I have received lots of feedback about the new Fantasy Racing League. Both diecast collectors/racers and even casual friends that had no interest in racing before now, have all given me feedback on what they think. Lots of it has been positive, but some of it highlighted a few shortcomings in the game design. And that’s why we test first.
A simple start
This car is slow but you might never know it
When I started building the Fantasy Racing League, I knew I had to keep it manageable. I’m only one guy and I only have so much time, even for Hot Wheels. To help keep things efficient, I made the league very simple and very random. I avoided using a tournament model because that simply multiplies the number of races required. I always intended the game to just be heads-up drag races between cars. But then there’s the randomness.
To avoid having to hand-pick match-ups in a game where new players can join at anytime, I made all the match-ups random. This meant players had no idea which cars of theirs would be racing and they had no idea who their opponent would be ahead of time. This was all great, happy, and pretty efficient for me…until a few people pointed out that being random isn’t always fun.
When you’re racing cars, you obviously want fast cars on your team…but how do you know which cars are fast? Sure, you can just pick your favorites and hope they win, but there’s not much “game” to that. In theory, someone could have a really slow car on their team and they could always win because they may never race a car that is faster…remember, the match-ups are all random. Basically, it made the whole game one big 50/50 crap shoot. So I had to think.
It can’t be too random
Fast versus slow is not very fun. The Batmobile FTE is fast.
I had to think of a way that would give players some idea as to which cars they wanted and didn’t want. I explored alternate racing setups, like brackets, round robins, etc…but they all resulted in crazy amounts of races that I just couldn’t handle. Plus that type of change turned the game into something other than the simple heads-up drag races…which everyone seemed to like. I then explored ranking systems and found one that I think will work great.
I picked the Elo Rating System, which is the same weighted rating system that chess players use and even “real” sports like the NCAA and MLB use to determine schedules and other things. It is specifically designed for 1-vs-1 match-ups, which is exactly how we race. The Elo system allows cars to be ranked comparatively based on the cars they beat. So it’s not just about winning the race, it’s about who you beat.
Under this system, cars all start out with the same rank. From that point on, when a car wins their rank goes up. If they lose, their rank goes down. The amount by which their ranking changes depends on the rank of the other car. A high ranked car beating a low ranked car is not a surprise, so the reward is less. However, if a low ranked car beats a high ranked car, that’s a surprise, so the reward (and penalty) is greater. Over time this builds a solid ranking of performance.
Nobody wants a boring race
A wonderful byproduct of the system is highly competitive racing. The league will still choose cars randomly from players’ teams, but the opponents they race will not be entirely random. Instead, cars will race cars that are closest to their ranking. In theory this means fast cars will race fast cars, and slow cars will race slow cars. It should make for some great races and close finishes. The reward for defeating similarly-ranked cars is also pretty good.
The Elo Rating lets you your chances
Ranking cars with the Elo System also lets players check their chances of winning. A probability matrix will show players how their cars will perform against the other cars in the field, statistically speaking, of course. Not only will seeing your chances help you build the most competitive racing team, it will give you a scoring guide that shows you which cars will give you the most points for a win. Do you build a team of winners? Or a team of possible underdogs? It’s up to you…just keep in mind in the end it’s about points.
Putting more “game” into the game
In the end, it adds some thought to the game. Instead of being left completely up to luck of the draw, this ranking system rewards players that pay attention to the competition and adjust accordingly.
The Elo Rating system will be applied to the Fantasy Racing League starting with the 3/20 race. The league is still currently in beta mode so changes like this can be made…and for the better. The official season starts in April.
