A Vote For the Future of the Battle League...

[gsr]

I voted no.  I don't think adding money will help, and as noted previously it may drive younger players away.

It seems that GR and BL are linked.  In the past, the link was (at least for me) GhR.  GR provided an easy way to find good mac games, DBL provided a fun community.  GhR is being/has been replaced by AA, RvS, BF42 or a host of other games that don't really use GR. The DBL community that was pretty narrowly focused on GhR/GR is fractionalized. So,

1. keep membership active: promote teams and tournaments in new games?  Field  DBL teams into the larger (pc) world? Start up some servers ($)?

2. add new members: not sure how to do this. From a numbers/marketing standpoint you have to offer more services/support to younger (probably pc) players?

3. the clan system is no longer working?

Is a target audience, mission statement, marketing plan needed?  Sounds kinda formal.

Oops, got a little off-thread there BFG.

[DarK.]

Mac and PC versions of GHR are not compatable therefore it is worthless to bring in PC players who would just start another side to the league, since we could not battle them.  Nice ideas if they would only work.  The clan system works its inactivity that is the problem, its not something you can do with advertising, its a god damn computer game,  an old one at that.  The only reason its still played is because your old school first Gen iMac can run the game in OS 9 still.  People haven't and can't afford to upgrade their computers so until they do and we get a new game that will bring people back to mac gaming we will have to deal with low cb numbers.  The BL is working for those who use it (obviously) and at the moment that is the best we can do.  Until a new game comes out nothing is going to work to spur activity in competitive mac gaming.

btw I am at least the 100th person to explain this in various topics on this forum.

[:MoD:Shade]

Mac and PC versions of Ghost Recon ARE compatible numpty.

[PUNiSHER™]

Ghost Recon is one of the rare games that is Mac/PC compatible but it only works if both players are using the same version of the game.  The release notes for the Ghost Recon 1.0.3 update even mention this.  I think we can declare this game officially dead in a month anyway since Ghr 3 comes to PC, X-Box and PS2.  I know I'd rather be playing that on X-box live or the PC than coming on gameranger to play Ghr 1.  I don't know how many people out there have X-box's and I know this site is really for Mac but maybe you should consider opening a Ghr 3 ladder for X-box users.

[DarK.]

my bad then, they are compatible, but to further my argument (and to dig a deeper hole)
1 Obviously the Versions arent the same since 1.03 or w/e kevill came out with to make it more GR voice compatable screwed that for us.
2 How would these cb's be set up GSR?  Are you going to schedule a cb then show up for promptly?  Scheduled cb's never seem to work out (I am remembering the strife over the superfinals)
3 Pun I just can't see that working out the whole ghr3 thing for xBox and cbing.  I hate the xbox live interface with a passion though so that may just be me.

[Civrock]

1 Obviously the Versions arent the same since 1.03 or w/e kevill came out with to make it more GR voice compatable screwed that for us.

Nonsense, 1.0.3 is still cross-platform compatible with the latest version for PC.

[[a] ferret]

The Ghost Recon 1.0.2b and 1.0.3 Mac versions are both compatible with the 1.4 PC version of Ghost Recon.. even when your in the main menu of ghost recon it should say 1.4 at the bottom of your right hand corner.


btw    Dark, I love your sweet muffins.

[DarK.]

well dammit I hate being ignorant, but oh well life goes on.  Glad to know I could play with my peecee buddies.

btw ferret your sweet muffins are teh pwnzorz <3

[gsr]

Dark: I don't think that scheduled cb's would work either, as you say, no one seems to show up on time.  To be honest, I'm not sure that cb's work at all.  There seem to be a lot of inactive clans and clan members ({E} is probably one of the worst for this). Hence my question about the clan system.  Is participation in FFA ladders up? To answer your question about scheduling, how about setting up one evening a week as league night, kinda like bowling?

Almost all organizations have some kind of self promotion scheme.  I think "advertising" is a pretty silly solution, but some kind of active promotion of DBL would not hurt.  GS's idea of prizes is a step in that direction (ah, back to the main topic), as is the xbox idea.

I have to admit that I'm having trouble getting a grip on this.  The "marketing" ideas were just a way of trying to define the problem (and help find a solution).

[DarK.]

playing devils advocate here, Bowling leagues dont have to deal with time differences.  NZ people  time from me is 19 hours ahead.  Europe is 6-10 ish its just would be to hard to set up a timed thing and be all inclusive.

[gsr]

Devil's advocate is cool.  Yeah, time zones are a challenge.  Not only the scheduling but the pings as well. I'd like to join some of the European servers but am afraid of lagging out. So maybe it's a league day.  I'm in Hawaii, so I have to get on and play right after work or it gets too late for the mainland players.  I always wondered how the members of [a] handle the time thing, they must get online in the early afternoon their time.

The bottom line, I think, is we need more people. Ghost Recon world championship?  DBL tournament team?  Devil's advocate 2 trolling for ideas.

[Croosch]

Ghost Recon activity is going no where but down... up until this point I've been all for anything to keep ghr going another season, now it's gotten to a point where there's three clans that have played 10 or more matches (an all-time low) with 7 total clans with cbs (including 2 clans with 2 cbs).  Maybe it's time we stop holding ghr seasons and just allow clans to constantly play and submit ghr cbs just to keep a record.  The seasons aren't really going anywhere anymore.

[DarK.]

  Devil's advocate 2 trolling for ideas.

Devil's Advocate thinks Ghr is dead and we should stop shaking and put the defibrilator away, 4 months of shaking and shocking havn't worked, if ghr isn't dead right now.  It's in a ComaTose state and its final will tells us to pull the plug.

[gsr]

Agreed. RIP ghost recon.  But what about the Damn Battle League? 

[Civrock]

Don't worry about *DAMN, there's lots of cool stuff to come in the near future. Let us surprise you...

[[:] Mr. T]

I'm blaming the death of GhR on {E} and their player hording recruiting style.

Can we move on now and play some AA??!

[theweakspot]

RvS makes you faster.

[[:] Mr. T]

You know a topic is really dead when Weak chimes in.

[[a] ferret]

gsr : " I always wondered how the members of [a] handle the time thing, they must get online in the early afternoon their time."

Frog is from Panama
Tigah & Kiwi are from NZ
Roo & Dingo are from Aus
Carp & Cow are from Singapore
Lynx, Shark, Kolby, Snake, Tanimal, Lemur & Panties are from Europe
Hog & Python are from the states.

We are currently looking for members from Africa and Antartica to complete the "World Clan Domination" game we are playing. Actually gsr.... we wing it.

As for the future of the DBL, I'm sure that the remaining people on gameranger that play the games currenly "supported" by this league will come together and play the "next best thing" that comes out. And no T, it is not AA. I like the game, but I don't see the community migrating over so easily because of one reason. Gameranger. Yes you can join the game via GR but you dont get the luxery of hosting your own rooms for Gameranger only friends, clan practices, skirmishes, and other options that are available through GR. I can host AA on my mac.. but who freaking cares.

I'll be patient and still play some Ghr and RvS with the people on Gameranger that are left over and I have no complaints about that.

[[:] Mr. T]

And no T, it is not AA. I like the game, but I don't see the community migrating over so easily because of one reason. Gameranger. Yes you can join the game via GR but you dont get the luxery of hosting your own rooms for Gameranger only friends, clan practices, skirmishes, and other options that are available through GR. I can host AA on my mac.. but who freaking cares.

i totally agree. I like AA a lot, but the community is the worst. Full of 14 year old PC using cheaters. That was why [:] started it's own server. The plan was to block out everyone but the peeps we knew from GR. Too bad you all didn't follow us over.