BuzzerBeater Forums

From the news:

One of the effects of the updated economic rules has been a temporary increase in the amount of money in the game, particularly in one-time payments from arena contraction.
(The global increase in merchandising money under the new rules is approximately in balance with the global increase in salaries this offseason).

I think you forgot for one very very important think. Almost all of team now earns more money for gate receipts than last season. For example my team has maximum last season 555k for a game, now is 606k and I think I'm able to raise it somewhere up to 650k by setting optimal ticket prices. I ask many teams in my countries and it looks all team are able to earn some 20k-30k more than last season with the same arena. If I count over 50k teams playing BB it is about $ 1.000.000.000 - 1.500.000.000 more in game every week (at the start of the season it wasn't so much, because it took some time to set the ticket prices well).
I'm not sure you know about this effect of new attendance formula.
You also mentioned arena destruction, but I can't believe it's in sum more than $ 500M, there are not so many team which have too large arenas.

No, you're wrong with that, FA's will be released to the market, the prices are going to be setted by the same market and are going down every time because money is getting away from the game with them. They're not going to be cheap, actually most of them are going to be more expensive than players who have an owner. With some money away from the game the inflation will be reduced.

but now people will be less reluctant to pay for anyone as they hope for cheaper replacements in the future.

You're getting that increase because you have a top team, people in minor leagues doesn't have that luck... (some of 80% in the game)

I don't think that, people could be done that at the start of the season an didn't do it, maybe because of they needed to. I don't think that necessity disappears now, with still some money in the pockets. If they spent all of the money when they didn't needed to, I think that they made a bad choice and nobody can be complaining for that..

Is not unfair, as well market works as this way.. some people gains some losses.

I am glad you see it as a major change though, because we're trying to pop a bubble built on irrational expectations with a combination of better information, a minor change that looks major, and an indication that if this doesn't work we're willing to make a larger change until it does.

Wow, now you introduced yourself as a great psychologist. I am not sure that is the best how to deal with such problems.

Edit: I know other people with such a power who continuously make changes in order to satisfy only people's minds. And out of your answers I deducted that you are trying more and more to be like those "politicians". I am sorry, BB is a great game but I think you try to make a bad slapstick of it.

Last edited by PunkFloid at 10/4/2009 2:53:48 PM

AT SOME point, the most that might happen, if you are a top team employing the top players, the salaries will stay constant even as the skills go up.

Forrest please could you tell me why you need to do this thing? Do you like to see a team full of Cardenas? Do you like to see always the same teams as top teams?

Then not for you but to the BB that takes the decision about economy I've to say that I'm afraid that you didn't expect this situation and that now you've to try to change something. I can remember very well the inflaction that there was some seasons ago and I remember well that the inflaction was unstoppable even if the FAs were on the market, it means that what are you doing now will be not enough. Last season was hard to manage the balance this season the merchandising was increased by the double, the TV contract by 50% and above all the tickets sale are giving us a boost in the economy and imho all these money weren't compensate by the raises of the salaries. Now you say that the salaries will have a cap (at some point) and in this case you've every season to put your hands in the economy cause the revenues will grow (more fans in the reality means more money) and the costs will remain the same.

Yes, I agree - we did a poor job of predicting how managers would react to the latest set of changes. I don't think we were wrong in planning the economy in the long run, but we were definitely wrong in predicting the market reaction. I think part of the problem is that we have access to a lot more data than anybody else does, which means that we know how people *should* react given the global picture. I can tell you that given the global economy in BuzzerBeater, the current spike in prices is predominantly a mistake. Then again, so was $100 oil last year, and it went well beyond that and did all sorts of damage before it eventually corrected. If you study markets, you know that rational behavior does not always dominate and the amount of damage it can do when uncorrected.

If we felt that BuzzerBeater were primarily an economic game, we'd just let this go unregulated and allow teams who did a better job of understanding market dynamics to gain a major edge. We don't -- we feel BuzzerBeater is primarily a basketball manager game in which managing your finances is just one major component. It's our job as game designers to allow multiple strategies to flourish, and not to let things get imbalanced to the point that you are best served ignoring all other aspects of the game to focus on just one. If this price bubble gets out of hand, that's exactly what would happen; it would get to the point where for many teams the correct strategy would be to sell everybody, demote, and then rebuy players when prices go back down because the extra money would be sufficient to immediately repromote and make a major profit. When we feel that many teams would be better served in the long run by ignoring basketball and focusing on the economy, we act to try and fix that, just as we act whenever any other one aspect of the game is out of balance.

First the tsunami of the Yeas Sayers; now the tsunami of the Nays Sayers. I find this game interesting in basket sims as well as in game development. And I agree some action were needed. At one point FA needed to be stopped flooding due to the mass deflation and now the opposite measurement need to be taken.Same as the FED try to influence the inflation/deflation in the market; you should have the same kind of instrument in your hand before going out of control. Above statement was one I really had in mind as well and it takes guts to post it. Some people will shoot you for this; especially the ones who bought 7 million Point Guards. But I felt the other angle need to be heard too.

I asked managers on different levels and all of them has no more match income than before.

Last edited by rwystyrk at 10/4/2009 3:12:54 PM