The season of stability and prosperity is going on. We’ve lived through the melting down of the snowman, invasion by geologists and the Olympics. We’ve redone hints of productivity, added a set of hints for new players and new tenders. Unfortunately, duel tenders were not that successful so far. Some of the February changes which we announced earlier are delayed: in particular, edition of the partnership program, launch of Spanish and German versions of Virtonomics, and some new innovations are due on March.
March events:
1. Launch of Spanish and German versions of Virtonomics;
2 Release of the updated ;
3. Publication of the rules of Contest for presidents and the preparation to launch this contest (the launch is expected on April, 6);
4. A new paid service of farms expansion by analogy with geological exploration;
5. Launch of some new innovations;
6. Holidays, super auctions and anticipation of spring.
Unfortunately, duel tenders were not that successful so far.
This is because they have all the drawbacks of the original tenders with no added benefits.
If you are serious about making the duel tenders successful you will need to address a couple of issues.
1. Motivation. People don't have much motivation to register. The best outcome for 99.5% of players is that they get their 5 points back.
2. Registration. A small percentage of players are in a timezone which allows them to be online just before an update, add the fact they just happen to be some of the most experienced/successful players and it is a huge advantage.
3. Chance of winning. This is the same problem with the early tenders that were open to everyone. There are only a very small number of companies with a realistic chance of winning.
I do have some suggestions for fixing these issues:
1. Prize should be entry cost + 1 after the first registration. Then add a percentage of points to the prize pool from every other registration.
This idea might work better with an entry cost of 10 points.
2. Disallow enterprises created before registration took place, or make the registration cutoff earlier with a random time, or both.
Listing the entered companies is meaningless if people can get a store running and only register a few minutes before the update in which results are counted.
3. The best way would be to separate companies. My preference for separation would be based on VIRTs won in the last month, though the system employed with the current tenders could also work.
Another option would be to have the fixed assets of the first registered company as the threshold for later entries.
Eg. Only companies with fixed assets = or < the first registered company may enter.
