The World Cup Hiatus

[Jeric 46,850]

Following the current match I an pausing the World Cup while I re-evaluate how it will work going forward. When I set this up in January I did not anticipate certain aspects of the prior Cup to return in this one. More will be forthcoming in a few weeks. 

[Jeric 46,850]

As an update, I have hidden the teams and the actual World Cup Forum. Some concerns that I have had:

 

1) Behavior impacting UX by spamming users to vote and join teams, something that has been a source of complaints and has actually begun to impact general interest and fun in the contest. 

2) Collusion leading to some rather unsportsmanlike conduct within the topics, and in the background. Both the mentality behind the collusion as well as the posts I read in the match today were disheartening, and some posts would have actually been considered rule violations in the past. 

 

On a personal note

When I launched this in January it was supposed to be enjoyable. The act of targeting users who were not even fans of the characters on your team, or targeting characters on other teams, has obviously led to some friction. I put in an absurd about of time into this. None of this was an issue for nine months -- now it is and it just stopped becoming fun for me. I should be excited because my fav character is in a unique position, but I'm not. I realized how some have been approaching this game makes me realizes that all the time I had invested in this may have been a waste. Shame. The passage of time has a calming influence on some. I will say that when it does resume it may not take the same form as it was taking, unfortunately. I used to sit here is claim that we don't need as many rules because we can trust the community to police itself to act maturely, to be good sports. I have defended this position for longer than some of you have been members to people who told me I was naive about human nature. I am not naive, but I may have misplaced my faith. I don't blame the community I blame myself. I am disappointed that the cynics may have been right. Like I said, it is a shame. 

 

I will be using this hiatus time to focus on other projects coming down the line so they can be kicked off smoothy, so this may be a blessing in disguise.  I will tell you that I will think long and hard at the opportunity cost this event has had and whether or they are worth it going forward. When the World Cup resumes, perhaps that will be the test.