I am rethinking some of the terminology we use across Stall Catchers, and I know from events that some people have an issue with “Team Humanity”. To a new user that seems confusing for several reasons, 1) why am I in a team as soon as I register, 2) what is “Team Humanity” exactly? 3) what will happen if I leave this team? Etc.
Does anyone else have any feedback/ideas about this? Do you like the term “Team Humanity”? Was it confusing to you as a new user? Is it useful to you (term + concept itself, plus it being on the leaderboards) as an experienced user?
If anyone has any ideas regarding other terminology we use across the site, you are welcome to share in this thread too!
I was briefly taken aback when I first saw “Team Humanity,” but quickly realized it was just a clever way to present the collective tally. Hadn’t given it much thought beyond that, and never clicked on it until just now, but I like the term and having the total displayed. Might as well take this opportunity to mention there seems to be plenty of room to expand the team ranking display from ten to fifteen teams if desired.
With regards to leaderboards - they are actually going to change soon, as we are rearranging some elements on the VM, and the page will likely become fixed length, i.e. no more scrolling ever & always a one responsive page across devices
I never gave it much thought. I understood it was just an aggregate accumulator for all players. It reminds us that we are all on the same team. I think it might be necessary through an announcement or pop-up when people first log into the game each day to remind them that they can join one of the other teams and contribute towards daily competitions or other periodic Catchathons, Competitions, etc. Generally, I would say that most new players have no idea they can join these other teams or how to do it. They don’t come into the Forum because that takes an extra account registration that many players are reluctant to do. Giving them a reminder to create an account for the Forum and checking out the discussions could be helpful. The announcements could also highlight upcoming events. This announcement pop-up could be a short list of headlines that provide links to the Blog, Forums, and Help sections that would give more details.
As far as the Team Humanity issue, I would still like to see some daily goals established for “Team Humanity” and award some bonus points to all players who contributed to achieving the daily goal. This could be equally distributed or prorated based on daily contribution levels. The competitions are too infrequent to generate any enthusiasm. The daily goals could be based on day of the week, based on historical performance, etc. There are many ways to generate some excitement every day.
I was also under the impression that we were also going to have more frequent competitions on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This would entice people to join the other teams and better understand why they exist. It would also allow people to realize that they can switch teams on a short term basis, collaborate with other players, and have fun in other ways. We have players of all nationalities, genders, and ages. So, for instance, we could have “Guys vs. Gals” on the third Tuesday of each month. We could have the battle of the ages “Seniors (55+) vs. Youngsters (Under 55)” on the 1st Monday of each month. And so forth and so on. Players could recommend ongoing competitions or matchups they would like to propose. EyesOnAlz would moderate and manage the schedule. The announcements pop-up would remind us of upcoming competitions.
Wow, these are amazing suggestions @gcalkins, thank you !!! We do need to implement a more regular competition schedule and a more automated way to support that…
As for announcements, we’re thinking of a better way to do this too, perhaps as tips - or as pinned messages in the chatbox …
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