derby...how can something going so good be made to go so wrong?

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Originally Posted by Honeywell

LTMP, I appreciate that as my neighborhood leader, you're trying to reassure me that the NH wouldn't hate me if I did lower level tasks. We have a great NH, and I already know that. It is not the problem.

The problem is the game makers creating an environment in which it is no longer possible for me to play the game in a way that I enjoy and find relaxing.

Additionally, it is a very big problem that Supercell has gone non-responsive, and that it is not the first time this has happened.

I do not agree with the idea floating around the forum that just because the company had a big release in another game that it is fine to abandon Hay Day until someone just feels like showing up again. Supercell is not a friend who just got busy and we are being patient with them. They are a company, and they scheduled these release dates long ahead of time and were aware of the resources available to them. How would folks feel if your plumber or electrician behaved this way? Or if your grocer just got busy with another task and didn't bother to open the store for a while?

And they're not a tiny operation, either. If you go look at the top grossing games on iOS, at any given time, Boom Beach, Clash of Clans, and Hay Day will be in the top 15. They have plenty of resources, and are choosing to not allocate them here.

Please note, this is not a hit at the mods. They are clearly understaffed and that is not their fault. Again, the company chose to create the situation, and I say this from a place of experience. I spent many years as a project manager for a Fortune 50 company. This is benign neglect.

Overall, it is creating a game environment that is in no way enjoyable, and I think it is valid to express that. Whether or not an individual player decides to stick this out is up to them. For myself, I need evidence that this won't just keep repeating and that valid concerns will be addressed quickly and transparently.

I wouldn't stay in a bad relationship in real life, and I certainly won't stay in one where I'm paying to play! (Yep, I'm one of those folks who buys diamonds.)

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Honeywell - just stumbled on this and your posts below. I am feeling pretty much as you do and agree with you.

The derby had added the fun back into the game for me until SC "tweaked" it. I just don't have the time to wait for a task to come up that I know I can finish nor do I want to spend my time remembering to check. Too stressful and my life doesn't allow for that kind of commitment.

I hope SC addresses our concerns soon and we can start enjoying the game again - if not ...... So be it (I buy diamonds too)

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Originally Posted by Honeywell

I do not agree with the idea floating around the forum that just because the company had a big release in another game that it is fine to abandon Hay Day until someone just feels like showing up again. Supercell is not a friend who just got busy and we are being patient with them. They are a company, and they scheduled these release dates long ahead of time and were aware of the resources available to them. How would folks feel if your plumber or electrician behaved this way? Or if your grocer just got busy with another task and didn't bother to open the store for a while?

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I have only been spot checking this thread, so don't know what other comments you're referring to about people claiming SC needs some slack because they're releasing a different product.

I agree with you that they do not need any extra consideration because of releasing other products products.

However, HayDay seems like it has always been on a 2- or 3-month release cycle. Anybody who thinks that SC is just going to swoop in and redesign a feature Right Now just because the forum demands is just being naive. They probably have a schedule in mind, whether quarterly, semi-monthly, or whatever. They know roughly when the next release is, prioritize which fixes & features go into that, and plan accordingly.

Your plumber analogy is bogus: If I have a water leak and I stand in front of the yellow pages yelling at a plumber's advertisement expecting him to show up, then he isn't going to show up. Now if I actually had a conversation with that plumber and he had told me he would come visit this week, and didn't show, that would be different. But I invite anybody to provide a link to where an SC employee provided a date for any alleged derby changes?

Lastly, I don't know why anybody feels the need to cut the mods some slack. That statement implies that the mods have some responsibility for fixing design issues in the game. The mods don't work for SC, they are volunteers from this community who keep the forum working well. They don't need to be cut slack for the derby design any more than they need to be cut slack for my dog having pee'd in the bathroom just now: not their responsibility.

If your plumber let him or herself in to your house and "fixed" a dripping tap that you hadn't thought was a big problem, but the repair caused a huge leak in the water tank, you might well have reason to feel frustrated when he or she refused to comment -- especially if you don't even know if he or she is picking up their phone messages. Hello, operator?

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Originally Posted by XYZZY

However, HayDay seems like it has always been on a 2- or 3-month release cycle. Anybody who thinks that SC is just going to swoop in and redesign a feature Right Now just because the forum demands is just being naive. They probably have a schedule in mind, whether quarterly, semi-monthly, or whatever. They know roughly when the next release is, prioritize which fixes & features go into that, and plan accordingly.

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If we were discussing something that was part of a regular release, I'd be with you. The latest derby task changes are clearly not part of that cycle. They are being adjusted on the fly, and as such it is appropriate to respond to them as if they may again be changed independently of the release cycle. I don't think most folks are calling for complete redesign. I have read the entire thread, and I read over and over a cry to simply redjust tasks.

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Your plumber analogy is bogus: If I have a water leak and I stand in front of the yellow pages yelling at a plumber's advertisement expecting him to show up, then he isn't going to show up. Now if I actually had a conversation with that plumber and he had told me he would come visit this week, and didn't show, that would be different. But I invite anybody to provide a link to where an SC employee provided a date for any alleged derby changes?

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A great deal of the problem here seems to be that Supercell is conspicuously absent from the conversation. Since they've had a presence before, it is reasonable to expect that to continue, and several posters mention it. As many others have said, more eloquently than me, a little explanation would go a long way.

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Lastly, I don't know why anybody feels the need to cut the mods some slack. That statement implies that the mods have some responsibility for fixing design issues in the game. The mods don't work for SC, they are volunteers from this community who keep the forum working well. They don't need to be cut slack for the derby design any more than they need to be cut slack for my dog having pee'd in the bathroom just now: not their responsibility.

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This is exactly what I was saying, but in different words. I felt the need to say it as not everyone seems to understand that the mods are not Supercell. In any case, we seem to be in violent agreement on this point.

I seriously think we need a derby opt-in option. In stead of matching nbhs based on total members, we should match nbhs based on the number of people that choose to participate in this derby. Of course, the horseshoe points should be adjusted accordingly. This way, if one feels too stressed or not in the mood for the next derby, their decision won't affect the entire nbh. Also that will give a chance to nbhs like mine, where only 4-5 members are active among 30 :smirk:

I agree.

One of the nastiest sides of the Derby is the pressure it puts on NHs to kick out members who can't or won't fully participate. If there was an opt-in button, this pressure wouldn't be there anymore.

happy farming

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Originally Posted by taoyingying

I seriously think we need a derby opt-in option. In stead of matching nbhs based on total members, we should match nbhs based on the number of people that choose to participate in this derby. Of course, the horseshoe points should be adjusted accordingly. This way, if one feels too stressed or not in the mood for the next derby, their decision won't affect the entire nbh. Also that will give a chance to nbhs like mine, where only 4-5 members are active among 30 :smirk:

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Agreed :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :thumbsup:

We have a lot of inactive and intermittent members as well, and whilst we are not super focussed on the Derby it would be nice for those of us who want to participate to have a chance of getting some more horsehoe prizes, we've never got more than two so far based on the size of our neighbourhood versus active players.

That being said we are currently in first place in our Derby :eek: only one other neighbourhood who are in second place seem to be playing. Not sure if the others have made the decision not to bother or are waiting for the elusive high point tasks which are not appearing.

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Originally Posted by Greebie0

I agree.

One of the nastiest sides of the Derby is the pressure it puts on NHs to kick out members who can't or won't fully participate. If there was an opt-in button, this pressure wouldn't be there anymore.

happy farming

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Originally Posted by Gemster

Agreed :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: :thumbsup:

We have a lot of inactive and intermittent members as well, and whilst we are not super focussed on the Derby it would be nice for those of us who want to participate to have a chance of getting some more horsehoe prizes, we've never got more than two so far based on the size of our neighbourhood versus active players.

That being said we are currently in first place in our Derby :eek: only one other neighbourhood who are in second place seem to be playing. Not sure if the others have made the decision not to bother or are waiting for the elusive high point tasks which are not appearing.

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These posts pique my interest in what percentage of the global farming community actually participates in the derby. With two days left in this derby, here's how the points stack up in our group of 15 neighborhoods:

First place (15,000+ points) Us - :cool: (all 16 members participate, nobody buys a 6th task)
Second place (10,000+)
Third place (10,000+)

5th horseshoe (10,200) 3 NHs
4th horseshoe (7,400) 2 NHs
3rd horseshoe (4,800) Glaring big gap between top 5 and bottom 10 NHs
2nd horseshoe (2,900) 3 NHs
1st horseshoe (1,100) 5 NHs
0 horseshoes 2 NHs

Lowest NH - 75 points

So according to my sophisticated :p calculations, 1/3 of the neighborhoods in our derby are participating at anywhere near full strength. The other 10 (down there in <3 horseshoe land) would benefit from the 'opt in' model where they would only be competing against neighborhoods with comparable active members. Of course, it is also possible that the NHs in 2nd-5th place would be winning their derbies if they had the 'opt-in' option. Speaking for myself and some others in my NH, we would LOVE to be able to sit a derby out now and then. :thumbsup::thumbsup:for 'opt in'!!!

Now I'm curious if this indicates that only 1/3 of the global community is actually participating in the derby. That would be a lot of inaudible 'ho-hum' out there compared to the amount of interest here in the forums. Each one of us has farming features we do all the time and others that we ignore. That is as it should be. However, as the derby is now structured, those who enjoy the benefits of being in a neighborhood but don't go 'whole hog' for the derby every week penalize their neighbors. Again, OPT IN !!!

MiniGardener I have always felt that there is not much interest in the Derby out there in the wider world of Hayday. I have based this on the fact that our neighbourhood (29 members, 10-15 of us participate in the Derby, not all of us manage 5 tasks every week and we have never made it past 2 horseshoes) has come in the top 5 in every derby and come third a few times. Every Derby we have been up against several neighbourhoods who have never got off the mark or only racked up a couple of hundred points.

Quite a few posters here have disagreed about the lack of interest though, so I am wondering if supercell already has some sort of algorithm worked out based on members actively playing the Derby or possibly results in previous derbies?

Currently our neighbourhood is clinging on to first place with 3339 points, even though we have yet to reach our second horseshoe which we will get at 4850. We are being hotly pursued by the second place neighbourhood with 3221 points. None of the others have even hit 1000 points yet, and three are on 0.

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Originally Posted by Gemster

MiniGardener I have always felt that there is not much interest in the Derby out there in the wider world of Hayday. I have based this on the fact that our neighbourhood (29 members, 10-15 of us participate in the Derby, not all of us manage 5 tasks every week and we have never made it past 2 horseshoes) has come in the top 5 in every derby and come third a few times. Every Derby we have been up against several neighbourhoods who have never got off the mark or only racked up a couple of hundred points.

Quite a few posters here have disagreed about the lack of interest though, so I am wondering if supercell already has some sort of algorithm worked out based on members actively playing the Derby or possibly results in previous derbies?

Currently our neighbourhood is clinging on to first place with 3339 points, even though we have yet to reach our second horseshoe which we will get at 4850. We are being hotly pursued by the second place neighbourhood with 3221 points. None of the others have even hit 1000 points yet, and three are on 0.

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Holy horseshoes, Gemster!...and I thought our derby represented an apathetic crowd!! As you say, maybe there is an algorithm that matches NHs based on prior 'performance' so that the 'hares' are racing other hares, and the 'tortoises' are able to come up with the 'gold' while only earning a couple of horseshoes. Intriguing...or something!