*The Case for Bringing Back Weekly Predictions

[ddrector]

As most of you know by now Weekly Predictions as we knew it have changed completely. Now we only have a Weekly Predictions PT 5x each season. I personally love Weekly Predictions and want to find a way to have it return in its former glory next season with Predictions for all 16 games. As others have been discussing I think the best solution for this would be to simply remove Trivia altogether. Trivia is essentially as easy as AC every week as all you have to do is copy paste the answers from your team locker room to the Trivia message. While I'm sure a lot of people copy and paste their Predictions as well, at least they have to go to the site and do it three times a week to get all the possible TPE. I made a quick chart that compares the differences in earned TPE for the season from last season to this season to my proposed change. I used an average of 2 TPE per Weekly Predictions since that seems like a pretty reasonable assumption. The only other change I made was I put PT back to 3 PT per PT instead of the new 4.



As you can see with my proposed change the total possible TPE doesn't change from what we had last season. Yes, if you did really well in Predictions you will get a little more, but why not award those players that do really well in Predictions? To break it down:

1. Predictions for every game
2. No more Trivia
3. PT goes from the new 4 TPE back to 3 TPE

Let me know what you think? I'm curious to hear what people say. I really hope we can make this change happen for next season.

[JKortesi81]

Let’s stop worrying about extra TPE so much and just let it go.

[Nhamlet]

Especially for a sim that already has high earners maxing out numerous attributes, this isn't the end all be all.

General engagement is more valuable in my opinion. As a rookie in the DSFL and the NSFL as a whole, predictions got me more in touch with knowing about the NSFL teams. Without that, I don't think I would care how teams did if I wasn't recently drafted to an NSFL team.

[Memento Mori]

Let’s stop worrying about extra TPE so much and just let it go.

Are you agreeing or disagreeing? I can’t tell. HO’s stated reasoning was predictions were reduced so that Trivia wouldn’t be reduced, this is just a proposal to reduce trivia instead if HO wants to balance TPE again per season because almost everyone finds predictions more fun than trivia.

[mithrandir]

This is 100% spot on. I came to the same conclusion and the same arithmetic on making it work

[Jo3fish5]

Let’s stop worrying about extra TPE so much and just let it go.

I’m not worrying about the extra tpe, predictions are fun and more engaging than trivia

[The_Kidd]

going to re-post what I posted in the #sim-football channel on discord:

I'd like to briefly share on the trivia vs predictions debate as a brand new user
Trivia: A great way to get people to learn about the league's history. Unintentionally forced me to learn my way around the forums or engage in random discussion to look for answers. The issues were that several questions were very difficult, even for veteran users, that created a need to thoroughly(more than 15 minutes) cross-reference answers through the wiki and index -- often requiring checks on multiple pages for just one answer.
Now, we add in the factor that people are busy, or people actually want to put in that much effort like they do with writing for PT's, and it leads to the massive copy+paste of the answers in EACH locker room. Wait 7 days, copy+paste and collect TPE, wash, rinse, repeat.

Predictions: The frequency was a huge bonus as it serves as a makeshift gambling pick em pool that draws in eyes to even the most banal matchups. Even if a majority copies answers, the ease of completion and odds of winning big provided enough incentive for people to try on their own. The only people that would willingly copy are more often to be newer people who don't know how to gauge the teams(I actually learned each team name and logo by repeatedly doing predictions).

But the repeated repetition keeps the user engaged the entire week, keeps them informed at least on how the teams are doing, has them finding ways to make better predictions. I know I'm not the only one that would quietly lurk in chat and try to discover why certain teams were dominant and other teams weren't. I learned about the home-field cheese, the 79 QB speed cheese, and other minor yet prominent characteristics of the sim and the league. As I learned more, I got more confident talking to people as I came into this by myself with no connection to anything. I started learning about who was good at testing, good at building player models for "X" position, who was good at running a WR, and so forth.
[2:16 PM] The_Kidd: Hopefully this provides perspective for the higher ups that may not be in the trenches everyday anymore. If anything, perhaps having predictions on Monday and Friday could be a compromise but eliminate the participation TPE. If I had to choose which would keep newer users(users in general) engaged, I would definitely choose predictions over trivia each time.

[ADwyer87]

if you kill trivia i will be the biggest of sads. removing one easy PT for casuals and replacing it with another doesnt help much

[ADwyer87]

I’m not worrying about the extra tpe, predictions are fun and more engaging than trivia

How are predictions fun OR engaging tbh? dont get me wrong I would love to have them back bc i like them better than writing an actual PT, but they are afwul. my favorite part of being HO was getting the average of predcitions because they were so bothersome to keep up with. Heck i just realized if there was a week one prediction thread i didnt do it lol. its just a mess

[Memento Mori]

How are predictions fun OR engaging tbh? dont get me wrong I would love to have them back bc i like them better than writing an actual PT, but they are afwul. my favorite part of being HO was getting the average of predcitions because they were so bothersome to keep up with. Heck i just realized if there was a week one prediction thread i didnt do it lol. its just a mess

Trivia: once a week someone puts the answers in your team's LR, you copy and paste them, hit submit. You know as soon as you hit submit that you've earned 4 TPE. You come back 1-2 weeks later and claim it from the claim thread.

Predictions: Happens three times a week, so you go to the forum for this PT three times as much (which is the literal part of the engagement point). It's possible to copy, and lots of people do. But you don't know the correct answer beforehand, which leads to discussion among the league on discord about who will win that week's matchups or you thinking about it, or visiting the index/TPE tracker to try and get a read on which team is better. Your performance depends on the outcome of the simmed games, giving you an additional reason to watch the sims and another reason to pay attention to games your team isn't playing in. Will have a positive effect on the number of people watching and commenting on the stream and some people will talk about the outcome of their predictions on discord afterwards.

Even if you don't personally like them they undoubtedly increase the amount of time users are spending on the site, which is good for the league, and other people do find the nature of them fun.