the Sortables prices "on the run" yesterday as I had to go out of town for the night and didn't even notice that all the price changes were "0". Great. Well, at least there were no price changes, so the Sortables won't be completely screwed up. Also, why does TSN take into account 2 days worth of trades for the next price update instead of figuring out the price changes for Friday and then the price changes for Saturday seperately and then add them together? There is actually quite a distinct difference in the two approaches. One still has a maximum price change of about $200k, while the latter has a max price change of about $400k, which is the way it should be.
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| 53 | The Left Wings
ID: 1668298
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 20:24
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It's only one price change... No big deal.
The problem is: When did the TSN people figure out that they forgot to change the prices? Why didn't they do one right away instead of not doing it?
I was actually expecting someone to call for the firing of whoever was in charge of changing the prices. But I guess nobody has done that yet.
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| 54 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 21:40
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Another thing I don't understand: How can "Frozen Rosters" not be determined by time of trade? If this can be done, then, theoretically, price changes could happen at 8pm because all the "Frozen Roster" data should be able to be figured out. So running the price changes at 8pm with the same data as what you would have at 12pm shouldn't affect the output. Am I missing something? In other words, when TSN says they missed the Price Update, did they actually miss the freezing of rosters? Is this why they have to take into account 2 days worth of trades (use last 2 days since you don't have the previous day's trade numbers)? How is the points situation handled? If points are based on the theoretical frozen roster, then why couldn't the Price Update be done the same way? While on the surface this looks like a minor glitch, it certainly raises a lot more questions as to how things are working (or not).
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| 55 | Dr. Doom
ID: 16142182
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 21:55
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Player price change history is not correct either
Player Price History - Lecavalier, Vincent - Center - Tampa Bay
Date Price Change
10/09, Wed. $3,890,000 +0
10/10, Thu. $3,890,000 +0
10/11, Fri. $3,890,000 +0
10/12, Sat. $3,900,000 +10,000
10/13, Sun. $3,900,000 +0
10/14, Mon. $3,900,000 +0
10/15, Tue. $3,900,000 +0
10/16, Wed. $3,910,000 +10,000
10/17, Thu. $3,930,000 +20,000
10/18, Fri. $4,030,000 +100,000
10/19, Sat. $4,050,000 +120,000
It looks like a case of bad math for the last two days. Must have been toooo hard to do it right, so they kludged it.
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| 56 | Greenbelt
ID: 189411914
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 21:57
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Perhaps the points and price changes are two different feeds? I honestly do not know. But one thing that gets me---and others here, no doubt!---is the communication thing. They're in New York City! Their boss is Paul Allen! Surely if one person like KKB can stay on top of things from a home office, then they could've scared-up a laptop somewhere to inform PAYING customers? I agree with Guru, "disheartening" is a good way to put it...
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| 57 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 22:49
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Greenbelt, no doubt that points and prices are likely separate, but prices and trades have to be associated in some manner. Because of this, it should be easy to use the time of a trade to determine whether it occured for a current, past, or future price change. In other words, even at 8pm at night (or right now at 11pm at night), I can run a script to get all the MadPucks picks made between 1pm yesterday and 1pm today. Because of this, if I were doing a TSN price change for MadPucks, I have all the info needed to do my price update. Because TSN is able to show the date/time of a trade in your Trade History page, then they certainly have the info the need to do what is needed. My question is why it's not being done. Why is it that if the roster freeze and/or price update is missed at 12pm ET and not discovered until some later time that the price update can't happen just as normal (except at a later time than normal)? This would certainly cause the missed roster freeze or price update to have less of an overall impact on the game than any other solution. Again, unless I'm missing something.
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| 58 | Garonbelt
ID: 189411914
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 23:05
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No, my friend, I do not believe so. Unless for some pre-historic reason that the the price changes are manualy inputed somehow??!!?!? I doubt that, as I would expect a more high-tech opperation there. e.x.: ( and I'm agreeing with you here! ) I make a trade. I then check my "Trade History" link, and voila!, there it is at the time and date of occourence. So no, I cannot get Vinnie and his 120 points last night, after the game! ;-}
But I remember questioning the "Commish" on the old SW boards on something like this about 3 years ago. He replied ( paraphrased from fuzzy memory ) that the price change doesn't happen at exactly the moment of noon EST, but occours over the course of about 1-2 minutes ( my guess was to have the info propagate throughout the WWW ). Now, is the input from the trade activity over the previous 24 hours a seperate program from the rest? Is it some slobs job to input this data? Again, this I do not know...
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| 59 | Greenbelt
ID: 189411914
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 23:06
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( ...OK, enough of the Garon-jokes! ;-} )
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| 60 | The Left Wings
ID: 1668298
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 23:43
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Maybe TSN should just organize a tour of their office for you guys so that you can disect the whole game into the every last detail.
Maybe it's just me. A year ago I found that your questions were good. Now I'm starting to get the impression that you guys want to take over from TSN so that you guys can make sure everything runs well. I'm sure some of you would really want to get the source codes of the whole game from TSN...
I understand that you guys are paying customers. But does TSN have to reveal the operations of everything to you just because you're paying? And it seems to me that Bernie and Erik have to read every link on these boards every couple hours to answer any questions like your personal customer support service clerk.
So they missed a price update and they apologized. And you guys are going to analyze the impact of that? Maybe it's just me, but this sort of overanalysis is what turned me away from taking history lessons where they make people memorize the reasons/effects of every historic event.
As far as I'm concerned, Erik and Bernie are doing you guys a big favour by answering questions on these boards. I don't believe their job descriptions involved this. So I don't think you guys should demand communications with them on these boards. You guys already have the advantage over other paying players who aren't a gurupie.
Reading post #49 made me felt really bad for Bernie. He sounds like he's begging for your mercy and respect. So his team was responsible for the mistake and he should apologize like a man. Now he sounds like he's kneeling on the floor begging like somebody who's going to be guillotined. That's a bit too much.
In summary, I think that you guys are becoming way too serious about this game.
The above is another one of my unpopular, minority opinions. Feel free to yell at me...again.
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| 61 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sat, Oct 19, 2002, 23:45
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Greenbelt, but even in your scenario, trades and prices are associated. They have to be associated in some manner because the price updates are based on the trades. There's no way for them not to be associated in some manner. What that manner is, is another question all together. Anyhow, we're basically saying the same thing. My big question is why they don't have the ability to get the trade data between 12pm ET one day and 12pm ET the next day and figure out the price changes and then implement those price changes at say 8pm at night if need be. They should be able to figure out the price changes for 10/11 today by just getting the necessary trade data from 12pm 10/10 to 12pm ET 10/11 and then running it through the repricing algorithm they use. If this is possible (and I can think of no reason that it's not possible), then they could do the same thing for any given day, including Friday. Granted, their current setup may not have that built in, but I'm sure some programming lackey could work up the scripts in a couple of hours (if that long) worth of work. You know, just in case.
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| 62 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 00:01
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TLW, if you feel that raising questions about the business practices of TSN is too much, then so be it. However, these same types of questions related to their NASCAR game are why I'm not paying to play Ultimate Hockey this season. It deals with whether or not the quality of the game is worth the price they're asking for and when a game is being played on the internet, the coding, structure, and backbone of the game are just as important as the front face of the game. And when questions of the integrity of the game (both on the front and back end of things) arise, it not only makes me question paying to play their games, it also makes me question my dedication to building tools geared towards the TSN games, something that I spend a good deal of time doing. My questions are simple ones and revolve around a simple aspect of the game. Honestly, I don't expect an answer and don't feel entitled to one. If anything, I'm raising them in hopes that either a.) Bernie already has an answer and just ignores them or b.) Bernie doesn't have an answer and asks his team the same questions I did, which would hopefully fix something that (if he didn't have an answer) was obviously broke or could use a new method of dealing with. If anything, Bernie and TSN should be happy that so many people are questioning the games. The people of these message boards have become free testers for TSN and help them fix many aspects of all of their games without TSN paying a dime. Without all these questions being brought up all the time, the games would be in far worse shape than they currently are. I know this for a fact with the NASCAR game and see no reason to think otherwise for any of the other TSN games. I think this is why you see the high profile in these message boards from Bernie and the gang.
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| 63 | Greenbelt
ID: 189411914
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 00:02
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KKB, True. They are preparing to launch the hoops game soon, but that's just a guess too. Might be crunch time. Overall, I'd say that the ops are doing a smash-up job compared to the former administration. Maybe someone just flat dropped the ball. No biggie to me ( all players going tonite, 54 points...wooo-pee! ). I'm just trying to have some fun, but we all want to see this go as flawless as possible.
And yes, Bernie was quite contrite, and I---and I don't see anyone else---calling him or the boys to the carpet. My scenario was in thinking that if it were someone un-supervised, then ( being Friday and all ), it just got spaced. Unitil that is, that Bernie was surfing the threads and said "oh-oh" and did a check. Just a guess, but we're back on track and all good as far as I'm concerned! ( and not to get off track there Phred, but I just heard that the "creep" just nailed a guy near you ( Ashland, VA ). Shot once in the abdomen, in serious condition, but he may pull through. I-95 is stopped from Richmond to the beltway!! Makes ya think of the big pic, eh? )
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| 64 | The Left Wings
ID: 1668298
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 00:15
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KKB, you're right about a couple of things. 1, it's not worth paying for the ultimate games, and I've realized that long ago. 2, I also raised the same question about why they decided to skip the price change altogether instead of having one late. There's this saying "Better late than never."
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| 65 | quik_ag
ID: 577203014
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 00:58
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they have to update the prices at roster freeze. otherwise, any trades done between the roster freeze and the price update would have been done using the old prices.
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| 66 | Rogue's Strikers
ID: 24913205
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 07:28
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TLW, TSN has their own message boards within the game, where Bernie and Erik post often too. So its not just us Gurupies who have access to TSN's employees, every player of Ultimate Hockey does.
He sounds like he's begging for your mercy and respect.
No, he sounds like a proffesional who takes his job seriously. His team goofed, and he wanted to appologize. They run a business, we're the customers, he goofed, and he's appologizing to said customers. Since this wasn't the first problem this year (and we're only 2 weeks in) he probably thought his post needed to be more descriptive than a simple "We're aware of the problem, we're working on it."
Also, I know for a fact that Erik and Bernie love it when we scrutinize their game this way. They love feedback on their games, and if its just lame advice or a stupid question they'll ignore it. But I'm sure they'd rather have the choice of deciding for themselves whats stupid/lame and what isn't, rather than us not post for worry that we're 'overanalyzing' things.
In summary, I think that you guys are becoming way too serious about this game.
Lol, we've been 'way too serious' about this game for years now. Don't see any reason why we should change now. :)
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| 67 | KrazyKoalaBears
Donor
ID: 266182910
Sun, Oct 20, 2002, 09:33
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quik_ag, now that is the part I was missing. I have to remember not to post so late. ;)
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| 68 | Tim G
Donor
ID: 209141819
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 02:02
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After the database maintenance last Weds. and Thurs. at 9:00 pm PT, the lack of a price change on Friday, and the fact that the game has been down since Sunday at 9:30 PM PT (maybe earlier?), I would say that you, TSN are not doing your job. If I had it to do over again I would not have paid for TSN Hockey and I am not likely to pay for TSN Hoops based on your recent performance.
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| 69 | Tim G
Donor
ID: 209141819
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 02:42
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well I got in and was going to come back and say nevermind, but I keep getting a "connection failure". Just pathetic TSN, more than a few steps back. :( @#$%
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| 70 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 15:27
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Hey:
Let's see.
1) We do want all kinds of feedback -- not just the good kind. When we screw up, we want to know about it. Friday was definitely a "screw up," and these boards are very useful for us to understand how badly it hurts our businesss.
2) Price updates are automated, and there was a problem wtih our script and one of our database machines. That's not really an excuse so much as an explanation. If there is one upside, it's that these problems occur most often at the start of the season (read: this should not be an issue going forward).
3) Quality matters to us. Objectively, we have had much better performance this year than last year. We're operating at around a 98% base performance rate -- that is, 98 out of 100 days this year, stats have been updated, the site has been running smoothly, etc. This is higher than CBS Sportsline, but it's frustrating when we hit 2 of those 100 days. I would probably be happy if we could increase another percentage point. That would put us at 3.5 "problem" days per year, which I think is acceptable.
4) Hockey is not being ignored. It is one of the games that we've put the most features into, and our most time in designing. WE love this game, we love our users who play this game, and we are the most disappointed people here when something goes wrong.
All of this, in my opinion, is not lip service. We apologize for the problem, we understand your frustration, and we will continue to work hard to make the game better.
-Erik
p.s. As always, feel free to email me directly (ebarmack@sportingnews.com)
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| 71 | bookie
ID: 448382418
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 16:59
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Erik,
Thank you for your thoughts. While it certainly was frustrating not getting any communication on Friday, TSN was IMHO, unfairly blasted in this thread. Did you deserve some constructive criticism and maybe a rant or two, yes. But I do think it got carried away. I for one, applaud the job you've done in improving both game quality and customer service over the prior regime. Keep up the good work.
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| 72 | Taxman
Leader
ID: 2311382118
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 18:29
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Well said bookie.
Taxman
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| 73 | Erik B.
ID: 239592612
Mon, Oct 21, 2002, 19:35
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Thanks for the kind words. Again, we don't want to shy away from criticism. In general, I don't avoid it (criticism). We sucked on Friday, in a rather big way. In general, this year, we've been pretty good. And if we can smooth out the problems with hockey for the rest of the year, I think it'll still be worth your hard-earned dollar.
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