Cyanide The Shark Cage - A new forum for new players!

[claaaams]

Hello all,

I haven't been around these forums much lately, because I've been cooking up a little something of my own for the Cyanide Blood Bowl community, along with the great Gloater, secret overlord of BBATTL.

The Shark Cage, in its newly resurrected form, is a project devoted to welcoming new players to the game, educating them, and teaching them how to find and play in private leagues! You can find it here, at our snazzy new forum:

The Blood Bowl Shark Cage

We've already been talking in PM to Gallows Bait (and indirectly, to Coach), and we're hoping to build a strong relationship to BBtactics and the Crunched Cup. Although we have a Mentoring section on the forum, there is so much more of an active and enthusiastic forum community here that we would be re-inventing the wheel if we tried to replace any of that, so we want to make sure the rookies find these forums ASAP.

Our main goal, for now, is to get new players involved in the Goldfish Bowl, our newbies-only tournament, which we intend to use to educate people on the basics of how to be a good league citizen (scheduling matches, using BBManager, not being a jerk, etc. ) before we send them on their way to get involved in other BBATTL leagues. We have some people who have volunteered to help mentor the Goldfish Bowl players in some basic strategy stuff as they go (i.e. skilling advice, watching replays and critiquing, etc.)

But we could really use your help!

If this project seems like a good idea to you, there's a couple of threads in Mentoring forum where you can volunteer to help out. The most urgent thing right now is getting the word out about our project, so that we actually get enough rookies to run a season or two of this Goldfish Bowl thing and see how it goes. Please, if you see lost newbies in the in-game chat, send 'em our way. I even wrote a thread with some advice on how to do this. link

And of course, feedback is very welcome!

Hope this finds you all well and enjoying the heck out of the current CC season,

-claaaams

 

[Ken]

Sounds like a great idea! I could've used an easier intro to the game than playing Ogres in CTALE

But I might not have learned a few hard lessons as quickly without diving in over my head.

 

[Narly Bird]

Great idea Claams. Originally the CC was something similar, but it has really evolved since the early days. and now has a lot of very good players.

Coach's articles on skills and starting rosters are an absolute must for newer players (on the bbtactics main page - not the forum). So i hope you refer to them on your website

Good luck with the project.

 

[Lebe666]

Good idea ! Wish I had something like that when I was taking my first steps in BB !

 

[claaaams]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Hope to see you all around there soon.

Sounds like a great idea! I could've used an easier intro to the game than playing Ogres in CTALE

But I might not have learned a few hard lessons as quickly without diving in over my head.

Yeah, part of me agrees with you, Ken. But the idea behind the Goldfish Bowl is not so much to keep people out of the shark-infested waters, at least not for very long - it's a 5-game season with no playoffs, much like CTALE, actually.

Really the main objective of the project is to draw people into private leagues, on the theory that people who join leagues tend to stick around longer, and be more enthusiastic in trying to grow the game themselves.

I see too many people in the in-game chat who want to join private leagues, but can't find them! Just the other day, I saw a guy in chat ask "Are there any scheduled leagues where you don't have to know the other players in real life?" I was like "What? Yeah, all of them!"

But that said to Gloater and me that we're not doing a good enough job in keeping our new players, which is a shame because there's been quite a few of them lately!

 

[Ken]

Yeah, part of me agrees with you, Ken. But the idea behind the Goldfish Bowl is not so much to keep people out of the shark-infested waters, at least not for very long - it's a 5-game season with no playoffs, much like CTALE, actually.

I didn't need to be protected from great players, just protected from myself.

 

[Pollution]

FYI, your Human verification will turn off new players. Here's the one I got:

What is the name of the Dwarf Star Player?:

I'm a newb, fuck if I know would be my initial response.

You shouldn't have newbs googling or going to another site to figure out the answer to a verification question.

As an IT guy, this bugs the hell out of me.

Now, I have to go to Google so I can prove I'm human.

 

[Nikolai II]

"What is the name of the game" would be better, no?

 

[20phoenix]

I'd still get that wrong...

 

[claaaams]

I actually asked Gloater to change that just yesterday, 'cuz I thought it might be a little too obscure. I think it's the question from RMBBL. As a fellow IT guy, I totally agree with you, Pollution.

It's Grim Ironjaw, until Gloater gets around to it!

 

[Pollution]

Yeah, a quick Google Search + figuring out which one made the most sense helped (i.e. not Morg&Thorg).

Good to hear you're making it more Newb friendly

 

[cKnoor]

Is there a reason the forum isn't open to Guests?
It seems like an odd choice for something that's supposedly for newbies.

 

[claaaams]

Hello, cKnoor! (By the way, I had been planning on sending you a PM about the Shark Cage when it was a little more active, as I've been intending to write a post recommending your videos to new players, with your permission )

Yeah, you make a good point. I think I'll ask Gloater what he thinks about that - he might have a reason, or he might have just done it that way without thinking. It would be nice if people could just browse the topics without signing up.

 

[thegloater]

The database for the shark cage was copied from the main RMBBL forum, in order to retain the posts from the original shark cage section there, so many of the settings are simply a hangover from that. Thanks for bringing these little niggles to our attention folks, we've made some improvements off the back of it

- spambot countermeasure question is now "what colour skin do Orcs have?"

Having a little trouble enabling the guests viewing permission, there's a setting eluding me somewhere, but that will be sorted too in the next day or so.

 

[claaaams]

Gloater is awesome, see guys?

Also, we will not accept the answer "Orcs don't have skin when our Chaos team is finished with them."

 

[Ken]

- spambot countermeasure question is now "what colour skin do Orcs have?"

Weird, the site isn't accepting: pus, snot, warpstone, rotten lettuce or toe-nail fungus. I think it's still broken.

 

[thegloater]

Weird, the site isn't accepting: pus, snot, warpstone, rotten lettuce or toe-nail fungus. I think it's still broken.

I'll have those added as possible answers

The board is now viewable for non-registered visitors too