Race Season Two Announced!

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Regarding requests for overlapping or same time races for aprty and solo events, when trialled in the between season races, participation and competition in these races didn't seem especially high.

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Gulruon wrote:

So--just a disclaimer, I am a relative noob and didn't really get to do much in season one. It may be this is the same as season one, in which case I am rehashing old info. If so, I apologize.

I am not sure how it is in other countries, but in the United States, working professionals often work from around 9:00 a.m. to around 5:00 p.m. with some commute time on either end; I personally work those hours with a one hour commute on either end, but that time will vary on a case-by-case basis.

I also want to preface this by saying I am not a "casual"; I spent a LOT of my free time gaming, and I don't feel the need to be hand-held or catered to. I personally have a good job that takes a decent amount of my time and that I need in order to make my way in life, but that doesn't mean I resent people who can play games more than me. I understand that people can play 3-4 times as much as me on a weekday and am ok with that.

The reason this is relevant is it looks like there are seven "timeslots" that races can fall in to; in Pacific Standard Time, they are 12:00 a.m., 3:00 a.m, 5:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. The problem, in a nutshell, is that these times don't have an even distribution. As someone with the "standard" U.S. workday I described above, and who understands the health perils of severe sleep deprivation, the only race slot I will EVER have the potential to do on a weekday is the 8:00 p.m. one. This isn't just an issue for someone on the West Coast of the U.S either; someone on the East Coast with the same schedule would have it even worse, as the slot that is 2:00 p.m. for me would be 5:00 p.m. for them (when they are getting off work and still have to go through their commute) and the slot that is 8:00 p.m. for me would be 11:00 p.m. for them (which if it is longer than say an hour, would seriously cut into their sleeping time.)

Not only that, but there isn't even an 8:00 p.m. race on a large majority of the days. Only 8 out of 14 of the announced days (not counting the days for in-between seasons) have a race at that time.

The reason for this is the extremely uneven distribution of events. Someone in a timezone eight hours before the Pacific Coast with the same schedule as me would have three race-slots in their "strike zone": 7:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., and 11:00 p.m. Not only that, but they are GUARANTEED minimum one race a day, and have two more than not.

Basically, as I stated at the start: I know some people have more free time than me, and will be able to race more than me. That's a fact of life, and there's not much GGG can do about it. I am totally cool with someone who has 3-4 times the free time participating in 3-4 times the races.

What strikes me as odd is that someone who plays the EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF TIME as me at the EXACT SAME LOCAL TIMES as me gets the chance to participate in 2-3 times as many races as me simply because they happen to live in a different timezone. Now, again, I didn't participate in season one, and the announcement mention more races for people in New Zealand and Australia, so maybe it was skewed the other way around last season. Even in that case, reversing who is getting screwed doesn't seem like the optimal solution; I would think making the races evenly distributed over the major gameplay timezones would seem to be the best, not simply changing who gets the short end of the stick.

Just my two cents on this matter, take it like you will.

TLDR: 'Mericans are screwed this season :(

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Chris wrote:

At the end of the season, the top 20 players by Season Points will receive an alternate art Demigod's Triumph.

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Qarl wrote:

Regarding requests for overlapping or same time races for aprty and solo events, when trialled in the between season races, participation and competition in these races didn't seem especially high.

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Kajun wrote:

Well, you managed to change the times so people that work on the East coast USA cant race. 1st one starts when leaving work. 5pm..(20min drvive home..so this time SUCKS...it's so close yet so far)

Then you changed the 10pm to 11pm...Can't finish a race when you get up at 5:30am for work.

You have one start time listed at 8pm EST and that is PERFECT but it is 42races into the season.

I can only hope that timeslot is added to all of the dates.

**Almost 50% of the US population is located in the Eastern Timezone**

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Hooblah wrote:

I believe it would be very simple to make everyone happy. Start races every third hour and have them rotate daily. Every time zone would get equal treatment.

Monday - 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm
Tuesday - 1 am, 4am , 7am , 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm
Wed - 2am , 5am, 8am, 11am , 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm
Thurs - 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm
Fri - 1 am, 4am , 7am , 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm
Sat - Whatever
Sun - Whatever
Monday - 2am , 5am, 8am, 11am , 2pm, 5pm, 8pm, 11pm
Tuesday - 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm
Wed- 1 am, 4am , 7am , 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm
Thurs - 12am, 3am, 6am, 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 9pm
Fri - 1 am, 4am , 7am , 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm

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Litheum wrote:

SUGGESTION:

Problem:
I like to look back through completed races to see mine and other people results, as I am sure a lot of other people do. To do this you have to go to the Forums and search through each thread, open them to see the start time, and try and find the one you were looking for. It is tedious and often times I have a hard time finding the exact race I wanted to look at. This happens even if the race was the same day, because as soon as its over it falls off the calendar.

Solution:
1) Leave old races on the Calendar for the current week under the "Events" tab, and turn them a different color. This will allow us to easily find and review recent race results without causing confusion.
2) Have a tab or link to the last several weeks/month with the races and timeslots so you can easily find older races and review results. This will allow for the current week to always be at the top of the "Events" tab, but still be able to view a calendar of prior weeks.
3) Change the Forum titles to include the race date/time so when searching through old events in the forums, they are easier to find.

Thanks for reading!!!

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Chaosu wrote:

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Chris wrote:

At the end of the season, the top 20 players by Season Points will receive an alternate art Demigod's Triumph.

Feels like a biggest mistake to me, last season proved that there are very few reaching top tier reward (24 players) (btw. season 1 ladder is broken right now, can't change number of players per page). 20 of them received another prize. getting 1000 points seems tougher because season duration is the same! Will you be happy if highest tier reward will be obtained by less than 20 players? Feels wrong to me, but what do I know...