(PS3) Calgarypuck's NHL 11 EASHL Club

[secol]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

And thus begins the same problem the fatas face every year that eventually leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

*sigh*

what's that? i think i joined in october/november so didn't get the memo......and also more pracrice at the beginning wouldn't be too bad since i'm guessing the team needs to rebuild chemistry. i remember we were pretty bumbly and then we started cycling really well and getting used to each other which helped our overall team play alot

[Kipper is King]

I think last year we managed OK. Dividing up into different teams may cause everybody to start whining about an "elite" and a "casual" team, and who should be on each. Ugh. No thanks.

[likwid888]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

I think last year we managed OK. Dividing up into different teams may cause everybody to start whining about an "elite" and a "casual" team, and who should be on each. Ugh. No thanks.

I didn't mean 2 different divisions based on skill, more of a random draw or of Jobo's choosing. I just don't think it will be too enjoyable sitting around and waiting for a turn to enter an EASHL game. Don't get me wrong, practice is fun and a good way to build chemistry, but it doesn't compare to actually playing other teams.

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by secol

what's that? i think i joined in october/november so didn't get the memo......and also more pracrice at the beginning wouldn't be too bad since i'm guessing the team needs to rebuild chemistry. i remember we were pretty bumbly and then we started cycling really well and getting used to each other which helped our overall team play alot

2 years ago when EA changed it to one dressing room we had a farm and big league team with stipulations to make the big league team (had to have at least a A- and positive plus minus i believe)

This originally worked well and we ranked rather high. However our rank quickly dropped when we started jumping between the farm and upper team daily depending who was online.

It also created a lot of drama as some people thought they should be on the big league team and some thought people shouldn't be on the big league team and others thought they were getting a bad rap etc.

We have a group of people who just joined last year but there is several people who were on the 09,10 & 11 team and the two teams created tension as it became difficult to decide between skill and seniority.

Trust me there was lots of discussions between the Owner and GM's when the season was brand new about what was right to do and in the end we decided to give everyone the chance to play on one team so there would be less drama and no one would be singled out.


*Forgot to touch on practicing.
Practices do nothing to gaining grades and games played to earn cards so it is ok to do it occasionally like 2-3 nights a week but to do it for 2 weeks to start the season would set the team as a whole back because we would all have rookie cards going into month end.

That said I enjoy practicing almost more then games because there is no cheese when playing friends....normally....LOL

[Kipper is King]

I was playing the demo, my ps3 crashed, and now the red light flickers. It won't turn on. Uh oh.

[Joborule]

It's challenging to decide whether we should have multiple teams or not because multiple constraints come into play. How do the teams split? Should we revisit the major team/minor team(s) concept? It gives everyone more playing time, develops lineup chemistry, but it creates some tension since your not playing with the top club and feel there is bias at play, which isn't fun. (Look at playoffs rosters) Then at that point other players on that club aren't playing as often as the main club.

There's also the method of doing multiple clubs with random (yet evenly balanced) rosters? Again, more playing time, develop chemistry, but then team skill drops down since skill is spread out rather than condensed to one club, since one team can't be stacked while the other is underskilled in relation. The most active players on this club has developed a lineup that is capable of challenging the elite clubs out there. If we going to split that up, we're probably not going to get those results. (Although patience and chemistry can prove otherwise) Would that be an issue? Winning is a great motivator to keep playing games. During periods of cold play, our games played are less then when we're playing farily decent or hot. But if you got a good group of guys you like to play with, that may not be that big of deal.

Either way, multiple clubs means players won't be able to play with other players, and in the end, everyone wants to play with anyone that's part of the club as a whole. It's what made this successful in the first place and why year by year remains active. It's something that I do play around with in my mind, but something I'm really cautious to do if it isn't really necessary since I think it would hurt us more then benefit us.

Normally the first month is active but then mass player active drops off after words. I would like to see that change this year though since I would like everyone playing as often as possible. If there's ways to encourage those that sign up but don't play to play, I would like to explore methods in doing so. If there is still a high number of us that are playing club games frequently, this splitting concept may be something to explore once again.

[Flash Walken]

I've gone over this seemingly ad nauseum, but it's simply not going to work the way anyone wants it if it's a free-for-all.

There's gotta be some direction, or you end up with a bunch of guys playing different games, people not necessarily enjoying themselves when 3 or 4 guys are playing like they have chemistry and one guy isn't. This is aggravated when the 'GM' decides certain players are valuable enough to play in important games and other players are not.

If that's the case, why bother having the lesser guys play at all, if they're never going to get a shot at the playoffs.

It makes it anti-climactic for everyone.

As much as I enjoy playing with a relatively large group of guys from here, I'm not going to this year because it's a waste of my time.

It's no wonder there is initiallly a large pool of guys to draw from, and why it dwindles after sustained periods of pissing around with different iterations of a club.

[CMPunk]

I think if we're going to split teams, we should do it along the lines of Vets/Rookies. There are a bunch of us that have been playing since the EASHL came out...and we also seem to be the ones that stick around and play all year.

It's nice to add new blood, but if you're looking for consistency, you know the guys that are always going to be on and be around.

Worst idea EA had was having one dressing room...5 was great

[Diemenz]

I also hate the 1 dressing room thing but I understand why EA did it as it prevents teams from running 4 teams of 2 to get max points a night.

This past season i played about 50 games out of the 600+ with less then 4 people playing. I think its great to see that we had 7 guys who played over 500 games as there was a core of about 10 players who were playing regularly throughout the year.

I don't notice the dwindle as per say but i notice the frequency. The first month its all 18 guys on from 4-11 every single day. Then a month or two people are on about 3-4 days a month.

I like winning as much as the next guy but bottom line this is a videogame and if I'm not on the best videogame hockey team or not the best videogame hockey player I think I will still be able to live a somewhat fruitful life.

If we have too many people the ones who rage quit because we go down 2-0 will just naturally weed themselves out over a few weeks and I think the team will even itself out like every other year.

[Human Torch]

Originally Posted by Diemenz

*Forgot to touch on practicing.
Practices do nothing to gaining grades and games played to earn cards so it is ok to do it occasionally like 2-3 nights a week but to do it for 2 weeks to start the season would set the team as a whole back because we would all have rookie cards going into month end.

I thought that the way we do it through the lobby system it does count?

[likwid888]

Originally Posted by Human Torch

I thought that the way we do it through the lobby system it does count?

Wouldn't that make it easy for 2 people to play each other and allow the other to score 20 goals to cheat the system?

[Diemenz]

Originally Posted by Human Torch

I thought that the way we do it through the lobby system it does count?

Yes I totally forgot we do it through the lobby.
Last year my xbox team used the lobby to get cards quick by playing two man games and exchanging goals to allow everyone playing to get A's

Might be an idea to go that route with fatas as well

Originally Posted by likwid888

Wouldn't that make it easy for 2 people to play each other and allow the other to score 20 goals to cheat the system?

Posted right before me LOL
Its actually better to have a game that's about 5-4 with everyone getting 2 or more points. Stay out of the box by not stick checking or hooking and get 2 points = A+ for any offensive builds like sniper, playmaker or off d.

Its a great thing you brought it up however as we can maybe start out balancing the practices well so everyone can benefit.

[Human Torch]

I actually enjoy the practice games a bit more than regular eashl games...people actually play more seriously during them for some reason.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Human Torch

I actually enjoy the practice games a bit more than regular eashl games...people actually play more seriously during them for some reason.

Totally agree.

Scrimmages are fun.

[dobbles]

i obviously have not earned the right to tell people what to do as i felt this years game was awful and quit playing with the team in october. however, being in lots of these discussions over the past few summers i think it yet again boils down to what the core of the team wants to do. if the core guys are fine with it being an open club where anyone pops in the first couple months, then thats great. it can be another year of the open to everyone fatas club. if the core guys decide that they want to take the year serious and have a legit elite club, then they can close it off to whomever they want. to be honest, i think the top guys have always been a little too accomodating to the casual gamers just because no one wants to hurt anyone elses feelings. but i digress.

the one thing i really wanted to mention as part of the discussion was that you can't forget about the newly added cool down period this year. that will make it harder to separate teams as people can't just flip back and forth depending on who is on. has EA announced what the period will be yet?

[likwid888]

What if we start off with 2 clubs.

The "main" club, which consists of "core" members. This can be based on the player's previous commitment to the NHL11 club, determined by games played (200+).

The "farm" club will be for the remaining NHL11 members and those who are new to the EASHL club.

This way, everyone gets an even chance to play actual competitive games, and the 2 clubs are not biased towards a member's skill level. If members of the "main" club see that a member in the "farm" club is showing commitment to the Fata's, they can eventually move up to the "main" club.

This also allows us members who have developed chemistry together from NHL11 to stick together and remain competitive, winning more Elite championships.

[Diemenz]

^^^^^

I think the determination of who would be considered core would be more of decision then one would think.

There is several players who have played since NHL09 on this team and just because they may not have played as many games in 11 doesn't mean we can discount the fact that they have been playing for 3 years and have over 1000 games under their belt in that time.

If there was a way to find a balance I'm all for it but after 3 years of this exact same discussion and trying both methods in pretty much each year I just don't see a way to make it work without going the route dobbles mentioned.

[Kipper is King]

OK- So I've been through this since NHL 09, but that being said, I don't play as many games and I also sorta...well...suck.

With that being said, consider this:

It's a video game. Video games should be fun. I realize it's not as fun if you're not winning, but I doubt the top 10 Elite teams are having fun, too. They have to play an insane amount of games, and it must get boring. If you want to try and match up to them, go for it. If you don't honestly think the EASHL championship is realistic, then let's just have fun, and not worry about this elite/casual stuff.

Just some thoughts of mine.

[IgiTang]

Hey guys... Im back from my most recent deployment and will be home for the 6 months or so. I want to get back to playing with you all. Can I get a tryout? LOL

[Joborule]

Our 12' season thread is in the new "Playing with fire" forum which is a subforum of Fire on Ice.

http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=108640

If you happen to be online when multiple GMs from the club are present, send a PSN message.