Activity Incentive?

General Comments and Suggestions
1

Hi guys,

I’ve been contemplating an incentive/bonus system for active members.  I would like to reward people who are consistently logging in, entering races, selling horses, buying horses, breeding horses, etc. (basically: being active :roll:)

I’m thinking something along the lines of…

You Get Points For Doing Stuff:
(see below for points breakdown)

Then You Redeem Points And Get Stuff:
1 Free Racehorse or Broodmare (from those owned by FF) = 500 points
1 Free Yearling (from those owned by FF) = 300 points
1 Free Weanling (from those owned by FF) = 100 points
$500 (FF money) = 50 points

Obviously it would take awhile to earn those things, and for the huge/highly active stables (cough Jase cough), it wouldn’t be overly useful.  However, do you think it would be helpful to newbies/not-so-large stables?

I don’t want to just hand out horses left and right, which is why I made the stuff so “expensive” point-wise.  However, I do want to reward active members…it’s a rather delicate balance.

Anyway, what do you guys think?  Yay or nay?  Suggested changes to the point system?

[Note: Hopefully all of this would be automated, but it’s a question of when I can get the time to set it up…September is supposedly going to be a very work-intensive month for me.  :|]

Edited to Add: Buying a horse, changed breeding a horse to breeding a mare, changed claiming from 1pt to 2pts

Edited again to add: Final/Official points breakdown, Link to points table

Official Points Breakdown
First Full Year of Playing:
100 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
20 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
10 - Selling a horse
6 - Buying a horse
6 - Breeding a mare
4 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)
2 - Entering a race meet (2pts point for the entire day’s entries, not 2 per entry :wink:)

Second Year of Playing:
50 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
10 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
5 - Selling a horse
3 - Buying a horse
3 - Breeding a mare
2 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)
1 - Entering a race meet (1 point for the entire day’s entries, not 1 per entry :wink:)

All Years After That:
50 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
5 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
2 - Selling a horse
1 - Buying a horse
1 - Breeding a mare
1 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)

I have automated all of the above except for holding auctions and participating in the Color War.  Everything else automatically updates your total points.

You can view a list of all the stables’ points here.

I will work later on adding it to your stable overview page, etc.

2

Sounds like a good idea. As you can see from some recent posts, new stables are always looking for a way to get ahead some how or get a new horse. I think the point system is fair, as you don’t want to hand out FF horses too much. I think alot of the newer stables will like this idea. :slight_smile:

3

I personally think this is a great idea! lol

4

Yes, that sounds like it would be great. :slight_smile:

5

That sounds like a pretty cool idea, yeah. I don’t know if you’d necessarily need to give newbies a 5x bonus…about the only thing I’d change if it was me would be to maybe make submitting a claim worth 2 points instead of 1 (since it depends on claimers being available, and thus one can’t necessarily do it every racemeet). Perhaps make the system like the tax break that newbies get – let it apply to your first year in Final Furlong, and that’s it? And perhaps if you had points at the end of the year, you could cash them in for like $100 a point or something like that.

It’s a neat idea, in any case. When you’re starting out, every little thing helps. :slight_smile:

6

Older Members (or at least, non-brand new people): Would this help you? Would you even be able to use it? (Re: Having enough open stalls to get free horses)

Obviously this is most attractive to newer members, who otherwise have a challenge in building up their stable. But what about older members? (Anyone who joined before 2008, feel free to weigh in!)

7

Love the idea shanti, I’ll never turn down a free horse :wink: and if i’m going to be active anyways it would be a nice ‘bonus’ for that activity

8

I think there are only 3 things there that benefit newer members (color war and entering a race and the claim one. I think a point for logging in might be good, because I think what we want are members who are constantly on the site or on the forum.

9

I can’t/won’t do a point for logging in because that would enable some (albeit VERY bored) person to click Login/Logout all day long and get a free horse per day. :wink:

I could set it up so that it only gives you 1 point per day for logging in, or something, but really, what I want to do is reward people for DOING stuff in the game, not just logging in.

10

At least for me, I’m not going to turn down a free horse. However, that’s not going to encourage me to put my horses up for sale or buy horses, just so that in the far distance future I can steal a pretty yearling or horse. I’ll sell and buy and breed and race as I see fit, gosh darnit! It’s not going to change my behavior patterns. I doubt that it’ll change others’ as well.

I can see the incentive for newer players. Though I don’t know how effective this incentive plan thing will be. Maybe try it on a trial basis and see how it goes?

11

I think it looks like a neat idea. :slight_smile: Yeah I don’t think it makes me want to go out of my way to do things but it would be really awesome to get points/rewards for the activity we already do. :slight_smile: I like it.

12

Good idea! However, I think it is easier for big stables and with a good selection of horses owned by Final Furlong, I think there is incentive for us. Personally for me it wouldn’t take too long [relative to others] to get to 500 points to get a horse.

In an average year I would get the following:
50 Points - Color War
10 Points - Private Auction
100 Points - Selling Horses
50 Points - Buying Horses
150 Points - Breeding Mares
104 Points - Entering Race Days
TOTAL - 464 Points

Actually, now that I’ve done that, the only thing I really do different to anyone else would be breed more mares. Hmmm, perhaps ignore this then… :wink:

But yeah, regards to your questions about usefulness and stuff, absolutely, this is very cool. I just need to make sure I have room for free horsies!

13

I love this idea! Like Kim said, I’ll never turn down a free horse. But I don’t think I’ll be changing my behavior, either. I think it sounds great for newbies.

I think it would be a little weird for older stables, though. Usually the established players are just that because they were/are active, and once you have a whole bunch of horses, it’s not hard to participate a lot in the game. I basically log in every day and enter horses every meeting, so I would be getting free stuff for nothing…not that I have a problem with that, but I can see how it may not work.

14

Well, the point isn’t necessarily to make people “change their behavior” (though if people can be more active and want to because of this incentive, that’s cool, too). It’s more to reward active players, especially new members, so that as a “thank you” for being active, you get something cool, like a free horse.

I may set things up so that you get an initial bonus, and then a gradual decrease in the number of points you get for stuff.

i.e.
First Full Year of Playing:
100 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
20 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
10 - Selling a horse
10 - Buying a horse
6 - Breeding a mare
4 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)
2 - Entering a race meet (1 point for the entire day’s entries, not 1 per entry :wink:)

Second Year of Playing:
50 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
10 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
5 - Selling a horse
5 - Buying a horse
3 - Breeding a mare
2 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)
1 - Entering a race meet (1 point for the entire day’s entries, not 1 per entry :wink:)

All Years After That:
50 - Participating for an entire year in the Color War
5 - Holding a private auction (Would require a minimum number of horses consigned, probably 10+)
2 - Selling a horse
2 - Buying a horse
1 - Breeding a mare
1 - Submit a claim for a horse (No horse purchase necessary :wink:)

That way the larger stables wouldn’t necessarily automatically be earning 1-2 free horses/year just because they’re big enough to get that many points, but they could still earn points. Likewise, the newer stables would get a bonus to earning points, because they don’t have as many horses/opportunities to earn points.

15

Is there a page that explains what a Color War is?

16

I dont think that you should sell a bunch of horses just to get a free one down the road. But if you were going to sell anyway it helps you toward getting another one that might be a better prospect.

17

Color War Challenge

18

I tweaked the point/reward system a bit, and added in automation (which was easier than I thought it’d be 8)). Check the first post for links, etc.

19

That is a really good idea. For the older members we kinda know how much time we need to spend on the barn and horses and etc… which is a good idea for making it hard to earn the points. This is a over all awesome idea.

20

Wow! That automation is great! I can’t even fathom doing something like that. Shanthi you are a genius to me! :wink: