Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:40 am
The chances of this happening "by chance" for Nevdully, though possible, is astronomically unlikely.
My record with 100+ win teams is virtually identical to nevdullys.
I have only won one CHAMPIONSHIP with a 100+ win team. Ever.
And the chances of two owners, having similar records like that, is beyond coincidence.....
It is my belief that STRAT uses several "modifiers" or "normalizers", to ensure that new owners get a chance to win championships early on in order to keep them continuing to purchase teams.
I believe these modifiers are applied based on specific owner criteria, and not universally.
I have been tracking data starting about a year ago, when I started to notice disturbing patterns.
Here are some of the patterns:
1) Teams that are tops in league in run differential, not making the playoffs. As an exception, one wouldn't be concerned, but as this has become an on-going pattern for some of my teams, and something is rotten in Denmark.
2) There is something that happens at the 120 game point in a season. I have had numerous teams, that have large leads at the 120 game mark (8 to 12 game leads), that then go into a complete tailspin and then end up not making the playoffs, in fact losing out in the last few days of the season. I tracked home/away records, and strong/weak team matchups, and there is no glaring imbalance per those issues. This is doubly troubling in that most of the time around the 120 game point, 3-4 owners in a league, once the feel they are out the running, cease to manage their teams and no longer optimize their settings and matchups---so you would think that if you have a strong team, that in most cases your won-lost record would improve over the last 42 games of the season. but in these cases, the exact opposite happens.
3) Playoff injuries. Those who play me in leagues, know that I normally have most of my starting players with very low injury risk. Starting about 6 months ago, teams of mine that would make it to the playoffs, have this disturbing pattern of 2-3 key players getting injured in the first two games of the playoffs. It has happened enough times that I believe this is not a coincidence--especially when you compare the incident frequency with injuries during the season--i.e. it is very rare that in one series during the season, with the 1* and "only in game or no injury players" that I have, that 2-3 of them would be injured in the same series--it almost never happens during the season.
These are just some of the patterns that myself and several other owners have been tracking. I think STRAT has looked at the data, and the data tells them that new owners will lose interest at some point if they fail to win a championship, so STRAT initiated these "modifiers" to address that situation. One of the things that confirmed this for me, was STRAT creating the ROOKIE Leagues---which were specifically setup so that newbies could have a chance at a ring without having to face Nevdully or NOMADBRAD or the like. Of course what then happened, is certain owners, decided to create new user names, so they could appear as newbies, so they could go into the rookie leagues and reap.....so I think STRAT decided to implement other modifiers to achieve their goal.
look, I am all for making ONLINE STRAT a successful game, I know many of us, including myself, love this game. But I am not so sure that in order to retain new customers, by using modifiers and thereby sacrificing the long term customers, is the best way to do that. This game is about competition and strategy, and for that, a true level playing field is essential.
We pay money to play this game, for some of us, a substantial amount. Am at the point where I feel that full transparency is vital to my continued participation. We should have full knowledge of any modifiers or normalizers (or any other programming manipulations), and that we get the specific information on how the bullpen programming functions, and if newbies are being given advantages....then that should be something completely transparent.
I do understand the challenge of making this a successful business, but I feel that there are far better methods and strategies that can be used to achieve that goal.
Thats my 2 cents.....