how big can you get on Facebook?

[arpeejay]

About trainer spots:

According to the leader board, I have 12 spots. According to Manage Your Trainees, I only have 11 trainees. But apparently I don't show up as available when you search for me under experience points (currently 1275.) What's the deal?

xoxo

Richard

[kezzz]

@RPJ you probably wanna ask that at BBW forum.

[arpeejay]

@ Kezz:

Forum? There's a forum? Where?

xoxo

richard

[Geek2Jock]

I think the leaderboard shows how many payments you've received and how many trainee spots you have but not necesaarily how many trainees you have. Also, if a trainee leaves you I don't think that spot comes available until 1am and therefore you may not show up in the adspace until the next day.

[Geek2Jock]

Okay, I know its just a game but I wonder what people are thinking sometimes... in this case my trainer! Whenever I've been faced with trainees who aren't paying, I nudge them and if they don't respond I message them before dumping them. If I've been faced with trainees who have been loyal enough to be locked into a lower priced training fee I'm glad to have such loyal trainees. I've had to eliminate one of my training ads one time and I offered those trainees the lower fee in order to keep them as trainees. I got a notification this morning that my trainer was no longer my trainer, but when I went to get a new one he was still available, just at a higher price! If he wanted to up his price he only had to say so, but I guess in his rationale it really doesn't matter who he is training as long as he gets the money he wants. At the end of the day, I try to remember there's a real live person at the other end who'd appreciate being treated with a little dignity.

Okay, end of rant.

[plaindudefornow]

Its the internet geek2jock...havent you learned, people are jerks =p. In all seriouness though, I had the same thing happen to me. Had one of the like top 10 spots training me, thats probably why I weigh more than people around me at less experience yet they are higher on the leaderboard, and then just bumped because he wanted more and didnt ask.

on a side note, am i the only one who will buy energy boosting items just to do jobs in game if there will be a significant pay out?

[Geek2Jock]

Not to single him out, but my trainer is Adam Gluck who is ranked #3 in the game I think. You're right about online people can be jerks and in reality it's not like its a big deal, just not how I roll when dealing with people.

As for buying energy boosts for jobs, I will do the same thing if the money is right. I won't even consider taking a job if the money isn't at least twice the calorie requirement. If you have finished your workout for the day (that's priority one of course!) and have spare energy, that energy can be exchanged for extra money (in the case of jobs) or extra fame (in the case of armwrestling) or both (in the case of fights). So when you have to buy a $250 energy drink but get paid like $800, it's a net gain. Money becomes an increasingly important factor as one climbs the ranks because the trainers get more expensive and also the highest mass gaining rewards are extremely pricey. I'm buying the gold star every 5 days plus the gold protein every 7 days, so that's over $30,000 a week on top of what is now over $5,000 for my trainer.

I think I've given this rundown before, but priority-wise I approach it this way:

#1 Finish all gym routines (buy the 2,000 calories energy boost and energy drinks if necessary)
#2 Armwrestle to gain fame points (unless you have enough friends in the game to get at least 20 fame points a day)
#3 Take jobs to gain more money
#4 Price your own training ads so that you're competitive within your ranking and experience
#4b Keep your loyal trainees loyal by letting them keep their lower priced training but if they ever leave and come back they'll pay your current rate
#4c Drop trainees who are not paying/playing daily... decide what is an acceptable length of time to let them slide, for me it's down to 3 days before I let them go
#5 If you've finished all your training and have more than 50 calories left, armwrestle to burn 50 calories per bout
#6 If you have less than 50 calories left (for me the threshold is 30), jump rope in the gym and cash in for that extra experience point

[arpeejay]

Pretty much everything G2J said applies for me as well. A couple of exceptions:

(1) I've never felt much need to adjust the price of my training sessions. I've just stuck to $99 and I've never lacked for trainees. Occasionally someone will drop me because they've found somebody with more experience and/or they're willing to shell out more money; invariably I have a new client within 24 hours.

(2) I've been known to drop people if they're not playing daily and, unlike gentlemanly G2J, I don't feel compelled to let them know in advance. There are jillions of trainers out there and who's to say they won't find someone better the next time they play? I bend the rules for friends, some of whom really aren't in a position to play on a daily basis.

(3) I'm not big into paying for high priced trainers. I used one for 2-3 days, just to prolong G2J's agony a bit (it's good for his soul, I'm sure), but then I realized, "uh, that's not really how I like to play." So now I have a highly ranked but much less expensive trainer. G2J will overtake today or tomorrow, I'm guessing, but I like my regular pace; I'm in 25th place until the overtake, so I think it's working for me.

All the best...

Richard

[Geek2Jock]

Apparently I'm a little more competitive in this game than arpeejay. It's been fun catching up to him but at the point when I do overtake him in the rankings I'll have to find someone else to catch up to... it's just the competitive nature!

The only reason I switched to a higher-priced trainer was that a higher-ranking trainer seems to accelerate the trainee's gains and arpeejay and I have been neck-in-neck for about two weeks during which I wasn't gaining as much. And it's definitely a reasonable marketing plan to stick with one price, in a lot of ways it makes things easier too. I guess with my own IRL marketing background I view the market as a microcosm to try out different strategies and see how people react.

[plaindudefornow]

eh, you arent the only competative one...those people around me on the leaderboards annoy the crap out of me!.....also im thinking toward the future. Like when i get up to the 20 range =p

[arpeejay]

I think it's safe to say that I'm "differently" competitive. My measure of success tends to be ME now versus ME then, for some value of "then." In which regard, I'm pretty happy, considering I was ranked 250th when we got back from our cruise at the end of November. :-)

xoxo

Richard

[Geek2Jock]

The SOB did it to me again! Oh well, I just have to find another trainer, one who actually WANTS my money!

[plaindudefornow]

(pats you on the shoulder) there there. It is a game after all. Maybe he has his own arpeejay he is trying to catch up to?

[arpeejay]

Actually, Adam was the first player to reach 100KG.

xoxo

Richard

[nutzy2222]

g2j

ill be more than happy to be your trainer...right now i have 538 exp points and charging $49

[Geek2Jock]

No, that's okay, I just needed to vent. I figured #5 ranked Josh Kronberg is good enough to train me.

[arpeejay]

Yay! He did it!

Now G2J, # 23, can chase Adam Gluck!

xoxo

Richard (lowly # 25)

[Geek2Jock]

It was short-lived, I'm back to 24 and you're 23 again. But it's encouraging!

[arpeejay]

We're both in the top 25 -- pretty nice, huh? :-)

Also: Happy birthday (a day late!)

xoxo

Richard

[plaindudefornow]

no fair, i want a rival lol. grats on the temporary pass and grats on the whole aging thing!

[Geek2Jock]

The aging thing sucks! But thanks for the birthday kudos!

I think I'm finally pulling out in the lead in front of arpeejay... I stored up my fame points for a couple of days in order to have one day that I can buy the energy for an entire gym routine, remove the energy award, unlock all the exercises, and buy the energy to do them all again... I'm exhausted! lol

Look out Adam, I'm coming for you next!

[arpeejay]

Yep, I think you've done it. Congrats!

Plaindude, it's your job to catch up to ME, now that G2J has blown past!

xoxo

Richard

[plaindudefornow]

yeah....thousands behind so, enjoy it for a while. no plans of taking your spot anytime in the foreseeable future =p

[Geek2Jock]

The thing is to play every day. I didn't start until December I think and I caught up pretty fast. I've even outlined all my play secrets throughout this thread!

[plaindudefornow]

oh i know. i started...what a week or two ago maybe? im up to level 9 on everything. hit 10 on the abs so im HOPING to hit lvl 10 tomorrow. i just expect everyone else to go at the same speed so until i can get big enough to get trainees to get money to buy better training stuff.... lol

[Geek2Jock]

This brings a good point to mind that I haven't really explored too much - giving gifts to trainees. I love the idea but I'm trying to figure out how is the most 'socially acceptable' way to organize it. Some of the top ranked trainers who can charge $3,000 and $4,000 a day have in their ad that this price comes with a gold star (worth $15,000 and good for 5 days) so it would seem like a good deal for someone looking to grow quicker. Unfortunately, if you can't afford your own gold star then yo also won't be able to afford your trainer. It also relies on the trainer actually keeping track of which gifts he's given and to which trainees. Currently the game doesn't have any way (that I can find) to see other trainees' bonuses or rewards or even their progress... you can only see the big picture numbers in the rankings which are their experience and weight.

I'm trying to figure out what would be a fair way to reward my trainees - should I build it into their training fee, or wait for them to request something of me, or keep track separately of who I've gifted? Should it be only for those who are paying the most, or those who are paying the least but have been the most loyal to me as their trainer, or just at random? I'd love anyone's thoughts and also I love to give gifts!

[plaindudefornow]

well, i may be biased in this so take my advance with a grain of salt mr. trainer. I would say just keep track of your trainees progress. award it to people who

A. Show loyalty
B. Are making steady/balanced progress and are progressing up the ladder.

conversely, you could also give it ot the people you feel NEED the start because they arent making the progress on their own as well as they could as a motivational tool. those are just my thoughts.

[Geek2Jock]

I've climbed to # 17 in the ranks! Feeling pretty beasty! Virtually speaking of course...

[arpeejay]

Well, if you're gonna gloat, I guess I'll join you!

At the moment, I'm # 19, so Top 20, woo hoo! I'm sure Omer and Marcello will have something to say about that shortly so I'll enjoy it while I can! :-)

xoxo

Richard

[anglekindle]

Well its official... my avatar weighs more than I do at 108.31 kg... Its depressing really...

[arpeejay]

Mine outweighs me by a lot:

Avatar: 116.62 (256 lbs.!)
ME: 97.7 (215 lbs.)

I wanna be my Avatar, dammit!

Of course, for him to be that built at that weight he'd have to be about 5 ft. tall, so maybe not!

xoxo

Richard

...who unexpectedly finds himself in 17th place thanks to some obvious wonkishness in the BBW ranking algorithm!

[plaindudefornow]

im still in the low 1400 ;-; stupid ranking system.

[anglekindle]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

Mine outweighs me by a lot:

Avatar: 116.62 (256 lbs.!)
ME: 97.7 (215 lbs.)

I wanna be my Avatar, dammit!

Of course, for him to be that built at that weight he'd have to be about 5 ft. tall, so maybe not!

xoxo

Richard

...who unexpectedly finds himself in 17th place thanks to some obvious wonkishness in the BBW ranking algorithm!

Ya I know what you mean, I'm roughly 107-108kg (switched the scale settings to check) but because I'm extremely tall it doesn't look that buff on me T_T... sometimes I wish I was short.

Gratz on #17, gotta love those algorithms.

[plaindudefornow]

well, i got a gold star from my trainer but.........i think he may have wasted his money one it! i don't see a way to claim the gold star and i think it might be because im only level 12 (gold star unlocks for me to buy at level 15...so i am guessing i cant recieve one until then either.)

[saberon]

I've finally hit top 100
Rank: #94

Level: 22

Experience: 1,177

Weight: 110.90 kg

[arpeejay]

Congrats, Saberon!

I've about decided that the ranking algorithm favors experience points a bit more than it does mass. Otherwise, how would I be one spot behind Geek2Jock, who outweighs me by nearly a kilo, and ahead of guys who mass even more than he does!

In other words, keep jumping those ropes! :-)

xoxo

Richard

[plaindudefornow]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

Congrats, Saberon!

I've about decided that the ranking algorithm favors experience points a bit more than it does mass. Otherwise, how would I be one spot behind Geek2Jock, who outweighs me by nearly a kilo, and ahead of guys who mass even more than he does!

In other words, keep jumping those ropes! :-)

xoxo

Richard

It sure does value experience more...i outweight 3 of the 4 people directly above me by at least 1 kg and am one level higher...my guess was experience was put as a higher factor so that later players dont have as easy a time overcoming older players. (newer players get the benefit of faster mass gaining off of the experienced players/trainers who didnt have that luxury)

[arpeejay]

So, I'm wondering:

Should I raise my training rate?

Right now I'm one of about six (available) trainers with an Experience level 1600 or above and the next cheapest one is charging $800 per session (as opposed to $99 for me.)

I really do believe in "muscle to the masses" but I'd like to be able to pay my trainer ($800) and STILL buy those fancy stars.

Any thoughts...?

xoxo

Richard

[plaindudefornow]

gotta do what you gotta do. it is a game after all. you could always raise it, but still have it relatively cheap for your experience, like 400 or something.

[Geek2Jock]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

Any thoughts...?

xoxo

Richard

I think you know my opinion on this... by all means offer a new higher rate but allow your current trainees to stay at their current rate and make that ad invisible to prevent more trainees from enrolling at that rate. If existing trainees are smart they'll never leave you because to return to you they will be forced to pay the higher rate... it rewards loyalty. On the other hand, higher rate trainees also tend to cancel more frequently, but I've never had a problem replacing a training spot within a day or so.

And yes you absolutely need that extra cash for the big-ticket rewards!

I did try to gift a gold star but no worries, I'll just keep it for myself for now.