BuzzerBeater Forums

I voted no, but not because of the autobid itself....
Just i cant care less about It and would love developers use their time for something more interesting and useful

I am one of the managers who have talked in the discord at extensive length as to why I would be against this, but my thoughts and opinions are dispersed among hundreds of messages and would be incredibly hard to find so I wanted to post in here so that I can put them all in the same spot for others to consider:

First, I was the manager who initially brought up multi-account issues and site-revenue issues, which I still view as valid concerns to this, even if Alonso's post above says it is irrelevant.

As for other thoughts/issues:

-This auto-bid implementation would promote inactivity. If managers are not required to even log in the same day as an auction ending, and can still get a bargain on the sale and win the player, what is the incentive/need to log in? Some of BuzzerBeater's best implementations and updates promote more activity, not less (BuzzerBeater Madness, B3 Predictions, Game-Day Prep, updated training features, scouting/draft updates to promote more managers to invest in the draft, etc). Auto-bid does not do this.

-Auctions inherently are fun in my opinion. The scouring of the TL, the tracking of the player price throughout the couple of days they are listed, The rush of a bid-war, the anticipation of the auction clock winding down and reaching zero, and the pure joy of finally winning a player is much more entertaining and involved than just clicking a button of your max bid and letting the CPU do the rest.

-Some may argue that it can be frustrating for newer managers when they have auctions for players they want ending at 2am their local time. I think it will be just as frustrating when they are unable to win any auctions at all, since all the experienced managers with more money can all auto-bid more money than them without needing to be online. I think this hurts manager-retention.

-It is not impossible to win auctions when you are asleep/at work and cannot log in. I have won dozens of players in my BB days on auctions where I couldn't be there at the end time. Managers already have the ability to place what they view as a fair value for the player or their max bid for the player without this feature being implemented.

-I'd argue the 3-minute reset timer has always been more annoying than the actual time that an auction is ending. Reducing that reset timer to 1-minute and speeding up bid-wars and the end of auctions is already a great update and an easy one to implement, while not changing the entire structure of a BB-transfer list system that has been this way since season 1.

-There are so many other features/updates that I would want implemented before this.

Yes I am on board with this, with some sort of limit as suggested in the original post.

I don't think the current options of massively overpaying for the player or waking up in the middle of the night are the best solutions to this issue.

More engagement with the game is of course normally a good thing. But as we've seen with social media sites sometimes you can go too far and it becomes a negative experience for both the site and the user. I think the current options are more likely to lead to feelings a manager can't compete (because they aren't online as much as others) or pressure to log-in even when they don't want to.

I think it also evens out some of the timezone differences, and creates a fairer experience regardless of where you live or what life commitments you may or may not have.

I enjoy the auction part of the transfer market, and see this as an additional feature that should be used occasionally for special players (e.g NT/U21 prospects, or a unique player you can't normally find). So I would prefer slightly stricter limits on it's usage, especially to start with. This would allow us to see the effect on the transfer market, and if it mostly continues as before then that would hopefully assuage some of the concerns.

I agree with everything that E.B.W. wrote.

IMHO, auto-bidding is a bad idea that would solve one issue, while introducing a whole host of unintended consequences.

I would add one point as an example though:

I saw one instance this past weekend of a manager using their primary team AND their Utopia team to raise the bid on an 18 yo HOF potential player from $1,000 --> $10,000 --> $100,000 --> $500,000 --> $900,000 --> $1,500,000 in the span of 5 minutes. There have been many similar instance of this tactic in the past by numerous managers, this one just sticks out as happening recently.

I've pointed this out in the past by calling it cheating and I know many disagree with me. Cheating may be a touch harsh, but in reality it is a symptom of a malfunctioning auction system. It could be fixed easily by prohibiting managers from raising their own bids. Ironically, auto-bids would be another way to address it.

All that said, in the sprit of "if you offer a complaint, then also offer a solution", I would suggest that IF auto-bidding is implemented (and I hope it isn't), then for full transparency there should be a clear notation in the Bid History of which bids were done using Auto-bid. That way you will know if there is the potential to have your bids run up and you can decide whether to dropout or push on.

No.

- could drag a player acquisition forever
- could turn a "steal" into "forbidden territory"
- would make the "little player" talent acquisition much harder if not impossible

You could, however, create an update to set the hour you want the sale to start (that would probably help).

There are so many other features/updates that I would want implemented before this.

Yes!
- Either consider BBM games statistically or cancel them, since they're not considered (except for players totals).
- Actually consider blocks and steals as stats, where they're missing (it's just awful that you don't)
- Update the walk of shame into a hall of fame (with all the "official" games played being considered)
- Add totals per competition in the player's page. The current "visuals" are messy, at best.
So much basic stuff (and probably easier stuff) to improve, please focus on that first.

If you are ready to put a max bid, then why not put it right away and hope that it will be enough ?

The current system gives us the opportunity to make good deals, to hope that we'll buy a player for less than what it's worth according to us... Yes it's sometimes frustrating to lose after a long bidwar, forget a bid or not be able to log in at the right time, but that is what makes a good purchase all the more valuable.

I feel like the proposed system will just give more power to the teams that have loads of money

To all AGAINST this feature.

You're enjoying long lasting bidwars? I am not.

You're happy with X last second bids against you? I am not.

You're enjoying waking up at 2 am to bid a player? I am not.

You're happy in the morning to see the desired player was outbid during the night because you didn't want to wake up at 2 am? I am not.

Does this new feature forbade you doing all the "pleasures" above? No, it DOES NOT.

To all AGAINST this feature.

You're enjoying long lasting bidwars? I am not.

You're happy with X last second bids against you? I am not.

You're enjoying waking up at 2 am to bid a player? I am not.

You're happy in the morning to see the desired player was outbid during the night because you didn't want to wake up at 2 am? I am not.

Does this new feature forbade you doing all the "pleasures" above? No, it DOES NOT.

You're enjoying long lasting bidwars? The proposed feature DOESN'T solve the issue. It will rise the market prices though.

You're happy with X last second bids against you? The proposed feature DOESN'T solve the issue.

You're enjoying waking up at 2 am to bid a player? The proposed feature DOESN'T solve the issue. Remember, you're not playing alone. You might just get outbid anyway.

You're happy in the morning to see the desired player was outbid during the night because you didn't want to wake up at 2 am? The proposed feature DOESN'T solve the issue.

Just make your best bid and be done with it.