CSR evolution: National Teams

 Well, why should not I? Three months after I started blogging and only three posts.

Why not doing something cool, visually appealing and completely and utterly useless? Therefore I used the Blackout Rugby API to get the average CSR of the last international games for some countries... And then I plotted it :)

So before you see the data, some explanation:

1. Horizontal line is games. It is slightly difficult to get the season and round for international fixtures, so you should accept it with games (about 25/30 games per season). Average CSR in games dates back from season 23 so the games span about 6 or 7 seasons.
2. Vertical line is CSR average on a matchday
3. The shaded line is actually the matchday CSR, the solid line is just the moving average (what is moving average?)
4. For the first plot I chose NZ (team id = 1) PI (team id=2) and AU (team id=3) 
5. Yes, I can plot your country's data, just perhaps not in the same graph.

Plotting more than three countries is difficult unless you plot only the Moving Average. For the moment, I'll do a different plot for SA, AR and CI.

 And now, some conclusions:

• New Zealand and South Africa are steadily improving. So are Ivory Coast and PI.
• Argentina used to be the top team but are on decline.
• Australia are struggling to improve.
• Attending to CSR evolution only, the teams to look at in the future in EE.1 are Pacific Islanders and Ivory Coast.

Addendum:  As a special request by a reader, I have added the same data for some u20 teams.

Addendum 2: To fulfill another request

 

What the worst game in the World has and the Best game in the World lacks

Look, I am not going to talk about Travian today. I really don't like the game...
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(I said I don't)
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even if I have spent so many hours playing Travian that I become amazingly good at it.

Today what I am going to talk about is the best thing of  Travian: The Tutorial

The tutorial is, probably, the reason why Travian has got thousands of users in each server, and more than 20 servers in different countries, running in parallel.

What does the Travian tutorial do? It matches the three key elements:

1. It teaches how to play the game: Both technically and strategically. It shows you what Travian is about, it shows you how to do it and it shows you where you eventually will do
2. It eases you into the game. You don't need to ask yourself "Very well, what do I do next? " There is already a short-term goal to take care of.
3. It creates a link. You start building, you see a progress, you keep on going. Simple as Candy Crush. You start easy, you grow fast.
   

So rescued from that game, I can suggest a tutorial, with missions and rewards, that will help several things:

• Create the illusion of progression, which is needed to keep the interest of the managers.
• Give them a reason to reconnect tomorrow, because they will want to see their progress.
• Close the so called newbie gap, because the rewards will help them.

Sample Mission/Reward: 
Goal: Expand the stadium to 5500 capacity.
Reward: Extra 1500 capacity.

Sample Mission/Reward:
Goal: Sell a player in the TM.
Reward: get a new player in the roster

Sample Mission/Reward:
Goal: First training session
Reward: +5000 CSR to one player.

Sample Mission/Reward
Goal: Hire your first coach.
Reward: Automatically set the advert for a lvl 2 coach

Sample Mission/Reward
Goal: Check member's contentment.
Reward: +200 members



This is only the idea. I think you can understand why playing the Travian tutorial becomes so addictive (mind you, in three full BlackoutRugby seasons I have played 0 Travian Tutorials, YAY!!!).

Improving the stadium: construction, attendances, revenues...

The stadium. Ah, the stadium. Few things make a manager happier than checking the attendance to a home game and see (100%) next to it. Full cash, a helluva money to buy players, pay salaries or simply keep the club afloat...

But wait! Could he had earned more money with a bigger stadium? Then the race is on to build a bigger stadium that will mean more money, and when the stadium is built and the attendance does not reach 100%... we start all over again.

Because the fate of the stadium is to never ever be able to please the manager.

The fate of the stadium is to never ever be able to please the manager

So how can we improve the stadium in Blackout Rugby to make the managers even more prone to dissatisfaction?


Attendances: Attendances are possibly the easiest thing to improve in Blackout Rugby. Managers could (as in Real Life they can) simply modify the prices for the tickets. Tickets prices could have an effect on the attending crowd. Crowd attendance could have an impact on HGA... Have we never heard of a team deciding to give free tickets for an all-important match? If the standard price of a ticket gravitates around NZ$ 35 (or 20 €) it would be nice as a manager you to be able to increase or reduce that price.

Sometimes even free tickets are not enough and a dedicated
manager needs to go the extra mile...

Revenue: 

Construction:

Other: We all know how rugby should be played. Strong powerful forwards bashing into the defense to create some midfield gap for the swift backs to exploit when the ball is released. One-two, pass-catch, try.
But then sometimes the playing field has a different agenda...

One-two. pass-catch, try

The state of the rugby field, grass, etc... would add to the experience of being a rugby manager

So... A bigger vision?

We recently got the news that the revamp will not be continued. Instead, Blackout Rugby is planning a deal with an investor with the aim to build «the very best sports management games possible, and to become a market leader in this genre through financial backing and a team of talented programmers and artists».

You would have sworn we had met Little Green Men by seeing Blackout Rugby's managers reactions.

Blackout Rugby investors as seen by Blackout Rugby managers

Despite Jeremy's attempt to present the deal as a chance to build a better and more complete Blackout Rugby (more about this later), suspicion has been quick to install in Blackout Rugby's community and some kind of gesture was definitely needed to appease them us (ahem... ahem... :S)

A Goodwill gesture the managers wanted

So I decided it was about time to stop behaving like an old fart and to start showing some ideas. And since there is just so much tryasta the Blackout Rugby Global Forum can handle, I kick started this blog (where you, yes, you, cannot ban my videos :P :P :P).

My goal is to discuss here any ideas I have regarding how to improve Blackout Rugby.


This will be my contribution to a bigger vision.