It's an inversion of Krock's 75-85% number, which is of course an estimate.. and your instincts are right.  It appears to be incorrect.

I just did an informal survey of the last 350+ games played each on "Global Warfare", WarGear Warfare", and "War" for a total of 1000+ games.  I think it's fair to say that most newbies first try out the site on these basic boards.   I also looked at a few hundred games from "Fall of Rome" and "Risk Vs. Reward"

Believe it or not, after backing out the lightning games and that one damn tournament, 100% of games are played on a 2-day timer.  I'm serious, I couldn't find one on a 5DT.  Now you can interpret this number any way you want.  Here are three interpretations that I think pretty much cover the range of possibilities.

#1: Everyone's Happy because noone uses the 5-day timer.

#2: Noone's happy because everyone is all but forced to use the 2-day timer. (might we agree that newbies are more likely to join a game than start one?)

#3: Somewhere in between.

Assuming that we can rule out interpretations 1 and 2, I think it's fair to say that people who are having weekend play issues are either "dealing with it" or "outahere", and short of polling them there's no way to know for sure what the numbers are, but the fact that there's a vocal group of more serious players who somehow manage to stay and play suggests that there's a problem.  I think it's reasonable to suspect that when less serious (less vocal) players are confronted with this problem they are more inclined to click on the "outahere" button.  Based on the number of players who play one and are out of here (and we know this is a large percentage of total visitors to the site), it's entirely possible that the number could be as high as 25%.

The solution is simple.  Just get Tom to get rid of the Outahere button, or at least hide it somewhere that's hard to find.

Yertle wrote: Because I normally play 2 day games :)
5 day timers will cause longer games, but they are already there for those that want to avoid weekend boots.

I don't start 5 day games because the people that I would like to play against won't play in them.

M57 wrote: I think it's fair to say that people who are having weekend play issues are "dealing with it"

This is what I am doing right now.

^ I feel the same as Raptor

Raptor wrote:

I don't start 5 day games because the people that I would like to play against won't play in them.

If you start it, they will come. maybe not right away, but they will.

I bet that if all the weekday only player started right now (maybe not right now it is past 5 o'clock on a Friday) only starting and joining 5 day boots and did that for 3 months there wouldn't be this discussion because there wouldn't be weekend boots. crisis averted!

It seems to me that if you went out target shooting and had a hand gun and a rifle. if you kept missing the targets with the hand gun you would pick up the rifle and use that instead. not go directly to the manufacture of the hand gun tell them that the hand gun is broken and demand that they put a longer barrel on the hand gun.

But 5 days is egregiously long. I agree with Raptor and Bengaltiger.

I don't really understand the objections to replacing the 2-day boot with a 3-day boot. It solves problems for many people and doesn't create any. If the primary objection amounts to "wah some of my games will take longer sometimes," which so far I'm perceiving that it does, I will refer you back to post #34 in this thread and rest my case. Again.

KrocK wrote:

Raptor wrote:

I don't start 5 day games because the people that I would like to play against won't play in them.

If you start it, they will come. maybe not right away, but they will.

 

Yeah, but what about tournaments?

http://www.wargear.net/tournaments/view/125 that tournament filled up fast.

#1) Move the default setting from the 2 day boot to the 5 day boot.

#2) Stop saying I don't want to have to wait longer but everyone else should have to wait longer for me on the weekend.

KrocK wrote: http://www.wargear.net/tournaments/view/125 that tournament filled up fast.

Yep -- If I had actually taken the time to look at the timer, I wouldn't have joined.. Won't make that mistake again.

#1) Move the default setting from the 2 day boot to the 5 day boot.

..Or make the default a 3 day boot timer..

#2) Stop saying I don't want to have to wait longer but everyone else should have to wait longer for me on the weekend.

We're looking to bring people in, not intimidate them out. It's entirely possible that they do want faster moving games ..during weekdays.

I don't need a 3 day timer because I can play every day.  In fact, I wouldn't mind a 1 day timer, but it's pretty clear to me that a 2 day timer isn't working for a lot of "normal" people.  So I'm not one of those asking for people to wait longer for me on the weekends.  I simply realize that the reality is that there are a number of people we are losing because the "normal" 2DT doesn't fit.  ..and do you really want the default setting to be a 5 day boot? That would probably scare away an equal number of players who fall on the hard-core side of the spectrum, myself included.  Personally, I'd like a 2 day workday/3 day weekend timer, but I know there are timezone complexities that somehow make it unfeasible.  Right now, I think a 3-day timer is probably the best solution.

As far as i can tell, you have played 3 games (out of 150+) that have a 5 day boot timer. give the 5 day a shot for a few months and if it dosent work then advocate for change. saying you want something different before you have even given the options in front of you a shot is a bit to much dont you think?

come to think of it the lightning games dont take onto account washroom breaks/smoke brakes/coffee brakes/lunch brakes etc. so the lightning games should be set to at least 1/2 a hour. that way when i don't want to check my turns over lunch brake i shouldn't be skipped. Yes i know there is a 2 day boot timer but i only play lightning games and 2 days is far to long to wait.

Just to sum up this discussion:

Number of people who have weighed in in favor of some kind of weekend leniency/boot time extension: 11

Number opposed: 2

Number indifferent: 1 (Risky never helps anyone, see)

So maybe we should explore this a little further? There are smart people here, I'm sure we can figure out some solution that improves things for everyone. Arguing about whether or not a problem exists seems a little silly considering how many folks have said they'd love some improvements over the current system.

As M57 pointed out, that tourney you mention filled up fast because of a bug that results in timer settings not being displayed on the main tournament list screen. As with him, had I known that was a 5-day timer tourney I wouldn't have joined.

KrocK wrote: come to think of it the lightning games dont take onto account washroom breaks/smoke brakes/coffee brakes/lunch brakes etc. so the lightning games should be set to at least 1/2 a hour. that way when i don't want to check my turns over lunch brake i shouldn't be skipped. Yes i know there is a 2 day boot timer but i only play lightning games and 2 days is far to long to wait.

You're being stupid and I think you know it. This is obviously not analogous in any way. First, if you aren't going to be able to play a lightning game all the way through, you won't join one. On top of that, there is a warning when you do join one explaining exactly what the setup is.

One doesn't have the first choice when it comes to 2-day games - they're 90+% of the games played on the site. If you choose not to play 2-day games because you can't always play on the weekends, you're choosing to leave WG. And you can stop saying people can just play 5-day games, because there simply aren't 5-day games out there to play. And there is no warning or notation when you join one that you'll almost certainly need to play on weekends.

bengaltiger wrote:

So maybe we should explore this a little further? There are smart people here, I'm sure we can figure out some solution that improves things for everyone. Arguing about whether or not a problem exists seems a little silly considering how many folks have said they'd love some improvements over the current system.

Not to mention that I still maintain that the majority of people who would be helped/encouraged by going from a 2-day to 3-day default timer are the 'invisible' majority who don't post in the forums and/or haven't joined the site yet.

asm wrote:If you choose not to play 2-day games because you can't always play on the weekends, you're choosing to leave WG.

----bull shit!-----

And you can stop saying people can just play 5-day games, because there simply aren't 5-day games out there to play.

Raptor wrote:

I don't start 5 day games because the people that I would like to play against won't play in them.

If you start it, they will come. maybe not right away, but they will.

I bet that if all the weekday only player started right now (maybe not right now it is past 5 o'clock on a Friday) only starting and joining 5 day boots and did that for 3 months there wouldn't be this discussion because there wouldn't be weekend boots. crisis averted!

-----------

Lightning games- For people who want to complete  a game with in a few hours.

2 day boot- For people who use the site once a day, but arn't penelized if a day is missed now and then

5 day boot- For people who have multiple days where they don't use the computer, meant for the casual player.

The way i see it is, because the people who the 5 day boot was designed for, have decided not to use it, the lack of 5 day games rest only at their feet, no one else's.

KrocK wrote:

The way i see it is, because the people who the 5 day boot was designed for, have decided not to use it, the lack of 5 day games rest only at their feet, no one else's.

A) This directly contradicts what you just said.
B) Who cares?

asm wrote:

KrocK wrote: come to think of it the lightning games dont take onto account washroom breaks/smoke brakes/coffee brakes/lunch brakes etc. so the lightning games should be set to at least 1/2 a hour. that way when i don't want to check my turns over lunch brake i shouldn't be skipped. Yes i know there is a 2 day boot timer but i only play lightning games and 2 days is far to long to wait.

You're being stupid and I think you know it.

i was simply using your argument. you want the ability to hold everyone up on the weekends because you want a brake. Yepp sure sounds stupid to me.

No you weren't. And that's not my argument.

KrocK wrote:

The way i see it is, because the people who the 5 day boot was designed for, have decided not to use it, the lack of 5 day games rest only at their feet, no one else's.

In other words, the system we have isn't working.  You can't pin it on the players.  There was a time when I really wanted a 1-day timer, but I've since come to the opinion that we should only have a 3-day timer - one size fits all.  It seems that no matter how many options there are, players will flock to the the most popular setting anyway. Right now, the population we have just can't support multiple options, so we need to pick a universal timer so everyone gets to play everyone and the maximum number of people are satisfied.  If we do this it doesn't even need to presented as a choice.  When a player creates a game, it's automatically on a 3-day day timer and there's a button or a box to click on if you want to play a Lightning game.

bengaltiger wrote: Just to sum up this discussion:

Number of people who have weighed in in favor of some kind of weekend leniency/boot time extension: 11

Number opposed: 2

Number indifferent: 1 (Risky never helps anyone, see)

So maybe we should explore this a little further? There are smart people here, I'm sure we can figure out some solution that improves things for everyone. Arguing about whether or not a problem exists seems a little silly considering how many folks have said they'd love some improvements over the current system.

First off I'm not at all saying there is no problem. what I'm saying is that there is an alternative that is not being explored, and that alternative is already in place. before throwing the 5 day boot under the bus it should be tested.

I did a quick count from the 11 people that would like a different option to take into accout the weekend and from the 11 people there was 5289 games played out of the 5289 games there was only 86, 5 day boot games played (43 were from 1 player) I'm no good at math but that's F'n dismal.

now if even just the 11 people started only 5 day boot games for the next month or so (even just 25 games each), i bet there would be the beginnings of a vibrant weekday only club. then at least there could be some informed feedback about the 5 day boot option. but alas my suggestion will most likely be tossed aside like a prom dress.

KrocK wrote:

bengaltiger wrote: Just to sum up this discussion:

Number of people who have weighed in in favor of some kind of weekend leniency/boot time extension: 11

Number opposed: 2

Number indifferent: 1 (Risky never helps anyone, see)

So maybe we should explore this a little further? There are smart people here, I'm sure we can figure out some solution that improves things for everyone. Arguing about whether or not a problem exists seems a little silly considering how many folks have said they'd love some improvements over the current system.

First off I'm not at all saying there is no problem. what I'm saying is that there is an alternative that is not being explored, and that alternative is already in place. before throwing the 5 day boot under the bus it should be tested.

I did a quick count from the 11 people that would like a different option to take into accout the weekend and from the 11 people there was 5289 games played out of the 5289 games there was only 86, 5 day boot games played (43 were from 1 player) I'm no good at math but that's F'n dismal.

now if even just the 11 people started only 5 day boot games for the next month or so (even just 25 games each), i bet there would be the beginnings of a vibrant weekday only club. then at least there could be some informed feedback about the 5 day boot option. but alas my suggestion will most likely be tossed aside like a prom dress.

Don't count me as one of the 11 -- I won't play in 5DT games, but I do want to play with those people, and the way I see it a 3DT would let that happen.