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Subject: Have the staff gone on vacation
In programming, when you patch something on one side, you'll double the holes on the other side. For them to make changes in the match engine, would mean to spend money and time for months and months simulating/testing until they are pleased with the results.
On the other hand, when they changed something, like the match engine (God knows how many discussions were when that happened), the new look, the junior school, the pitch and so on, people never embraced the improvements.
Some things cannot be changed, because one simple thing might require more than half of the code to be revised.
There's a saying for this:
Bill Cosby: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
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On the other hand, when they changed something, like the match engine (God knows how many discussions were when that happened), the new look, the junior school, the pitch and so on, people never embraced the improvements.
Some things cannot be changed, because one simple thing might require more than half of the code to be revised.
There's a saying for this:
Bill Cosby: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
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Honestly I'm not disappointed at all with the game itself. I think they have produced a lot of quality in that realm and I still enjoy setting tactics and watching my games play out and everything like that.
That being said, I think my problem definitely just comes in the activity and involvement of the staff in general. I think we can leave the engine alone and training and all that is fine, but we really need to focus on getting new players into the game, getting them setup, keeping them happy, etc.
A simple initiative could even be like this:
Every country will get X% of their users as "Greeters". You can apply to be a greeter and you must have played the game for at least a year or something. The greeters are then notified every time a new team signs up (maybe they can just visit a page and see newest teams). From there they can check a box saying they will greet the person so as to avoid the person being flooded with welcomes, and then they can send a message right from the page saying hello and welcoming the person. They can show them around to all the cool features, guide them through the basic parts of the game, answer questions, and basically be a little bit like a mentor. If you're a greeter and you fail to login X times a month (we want active people here, so at least like 4-5 times a month or something) then you drop your greeter status and the next person in line can fill in and take over as a greeter.
Every country can as well have "Experts" - These are users who have been here for 5 years plus or something and they can then sign up as experts for the new people to go to. They can have an "Ask the experts" panel and people can talk about what they specialize in and then answer questions around it. I know from my 7 years + experience here I could definitely give a lot of advice about things like tactic, transfers, training cycles, etc. Once again you may need to maintain some activity here (maybe like login 1-2 times/month) or it drops and other people can become experts.
These are just random ideas off the top of my head so they aren't fleshed out very well but you get the picture. The game doesn't need a lot of changing, but the way we interact and obtain/keep new users DEFINITELY does.
That being said, I think my problem definitely just comes in the activity and involvement of the staff in general. I think we can leave the engine alone and training and all that is fine, but we really need to focus on getting new players into the game, getting them setup, keeping them happy, etc.
A simple initiative could even be like this:
Every country will get X% of their users as "Greeters". You can apply to be a greeter and you must have played the game for at least a year or something. The greeters are then notified every time a new team signs up (maybe they can just visit a page and see newest teams). From there they can check a box saying they will greet the person so as to avoid the person being flooded with welcomes, and then they can send a message right from the page saying hello and welcoming the person. They can show them around to all the cool features, guide them through the basic parts of the game, answer questions, and basically be a little bit like a mentor. If you're a greeter and you fail to login X times a month (we want active people here, so at least like 4-5 times a month or something) then you drop your greeter status and the next person in line can fill in and take over as a greeter.
Every country can as well have "Experts" - These are users who have been here for 5 years plus or something and they can then sign up as experts for the new people to go to. They can have an "Ask the experts" panel and people can talk about what they specialize in and then answer questions around it. I know from my 7 years + experience here I could definitely give a lot of advice about things like tactic, transfers, training cycles, etc. Once again you may need to maintain some activity here (maybe like login 1-2 times/month) or it drops and other people can become experts.
These are just random ideas off the top of my head so they aren't fleshed out very well but you get the picture. The game doesn't need a lot of changing, but the way we interact and obtain/keep new users DEFINITELY does.
What you propose is already possible (seeing the new registrations per country), and in general, the tutor does the welcoming and the first aid to questions. Furthermore, we have a mentoring system in Belgium with few active mentors who are then appointed to a new manager by the tutor.
The problem is not the changes in the match-engine and the other changes there have been made. Sokker is in general a very good game, but the lack of communication and the slow process is killing the new user rush when signing up for the first time and wanting to try everything out! New users is pending too long and the admins are too slow to respond when new users sign-up!
Here Hattrick has a perfect system with small things to do before getting ready for the hole game and it is your self you can manage how long it will take before you are ready to play. That way new users are also introduced to the game features which in Sokker kan be difficult to get at first hand.
Here Hattrick has a perfect system with small things to do before getting ready for the hole game and it is your self you can manage how long it will take before you are ready to play. That way new users are also introduced to the game features which in Sokker kan be difficult to get at first hand.
On this point I fully agree. A good in-game tutorial is something that is missing. And it doesn't interfere with any code that needs to be changed.
Indeed. I remember the first time i came to sokker and saw the players i tought it was a stupid HT-clone based game. And the tactic-generator... someone has to tell you how that freaking thing works, moving the ball is not something most people do without any knowledge. And the stupid basictactics... people come to sokker, choose a tactic... and it is rubish..
Yeah they will stay, right!
Yeah they will stay, right!
Such mentor system has been already working in Czech since 2006. Each Tutor takes care of certain day of the week and sends mails to every new team with greetings and offers to help.
The ratio of welcome mails sent vs replies received is may be 100:1..
The ratio of welcome mails sent vs replies received is may be 100:1..
We have had a user in the past who found out after 2 years (RL) that the ball could be moved from the center spot. All this time, he was changing tactics only for the center square of the editor :p
Yes... you can comfort him... he is not the only one.
If you do not know anybody, and do not read the fora... it is not easy to know.
Look in random lowest divisions of any country and there are teams playing since 2005-2007 with standard tactics, or tactics based on standardtactics with only changes on centre ball.
(But i stopped mailing them, a lot aren't even interested in help ;) but it should be in the rules or something.)
If you do not know anybody, and do not read the fora... it is not easy to know.
Look in random lowest divisions of any country and there are teams playing since 2005-2007 with standard tactics, or tactics based on standardtactics with only changes on centre ball.
(But i stopped mailing them, a lot aren't even interested in help ;) but it should be in the rules or something.)
Isn't it a system sk@mail? Anyway I wouldn't expect a new user to answer a sk@mail even if it wasn't a system one. The problem is that 80% of the current staff is inactive or are members of the staff only with the name. Their involvment in the game is pure fictional, it's just about bragging. I have seen some really dedicated users here but there are too many illiterates and lazy f***s in this vicious circle. Somone needs to clean a little the staff member list and find a way to recrute dedicated users.
When you see daily users more didicated than a staff member you know that someone isn't doing his job right. You might be surprised about how many time a staff member can be found in a situation of misuse of authority.
I'm waiting for ~2 years to receive an answer from a romanian administrator about some complains. It's easier to ignore someone because he's making a complain about your friend's activity, than to step up and take actions against him.
Of course, a small introduction to the guideline should be more than welcome. They made a step in this direction by placing those question marks to click on for detailed information.
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When you see daily users more didicated than a staff member you know that someone isn't doing his job right. You might be surprised about how many time a staff member can be found in a situation of misuse of authority.
I'm waiting for ~2 years to receive an answer from a romanian administrator about some complains. It's easier to ignore someone because he's making a complain about your friend's activity, than to step up and take actions against him.
Of course, a small introduction to the guideline should be more than welcome. They made a step in this direction by placing those question marks to click on for detailed information.
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Please keep your personal conflicts with staff to Yourself. As you know, staff discussions are not open for discussion on the fora.
It's not a personal discussion with the staff (aka via sk@mail or email), it's a forum discussion, which is public isn't it? It's not like I'm exposing a personal discussion with an official. So basically if one has something to say about any decision will be either censored either banned :))
And we're asking why the users quit playing the game, and why the news users feel so unwelcome.
You're missing the point, so I'm going to rewrite it:
Why there is a thread for new users to write questions, and then users and staff members to say, search for any similar questions before asking, when a new user must search thru thousands of posts to find it. So he is forced to ignore the search function of the forum, because there aren't any thread opened for every problem that one has.
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And we're asking why the users quit playing the game, and why the news users feel so unwelcome.
You're missing the point, so I'm going to rewrite it:
Why there is a thread for new users to write questions, and then users and staff members to say, search for any similar questions before asking, when a new user must search thru thousands of posts to find it. So he is forced to ignore the search function of the forum, because there aren't any thread opened for every problem that one has.
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well, your history talks about something else, so its not about censorship, but about your breaking the rules ;) if you dont want to follow the rules, dont play it ;)
It's indeed not a discussion, it is a conflict as I said earlier (you being banned). And this is not to be discussed on the fora ;-)
So please just keep giving opinions about improving the game without discussing staff desicions
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So please just keep giving opinions about improving the game without discussing staff desicions
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Now you just confused me. So you're assuming that I broke Sokker rules by suggesting stuff?