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NABA we use a Participation Points system that I think is one of the most balanced I've seen. It's main purpose is to encourage exporting, and secondary purpose is to encourage GM's to contribute content like Articles. However, I think it does so in a manner that gives GM's room to breathe.
The reward is the ability to improve the primary skills of players in a controlled manner as if they were being sent to Winter Ball. We actually tried sending them to another league for "Winter Ball" after they'd been edited with their improvements, but it was logistically very difficult to fix what the extra service time did to the players. So now the players are just edited.
Here's the current rule:
Quote:
Owners may earn Participation Points or PPs which can be used to send players to Winter Ball where they can increase certain attributes of their potential and to a lesser extent, actual abilities.
There are two ways to earn points, with roster exports during the regular season and by earning Extra Points. Owners can earn two PPs for each sim that they submit. Owners can also earn up to 12 Extra Points over the course of the season. The commissioner will liberally find ways owners can earn these points by such things as vote for League Presidents or Year end awards, or participate in league wide live events. Extra Points can also be earned by writing NABA related articles. For league related articles, owners will receive two points for a article of 250 words or more or five points for an article over 500 words.
Players may be upgraded one time in the lifetime of the player. A maximum of thirty points may be used on a player. PPs must be used in 10-point increments per attribute. Attributes that may be upgraded are as follows:
Pitchers - Stuff, Movement and Control
Batters - Contact, Power and Eye
For each ten points used, you will generally see an increase of one for potential and one half for actual ratings. Because we are going to use a one to ten scale and not show ratings over ten, it is allowable to add potential to somebody who already has a ten rating. If you max out a player's potential, I will let you know but you will not be allowed to upgrade any other of his ratings.
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The way the upgrading is done is like so. The game uses a scale of 0-249 (I think), so we add 20 points to the player's "Potential" rating, and 10 points to his "Actual Rating" for every 10 Participation points spent by the GM.
Now, a player can only be improved once every year. Only 30 points can be spent on a player, and yes all 30 can be spent on one of the three attributes, but then nothing else can get done. The whole thing is very controlled to keep there from ever being "super players" You can't keep sending someone back over and over.
It keeps GM's involved, but without putting too much pressure on them to deliver an article a day. If they export and have an idea to contribute once & a while they can accumulate every point available.
As for the use of the points. It becomes a very strategic thing, and a new wrinkle in running the team in the off season. Some GM's like to pump the points into their prospects to make them even better, while others use them on big league talent to make them more complete players.
I have found this system is either loved or hated. Those who love it can't imagine it not there. Those who hate it have 2 reasons. 1) They are just against anything that involves editing players. They think it should be left to the impartiality of the file maker & the AI. 2) It's not aggressive enough. Some folks want to push the GM's to contribute constantly, and do something constantly.
I guess it depends on the kind of league you want. If you want it hardcore where you want people on the forum everyday contributing content. Look for another system. If you want a system the encourages participation in a measured manner that gives GM's a bit more room to live their lives. Consider the above system as a spring board for one of your own that's similar.