New Scaratings

So let's see how well BT's so thoughtfully conceived and well-tested scheme to get more players in the West zone worked out on launch day, February 28, 2012 (again I'm counting only boxes with positive or negative scores, indicating at least one button was punched:

Glory Daze

East 4075 (9 perfect scores--congrats, guys!)
West 993 (6 perfect scores)
Total Players 5068

Showdown

East 4592 (no perfect scores; high score 57, 373)
West 989 (8 perfect scores)
Total Players 5581

Brainbuster

East 3444 (no perfect scores; high score 13,197)
West 640 (4 perfect scores)
Total Players 4084

BO previously posted 2012 YTD averages for these three games in the "Project Player Count" thread; I'll repeat them here for easy comparison:

Glory Daze(730e/430p) - 5871
Brainbuster(8e/5p) - 5784 (4627 east, 1157 west)
Showdown(830e/530p) - 6925 (5401 east, 1524 west)

As you can see, there was a 14% drop in GD (and this is the only game where one would have expected the East zone count to hold fairly steady other than for loss through boycotting, as GD continues to be played in its usual time slot); a 20% drop in SD, and a whopping 30% drop in BB. (Guess that just as we told BT, BB is a lead-in game for SD, not a follow-up, and that people leave after the premium.)

And of course there were the perfect and near-perfect scores showing up, demonstrating that BT's "monitoring" cannot keep West zone players from using answers.

So right now, in terms of predicting what the split and moving games to different time slots would do, we the players were spot on. If anything, we were conservative in how much the drop would be.

BT, when will you start listening?

Brooke/AARDVK

100th place scores last night

Glory Days east 13660
Glory Days west 12693
East:West player ratio 4.07:1

Showdown east 39986
Showdown west 34119
East:West player ratio 4.64:1

Brainbuster east 10502
Brainbuster west 7670
East:West player ratio 5.31:1

As if the schedule changes didn't make it easy enough for us west players to pad our stats

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

I actually had pasted the percentages, but forgotten to credit BO--I've now fixed that, plus pointed out that the split was premised on the assumption that putting premium games on later in the West zone would translate into more players. Instead there was a one-third dropoff on Showdown.

I will do a similar analysis tomorrow re: tonight's Sci-Files, PasTimes, Lexitopia, and Six.

Brooke/AARDVK

I'm afraid Lexitopia will go the way of BB last night. Very few will play, even in the east, as it's 2 games after SIX.

Praying that Pastimes still keeps a decent number of players around, but might not. Terrible way to gut the Wed. schedule.
Not to mention that I won't see F RUSH any longer unless ILLJOL is playing CD early enough.

_________________
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 posted on the "Projected Player Count" thread the analysis of Day 2 of the split, comparing actual numbers to the projected/historical numbers provided by BO. In summary, everything except SciFiles was down in player count, one dramatically (poor Lexotopia lost a third of its players).

Brooke/AARDVK

100th place scores Wednesday

Sci-Files east 10708
Sci-Files west 9233
East:West player ratio 4.27:1

SIX east 50750
SIX west 41472
East:West player ratio 4.83:1

Pastimes east 9315
Pastimes west 6681
East:West player ratio 5.06:1

Lexitopia east 7379
Lexitopia west 5382
East:West player ratio 5.16:1

Same as Tuesday, the smaller player pool means west players have a significantly easier time raking in stats. The magnitude of the ratio steadily increases during the evening, too. The last game states only 454 west players (I realize I'm using the unreliable figure, but my lunch break ended 13 minutes ago), which is quite close to the 300 player threshold

_________________
/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

So I'm betting the BT folks who came up with whole scheme are explaining the dip in the player counts by saying people just didn't know what time to come for their favorite game (and whose fault is that, BT--wouldn't it have helped if you'd put up screens telling them exactly when they could expect to find their games?). So they're hoping that next week everyone will have figured it out and the player count will rise. (Doubtful, but they'll keep believing it through next week.)

But what are they telling themselves about the precipitous decreases in the games played after the premiums? These are the ones that are ostensibly enjoying near-primetime status as opposed to when they were played before. So not only would BT expect the players who believe their trivia-playhing experience has actually been improved by the "convenient times" to stay, but that the higher level of traffic at the location would result in more first-time/casual players. Of course the latter depends on the supposed higher-quality games selling themselves to someone glancing at the screen as opposed to their previous BT Trivia/Countdown offerings at those times--something that will not happen without outreach by the games' former, aka the folks now going home instead or not being there in the first place because they preferred playing the game earlier or later.

Brooke/AARDVK

Anybody done a time slot comparison ? ie 9 o'clock to 10 comparison before and after, as opposed to lexitopia before and after ?

If they have already posted that somewhere, just mention the thread or post a link.

Thanks

Ahh look, the REAL cheating douche in AZ has now found out that he can win all the premium games. His name was mentioned every time when people mention time zone cheats...

_________________
Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

That's impossible. Buzztime has already said clearly that cheating is against the rules!

He's a world class douchebag. When is Buzztime going to realize that it only takes one prick like this, who gets his rocks off by cheating, to make their product a joke?

When Hell freezes

Well, one person you can throw out. Now, if they start getting 20 cheating douches....

If anybody cares, here is the approximate top 20 for Spotlight.

1 Old Town Tavern Goleta CA 59475
2 The Concert Pub Houston TX 57862
3 Native New Yorker Phoenix AZ 57059
4 Hokie House Blacksburg VA 57041
5 Buffalo Wild Wings Tonawanda NY 56871
6 Runyons Seaford NY 56320
7 Bobalouies Grill and Sports Bar Tampa FL 55126
8 Hooters of NASA Webster TX 54554
9 Old Chicago Portage MI 53339
10 Stadium Cafe Addison TX 53039
11 Capital City Center Hotel Victoria BC 52478
12 Pts Pub Las Vegas NV 51757
13 Playmakers Sports Bar Cleveland OH 51124
14 Bargos Cincinnati OH 50843
15 Hard Times Cafe and Cue Germantown MD 50515
16 Adams Mill Restaurant Manchester CT 50506
17 Dan McGuinness Pub Southaven MS 49336
18 Big Guys Winnipeg MB 49009
19 McGillacuddys Portland OR 45344
20 Mickie's Pub Ramada Lodge Hotel Kelowna BC 45246

I see three bars missing..

_________________
Buzztime is a company full of dumbshits.

This is how the last SD tournament should have been run, locations that think they are pulling the proverbial wool over player's eyes mysteriously vanish from the rankings.

BO

I'm not sure of if anything was amiss at Old Town, but they usually scored high before the split.

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

And BT probably thinks that after-the-fact removal of blatantly cheating players/locations solves the problem, ignoring that the time the rankings are most looked at are right after the game itself (I doubt the casual players make an effort to go to the website the next day and see what the final rankings might be). So BT would have to do the equivalent of a television network's 7-second delay to censor bad language by having someone there at the end of the game looking at each score as it came in and saying yea or nay as to whether it passes scrutiny, all within the very short time frame before the rankings have to go out so that the next game can begin on time. Of course such split- second judgment would have to be impeccable so that no legitimate good score would get erroneously miscategorized.

Brooke/AARDVK

And of course BWW-Burbank's "perfect" score for Showdown this week is still up there.

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

SLOTEK started an interesting thread on BT's FB page that location scores were being adversely affected because guest players weren't being included in the HOF rankings:
http://www.facebook.com/AARDVK?ref=tn_t ... 5712933377

I made a quick check of a number of yesterday's games, both East and West, and I couldn't find a single guest appearing anywhere in the HOF.

Glitch--or disastrous strategy to eliminate blatant cheating by throwing out the baby with the bathwater?

Brooke/AARDVK

Or a shrewd move on their part to collect more information about players, which is where the real money comes in?

I took a moment to read through the current Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. Assuming this is all just a giant data mining exercise, it still doesn't look as though BT could just outright sell info to a third party that had nothing to do with providing BT's games or services.

Yes, I'm sure BT would prefer every player, both current and future, to sign up for Player's Plus, and I would have been happy to encourage new players to do so. But things, especially those that involve giving out personal information, need to be a choice. Before there was a certain logic to where the line was drawn that didn't go to the integrity of the game itself: trying to get the highest score possible. If people didn't want to accumulate P+ points (or now badges), or be eligible for prizes, or participate on the forum, or receive cheery communications promising wonderful changes that turn out to be ... --well, all those things were and are still extraneous to answering questions and accumulating game points. This goes to the heart of what it means to pick up a box and play a BT game.

Brooke/AARDVK

I heard from a reliable source on another board that the Old Barn of Portland, Oregonis talking to BT about getting the East feed, even though they realize it will mean an earlier start time on Showdown than they had pre-split. Anyone aware of other locations making that request?

Brooke/AARDVK