Hack help. No. Don't help.

[von Ozbourne]

Playing around with rink and crowd tiles, it occurred to me that it might be possible to relocate the crowd animation to make some different animated sections.

Then I wondered at what possibilities this could open up.

Then I realized exactly where this is going and decided to try a mock up to see what it would look like.

I must stress at this point. DO NOT. I repeat, DO NOT explore this idea any further. It is not worthy of your time. It's a non-issue.

[Jkline3]

"Mr. von Ozbourme, we have Gary Bettman on the line for you..."

[Sean]

I’ve heard it’s actually a really cool idea and makes the viewing experience even better based on a survey that the Gary Bettman is Smart and Handsome Research Bureau did.  

[AdamCatalyst]

One of the problems with all of us assigning ourselves usernames, is that it has undermined the age-old tradition of folks assigning eachother nicknames. This is a hockey site, we should all have nicknames that end in "-y" or "-ie" or something! And with our mutual admiration and respect, we'd probably have to start teasing out a nickname like Gary or Bettsy, for @von Ozbourme after this very entertaining post.

[Drezz]

My vote goes to Ozzy.

I don't like Bettman. He looks like an animatronic puppet. Complete with talking out the side of his mouth.

[von Ozbourne]

On 2/14/2023 at 4:42 AM, Drezz said:

I don't like Bettman. He looks like an animatronic puppet. Complete with talking out the side of his mouth.

No obligation but this guy did a pretty good job of explaining the problems I've had with the smarmy New York lawyer and the league director's decision making in general for years now.

 

[von Ozbourne]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:59 AM, AdamCatalyst said:

One of the problems with all of us assigning ourselves usernames, is that it has undermined the age-old tradition of folks assigning eachother nicknames

While changing a user name for this reason could be useful [it might help me fix the accidental typo in my name], I also see it being a problem when revisiting the community after some time away and not seeing a name you recognized anymore and used to passively follow.

On the other hand, if a forum would allow for a second @ name for this nicknaming process, that could be fun. Shame the php forum coder folks never thought of that.

If that were the case, I'd cast a vote to start calling you Nickel. You know, because as a metal, it's A damn good Catalyst... and totally has nothing to do with the value of your opinion of calling me Gary.

 

<this would be the part where I would storm off in righteous indignation, before turning around and mentioning that I was sorry and was only kidding. shame there isn't really an emoji thing that can convey that kind of nuance.>

[AdamCatalyst]

1 hour ago, von Ozbourme said:

No obligation but this guy did a pretty good job of explaining the problems I've had with the smarmy New York lawyer and the league director's decision making in general for years now.

 

YES!!! I honestly thought this was the best video that THG ever did. Every word of it.

[Drezz]

Shannon's a good dude. His commentary is usually very insightful. You can tell he's an educated fan with knowledge on HOW the business of hockey works and why things happen the way they do. 

[AdamCatalyst]

1 hour ago, von Ozbourme said:

While changing a user name for this reason could be useful [it might help me fix the accidental typo in my name], I also see it being a problem when revisiting the community after some time away and not seeing a name you recognized anymore and used to passively follow.

On the other hand, if a forum would allow for a second @ name for this nicknaming process, that could be fun. Shame the php forum coder folks never thought of that.

If that were the case, I'd cast a vote to start calling you Nickel. You know, because as a metal, it's A damn good Catalyst... and totally has nothing to do with the value of your opinion of calling me Gary.

 

<this would be the part where I would storm off in righteous indignation, before turning around and mentioning that I was sorry and was only kidding. shame there isn't really an emoji thing that can convey that kind of nuance.>

To be honest, I only wrote Gary to clue people into my line of thinking… I preferred Bettsy, as it referred to both Bettman & sports gambling. But unfortunately, it sounds like an attempt to emasculate you, which isn't my goal.

I loved your original post because I could see your personal thought process made public, and I'm sure *MANY* of us have gone through that exact same process of curiosity, discovery, and then realizing that none of it is worth it. It also reminded me of like every sci-fi horror movie plot ever… I wonder if… omigod yes… mayday mayday, do not approach the vessel! It's the entirety of man's hubris, summarized in one post about modding NHL 94. Best post ever.

[AdamCatalyst]

3 minutes ago, Drezz said:

Shannon's a good dude. His commentary is usually very insightful. You can tell he's an educated fan with knowledge on HOW the business of hockey works and why things happen the way they do. 

I *really* respect how he hasn't jumped on the monetization bandwagon, and refuses to promote sports gambling like everyone else. You can tell he works his butt off, and puts in the work to try and understand before running his mouth. I watch him more than any other sportscaster.

[Drezz]

He hates the ads but he's very diplomatic about the things he dislikes so he doesn't ruffle any feathers. But he let it slip in a livestream that he wasn't a big fan of how sports gambling has pervaded every aspect of hockey on television. When panels of analysts start talking about moneylines and over/unders and prop bets or slyly integrating them into their broadcasts (I'm looking at you, Jeff Marek), you know they've jumped the shark and bent over for the corporate money.

Remember when Huawei was ALL over HNIC branding until the spy-tech scandals. They humped that leg real hard.

[von Ozbourne]

2 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

To be honest, I only wrote Gary to clue people into my line of thinking… I preferred Bettsy, as it referred to both Bettman & sports gambling. But unfortunately, it sounds like an attempt to emasculate you, which isn't my goal.

I loved your original post because I could see your personal thought process made public, and I'm sure *MANY* of us have gone through that exact same process of curiosity, discovery, and then realizing that none of it is worth it. It also reminded me of like every sci-fi horror movie plot ever… I wonder if… omigod yes… mayday mayday, do not approach the vessel! It's the entirety of man's hubris, summarized in one post about modding NHL 94. Best post ever.

Nah. All good man. I just couldn't resist the obvious science based jab.

Although speaking of scientific minded thinking, sometimes there is some comedy in that line of thinking of Question, Exploration, Conclusion when you suddenly realize that the conclusion is ABORT MISSION!
Just need to keep in mind not fall for the sunken cost fallacy and accept that my time was not wasted because I still have new knowledge that I can add to the pile for later.

[von Ozbourne]

2 hours ago, Drezz said:

He hates the ads but he's very diplomatic about the things he dislikes so he doesn't ruffle any feathers. But he let it slip in a livestream that he wasn't a big fan of how sports gambling has pervaded every aspect of hockey on television. When panels of analysts start talking about moneylines and over/unders and prop bets or slyly integrating them into their broadcasts (I'm looking at you, Jeff Marek), you know they've jumped the shark and bent over for the corporate money.

Remember when Huawei was ALL over HNIC branding until the spy-tech scandals. They humped that leg real hard.

I'll have to say that I agree with him, although I may have taken it a step further by no longer tuning in to watch anymore. I find the drama in international competitions to be much more interesting than anything the club leagues can muster up on any given day anyway. And I've followed the sport long enough to know that the talking heads don't really add anything to my viewing experience, so if they are taking time away from talk about lineups and point streaks to tell me why so-and-so is at minus three and a half to score tonight... well they aren't talking to me. I am disappointed that TSN lost the pairing of Dreger and Ferraro though.
[Especially since they keep bringing back Button. Tell ya, last World Championships, I watched the game on mute and listened to a podcast, it was a pretty good experience.]

Funny you mention Marek. Coincidentally I mentioned to someone else recently that while I appreciate that he does appreciate the history and stories around the game, it's a shame that he doesn't use his powers for good enough. [I've long disliked his stance that "'Tradition' is just giving in to peer pressure from dead people"]

[Drezz]

I am outnumbered by Leafies by a count of 2 to 1 at my office, so the sports radio options are always Fan590 and TSN1050 every damn day. If there were two stations that have been sucking the teat of sports betting ad money, it's the Bell Rogers duo. If it isn't the ads every 30 seconds, it's the betting segments on every block of air time.

Prior to the Online Wagering floodgates opening in Canada, I really hoped Marek would be the one to take Ron Maclean's place on HNIC with Freidman acting like the Harry Neale type industry connected fill in. But now I can't stand listening to Friedman and his incessant noisemaking and completely unprofessional attitude to the segment on air, it drives me bananas. I get that it's supposed to have an informal vibe, but he's supposed to be a professional NHL analyst - not a hobbyist wannabe cracking jokes while drinking beers on his USB mic in his basement. Which brings me to Marek, who often slides in his wagering advice in a manner that feels like he's trying to sell you a used car that you didn't even think you needed.

And Wyshynski... ugh. I disliked him when he was the Puck Daddy, and I still dislike him now. He reminds me of Patton Oswalt's character on King of Queens, except the Hockey geek version.

Point is, today's analysts lack the professionalism and don't command the same level of respect their forbearers had. They're literally a bunch of high school nerds who couldn't play, but loved the sport and their encyclopedia game is really good. 

 

[AdamCatalyst]

IMHO, most NHL talking heads are mostly useless on most days. And too many insist on repeatedly propagating the sharpshooter (logical) fallacy. The number of times I hear them use data mining to bring out some obscure statistic that is about as logically coherent as “when a coin is flipped and lands on heads the 17th, 34th, and 93rd time, 99.9% of the time it come up heads on the 94th flip!” and act like it is some predictive evidence based insight.

I’ve stopped paying to watch the NHL ever since the animated ads started. I’ll happily pay a premium to remove the ads, but not going to pay a premium to have distracting ads embedded in the game.

I still watch nearly every Leaf game though. It is a sickness.

[AdamCatalyst]

9 minutes ago, Drezz said:

Point is, today's analysts lack the professionalism and don't command the same level of respect their forbearers had. They're literally a bunch of high school nerds who couldn't play, but loved the sport and their encyclopedia game is really good. 

 

That describes me perfectly! You know, except the being an analyst part.

My brother-in-law and I talk hockey almost exclusively over text. Awhile back I decided to go review the previous years worth of our chat records, itemizing every single time either one of us made any NHL assertion that could be disproven or seen as a prediction. I reviewed every assertion made and found that (a) I make way too many prognostications and (b) my accuracy rate is not statistically better than chance.

[Sean]

I, like V.O./Betts have sort of moved to other hockey products with the NHL being a bit iffy of a broadcast product lately. I still watch a lot, but don’t pay for anything aside from my “streaming service (wink wink)”.
 

Down here the lower levels are a bit more pure with no gambling or animated board ads - not sure how it is for CHL in Canada though. 

For the talking heads being annoying - I think lots of places have seen what happened with NBA on TNT and want that same dynamic, but just can’t really catch it since that’s a very special group that has been doing that forever. Can’t just put Keith Yandle or Biz on and expect magic. 

[von Ozbourne]

Hmm, guess I'm "lucky" in that I was a Jets fan who happened to move to an area of the country where they don't feel the need to broadcast Jets games for some dumb reason.

Also, as it ends up, the bad joke is that Bettman being from New York, must not be a Yankees fan, otherwise he'd know that 3 Strikes [lockouts] and YER' OUT!
Instead, much like the lost season gave rise to the broadcasting of Texas Hold'em tournaments to fill space, the third shut down [sadly occurring in just the second year we got the Jets back] forced me to find something else to do with my time. Things that I basically just kept doing even after the NHL came crawling back.

@AdamCatalyst So, you're only slightly worse than most hockey analysts.

@seamor There is actually a recent push to watch AHL/CHL games for just that reason. Less money involved so they kind of have to rely on the pure "love of hockey" experience. That and you don't have to take out a second mortgage to buy season's tickets.

[Sean]

@von Ozbourme the ticket prices if you live in a city with a team doing well… yikes. Boston was already crazy expensive relative to the rest of the country, now it’s *$200 US* to get into a game (resale with face value not far away). Not sit near the glass - sit in the last row with your feet folded in half because they needed to fit more seats in. 
 

I‘m a student, but don’t go to any of the D1 schools in the area so NCAA tickets are still $25+ depending on the game (most schools will raise price by $15 for their main rivalry game as a means to cash in a little since these teams are barely profitable), but 8 NCAA games VS 1 NHL game isn’t a hard equation to solve if you have $200 burning a hole in your pocket. 

[Drezz]

A lot of aspects of the game have been price-outs for casual fans. Tickets are a luxury item, and they only become value items if they are bought as season's tickets and resold. Streaming and TV packages are expensive and also rarely worth it unless you are a sports bar, an analyst or a huge fan.

Now broadcasts have started pushing gambling since they're government backed title sponsors, and they still can't get the revenue they hoped.

I think Bettmans business hawks need to get their eyes checked. The consumer ultimately drives your financial success, but if you price them out... no amount of advertiser investment will prop up the league.

Affordability and simplicity. The NHL has so desperately tried to follow the NBA model and it is back in the position now where salaries are bloated and owners are gonna take losses again soon enough.

All this to say, the NHL has made things excessively complicated to make it look like a bigger entity than it actually is.

[Sean]

3 hours ago, Drezz said:

All this to say, the NHL has made things excessively complicated to make it look like a bigger entity than it actually is.

What do you mean? The NHL is a major four sport if you don’t count European soccer, MMA, golf, NASCAR, college football, college basketball, or any of the others more popular than it. /s

[AdamCatalyst]

 

1 hour ago, von Ozbourne said:

Why thank you kind sir.

Uh... Bring it back around by saying that I'm glad you helped with that issue and not with the animated rink ad query.

I told you! It was the best post ever! It's the gift that keeps on giving.

[von Ozbourne]

20 hours ago, seamor said:

Welcome Von Ozbourne. Funniest thing, we have a guy who's username is Von OzbourMe. Maybe you guys would get along.

Oh? I'll have to look him up. Although I'm not so sure we would get on since he sounds pretty self absorbed. I mean, he does have "Me" right in his name there.

[Sedge]

3 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

Just set an auto-login on your phone. If you use an iPhone this should be trivially easy, if not automatic (I just don’t know about Android). And if for some reason you don’t want to enable that, set an auto-correct spelling on your phone. For instance, just set something like “dtrm” to auto-correct to your full username. 

I mean, that's true too (and Android does have a similar feature) but I've also just kinda been tired of this name in general for a while now. The phone situation just adds to it a bit.

I hadn't been sure what to change it to until recently and the timing seemed convenient to finally ask.

[von Ozbourne]

Figured I'd see what EA was doing for 2024 and saw this.

While I accept no responsibility for any influence taken from this post, I would just like to go on record that while I executed the idea first, I also executed the idea.

[Sean]

2 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

I executed the idea first, I also executed the idea.

You also made it much more realistic, reminding me to BET NHL NOW. I always forget to place my television network mandated same game parlay, and with NHL 24 there’s still no reminder. 

[von Ozbourne]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

I always forget to place my television network mandated same game parlay

The first step is admitting your shame. The NHL board of governors is ready to return your "Valuable Fan" card once you have proven that you can rectify your oversight.

Ew... now my cynical brain is imagining a meeting somewhere where a bunch of suits are complaining that the developers should totally be able to code a live score feed into the game and use the credit card attached to your Xbox Live account to allows you to buy a "Loot Box" that will unlock an "Ovi Celly" if the Bruins can beat the Red Wings by 3 or more.

[Sean]

1 hour ago, von Ozbourne said:

Ew... now my cynical brain is imagining a meeting somewhere where a bunch of suits are complaining that the developers should totally be able to code a live score feed into the game and use the credit card attached to your Xbox Live account to allows you to buy a "Loot Box" that will unlock an "Ovi Celly" if the Bruins can beat the Red Wings by 3 or more.

I used to play the Ultimate Team modes because of the fantasy team building aspect, so I can confirm that you can basically place bets and you do need to buy loot boxes in some cases to do this. They beat you to it.

 

Some cards receive stat boosts or sale value increases based on real world performance/results. 

Edited September 13, 2023 by Sean

[von Ozbourne]

While pretty gross, I have to admit that I am neither as saddened or disgusted by this practice as I should be. Probably just numbness from seeing how things progressed to this point or due to the fact that, as someone who basically doesn't engage in online play anymore, it doesn't actually affect me beyond having some dumb thing cluttering up my menu screens.

And as someone who is admittedly "behind the times" on these yearly instalment games anyway, I can just skip one if it looks like the publishers had more input than the developers, if you catch my meaning.