College Football Board game update

[Drew4UTk]

thanks, @MarqHusker ... taken under advisement.  We've eliminated the 'default' text in the field mentioned, and.. we made that field mandatory/required.  

the volume of teams available makes the drop down cumbersome... and the thought also crossed my mind that if a person has to actually type the year and team they are less likely to mess it up.. i hope, anyway. 

re:card processors... until PayPal and Stripe came around, the grip on credit card processing companies was bad for mom-n-pop online businesses.. yeah, you could do it but it cut deep into the margins and required gateways in addition to the processing itself... meaning: there are/were like four places only to do business with, and they weren't giving anything away.  

i recall a lady looking me dead in the eyes and demanding a credit report for both the business and my personal one before that bank would consider processing credit cards for me... i asked her for her banks credit report as THEY are the one's in 'question', holding my money for 3 days, scalping the fees off the top, and then 'letting' me have it- if there was a problem the onus was on me to recover, not return excess.... she didn't like that, and i ended up staying with the processor i had.  

PayPal and Stripe, but especially PayPal has taken most the technical effort out of the game... and them being at least an option offers some sort of trust with the user.  the other options are stripe and amazon, but they flat out want too much.... I hope @OrangeAfroMan does well enough that at some point integrating his own processing instead of relying on third party is an option... but paying dollars per transaction and nearing double digit percentages is just not financially feasible, especially when Stripe and PayPal have recognized the issue and offered a suitable and sustainable solution...

all that said- i agree... a cleaner checkout that keeps users on the page is better than what he has currently.

I may design a pretty little window popup with all the checkout process in it for him... if i could just figure out how to have a list of available teams/years ready i would have went that way right off the bat.   

[MarqHusker]

Thanks.   Like I said, I see the value in using PayPal.   Good work guys.

[FearlessF]

not available through Amazon at this time?

[OrangeAfroMan]

not available through Amazon at this time?

I already have more orders than I can quickly fill...baby steps, guys.

[Big Beef Tacosupreme]

I have somehow missed this entirely.  Wow.  Great job OAM!

I am seriously impressed.

On a side note, after reading this monster thread ---

2 years ago you were puzzled by 1994's defensive numbers. 

Let me clear that up for ya --

Penn State was so good that the starters were almost always pulled early.  This resulted in a great amount of opposing teams scoring against the reserves.  It probably cost Paterno the Natty, tbh.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Thanks.

[FearlessF]

Penn State was so good that the starters were almost always pulled early.  This resulted in a great amount of opposing teams scoring against the reserves.  It probably cost Paterno the Natty, tbh.

agreed, I've been on record for decades that I would be fine with a split

[Drew4UTk]

there are all kinds of creepy things folks with access to a server can see- in regards to traffic approaching and on a page.  i more often feel awkward looking at stats even when doing so for the express purpose of 'feeling out' what brings people, what keeps people engaged, and what brings them back. 

with this forum/page, i pretty much know each of you by name- but i sometimes look through the massive amounts of lurkers we get to see how they 'found' us.  

when you're selling something, these types of stats are crucial.. you can see what products people are interested in and if they place an item in their cart, remove a product... what terms they used in a search to find you... what link and where that link is located (exterior webage, email, FB or instagram, ect) they used to find you... allowing you to focus on the successful avenues and place less emphasis on lessor ones, ect.. 

so... in regards to @OrangeAfroMan 's efforts... in all the online stores i've even heard talk about, i've never seen the 'organic' traffic that fool is getting... (he's a fool because he and i are enemies until after the game on Saturday).. but that isn't why i come here with this.  

there is a webpage- another forum in fact- that is sending him traffic like mad... these guys appear to be board game fanatics of some variation, but this subset of them are also college football freaks, too.  and they LOVE it.  one of them purchased early it appears- one of the firsts... and he played his first full length game, which played out in an hour and a half, and ended with a realistic score of 28-7 I think it was... it was '68 PSU vs. '72 tOSU.  PSU won.  He had nothing but glowing remarks and positive input speaking of 'playing solo' and using the mechanisms 'fro used to 'keep bias in check'.  

Good Job, 'fro.  you slimy booger eating lizard (in remembrance of Mr.Hoople's name for you).  you've got good reason to be proud.  

[OrangeAfroMan]

Thanks a lot.  Hopefully, it will get into the hands of people who will love it the most.  None of this could have been possible without your efforts on the website end and holding my hand through it.  

I'm working like mad to get the product to the customers (I "converted" 6 teams' stats into game-ready inputs last night, the most I've done in one sitting).  I have my 2nd order ready to be sent out.  I'll be finishing the entire Pac-12 from 2018 tonight for order #3.  


It's tiring, but it's something I believe in and am proud of.  People like me (and us?) will enjoy it, for sure.  Last summer, I looked at what was already out there, didn't think much of it, and hopefully have filled that gap with something better.

[OrangeAfroMan]

Where are my customers from?

Stewartville, MN
Plainview, NY
Yakima, WA
NY
Milwaukee, WI
Northborough, MA
Carmel, IN  (i went to a wedding there once)
IA
Pleasant Hill, MO
NE
OH
St. Augustine, FL
Oshkosh, WI
Omaha, NE
CO
Ft. Wayne, IN
MD
NY

Pretty diverse, a lot of midwesterners.  And someone from the UK.  

[FearlessF]

Where are my customers from?


Carmel, IN  (i went to a wedding there once)

I've been to a couple strip clubs there

[MarqHusker]

Where is there a strip club in my current residence of now 11 years?

[FearlessF]

well, this was back in the 80's, I think it was Kokomo

my bad

[OrangeAfroMan]

Solo play videos posting now.

I must be a decent game designer, as there are actually 4 different ways to play the game solo, and I hadn't really planned for that to be the case.

1 - actively playing as both teams
2 - passively playing as neither team, allowing the solo play charts do all the decision-making
3 - actively playing as one team, using the solo play charts for your opponent
4 - actively playing as one team, using the Quick-Play solo chart to find out your opponent's outcome for each possession



#3 is probably the most popular way people play solo games, but having options is always good.