Madden 13 Season Options

helimachoptor

Poll added

helimachoptor

Am I missing any options?

Berty44

Looks good.

Just want to make a couple of points here to be considered.

1) Not everyone can play with the regularity that a 4 day advancement would require. I could BUT if it meant we would lose people from the league who could not commit I would not like to see that happen.

2) Ref early advancements. I like to know exactly when my gameweeks are so I can schedule the games. Thats just my preference. If someone is looking for early advancements my suggestion they play more leagues.

I wait to see what other points people make which should be considered before casting my vote !!

ibmax

helimachoptor wrote: »

Am I missing any options?

7 day week

Danger_dave1

Think you've got it covered ! When you remembered to put in the poll :P

Personally I'll struggle to commit to a 4 day game week.

helimachoptor

My preference is a 4 day week with no early advancement for the reason Berty outlines. The other option is a 5 day week with early advancement.

But tbh i'm easy on either

linebacker52

I voted for every five days I think I would struggle with a four day advance.

As for early advancement if we get all games played early then we can advance early but people should not be but under pressure to get games played early which seems to happening now.

Danger_dave1

5 day week with no early advancements would be my preference because I doubt we'd have many to be honest , if the league grows close to 32 people there won't be any .

etloveslsd

I feel that early advancements are a luxury, some people think they are a necessity.

I like the 5 day system we have in place, would try and make 4 days work if the group decides to go that way.

ibmax

ibmax wrote: »

7 day week

I should probably add some reasoning behind this. I mentioned it yesterday but come September, I will (and i'm sure others will too) be playing sport multiple times per week. Combining this with a 9-5 job and plenty to do in the "real world" will make the 5 day week tough for me.

The guys said it above, if you have enough time that you can commit to a 4 or less day week then maybe you could consider joining additional leagues.

Personally, I liked the way this year's league was run with a 7 day week for the first season, shortening it to 5 days as the season's progressed. The 5-day-week seasons coincided with less busy periods of the year so it worked well. Irrespective of whether you run 5 day weeks from the beginning or a 7 day first season and then 5 day weeks from then on you still only end up with the same number of seasons... 3

adrian522

7 days is way too long in my opinion, I'd lose interest pretty quick if there is a week between games.

I play sports 3 nights a week as it is, not all sports are busy at the same time of year, for me it's summer that's the most busy but I can still play late games or whatever.

For me I'd prefer 4 days but would manage with 5 days also. Not interested in a league with 7 days weeks where 50% of the games are CPU.

Danger_dave1

ibmax wrote:

The 5-day-week seasons coincided with less busy periods of the year so it worked well. Irrespective of whether you run 5 day weeks from the beginning or a 7 day first season and then 5 day weeks from then on you still only end up with the same number of seasons... 3

That's a very good point to be honest. Why should we force 3 seasons quickly and then have a gap in the summer before madden 13 ?

adrian522

Danger_dave1 wrote: »

That's a very good point to be honest. Why should we force 3 seasons quickly and then have a gap in the summer before madden 13 ?

Well there are other comps we can run if people are interested. Also the fact that it is possible to run 4 seasons with 5 games per week with a few early advances.

Danger_dave1

adrian522 wrote: »

Well there are other comps we can run if people are interested. Also the fact that it is possible to run 4 seasons with 5 games per week with a few early advances.

Its possible but if we have more people joining the league the chances of early advancement will decrease with more and more human vs human games.

Berty44

adrian522 wrote: »

Well there are other comps we can run if people are interested. Also the fact that it is possible to run 4 seasons with 5 games per week with a few early advances.

Its not really possible Adrian. You would need a fast advance on 55 of the 84 gameweeks...that is not going to happen. More human v human games as Dave says makes that even more unlikely.

Consider as well the league is still gowing. Generally guys like to dip their toe in the water, play maybe a game per week, then find they like the game and want to play more frequently. That combined with the need to do "real world" stuff suggests slower is better....initally.

The No.1 priority should be to fill the league.

adrian522

Well I think we should at least leave the option there if we are doing 5 days per week, I'd agree with fixing days if we went to 4 days per week.

If people aren't getting their games played then we will advance every 5 days.

At present there are too many CPU games and it can be weeks between your human games which kind of defeats the purpose of playing in an online franchise.

etloveslsd

We have to remember, we are hoping to get 5-7 playes back that would put the league up to the high 20s of players.

We have to look at do we want a 4th season? It would be around this time next year. We have suffered alot with holidays. I know the Euros won't be on, but really we only lost Santry and Raoul (for a few days) to the Euros. Some people have commented that they feel this period is dragging and there are too many cpu games. So is a 4th season really wanted?

Also why is real world becoming "Real World"?

BigBadRob83

Am up for either of the 5-day options, fair number of days. Personally would vote for 5-day week (no advancements) option if it was there
4 day weeks would be too much for me, probably wouldn't be able to commit to it. Tried playing in the BFL and the IG Fantasy Franchise (once every 7 days) and I couldn't juggle the two.
Don't mind if that means we have a big gap before Madden 14, can run mini-league (European Championships style) or something else to bridge the gap.

Point made by a few people, and I'll second it; if the league isn't advancing fast enough for you and you want more Madden, then you should look into joining other leagues to fill the gap. The guys at maddenpfl do a great job.

davetherave

I'll hopefully be rejoining the league for M13.

I think a five day week with no early advancements would be best. Assuming the Who's who thread is up to date there are 22 members now. Let's say we get 25-26 for next season. Four days to arrange 13 matches doesn't really seem very long.

Ibmax also makesa good point. You could have a seven day week for regular season, maybe knock it down to five days around the holidays/new year when people are out of school/college/work etc. and have the playoffs as a five day week?

ibmax

etloveslsd wrote: »

Also why is real world becoming "Real World"?

I think that's my fault. Got a bit over excited with my keyboard!!'#:%"></?

there it goes again!!!

ibmax

Danger_dave1 wrote: »

That's a very good point to be honest. Why should we force 3 seasons quickly and then have a gap in the summer before madden 13 ?

This is a lot of my thinking. I'm sure there are a lot of guys who come late August/early September will be well into pre-season training for the football, rugby, GAA (is that the right time of year???), IAFL, etc with the seasons starting come late September.

As Dave says, is there any harm in running a 7 day first season when all this is going on? It might enable more people to join the league which has got to be the ultimate aim. Then as things start to slow down during the season you can then reduce the Boards turnaround to 5 days.

As Dave again points out, this would cut out a big wait in the summer between the end of M13 and M14.

There is zero possibility of 4 seasons for the reasons Berty listed. People can still play all the other leagues during this time of course if they feel the 7 day wait is too long!!!

helimachoptor

7 days would bore me to tears (and i play 2 games a week in another franchise) This is my primary one

adrian522

If anything people would be busier in the Summer than the winter.

I've kind of stated my point at this stage and don't want to repeat myself.

I'll see what the majority decide before making any decisions, maybe we need the 7 day option above,

I don't agree that there is zero possibility of 4 seasons though. I think there is every possibility of it.

matthew8

I voted 4 day week no early advancements. Everyone seems to be saying they can't do 4 days and early advancements are making it tough to schedule, but look at the other side. It's a right pain in the ass waiting 5 days for every game when I play all mine within 3 days, most on the first day, and waiting around for 2 months having only played 4 player versus player games in the franchise so far. I don't play any other madden (offline franchises/practise/minigames/superstar are very boring and what's the fun in playing some other league in which you won't even know the people you're bragging to?).

What we could look at is maybe if we get 3 seasons played using the current system next year and if we have 2 months left sim the first 6 weeks or something (maybe do 6-8 gameweeks of 2 days (but only for player versus player games as people who are at home all the time shouldn't have a 6 week head start) and then carry on like normal) to get a fourth one in.

helimachoptor

matthew8 wrote: »

I voted 4 day week no early advancements. Everyone seems to be saying they can't do 4 days and early advancements are making it tough to schedule, but look at the other side. It's a right pain in the ass waiting 5 days for every game when I play all mine within 3 days, most on the first day, and waiting around for 2 months having only played 4 player versus player games in the franchise so far. I don't play any other madden (offline franchises/practise/minigames/superstar are very boring and what's the fun in playing some other league in which you won't even know the people you're bragging to?).

Needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

You have played yours so early this season due to the amount of CPU games, that may not be the case for M13.



Also you could join other leagues... you will get to know people that way.

matthew8

You have played yours so early this season due to the amount of CPU games, that may not be the case for M13.

And the fact that I got my Chargers, Ravens and Bengals game played quickly and I was available for them. The only time I have been unavailable for a time was when I played you and I still played it early.

Also you could join other leagues... you will get to know people that way.

You guys already try my patience. If I joined another league they would end up making me very very angry.

helimachoptor

matthew8 wrote: »

And the fact that I got my Chargers, Ravens and Bengals game played quickly and I was available for them. The only time I have been unavailable for a time was when I played you and I still played it early.


You guys already try my patience. If I joined another league they would end up making me very very angry.

But they were available for you, they could have just as easily not been available.

If the week is advanced on schedule I probably wont be able to play until Monday (CPU Game), not everyone is as easily available.


Hmmm time to polish off that ban hammer

BigBadRob83

matthew8 wrote: »

What we could look at is maybe if we get 3 seasons played using the current system next year and if we have 2 months left sim the first 6 weeks or something (maybe do 6-8 gameweeks of 2 days (but only for player versus player games as people who are at home all the time shouldn't have a 6 week head start) and then carry on like normal) to get a fourth one in.

Interesting suggestion Matthew.
While I said earlier my preference was for for 5 days (no advancement), I wouldn't mind 5 days with early advancements.
If we have a decent chunk of time before Madden 14, then I like Matthew's idea of seeing how many Gameweeks we have space for and simming a few weeks to make up a season 4.

Danger_dave1

adrian522 wrote: »

If anything people would be busier in the Summer than the winter.

I'm far busier in the winter, for the fact that i play sports plus the NFL season is back on.

I think people aren't recognizing that fact that the league is going to go up in number in madden 13 and there will be much more human vs human games. If the majority of people come back for madden 13 who've played at least 1 season in the league. We'll have 25 players. Add in a few new guys you'll get when the game is released or the NFL starts back up and we could hit 32 handily enough

Adrian: the odds of us getting a 4th season are very very low with early advancements. We'd need 65 % of game weeks to be advanced early.

If we only decide on 3 season's I see no point why we would speed up the franchise to finish up in late June/ early July

helimachoptor

BigBadRob83 wrote: »

Interesting suggestion Matthew.
While I said earlier my preference was for for 5 days (no advancement), I wouldn't mind 5 days with early advancements.
If we have a decent chunk of time before Madden 14, then I like Matthew's idea of seeing how many Gameweeks we have space for and simming a few weeks to make up a season 4.

I like this... I really like this...
We could do the draft etc so people have a real interest in it.

Matthew cracking idea.

However.. people will get injured :pac:

matthew8

helimachoptor wrote: »

I like this... I really like this...
We could do the draft etc so people have a real interest in it.

Matthew cracking idea.

However.. people will get injured :pac:

Yeah the injuries can be rotten with the sim, but we could turn them off for the 4th season then.

etloveslsd

matthew8 wrote: »

What we could look at is maybe if we get 3 seasons played using the current system next year and if we have 2 months left sim the first 6 weeks or something (maybe do 6-8 gameweeks of 2 days (but only for player versus player games as people who are at home all the time shouldn't have a 6 week head start) and then carry on like normal) to get a fourth one in.

I am anti this: my reasons are If someone else suggested this the Raiders would be anti this. Seeing how the Raiders suggested this, I am assuming he is pro this. Therefore to stop some cosmic implosion, I will stand against it.

I saved you all, no need for thanks! :cool:

adrian522

Danger_dave1 wrote: »

I'm far busier in the winter, for the fact that i play sports plus the NFL season is back on.

Well playing in the league has shown that interest in general is a lot higher in the winter than the summer.

Danger_dave1 wrote:

I think people aren't recognizing that fact that the league is going to go up in number in madden 13 and there will be much more human vs human games. If the majority of people come back for madden 13 who've played at least 1 season in the league. We'll have 25 players. Add in a few new guys you'll get when the game is released or the NFL starts back up and we could hit 32 handily enough

Adrian: the odds of us getting a 4th season are very very low with early advancements. We'd need 65 % of game weeks to be advanced early.

If we only decide on 3 season's I see no point why we would speed up the franchise to finish up in late June/ early July

It would be nice to get 32 people but I don't see it happening about 22-25 people is more realistic. You're assuming that everyone who had madden 12 will buy 13, but I don't think that will necessarily happen.

Going as we have done for the last 2 seasons I think we would fit in 4 seasons to be honest as we have been flying through the weeks.

By your suggestion if I played my game on Monday and then had a bye, I would be waiting 2 full weeks to play a game. I don't at all get the logic of having everyone wait around for 7 days if all the games have been played. The league losses a lot of momentum that way and it's hard to stay interested.

mikemac1

5 Day Week (possible 4 seasons) Early Advancements

matthew8

Looks like the third one is winning it, and it seems to me though most people seem to want 4 seasons those that don't would be a big loss if they are frequently missing games, so hopefully we can get some early advances and we might even have time for a fourth season without sims.

helimachoptor

with such a small number of voters one vote could swing it.

However I think the decision should be up to Santry and Raoul, they'll need to take on board the poll, but their job is to do whats best for the BFL

BigBadRob83

Yeah, I would also think that second preferences would swing the vote big-time.
If Option 1 lost, I would guess anyone who voted for that would much prefer Option 2 over Option 3.
I don't think the three options are mutually exclusive, should be used to inform the eventual decision.

SantryRed

Lads,

Back out working so kind of busy. Would 3 seasons 5 days with early advancements and then a 4th season with 4 day weeks work? As there is always a drop off in numbers in the summer.

BigBadRob83

SantryRed wrote: »

Lads,

Back out working so kind of busy. Would 3 seasons 5 days with early advancements and then a 4th season with 4 day weeks work? As there is always a drop off in numbers in the summer.

Just some stats, using this forum as rough guide:

Season 2/Week 8 started on 6th March.
Season 3/Week 13 will finish on 28th June
Total of 115 days
27 Gameweeks (incl. a draft)
Average of 4.26 days/Gameweek

Pro-rated over 4 seasons (84 Gameweeks) = 358 days
Now that pace might not be sustainable if there are more Human games (hopefully), but worth noting.

If we really want 4 seasons (which I personally do and currently the poll suggests we do), then we would be left with two options assuming the 4-day week is out:
1. 5-day week w/ early advancements (possibly sim a couple of weeks in season 4 if we think we'll be tight for time at that stage before Madden 14)
2. 5-day week no early advancements & sim 11 weeks of Season 4 (maybe less simmed weeks if post-season weeks shorter)

matthew8

SantryRed wrote: »

Lads,

Back out working so kind of busy. Would 3 seasons 5 days with early advancements and then a 4th season with 4 day weeks work? As there is always a drop off in numbers in the summer.

Really I think it's just something we'll have to come back to at the end of the third season to see what's neccessary to fit a fourth in, but for the first 3 seasons it is indeed looking like it will be 5 day week and early advancements.

BigBadRob83

matthew8 wrote: »

I think the end of season 2 is an exception. Way faster than what we've usually had, and you're counting the draft and superbowl as the same week in averaging, but you forget that we then count 88 gameweeks, totalling 375 days.

If you want to count the draft as a separate Gameweek then:

Season 2/Week 8 started on 6th March.
Season 3/Week 13 will finish on 28th June
Total of 115 days
28 = 27 Gameweeks + draft
Average of 4.11 days/Gameweek

Pro-rated over 4 seasons (88 Gameweeks) = 362 days

matthew8

BigBadRob83 wrote: »

If you want to count the draft as a separate Gameweek then:

Season 2/Week 8 started on 6th March.
Season 3/Week 13 will finish on 28th June
Total of 115 days
28 = 27 Gameweeks + draft
Average of 4.11 days/Gameweek

Pro-rated over 4 seasons (88 Gameweeks) = 362 days

No I misread your post, I read it as 27 gameweeks, the draft being one, but really it was 27 weeks, draft included.

ibmax

A few questions/thoughts to generate responses/opinions:

1) This year, the first season was a 7-day-week and then was reduced to 5 days. What was the thinking behind this?

2) Since the middle of season 2, people have steadily dropped out and others have taken their place. What changed between the end of season 1 and the middle of season 2 to kick start this decline in the original players?

3) If you only have 4 day week, and the game week is Monday-Thursday, what happens when one player work day shifts (myself, ET, Heli, etc...) and the other night shift (notyalc, empacher, etc...)

4) What is the difference between option 2 and option 3 in the poll. Are they not the same thing worded differently?

5) Someone commented, interest is greater in the winter than the summer. Why is this the case and what causes it to drop? By my count there have been 10 new players join (Bucs, Falcons, Redskins, Raiders, Chiefs, Seahawks, Dolphins, Cowboys, Redskins and Broncos) since the beginning of season 2 (springtime). That's a significant number in my opinion and suggests interest is always there though availability/accessibility may not be.

6) Based on the comments above (not just mine but the whole thread) and the pattern of the BFL this year, is there a potential spiral effect happening. Shorter game weeks mean less players would be available to play. This means the guys remaining are playing more CPU matches. More CPU matches subsequently means shorter weeks with even fewer players being able to take part. Which in turn means even more CPU games and so on until you have 1 person playing 31 CPU teams... probably Matthew

7) Has anyone read this far?

helimachoptor

Comments in bold

ibmax wrote: »

A few questions/thoughts to generate responses/opinions:

1) This year, the first season was a 7-day-week and then was reduced to 5 days. What was the thinking behind this?
- > Getting a third season in
2) Since the middle of season 2, people have steadily dropped out and others have taken their place. What changed between the end of season 1 and the middle of season 2 to kick start this decline in the original players?
->Real life pretty much


3) If you only have 4 day week, and the game week is Monday-Thursday, what happens when one player work day shifts (myself, ET, Heli, etc...) and the other night shift (notyalc, empacher, etc...)
-> Yes this will be a big issue - also people who travel for work (me!)

4) What is the difference between option 2 and option 3 in the poll. Are they not the same thing worded differently?
-> Yes(i need to clear that up

5) Someone commented, interest is greater in the winter than the summer. Why is this the case and what causes it to drop? By my count there have been 10 new players join (Bucs, Falcons, Redskins, Raiders, Chiefs, Seahawks, Dolphins, Cowboys, Redskins and Broncos) since the beginning of season 2 (springtime). That's a significant number in my opinion and suggests interest is always there though availability/accessibility may not be.
-> People want to be outdoors in the summer.
For my astro team, we never struggle to attract players in the summer, we do in the winter.

6) Based on the comments above (not just mine but the whole thread) and the pattern of the BFL this year, is there a potential spiral effect happening. Shorter game weeks mean less players would be available to play. This means the guys remaining are playing more CPU matches. More CPU matches subsequently means shorter weeks with even fewer players being able to take part. Which in turn means even more CPU games and so on until you have 1 person playing 31 CPU teams... probably Matthew

-> We have a balance tbh, between getting games done quickly and actually allowing people to get their games done.
7) Has anyone read this far?

Of course!

matthew8

Numbers spiked during the second season while we had a 5 day week and early advancements.

etloveslsd

ibmax wrote: »

7) Has anyone read this far?

Yes!

But some good points. One thing Paully said when he left was he didn't have time for Madden, that was with the 5 day schedule. maybe he could have stayed with a longer game week.

A question that has been raised a few times is can we fit in a 4th season. I asked a different question which nobody seems to have picked up on.

Do we want a 4th season?

Santry mentioned that there is always a drop off in Summer. The 4th season would be in summer. We are also seeing people saying they don't want loads of CPU games. Which if there is a similar drop off to this season will result in lots of CPU games.

So I ask do we want a 4th season?

etloveslsd

matthew8 wrote: »

Numbers spiked during the second season while we had a 5 day week and early advancements.

Was a 5 day game week as opposed to a 7 day really a reason why people joined?

BigBadRob83

Do remember a lot of people being dissatisfied with the 7 day gameweek when we discussed it in the old forum and large majority in favour of the 5-day week.

Think you're right on the question ET. Bearing in mind all we have discussed here, key question that should be on the poll:
Do we want 4 seasons?

The answer to that will shape what kind of gameweek length we decide on

SantryRed

I think doing 3 seasons with early advancements if players finish their games a few days early but without any pressure on them to do so. And then reassess the situation mid way through season 3 of madden 13 and see how long we have and what to do then.

Danger_dave1

SantryRed wrote: »

I think doing 3 seasons with early advancements if players finish their games a few days early but without any pressure on them to do so. And then reassess the situation mid way through season 3 of madden 13 and see how long we have and what to do then.

7day or 5 Day ? if we do 4 season it has to be 4 days I believe. If its 5 day we need 65% of the game weeks to be advanced early . Can we really see absolutely every second game week advanced and more?

If its a 7 day league I believe the league will grow more. If its a 5 day league I believe it will grow as well, prob at similar level as 7 day, with 3 seasons we should have season 1 7 day and season 2-3 5 day IMO )

I think we will struggle to get noobs playing a 4 day week franchise.

BigBadRob83

SantryRed wrote: »

I think doing 3 seasons with early advancements if players finish their games a few days early but without any pressure on them to do so. And then reassess the situation mid way through season 3 of madden 13 and see how long we have and what to do then.

Sounds reasonable Santry, am in agreement with that idea alright.
Would just add one thing; if it was left until midway through season 3 to decide the uncertainty re season 4 would affect decision-making for people as they shape their rosters going into season 3.
While this wouldn't have been a massive issue in Madden 12, if M13 Connected Careers is all it's promised to be then it could be.
Might not matter in the overall scheme of things, but just wanted to note it for the discussion.