Well, @davemccoy. Good to hear from you, even if I've yet to make it over to STEEM Monsters and therefore have no first hand knowledge of what any of you are talking about.
It sounds like times have been good, and now, maybe not so good, or not as good, and maybe won't be for a while. Something like that. From the number of posts I was seeing daily about SM, it sounded like it was more or less issue free. I didn't see how that could be possible, so I guess now I'm finally seeing what those are.
I take it the game play itself is still automated—you choose the cards you want to battle with ahead of time and then the game takes over how the cards will play out, right?
It sounds like people have been throwing some money at the game, too, which I guess is good for business, but now people are wanting some kind of return on investment and they're finding that time doesn't make value go up. Interesting.
Also, @bashadow's mentioning of the ranking system being broken: sounds like that's some kind of universal problem. Why is that? And can it be that hard? Seems like other types of games manage to overcome it.
Anyway, I'm sure there's plenty of people having fun, but now that I see where all the old leaguers have gone, it's good to have a reunion of sorts on this post. Still able to rally the troops. :)
Hey Glen! Always good to get a message from you... I may have to start posting more often just for that reason alone :D
Yes the game is still a "draft" a team game based on a set of rules that you are given ahead of the match. They have done an incredible job of coming up with different scenarios so this part of the strategy is important. The cards themselves have rules of how the do different things (like attack or defend), so the computer just speeds up the processing of that and makes it look like a boxing match. So you are right :)
On your point about people investing, you have pulled the right message out of that. Many people invested small amounts and they have done well on their investment because the amount of rewards that were given over 5 seasons was very generous by SM themselves. On the other hand, there have been people that put much larger amounts of money in the thousands of dollars and they are not getting any kind of return at this time. Plus the card market has softened for various reasons (some self-inflicted and some external forces like the crash in steem). So when people are losing money or losing freebies, then the bitching is coming from both sides (rich and poor)... I think it is what it is and will be something that will pass, but for now its the talk of the moment.
On the 3rd point, the elo ranking system is great, but the bots came in and messed it up.. basically when 2 players play, one wins and goes higher and the other loses and goes lower... if you have enough players then its a "true system"... What happened is that an abnormal amount of bots were introduced that can play thousands more games than us humans... THey then skewed the results because many of their matches were against each other. So 2 shitty teams play each other and one will move up... well if all of them are shitty then eventually it helps the others move up too... the system gives a special extra to teams that win more than 2 in a row and that extra bonus propels everything higher. So bottom line, it is screwed up and they need to find a way to fix it, but I don't think its a long term issue. But bashadow is definitely right in that it makes it not fun and in a sense makes a mockery of the game itself.
And yes there are many that love the game... I really like the strategy part of it and I am really enjoying watching the development of the whole project. There are many awesome aspects that I didn't get into, because the message of the post was not really conducive for that. But if you ever decide you want to get involved, just let me know and I will get you a deck and give you personal training on how it works. I think its going to end up like a combination of chess and poker in the final stages.
I hope all is well with you Glen and besides getting your message, I think I'm happiest to know you are still around. I plan on getting back a little more to steemit again. I have just had my hands full getting all the aspects of this clear in my mind!
Talk to you later and happy new year btw!
Oh, I've been around. Not always productive, and for the last couple of months more on Musing, but still scanning the feed for interesting posts and whatever scandals/news of the day there might be.
Musing lost its delegation, and in the process, its VP was shot, so its been waiting to upvote with its remaining SP, which will be less than a tenth of what it had. So, the 900-plus SP I was able to accumulate (helped by other earnings from blog posts, contests, etc.), in a little over two months time probably won't continue, unless musing gets its delegation back, or something else comes along.
It seems like we can't do anything around here without bots showing up and doing something—mainly screwing things up. Why can't people just be happy with what they can do on their own, or move on to something else? And why does it always have to be at the expense of everyone else, as well as the game play? It's just wrong, and people who are inclined to build these bots should just not.
re: well with me
Oh, I suppose they are. Other than musing's hiccup, and people wanting to fork Steemit stake out of the picture, and aggroed essentially wanting Steemit to hand over their stake while he and the community take over (which isn't good or bad yet, just adding to the mix of uncertainty currently abounding around here), I'm doing okay. :) I mean, I could complain, and still do, but so far, it's not really done me much good.
if you noticed one thing, I quit complaining publicly about steemit... the reason is simple, they don't listen and why waste my energy. I tried but they seem like a rudderless ship. The good thing is that I think a lot of people have been cut down to size and the reset is happening. I have no idea how it will come out, but too many have lost too much for things to stay the same. Usually its out with the old and in with the new though.
As far as aggy's comments, I saw them... no comment. And I have heard that musing was awesome and now you tell me its gone before I even got the chance to show up. Damn I am either getting too old or things are moving too fast. Its seems like yesterday I said I'd give it a look :P
I'm glad to see you are knocking on the door to 1000 SP and that in an of itself will be helpful to add more. I plan on coming back to being more active soon. The whole SM thing is a great experience, but the bulk of the groundwork has now been laid from my end. In otherwords, I know what I need to know and set up what I feel is necessary, so now it should require far fewer convos to get things done. That will free up time and then maybe I can explore again what is happening in this every shrinking society we are part of! Even though its far from perfect, its still where my friends are and I have no plans on leaving it (even though I hope Ned does).
Good to see you again and hopefully I'm more active with you very soon Glen!
Oh, I did notice you stopped, but wasn't sure if that was so much deliberate as it was a byproduct of turning your attention to STEEM Monsters and TeamPossible. :) Sounds like it was probably both.
Interesting. No comment. :) Sounds like a conversation for another time, then, and probably off the record.
I don't know if musing is over, or its delegation, but for now, smaller rewards.
As far as the SP goes, I passed 1,000 earned SP in November. Right now, I'm knocking on the door of 1,700. I was hoping to reach 2,000 SP by the end of the month, but it doesn't look like that's possible now. The 900-plus SP was earned over the last two and half months of 2018. I had nearly 700 SP earned in the 9.5 months prior to that.
It'll be nice to see you more out and about. I will probably be, too, though I am still splitting time on musing, because I like it, but as far as stake goes, I need to get back into posting and the contests.