Fan Interest Manipulation Too Easy/Unrealistic

the doctor · 09-20-2018, 05:24 PM

I'd love to see more adjustments to make fan interest behave a little more realistically. Right now it's way too easy to manipulate positively, and the justifications behind it taking a jump or a dive are often a little goofy. A few examples/suggestions:

- I shouldn't be getting a fan interest jump for signing an "extremely popular" player whose ratings have cratered to "will accept a minor league contract" level. In reality, a fanbase isn't going to get excited that I signed a 43 year old Carlos Correa to a minors contract when he can't even put the bat on the ball at AA.

- Generally, getting fan interest jumps for ANY minor league signings seems a little unrealistic. Right now it's really easy to manipulate fan interest by signing popular players with horrible ratings to minors contracts.

- Players that are transparently bad in terms of on-field results shouldn't be getting "Extremely popular". Sure, in reality there are weird, bad players who attract humorous cult followings, but those players aren't meaningfully moving the needle on fan turnout. It's annoying to have to honestly consider re-signing a patently ineffective middle reliever because you know your interest will crash if you don't.

- Fan interest shouldn't be taking a huge dive over losing players who have only been with your team for a year (or less, in the situation of a mid-season trade). It's possible to create a bunch of weird fan interest yo-yoing by signing a bunch of extremely popular players to 1 year deals, then not resigning them after the season, and repeating.

- I've mentioned it before (and had some disagreement over it), but to me the timing of fan interest losses is a little off. Fan interest should drop when the player leaves the team, not when he is signed by another team. The way it works now, it creates weird situations where I can decline to resign a player, he sits unsigned for 5 months, and only when another team signs him do I finally take the interest hit. That doesn't seem all that realistic to me.

- More messaging (in the form of emails around why interest drops or rises). Right now, it's somewhat opaque outside of players coming and going. Obviously, winning/losing move the numbers, as do ticket price adjustments, but it would be great to see some messaging around that stuff to confirm when you're on the right (or wrong) track. i.e. "hey, you've been on a cold streak and it's impacting fan turnout, you might want to think about lowering ticket prices for a while"

- In general, fan interest seems to move too much over unrealistically small frames of reference. If a team has been making the playoffs for 15 seasons straight, losing 2 free agents in a single offseason shouldn't cause a huge dive, and vice versa.

Germaniac · 09-21-2018, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the doctor

I'd love to see more adjustments to make fan interest behave a little more realistically. Right now it's way too easy to manipulate positively, and the justifications behind it taking a jump or a dive are often a little goofy. A few examples/suggestions:

- I shouldn't be getting a fan interest jump for signing an "extremely popular" player whose ratings have cratered to "will accept a minor league contract" level. In reality, a fanbase isn't going to get excited that I signed a 43 year old Carlos Correa to a minors contract when he can't even put the bat on the ball at AA.

- Generally, getting fan interest jumps for ANY minor league signings seems a little unrealistic. Right now it's really easy to manipulate fan interest by signing popular players with horrible ratings to minors contracts.

- Players that are transparently bad in terms of on-field results shouldn't be getting "Extremely popular". Sure, in reality there are weird, bad players who attract humorous cult followings, but those players aren't meaningfully moving the needle on fan turnout. It's annoying to have to honestly consider re-signing a patently ineffective middle reliever because you know your interest will crash if you don't.

- Fan interest shouldn't be taking a huge dive over losing players who have only been with your team for a year (or less, in the situation of a mid-season trade). It's possible to create a bunch of weird fan interest yo-yoing by signing a bunch of extremely popular players to 1 year deals, then not resigning them after the season, and repeating.

- I've mentioned it before (and had some disagreement over it), but to me the timing of fan interest losses is a little off. Fan interest should drop when the player leaves the team, not when he is signed by another team. The way it works now, it creates weird situations where I can decline to resign a player, he sits unsigned for 5 months, and only when another team signs him do I finally take the interest hit. That doesn't seem all that realistic to me.

- More messaging (in the form of emails around why interest drops or rises). Right now, it's somewhat opaque outside of players coming and going. Obviously, winning/losing move the numbers, as do ticket price adjustments, but it would be great to see some messaging around that stuff to confirm when you're on the right (or wrong) track. i.e. "hey, you've been on a cold streak and it's impacting fan turnout, you might want to think about lowering ticket prices for a while"

- In general, fan interest seems to move too much over unrealistically small frames of reference. If a team has been making the playoffs for 15 seasons straight, losing 2 free agents in a single offseason shouldn't cause a huge dive, and vice versa.

In addition, when your team has been dominant over several years, you're in first place and trade a popular player because his contract runs out and he has astronomic demands, fan interest shouldn't drop, at least not drastically.

Not realistic that fan interest "is almost crashed" in a situation like that

itsmb8 · 09-24-2018, 12:42 AM

I'd also suggest adding this to coaches and GM's as well. For example, the Cubs fan interest definitely rose when Epstein and Maddon joined years ago.

Bears5122 · 10-18-2018, 09:34 PM

I think the solution is simple. Players really shouldn't have much impact on fan interest. There are really only a handful of players in the league who I think substantially draw crowds these days. Fan interest seems to be most tied to competitiveness.

I'd make the system a mix of how the team has done in recent years, how they're currently doing, and how they are projected to do. The last one being important. Take for instance your 70-win team made a bunch of moves in the offseason and is now projected to win 95 games next season. That should increase fan interest.

TGH-Adfabre · 10-23-2018, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Germaniac

In addition, when your team has been dominant over several years, you're in first place and trade a popular player because his contract runs out and he has astronomic demands, fan interest shouldn't drop, at least not drastically.

Not realistic that fan interest "is almost crashed" in a situation like that

I have seen this message with no meaningful movement in Fan Interest. I would like numbers to be somehow included in the descriptions. I know it is an immersion issue but so is questionable information in messages.

09-20-2018, 05:24 PM	#1
the doctor Minors (Double A) Join Date: Apr 2018 Posts: 106	Fan Interest Manipulation Too Easy/Unrealistic I'd love to see more adjustments to make fan interest behave a little more realistically. Right now it's way too easy to manipulate positively, and the justifications behind it taking a jump or a dive are often a little goofy. A few examples/suggestions: - I shouldn't be getting a fan interest jump for signing an "extremely popular" player whose ratings have cratered to "will accept a minor league contract" level. In reality, a fanbase isn't going to get excited that I signed a 43 year old Carlos Correa to a minors contract when he can't even put the bat on the ball at AA. - Generally, getting fan interest jumps for ANY minor league signings seems a little unrealistic. Right now it's really easy to manipulate fan interest by signing popular players with horrible ratings to minors contracts. - Players that are transparently bad in terms of on-field results shouldn't be getting "Extremely popular". Sure, in reality there are weird, bad players who attract humorous cult followings, but those players aren't meaningfully moving the needle on fan turnout. It's annoying to have to honestly consider re-signing a patently ineffective middle reliever because you know your interest will crash if you don't. - Fan interest shouldn't be taking a huge dive over losing players who have only been with your team for a year (or less, in the situation of a mid-season trade). It's possible to create a bunch of weird fan interest yo-yoing by signing a bunch of extremely popular players to 1 year deals, then not resigning them after the season, and repeating. - I've mentioned it before (and had some disagreement over it), but to me the timing of fan interest losses is a little off. Fan interest should drop when the player leaves the team, not when he is signed by another team. The way it works now, it creates weird situations where I can decline to resign a player, he sits unsigned for 5 months, and only when another team signs him do I finally take the interest hit. That doesn't seem all that realistic to me. - More messaging (in the form of emails around why interest drops or rises). Right now, it's somewhat opaque outside of players coming and going. Obviously, winning/losing move the numbers, as do ticket price adjustments, but it would be great to see some messaging around that stuff to confirm when you're on the right (or wrong) track. i.e. "hey, you've been on a cold streak and it's impacting fan turnout, you might want to think about lowering ticket prices for a while" - In general, fan interest seems to move too much over unrealistically small frames of reference. If a team has been making the playoffs for 15 seasons straight, losing 2 free agents in a single offseason shouldn't cause a huge dive, and vice versa. Last edited by the doctor; 09-20-2018 at 06:09 PM.

09-24-2018, 12:42 AM	#3
itsmb8 All Star Starter Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 1,343	I'd also suggest adding this to coaches and GM's as well. For example, the Cubs fan interest definitely rose when Epstein and Maddon joined years ago.

10-18-2018, 09:34 PM	#4
Bears5122 All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 850	I think the solution is simple. Players really shouldn't have much impact on fan interest. There are really only a handful of players in the league who I think substantially draw crowds these days. Fan interest seems to be most tied to competitiveness. I'd make the system a mix of how the team has done in recent years, how they're currently doing, and how they are projected to do. The last one being important. Take for instance your 70-win team made a bunch of moves in the offseason and is now projected to win 95 games next season. That should increase fan interest.