Thought I'd start a separate post so comments on my post don't become interlaced with comments from the previous on going discussion. Easier for me and hopefully everyone to read.
My philosophy on problem solving:
1. There is no perfect
solution.
2. Every solution creates new
problems.
3. Compromise is usually necessary.
4. Someone can always find fault.
Getting bogged down seeking
perfection gets us nowhere. We can only try to find good or satisfactory
solutions and not the perfect or optimal solution. A good solution addresses
the problem at hand without spinning off equal or greater new problems.
And we must be objective and not
emotional when judging the weight of a problem.
How does WGT's proposal stack up?
Problem: Tournament
competition within today's Master and Pro tiers is unbalanced. A great majority
of the tournaments are won by the same small subset of tier members.
WGT Solution: Split the Master tier into 3 separate tiers and split the
Pro tier into 2 separate tiers. The new Master Legend tier is further
separated by playing from new Championship tees.
Pluses(+s):
Huge +: Thousands(Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?) of
Masters, Tour Masters, Tour Pros and Pros will see closer competition within
their new tiers.
Small +: A much smaller number of Legend Masters get to enjoy the
"new courses" created by playing the Championship tees.
Minuses(-s):
Medium -: Additional opportunities for sandbagging in the Tour
Master, Master, and Pro tiers. Sandbagging needs to be addressed separately.
Small -: Legend Masters will feel disadvantaged playing match play
from the Championship tees against any other tier. Time will tell if this
holds true. It is difficult to judge without knowing what new Legend
equipment will be available.
Small -: Members on the edge of the tier lines will be
unhappy. Offset by those on the edge who are happy they didn't fall the
other way but keep quiet about it. Unavoidable.
Small -: Those Masters who "fell through the trap door"
to Master will be unhappy they were not moved back to the Tour Pro tier.
Unknown weight: If tournament payouts are held the same(unknown), WGT
tournament payouts will more than double. How this affects the virtual economic
model is unknown, but I would assume its been offset by increases in tier
and/or level based purchases.
Conclusion: This is a good solution. Choose the tier
boundaries wisely. Get input from players on the Masters splits for
certain.
Consider eliminating solo ranked
rounds affecting averages from tiers where sandbagging occurs. Solo ranked
rounds only affecting Amateur and Hack tier averages seems to make sense to me
on the surface.
Does not eliminate sandbagging by
Pros or Masters in the new tier scheme. Players could always choose to shoot an
intentional high score in a tournament to pad their average. This happens
IRL golf too.
Perhaps adapting the way scores are
recorded using the Adjusted Gross Score
(http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_adjustedg.htm) method would help.
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Problem: All equipment is not available to all players.
WGT Solution:
Remove the tier based restrictions on equipment. Add an Experience Level
based restriction on equipment. Experience Levels that will be based on actions
you perform on WGT such as completing rounds, hitting shots and interacting
with other players. Experience Levels will not be skill-based like Tiers;
instead, you will level up as you play and interact on WGT.
Pluses(+s):
Huge +: The best and newest equipment is now available to the
hundreds of thousands (millions?) of WGT players, if they are willing to put in
the time playing and interacting.
Big +: WGT creates new revenue opportunities with level based
equipment purchases.
Medium/Big? +: WGT creates new advertising revenue opportunity since
members are now rewarded for participating on site, there should be more
visitors. Unique page views should increase as well as unique visitors
(http://siteanalytics.compete.com/wgt.com/?metric=uv). Ad rates are based
on that kind of stuff.
Small +: Players are rewarded for completing multi-player rounds
thus somewhat reducing the amount of quitting.
Minuses(-s):
Big/Huge -: Starting everyone out at 0 Experience Level appears to mean
Legends and Masters will/could be frozen at their current equipment levels for
a long time until they build their experience levels. If my assumption is true, this is a solution killer.
Medium/Big? -: No WGT revenue for a while from Master tier players buying new
clubs. See above.
Medium/Small -: Multi-player matches between certain tiers becomes
un-leveled with lower tier players having access to better and longer clubs
while playing from shorter tees. Offset by lower tier players ability to
handle the faster meter and less forgiveness of better clubs. Also considering a lower tier
player, playing with better equipment should score better and move up tiers if
scoring average (see Adjusted Gross Scoring method), and tier progression rules
are properly done. Don't forget, for the most part we get to choose who we play
multi-player rounds with. Not a big problem as I see it.
Conclusion: This is not a
good solution at this time if many players will have their equipment
levels frozen until they level up. Possible solution is give Experience
Level credit to existing players for past games shot, shots hit, and
interaction. If this deficiency is clarified or corrected it is a good
solution.
Be gentle guys. And most of all objective and unemotional in your critiques.