Online Dynasty and Story Builder - How often do you use them?

[jaymo76]

Okay, I admit it... I'm not an online guy. I have never played in an online dynasty and outside of things like ModRacers and Little Big Planet etc. I don't do a lot of online stuff. However, this year the major feature for 11 is online dynasty and story builder. Story builder et al has been hyped as revolutionary.

Since I don't play I am curious as to how much story builder and online dynasty website are actually being used. I have heard on another site that online use is way up but story builder, recruiting (the website) have vey low usage. So what's the "story" so to speak? Who is using story builder et al or is this a feature perhaps a little too early for it's time? Have the features lived up to the hype?

[cdj]

I am not using either as much as I would like and I'm not sure there's one reason why.

Part of it is that for two years, it was just 'play the OD game' and that was it. It's tough to add a new weekly (or semi-weekly) habit. Sometimes I don't have the time to be creative and write up a story or anything like that. It also doesn't help that the site takes a few minutes to load and doesn't save your log-in. Being in two ODs (and my own personal OD), I am not quite as emotionally attached as if I was only in one.

However, the past few OD weeks I have posted comments on every user game and watched game media.

I am making it a goal to use Dynasty Wire each week of the OD, even if it is just looking at highlights/stories via the console and posting comments. I want the team to keep building on to this mode (and similar types), so I want to help bump up the stats & usage to justify continued development into the feature.

Great thread idea, jaymo. I was actually thinking of asking something like this relatively soon.

[morsdraconis]

I don't use it cause I'm not in any ODs (freakin' internet issues that cause ungodly lag that can't be fixed without a carrier change) and I decided not to do my singleplayer dynasty online either.

I wasn't too happy with how limiting the storybuilder stuff was anyway. It was like creating a webpage with Geocities back in the day. It looked awful...

[AustinWolv]

For storybuilder, I use it now and then on my own OD.

For this site's 360 OD, I'll write up short stories pretty much every game.

I've done recruiting on the site, and I enjoy it. However, there are some missing features from the console (like recruit rankings, what their class is as in if they are JUCO or high school players) that make it a bit 'worrisome' compared to doing it on the console. The biggest thing has been that it has crashed out on me a handful of times, so I lost those recruiting minutes for that recruit completely which really sucked.

I found the online recruiting to be great for setting up my preseason recruiting the other day however. Was able to do it over lunch while at work and had a great time digging through the search and ranking how I wanted the recruits.

Until the recruiting is very, very reliable, I won't use it for the week to week recruiting on my personal sentimental OD, but I'll probably use it now and then on the public OD here on the site. I'll definitely use it for the preseason recruiting since you aren't going to lose minutes/calls if the site times/crashes out.

[jaymo76]

I am not using either as much as I would like and I'm not sure there's one reason why.

Part of it is that for two years, it was just 'play the OD game' and that was it. It's tough to add a new weekly (or semi-weekly) habit. Sometimes I don't have the time to be creative and write up a story or anything like that. It also doesn't help that the site takes a few minutes to load and doesn't save your log-in. Being in two ODs (and my own personal OD), I am not quite as emotionally attached as if I was only in one.

However, the past few OD weeks I have posted comments on every user game and watched game media.

I am making it a goal to use Dynasty Wire each week of the OD, even if it is just looking at highlights/stories via the console and posting comments. I want the team to keep building on to this mode (and similar types), so I want to help bump up the stats & usage to justify continued development into the feature.

Great thread idea, jaymo. I was actually thinking of asking something like this relatively soon.

It would be interesting to turn this into a poll question for gamingtailgate users. We could see who uses it and who doesn't for those who play online. It would also be an interesting look at the numbers and whether or not they justify the development time.

[cdj]

If you are involved in an Online Dynasty, how often do you use Dynasty Wire and Story Builder?
(Dynasty Wire is considered stats, news, CPU generated and user created stories. Story Builder is what allows users to make their own stories.)


- I use both regularly
- I check the site often, but rarely post content
- Rarely check the site or post content
- I do not use either

[JeffHCross]

I edit the weekly story that's automatically generated and put a little recap, and I wrote up a long, completely sarcastic, article (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?724-Week-7-2010&p=16946&viewfull=1#post16946) that's actually being submitted for the Dynasty Wire contest on EA's forums, but beyond that I don't use it. Too buggy and too many problems for any regular use.

I do expect I'll be using it for offseason posts hyping up the recruiting class and posting "year in review" recaps.

[steelerfan]

I'm in 2 ODs (TGT and CDH, which just started). Part of the reason I joined a second OD were "promises" of SB being used alot - we'll see. I've written 4 or 5 articles in the TGT OD (I've only played 2 games) and I've been disappointed that it's not getting used very much by anyone else. What pains me further is guys not even taking the time to save their own highlights and pictures.

I'll probably end up just writing stories in the CDH OD due to lack of interest in TGT, I dunno.

[hillbill]

When this feature was first announced I thought I'd be using it like crazy. However after getting on-line a couple times and just navigating through other on-line dynasties, I found it incredibly slow and at work, I was limited to IE-7(?) and it just didn't seem to jive for me. Plus during summer months I'm so crunched for time with work, kids, etc that I'm just happy to get a game in. Once winter gets here and my workload slows somewhat, I may have to give it another try...but for now, my only dynasty is off-line and in the console.

I'm anxious to hear others talk about navigating through and doing their recruiting, etc.

[souljahbill]

I started off using it in my single player online dynasty but there were so many server issues that caused me to lose recruit calls (and the unused minutes) as well as stories being out of order once I made an edit, I just decided to take it offline. I liked it but I felt it was kinda holding me back.

[CLW]

I've found the biggest problem with Dynasty Wire is its hit or miss in terms of being available. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to check my OD progress while I'm on the CPU only for it to be down. That alone and the fact you have to pay for more than one OD made me just do my regular single team dynasty offline where I create my own reports using Youtube and OS's box score creator.

[jaymo76]

I've found the biggest problem with Dynasty Wire is its hit or miss in terms of being available. I cannot tell you how many times I wanted to check my OD progress while I'm on the CPU only for it to be down. That alone and the fact you have to pay for more than one OD made me just do my regular single team dynasty offline where I create my own reports using Youtube and OS's box score creator.

Yeah that pay for more than one dynasty thing caught a lot of ppl off guard.

[psusnoop]

I use both honestly. I've only had one instance of it messing up a call for me, but I truly think it was my internet.

[psuexv]

I use both regularly but there are definitely improvements that can be made. I had high hopes for Dynasty Wire this year as in previous years our OD had a website where we uploaded highlight vids, pics, wrote stories, kept track of recruiting, bowl games, all americans...etc.

Navigating through the stories on the Wire is cumbersome and the quirkyness of the site itself makes it tough to use at times. I do think though it's a step in the right direction for a 1st generation attempt.