Event rankings

[yunnnn]

@yunnnn

Implementation:
Having 4 start times is not reprogramming it from the ground up. There is still a single event, but the users’ startTime and endTimes are different, based on the start time that they selected when joining the event. I see it as a single new attribute, with some simple refactoring for existing methods to use this attribute, rather than the current hardcoded value (9am pst).

Introduce a new +hour offset field with 4 (or n) possible values; when the user joins the event, they pick one of the times, which the server persists as one of the +hour offset values. I picked 4 because it allows for flexibility, while not being so granular that it’s too confusing to beginner users.

All the event code is exactly the same, except that the event is not startable until the user’s startTime is reached, rather than the global startTime. Similarly, the eventEnd time needs to be also incremented with the +hour offset for the user. In other words, we’re just refactoring in the start and end time-gates to use an additional persisted field.

Summary:
The real problem I see is that it might be confusing to users; however, with the convenience of better start times, it might still be worth implementing.

This is something I deal with in my actual line of work: Dealing with major usability issues while trying to keep a stable ecosystem of experienced, as well as beginner users. I agree that this is a hard problem to solve, but it can also be a profitable one. I don’t really know the metrics of this game’s IAP wrt Time Played (ie, do noobs spend more or do pros spend more), but I would suspect that the mid-high end players spend more money on this game (due to their desire to stay ahead), and making their lives less complicated will keep this user group from burning out and quitting.

Weird thing… I just started playing marvel pq and it looks like this is exactly how their events work; I joined one and it made me pick an end time.

[EDHdad]

I would personally be in favor of a system which allows users to pick one of several starting times.