New Scaratings

I just got off the BT conference call where the CEO Mr Bush was explaining what the upcoming "Rights Offering to Existing Stockholders" money was going to be used for. He also covered a list other important points in terms of growing the customer base.

These are paraphrased and not exact:

- The new player rewards program starts in March
- New look game graphics start in March for many games, more shorter games at lunch time, more pop oriented games late at night
- Client coupons to the players via mobile device playmakers in 2012
- Development of Tablet Playmakers with internet access and direct marketing, replacing the current playmakers
- Micro payments by players to BT for game playing tips, ranking info, scores etc on mobile devices
- Data grabbing & mining, gameplay, length of visit followed by targeted emails to entice return visit
- Badges, new reward levels and reward platforms that would put new customers on an even field with long time players, currently new players can never attain the highest levels, facebook etc
- Mobile platforms a priority
- 64% of logins are as a guest, this must change so data/emails can be mined.
- 73% of logins are by only 26% of the registered players

>>>>>>>>>>

So the big news there is the new graphics and possibly new games coming in March.

Also for those that care, the new rewards "thing" whatever it is, doesn't start till March, woop de do, no loss there. But I know for customer retention it's a good thing.

Tablet playmakers sometime down the road?? We'll see if that ever happens, Mr Bush did say that was dependent on falling prices for tablets.

And of course the ever growing data mining and increase of targeted emails.

Let's hope the new infusion of investor cash gets put to use in a good way. BTW stock price is .22.

So, just as long as I can drink my beer and play some decent trivia (with a playmaker not a phone) I'm happy.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

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(o\_!_/o)

It'd be nice if Triviaoke and Jukebox returned...but those games don't fit into the 15-minute format so that can't be it.
But an updated version of those games would be nice.

If they're angling for more movie questions, then they should just bring back Get Reel.

The way I understand Iceman is that the bars pay for the system and the tablets and mobiles are used on the system. The players still have to come to the bars to play thus providing revenue for the bars. The tablet would be the same as the current playmaker with added features also used by patrons who may not be playing trivia. Possibly those who just want it for the internet, kids games etc.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

I'd love if they brought these games back as they were before...half hour games.

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Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

"Sorry, we have no tablets available. Those kids over there are playing Angry Birds with them."

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Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

The statistic I'd be interested in is how many of the newbie logins login again that month, the next couple of months, etc.

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Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

My first thought too.

Remember when BT "revamped" Six with new graphics? We told them we didn't care about graphics, all we care about is game play and content. Naturally they fucked up the game, but hey, we got awesome graphics didn't we?

So now we're getting more new graphics? Really? They know we don't care about graphics so we get more? There's so many things wrong with the games and content they could fix and they work on graphics? Will they never learn?

I do agree with the more pop oriented games late at night, something I suggested many years ago. Very little pop culture until 10pm or so, then up the percentage. Now, if they start the more pop culture too early, I will need LILJOL to bail me out.

BO

Thanks for listening to the call and filling us in with the details BUD.

Understandably I'd think, I am forever skeptical when revamped game designs or entirely new games are on the horizon. As for the tablet playmakers, I'll believe it when I see it. It seems like new playmakers are always on the docket, but are never actually followed through on. How many bars actually have those yellow playmakers that we all voted on years ago?

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Anyone wanna lay odds on this NOT involving facebook or twitter?


I'm not sure how you get much shorter than 7 questions in 15 minutes. What are they gonna do, 5 questiosn in 10 minutes? Late night pop culture is ok me with me as long as it's after the premium games.


They're obviously trying to increase mobile playmaker usage. It's a cool idea and I give them points for embracing new technology, but the mobile playmaker still needs a fair amount of work before it will be a suitable replacement for a physical playmaker.


I question the viablility of this with existing tablets. Playmakers get beat to hell and gunked up regularly. This seems like more a long term goal at best.


It sounds to me like they're creating an enhanced version of the mobile Playmaker which won't be a free app. I hope this doesn't mean they're getting rid of the free stats and rankings currently available on their website.


Cool idea in theory but I hope they put some intelligence around it. I don't wanted to get spammed with an email every single time I play.


Meh, whatever. I can see it now, "Like buzztime on facebook and get 1,000 PP points! Get one of your friends to be our friend and get 5,000 points."



I think we get that by now. To reiterate, cool idea, not yet ready for primetime.


Generally people playing as guests fall into one of three categories:

- Casual players who play infrequently and don't want to go through a sign up process just to play a couple games every now and then
- kids
- Regular players who don't want their gameplay to be tracked or buzztime to have their info

I'm not sure what Buzztime can do other than getting rid of guest access and forcing everyone to have an account. I think this would be a big mistake as most of these types of players would probably just stop playing.



I'm surprised this isn't even more skewed. I would have thought it would be 90/10.

Micro payments? Will I have to attach a credit card to my BT account or pay for the playmaker usage? I'll find something else to do.

Data grabbing-Mining etc. They should have been doing this all along. Currently I get three or four "The Season" emails a week which are too many. They are verging on spam territory.

Badges etc - Let's pat the little kids on the head, tell them how smart they are and give them a gold star for nothing so they feel good about themselves and realize entitlements beyond their ability. Let's develop an unhealthy rivalry between players and give all new players a three question handicap.

They may be successful the way the world is today.

The more I hear about iPhone usage & apps, the more I figure I'll be left behind.

The more I hear about pop culture/entertainment games & questions, the more I think about night fishing for walleye.

Me too and we don't even have Walleye here.

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Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

I read this one twice, thinking at first the same thing you did. On second read, it seemed to me they were suggesting that that they would extend the hours that the shorter lunchtime games are played (thus, more shorter games), rather than shortening the games further.

But I could be wrong.

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Anon
"He may seem like Mr. Rogers but a dark spirit lies beneath."

The micro payments would not be for playing the games on mobile devices but for added items like personalized stats, tips, whatever else BT could sell. Most smart phone users already have some kind of payment system set up on the phones, paypal or whatever.
It's being done by a multitude of companies, BT might as well suck some money from those that are into it, it wouldn't be us so I don't care either way.

Same with the badges, let those that care about that have fun, maybe it will keep some of the kids interested longer. Anything to keep players of any kind coming back to the bars so they will pay the subscription rates.

Speaking of subscription rates, I forgot to mention above that Mr Bush said starting this month BT was starting a sliding scale for the monthly/weekly fees bars pay based on the number of logins. Small bars with little play will pay less than busy bars with large login numbers. This is to help keep smaller bars signed up instead of dropping BT the day their contract is up.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!

That is an interesting concept. If it works, it really might keep some of the smaller bars online.

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Malort. It's not just for breakfast anymore.

While that sounds like a good idea, in theory, this could actually have the reverse effect too. It could encourge sites to make sure players are NOT playing past a certain amount (i.e - no multi boarding, thus no location ranking if you don't have enough players). It could encourage more bars to keep their playmakers in a locked bin behind the counter, thwarting off the casual player who might grab a playmaker if they didn't have to ask for one.

It could also encourage bars to disallow players with multiple boxes.

So I would be able to drive a bar's NTN costs up by playing as a guest and changing my handle after each game? That would certainly seem to be a consequence of billing by number of logins, which is what is implied from the prior posts. It would seem fairer to bill according to cumulative login time.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

If that was the goal, I would never step foot into a place that has or ever had BT for the rest of my life.

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Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

Speaking as a representative from a bigger bar (25-40 Playmakers, depending on the time of year), this idea scares me. If it simply means they'll be discounting for smaller bars, that'd be fine. If it means they'll charge us more, I don't know how much more my boss would be willing to pay. As implied by my "25-40" number, we already send back Playmakers part of the year to decrease our NTN fees.

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

From what I heard the mention of sliding scale fees was in reference to keeping the bars that have small login numbers. It did not sound like the bigger bars would pay more. Just that at renewal time the bars with small login numbers would be offered a lower price to keep them on board. Big push on retention.

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BUD - Stained Glass Pub Silver Spring MD
OC BUD - Grotto Pizza DE near Ocean City MD

LET'S GO ....Orioles and the 9 and 5!!