New Version of Fantasy

[Foxhound]

Don't worry foxy, you'll continue with it 

If you find actual bugs, you should find a contact link and let them know.  As someone who does this stuff for a living, it's vastly preferred to get bug reports than sit in ignorance with pissed off users.

I've already let them know about a couple of "bugs".

1. Why no avatars? Come on! That's such a basic feature and many participants (including me) are attached to their avatars.
2. I've not been able to open a couple of leagues I've had previously. The program tells me that The Wisp!/Willie the Wisp! as well as Tiger-Cats and Gentlemen are invalid League names. I mean wth?

And I absolutely hate and despise the double points for your Captain feature. That means one pick will be the difference between a fabulous week and an absolutely pathetic week. One pick! That introduces a very strong additional random element to scoring. It's a feature that hurts the hardcore stat junkie player to whom Fantasy is a marathon and is designed to reward the casual dilettante who's now even more likely to luck into one big week which will land the dilettante into the very inappropriately named Champions League. Even in past years weekly winners were very rarely among the really good players based on full season standings. There's going to be even more variability this year so last week's cellar dweller will be even more likely to emerge as this Week's winner.

Since I'm one of those hardcore stat junkie players, the additional random element will make it much tougher for me to excel. Here I've been looking forward to CFL Fantasy for a couple of months now and the League gives me the back of its hand - again!

[pdirks67]

And I absolutely hate and despise the double points for your Captain feature. That means one pick will be the difference between a fabulous week and an absolutely pathetic week. One pick! That introduces a very strong additional random element to scoring. It's a feature that hurts the hardcore stat junkie player to whom Fantasy is a marathon and is designed to reward the casual dilettante who's now even more likely to luck into one big week which will land the dilettante into the very inappropriately named Champions League. Even in past years weekly winners were very rarely among the really good players based on full season standings. There's going to be even more variability this year so last week's cellar dweller will be even more likely to emerge as this Week's winner.

Yeah, I agree. There's already enough luck baked into fantasy football without the double points. I don't like it either.

[TecnoGenius]

I managed to build my roster easily enough.  The notes here helped me.  Interface is a bit worse than we're used to (not as many players on the screen at once).

I liked the blitz prop picks, that was fun.

In the pickems page:

Not sure what the kicker BC/OTT pick was about at the top?  Is that just which one gets more FGs or which one might kick a winner?  Kinda weird there wasn't more info, or did I miss something?

Also, the spread choice just on the final game?  I assume it's tied to just that final game?  Bit different than I'm used to with the old pickems and the total-points guess.

[Foxhound]

Unbelievable the foul-ups with respect to Depth Chart and stats availability and thus Fantasy so far this year. While the CFL is clearly trying to entice more casual players with prizes and by increasing the random element, it's evident from League participation/membership that longtime players are quitting in frustration.

[TecnoGenius]

Fantasy is working out ok for me so far.  2562th woot woot 

It seems like I have more budget to work with as for week 1 I found myself having to find ways to spend more money.  The roster I wanted left like 10k behind.  I don't recall that "problem" with the old system! 

The CFL site really needs to get fixed though, like you said it's hard to make picks with no player stats, and each fan shouldn't have to spend 30 mins tracking down individual depth charts.

[Jesse]

Fantasy is working out ok for me so far.  2562th woot woot 

It seems like I have more budget to work with as for week 1 I found myself having to find ways to spend more money.  The roster I wanted left like 10k behind.  I don't recall that "problem" with the old system! 

The CFL site really needs to get fixed though, like you said it's hard to make picks with no player stats, and each fan shouldn't have to spend 30 mins tracking down individual depth charts.

This no stats thing is driving me crazy.

Genius and PFF are supposedly giving us more and better access to info but it?s never been this bad (and that?s saying something).

[Foxhound]

Here I've been looking forward to CFL Fantasy for months but working through the changes last week left me so frustrated that my enthusiasm level is a lot lower. Consider:

1. Without my longtime avatar, my emotional connection is substantially reduced.
2. I find it more difficult to work with the new interface since I see less players on the screen from which I can pick.
3. The Leagues I created such as Stegall's Soup Kitchen were all eliminated. They're a tiny fraction of their former glories right now and I very much doubt they'll get back up to their previous number of participants. I took delight in those leagues but now they're basically gone.
4. The feature where a participant could check the roster his rivals picked after-the-fact is gone. That I'm really going to miss.

So I'm in Fantasy for the duration this year since I've already joined but next year is now in doubt. That perhaps is what the CFL and Genius Sports wants though. They want casual fans from the Millennials contingent replacing old time stats junkies such as myself.

[TecnoGenius]

1. Without my longtime avatar, my emotional connection is substantially reduced.
2. I find it more difficult to work with the new interface since I see less players on the screen from which I can pick.
3. The Leagues I created such as Stegall's Soup Kitchen were all eliminated. They're a tiny fraction of their former glories right now and I very much doubt they'll get back up to their previous number of participants. I took delight in those leagues but now they're basically gone.
4. The feature where a participant could check the roster his rivals picked after-the-fact is gone. That I'm really going to miss.

1. I would guess avatars will be a future feature.  It's not hard to add.

2. Yes, taking up so much space per player vertically makes visualizing your options much harder.  I have a bit of a break here as I have my 2560x1440 monitors in portrait mode (a very tall narrow screen).  You could get a 2nd monitor and put it in portrait too if you want to alleviate the problem somewhat.

3. I'm sure league membership will grow.  I haven't bothered to join any yet, but for sure I will.

4. Can't check rival rosters??  Really?  That sucks.  I always looked at the top guys to see what their secret sauce was.  I suppose this helps winners keep their secrets, but it hinders everyone else from learning to get better.  Maybe they'll add this feature later.

This is the problem with software rewrites.  The new guys think "oh we can do all this easily", then miss half the features, are late in half, and the result is often a far inferior app.

[TecnoGenius]

Another minor gripe: on the pickems side of the gamezone, they list the home teams first (left side) then the away team.  CFL matchups are always, traditionally (AFAICT) labelled as AWAY@HOME.  Old pickems did this properly.  New pickems reverses them, which gives it a bit of cognitive dissonance when looking at.

Same effect as me saying tell me what colors these words are in:

BLUE  PINK  YELLOW  GREEN

Probably some nerd developing this stuff (I can say that, I am one!) who has never watched a football game in his life so knows nothing of the conventions.

[theaardvark]

Another minor gripe: on the pickems side of the gamezone, they list the home teams first (left side) then the away team.  CFL matchups are always, traditionally (AFAICT) labelled as AWAY@HOME.  Old pickems did this properly.  New pickems reverses them, which gives it a bit of cognitive dissonance when looking at.

Same effect as me saying tell me what colors these words are in:

BLUE  PINK  YELLOW  GREEN

Probably some nerd developing this stuff (I can say that, I am one!) who has never watched a football game in his life so knows nothing of the conventions.

Probably knows lots about conventions, and has the Star Trek uniform to wear to them...  oh wait... nevermind.

[Foxhound]

This is the problem with software rewrites.  The new guys think "oh we can do all this easily", then miss half the features, are late in half, and the result is often a far inferior app.

Probably some nerd developing this stuff (I can say that, I am one!) who has never watched a football game in his life so knows nothing of the conventions.

Precisely! I keep wondering whether the programmers are users of the programs they themselves have written. I mean how could they overlook such obvious failings of their program?

[TecnoGenius]

Precisely! I keep wondering whether the programmers are users of the programs they themselves have written. I mean how could they overlook such obvious failings of their program?

As a programmer, the answer is "almost never".  Yes, that causes a bit of a problem.  The best solution is to get the programmers notified, and here that means finding a way to contact the CFL dept that can then contact the devs.  Some companies make that impossible, though.     I love it when I get user bug reports or suggestions, because they are invariably right, and it is things I wouldn't have thought of myself.

[theaardvark]

Precisely! I keep wondering whether the programmers are users of the programs they themselves have written. I mean how could they overlook such obvious failings of their program?

Coders are rarely users, and that's where system designers come in.  Someone who understand the usage and coding that can "translate" between them... unfortunately, we have become a society where coders are relied upon for system design, which is why there are so many bad programs...

[Foxhound]

So then the question becomes "Why would the CFL pay megabucks to hire somebody who doesn't play Fantasy or use CFL stats (probably because they're not Canadian football fans) to redesign and improve Fantasy and CFL stats? Why didn't they simply ask me (or another good Fantasy player)?

[TecnoGenius]

So then the question becomes "Why would the CFL pay megabucks to hire somebody who doesn't play Fantasy or use CFL stats to redesign and improve Fantasy and CFL stats? Why didn't they simply ask me (or another good Fantasy player)?

The serious answer is it's really hard to identify "the good user" ahead of time, and some/many of them would want to be paid.  Corp types usually don't think of such things, or think they are important, or are too cheap to pay for said user research.

When I'm doing projects I'd love to be able to bounce ideas off of the intended user; especially one "working" for free!  But in all my years that has happened exactly zero times.

I'm sure with feedback trickling in the people doing CFL fantasy will slowly fix and adjust things.  If they have any sort of feedback mechanism, use it!  Like I said, most programmers want to hear what sucks or is busted.