MitchWolf wrote:
My original projection has the lesser games first at 5p pst, follow by games like Brainbuster, Topix and SciFiles at 5:30, then the premiums at 6p
In other words, you're putting the game blocks back to where they were before the Split. And at the time, I thought moving them a half hour earlier in the East zone would have a negative impact on number of players, but in fact it had a positive impact. So the reality is that people in the Eastern and Central time zones like the premium games at their current slots.
Maybe there wouldn't be any player dropoff if Eastern and Central time zone blocks were moved back to their original position. Maybe even if there were, there would be enough players added in the Mountain and Pacific time zones to offset the loss. But those are two pretty big "if"s. The less risky strategy is keep what you have in the Eastern/Central zones and hope there are people with flexible schedules who can be lured back in the Mountain/Pactific zones.
And please note I'm not trying to disenfranchise the West zone people--it would be absolutely wonderful if there were a way for people in four different time zones to play the same game at the same convenient time. But it doesn't work that way, and the problem with the premium games being too early in the West zone is not unique. It also wasn't fixed by having the games at a convenient time (i.e., the rationale for the Split). Also if BT decided to shift the game block later in the Central time zone, it wouldn't affect me negatively as both COOGS and I have completely flexible schedules--in fact it would help me get a little more work done before heading out for dinner and trivia. But it's a whole lot easier to hold on to someone you already have (i.e., people playing in the East zone at the current time) then attract back a person currently not playing in the West zone. So if I were BT, I'd leave the games where they are in the Eastern and Central zones, develop new specialty games that could be played after the premiums and so be perhaps more accessible to the Mountain/Pacific zone people (and also perhaps delay the post-Countdown dropoff in the current East/Central), and celebrate the reunification of the network with well-publicized competitions. (Smartest Bar would be a start, but others are possible--how many years has it been since there was any type of Spotlight tournament, for example?)
I also would recognize that site retention has a lot to do with whether a site ever connects to a player base and if it is able to maintain that base. As we have seen locations prosper, stagnate, or fail over the years (most locations falling into the last two categories), players have a lot of info on and experience in what separates a location that draws a crowd at least one night a week and maybe also has some regular daytime players and a location where the boxes/tablets barely get out of the charger. That info is readily accessible, but no one ever seems to want it, so the cycle repeats: new location acquired, there aren't a sufficient number of players to cover the subscription cost, location drops subscription. That's a cycle that certainly can be broken, but the location needs some sort of support to do so, and even if BT doesn't have the resources to provide that support directly, it certainly could empower its players to provide it. Maybe now that they've started listening to us on one thing, they can listen to us on others.
Brooke/AARDVK
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In particular, there seems to be lil if any purpose served by adding premium blocks on the weekends. 
