Its pokemon, its not that deep
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All Gens Reforming How We Advertise Spotlight Voting
- Thread starter Tbolt
- Start date
I feel like changing ladders every 5 days is way too short. For context, most spotlight ladders give players 5 days to vote on the next ladder, so spending 5 (or even 3) days for a 5 day ladder seems like a huge overexertion and a lot of effort for very little reward. I am fine with 2 week ladders because that at least is a solid amount of time to give players experience the ladder, but any shorter seems like players get too little opportunity to play the tier.
I would also like to set a deadline by the 20th of November for any final changes to the new system. As a reminder, this is my current solution:
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Tbolt, what I meant was,
Mondays you have RBY tiers
Tuesdays you have GSC tiers
Wednesdays you have RSE tiers
Thursdays you have DPP tiers
Fridays you have BW tiers
Saturdays you have RBY tiers,
as such they keep rotating, since theyre less than 7. Im not sure how to handle gen 6 and 7 and 8, I dont much care for them.
But itd be cool if you knew, hey this monday we can play RBY UUBL. Keeps it rotating.
I mean this just sounds horrible all around to be honest. Issues of PS staff needing to change the ladders every day aside, only having a format be ladderable for exactly one day gives people no real time to actually engage with the formats while also just being a bit of a middle finger to anyone who simply can't hop on to play the One Day their tier has a ladder active. This also seems like it would just kill spotlight tours unless you separate them from the ladders which just seems counterintuitive at that point.
If you miss it just play it the next week. Bit easier than waiting until next year for the next chance to run your RU team.
I dont particularly care about tours currently, theyre a thing of the past.
I feel like the point of spotlight ladders is that they spotlight the metagame in question. I don't really think that forcing these metagames to share a spotlight is going to really help anyone involved. Spotlights are helpful for these metagames because they allow for opportunities for these communities to potentially grow and welcome in new players who are interested in these metagames. Having a ladder that's only available on a certain day (good luck showdown devs) will only reduce the potential audience these metagames can attract, not to mention that the odds these players are retained from week to week are also not super high.
The reasons why these metagames and communities are considered much more "niche" are not associated with them coming off as uninteresting; heck, I've seen many players in my time have genuine interest of the BDSP metagame, and most players with whom I have interacted with that have played BDSP OU, whether through tours, roomtours, or the spotlight ladder itself, would say they've had a positive experience with it. So why would this metagame, which most people who have played recently would probably agree with the statement that it is at least a "decent" metagame, be much more niche than much more controversial tiers that manage to stay mainstream? It is because those tiers have a consistent ladder, so those tiers will be able to retain players, which in turn helps those metagames develop. Niche communities love it when new players come because of this. I know, from experience being in one, that some of our more notable developments have come from players who don't necessarily main the tier. Not to mention that playing the same players can also be repetitive no matter how much you enjoy playing one given player. Most players on Showdown don't even know that these non-ladder tiers are even playable on showdown.
That's my reasoning for why I think having the spotlight ladder still lasting for a month is still the most viable option. Does it tend to overstay its welcome? Sure. But I think for these types of tiers, especially if they are going to be available once a year, you would much rather have a tier overstay its welcome than have them feel as though their stay was cut short. The community will play their games regardless of whether or not there is a ladder; the ladder is for the new players that the community wishes to attract.
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I won't even begin to point out the absurdity of one day ladders as igiveuponaname has done this well enough.
I'm pretty happy with Tb0lt's current suggestion but I also want to add:
The goal of having an actual featured metagame every month is to try and give it the maximum amount of opportunity. Having a spotlight win out means we normally run one(or two) roomtours for it a day, there's an on demand ladder(which I admit can vary in terms of activity based on time of day + overall player interest), and you have a spotlight round robin tour which basically means you're getting 4 bo3 sets for fun(assuming someone doesn't drop out or no show).
If we switch to super accelerated ladders just for the sake of "fairness," we aren't actually accomplishing anything beyond dangling a format in front of a playerbase's face before taking it away. And frankly, as skitty said, the mains will continue to think about their format whether or not a tier is ladderable. The goal is really to try and appeal to more casual-minded players who might just get hooked and become a fresh new talent for said community. We stand to gain more from having 4 week ladders on that end.
The only "fairness" that should be considered is how long of a cooldown a format has such that other communities have their chance to win out on a ladder, and that's covered in the current proposal. So I personally don't have any complaints, but if I do think of something I'll either edit this or create a separate post.
The last thing I will add: you can always ask RoA staff for tours in the room for the formats you're interested in, even if they aren't spotlight formats! Asking for friendlies or a roomtour is always encouraged, even if staff may not always be available or interested in doing the latter. It's what the room is here for.
I'm pretty happy with Tb0lt's current suggestion but I also want to add:
I agree with all of this. Better to have a format stick around for an entire month and give it the maximum amount of possible eyes on it, than to rush spotlight ladders to exist every 2 weeks.
The goal of having an actual featured metagame every month is to try and give it the maximum amount of opportunity. Having a spotlight win out means we normally run one(or two) roomtours for it a day, there's an on demand ladder(which I admit can vary in terms of activity based on time of day + overall player interest), and you have a spotlight round robin tour which basically means you're getting 4 bo3 sets for fun(assuming someone doesn't drop out or no show).
If we switch to super accelerated ladders just for the sake of "fairness," we aren't actually accomplishing anything beyond dangling a format in front of a playerbase's face before taking it away. And frankly, as skitty said, the mains will continue to think about their format whether or not a tier is ladderable. The goal is really to try and appeal to more casual-minded players who might just get hooked and become a fresh new talent for said community. We stand to gain more from having 4 week ladders on that end.
The only "fairness" that should be considered is how long of a cooldown a format has such that other communities have their chance to win out on a ladder, and that's covered in the current proposal. So I personally don't have any complaints, but if I do think of something I'll either edit this or create a separate post.
The last thing I will add: you can always ask RoA staff for tours in the room for the formats you're interested in, even if they aren't spotlight formats! Asking for friendlies or a roomtour is always encouraged, even if staff may not always be available or interested in doing the latter. It's what the room is here for.