The long time guys here will know this, but I've run a UFC league with every release of UFC (starting 2009 I believe). That ended with UFC 1, I wanted no more part of it after so many attempts that peter out.
It has never been from lack of "maintaining" the league, that I was always able to cover. It normally ends up coming down to 1) People lose interest as new games come out 2) People schedule not working.
Now like last year, I'll gladly take part but all I wanna do is fight
So if you want to take a quick journey of what it's like running a league, check out the threads below.
The number of entrants needs to be kept manageable and we need set advance days. It would also help if we are limited to a couple of weight classes at most. Having everyone have like five fighters got to be too much. The beauty of this game is how quickly fights can be knocked out. It's the perfect game for a league setup.
If we do this again and run lightweight, I'm claiming Bobby Green right now.
The grappling looked good, but I'm a bit concerned about the number of head kicks and BIG punches fighters were able to take.
That's really the only concern I have. The striking looked fluid - better than UFC 1 by far. I guess we will see how it pans out - remember we have only seen the Welterweight division.
Do you think a league for a game like this with a moderate user base (12-24 people) would be best using a set advance schedule, ala Madden/NCAA? I feel like some people could play the game more than others, some people could get multiple fights in every night but others couldn't, so as far as official "league fights" keep it on a set schedule?
This is going off topic so I'll put this in spoilers
Spoiler
I'd don't think it would be easy because a lot of people have different views on what they want out of a league. I do believe it could work, with the key being having as many options available to us as possible.
My ideal league would be small (12 would probably be as large as I would want to go) where each user had maybe 1 or 2 fighters they always controlled per weight class, but would fight with different fighters throughout the league. I think a block schedule where there were 8 fights per card and you could set how many events were "open" when you advanced. That way each user have more that one fight each advance.
So let's say for one advance you had 12 users and 3 cards open on the schedule with 8 fights per card. That means there's 24 fights open with a total of 48 fighters being used, therefore each user gets four fights each. Then set that up on however many days before the next advance. Give the commish enough tools so that it's easy for them to manually give users fights or let them automate it. Some leagues may want an entirely different setup so they just need to make sure that there are plenty of options.
All records for fighters and users (overall and user vs user) would be saved so you could view them at anything. Also, I'd like to see each fight (or at least highlights) be saved on the server that way users can watch others fights at their convenience.
Something like that is what I could like to see, but I would settle for the game keeping up with records, title holders, etc. That would save a lot of spreadsheet work anyway.
The concerns regarding fighters eating too many big strikes to the head is something I think may just be necessary until striking accuracy is something represented in games. You don't really have to "aim" a shot in the games like you do in real life so more shots are going to land in game than in real life, typically. All in all I really like what I saw in the stream
There are always a few problems that always occur with leagues.
1. Different time zones
2. People having the game on different systems.
3. Different work schedules. Not everybody gets off at the same time or even work the same shift.
4. People have short attention spans. Another new game comes out, people instantly want to play that online and abandon the league.
Agreed with all of you points. That's what I put this in post #59 "It can be done, but in my opinion it would only work with a small dedicated group who's schedules meshed well together."
With that said #4 is really the biggest hurdle of all, in my opinion. You can see hardcore NCAA guys still trucking along in the OD's today and I've played in Madden leagues with a guy in another country who rarely missed a game despite having to play at odd hours. It's all about being dedicated and not moving on as soon as the next sports game is released.
Quote:
Originally Posted by The JareBear
Sorry didn't mean to push anything off topic.
The concerns regarding fighters eating too many big strikes to the head is something I think may just be necessary until striking accuracy is something represented in games. You don't really have to "aim" a shot in the games like you do in real life so more shots are going to land in game than in real life, typically. All in all I really like what I saw in the stream
I was talking about myself going off topic..
And still am
Anyway, only two more sleeps before those of us in the beta get to try it out. I'm thinking of some thing like Maia vs Matt Brown in my first fight. I also hope Martin Kampmann made it in even though he just retired and has fought in almost three years.
UFC had a benefit though in that it's pretty easy to drop in/drop out. Someone loses interest the other guys either divvy up their fighters or you get a new guy. Since it's all done 'by hand' anyway it's easy enough to let someone else step in.