i want to know how the players in delta experience their class, so please do that here:)
i do not play in delta this month so i can only listen to what everyone actually playing in delta have to say about it and what they think should or should not be done to make the experience better for everyone.
i know a lot of L19 players signed up this month so i expect a lot of "experiences"
it's a bit early in the month but i think formulating early and looking back later on what you thought a few weeks ago could be ineteresting.
I like this month's delta class , as I can always find an opponent whenever I want to play; even though it did cause some problem at the beginning when I tried to put everyone into buddy list and make distinction btw classmates and my friends .
I am enjoying the ease of getting games. No more need to complain about time zones etc. I've played both stronger and weaker players, and have ended almost all games with a good review. I'd like to see the other divisions beefed up as well.
The large room system definitely makes it much easier to get games; generally I get a response in about 5-10 minutes when I put a game up. I've been in the ASR league for 19 months, and this month already I have played more than any other month - 20 games so far. I will probably end up at about three times my previous monthly average, which was 8.5 games/month. Oddly, all but one game have been with stronger players. The 9k and weaker people seem to be a bit reluctant to challenge when I have an offer up, and rarely seem to put up offers of their own. Perhaps they just need an invitation by private message. I have not noticed games being rushed, even with the people who are playing several games per day. Reviews are usually offered.
A side effect of being able to get games easily, is that if you can play a bit less than one game per day, you will be guaranteed to promote, regardless of your number of wins.
In some ways the large group size is a bit cumbersome. 178 columns on the web site make it rather awkward to see the Win/Loss column - it usually requires carefully lining up someone's row near the top or bottom of the browser window, and jump scrolling over to the right side. Putting everyone in the KGS buddy list (and removing them at the end of the month...) is time-consuming. I use the Notes field in the buddy list to identify ASR people.
It is possible that we could maintain the big positive, that being the ease of getting games, and alleviate some of the cumbersome aspects, by going to a small number of relatively large groups. For example, starting with three groups of about 40 this month, we would now be at close to 60 per group. Perhaps that would make the web site and buddy list a bit easier to use.
I would also second the suggestion to increase the size of the groups in the other divisions as well, at least Gamma, anyways. Beta doesn't seem to have much of a problem this month with people not playing, but Gamma does have the usual 25% or so who don't manage to get games in.
We should exaggerate neither the activity of Delta nor the inactivity of Gamma. The 10th player in the Gamma divisions has played somewhere between 4 and 8 games; the 90th player in Delta has played 4 games. Scaled to the size of the divisions, this is the same result. The people who are most active in Delta are, understandably, very pleased with the new system because they've played a huge number of games, but that's actually a rather shallow phenomena. Once you get out of the top 20, the huge numbers of games flatten out.
It's still an accomplishment, of course. In the past Delta had a lower level of activity than Gamma. But we can't nontuple the size of Gamma, and even if we could it's unclear whether that would suffice to raise activity above the level it currently attains.
Finding some way to work on the number of inactive players might be a more effective way to increase activity in the upper divisions. This might be difficult in Alpha and Beta - it takes a while to get from Delta to Beta, so if you decide to be inactive that really must show that you've lost interest in the league. But in Gamma, there's currently no difference between being demoted for inactivity and being demoted on points, so we might be able to do something there. Would it be really logistically difficult to have inactive Gammas start the next month in Delta with -4 points, or something like that?
--- We might also publicize the vacation policy. As it stands most people probably think that if they're not sure if they have time for the ASR League, "I might as well stay in the league - if I can play four games that's great, if not, well, nothing bad happened." I know that's what I've thought in the past, and as a result there were at least two months when there was an inactive player in a division.
The large Delta league gave me many opportunities to play higher ranked players. Even better, they helped me review my games and showed me how to improve my game.
I had some anxiety over playing ranked games, where my rank was on the line. In ASR, I could freely play with the pressure removed.
I only like delta to be this size but maybe not other layers.
Or put it in this way, I prefer either have a huge amount of classmates i.e. 100+ (easy to get games)or a small class (easy to get promote). A class of 30 ,40 or 50 seems to be the last thing I want.
I feel the current structure is perfect.
WayneC: I do opposit way. I put a note of my friends and add asr classmate with a blank note, so i don't need to copy paste notes
it was interesting experience and i wanna take my chances in december again :)
huge-Delta system give some good thing to league: now (maybe in 2-3 month) only really active players in gamma
but for me personally i see couple of bugs:
1. too many ppl, i can't add everybody to my buddy-list :). so no more 'classmates' and atmosphere of the league is more-less gone; 2. i have to play ≈15 games to get promotion and it's too much for me
i think about conception of hybrid-Delta: one big group and couple of classic-small for 'slow' players (maybe with kinda allowed DGS-like 'correspondence' games). what do you think, stalkor? (yeah it will be a bit additional headache for admins, sorry :)
v00d00 wrote:1. too many ppl, i can't add everybody to my buddy-list
Why not. It took me about 15 minutes to add everybody. Alternatively or additionally you can make a sorted excel list where you maintain which player is in the league and how often you have already played him. Took me two minutes to create that.
v00d00 wrote:2. i have to play ≈15 games to get promotion and it's too much for me
You only need four games to stay in the league. Do you really have a need to promote? I am already considering to avoid promotion to Gamma since it is much easier to get opponents in Delta (unless the Gamma class will be boosted as well).
v00d00 wrote:huge-Delta system give some good thing to league: now (maybe in 2-3 month) only really active players in gamma
Indeed. Good for the gamma league
v00d00 wrote:couple of classic-small for 'slow' players
Not a good idea. I am a slow player and enjoy the ease of getting opponents. Otherwise I would probably not have joined. Also I don't play correspondence games on DGS/OGS any more (unless challenged/invited by someone I know), because this is a completely different thing (which was responsible for my go related burnout the last 18 months btw).
, as I can always find an opponent whenever I want to play; even though it did cause some problem 
at the beginning when I tried to put everyone 
into buddy list and make distinction btw classmates and my friends 
.
