My Review of Bonus Ball

[jeffj2h]

A lot of people have commented on the game itself and I agree with a lot of those comments. But what I found fascinating were various details about the production. It's obvious a lot of time has been spent thinking through details of BB. I'm really amazed at the quality of some things, but baffled by others and the overall package.

Details I'm impressed by:

- Three of the pockets are colored white and three black. The team jerseys match the pockets they are shooting at.
- The score banner, WPBL emblem on the wall, and studio colors change after every shot to tell you what is the on color (purple, orange, black)
- They have a cool web page, complete with schedules and player stats. They have a nice Facebook page. They sell hats and tshirts. I heard they have (or will have?) a fantasy league.
- The player jerseys have their name on them, which helps in scotch doubles if you don't know the players
- It's amazing the obvious money put into this. The logos, the studio, the web page, the jerseys, etc

But:

- This is game by committee: Teams have designated pockets (1P), shoot colors in order (Snooker), break off a key ball (14.1). It might get clear in time, and maybe the audio/video sync issues made it confusing... but it was confusing
- The stream was the worst I have ever seen. April 2013 was the best streaming month ever. Amazing free and PPV streams. All better then BB's free.
- The combination of 24 second shot clock and very tight pockets = lots of missed shots. Not exciting. Baffling given the target audience is casual fans. I believe if they loosened the pockets that would be solved.
- Given the stream quality, it's difficult to tell the purple ball from the black ball. Given the last decade of experience creating Tournament Blue and TV ball sets, I would think this would be one of the first things they thought of.

I'd like to see it succeed and I'm such a pool fan I'm going to keep watching for a while, but I just don't know.

 

[StraightPoolIU]

I agree with each and every one of your points. I dont think I can keep watching though. It's just not entertaining. And I think almost everything pool related is entertaining. Maybe ill come back if it evolves into something like a team league where they play traditional games. The chances of that are about 0 however.

 

[JD_Hogg]

A lot of people have commented on the game itself and I agree with a lot of those comments. But what I found fascinating were various details about the production. It's obvious a lot of time has been spent thinking through details of BB. I'm really amazed at the quality of some things, but baffled by others and the overall package.

Details I'm impressed by:

- Three of the pockets are colored white and three black. The team jerseys match the pockets they are shooting at.
- The score banner, WPBL emblem on the wall, and studio colors change after every shot to tell you what is the on color (purple, orange, black)
- They have a cool web page, complete with schedules and player stats. They have a nice Facebook page. They sell hats and tshirts. I heard they have (or will have?) a fantasy league.
- The player jerseys have their name on them, which helps in scotch doubles if you don't know the players
- It's amazing the obvious money put into this. The logos, the studio, the web page, the jerseys, etc

But:

- This is game by committee: Teams have designated pockets (1P), shoot colors in order (Snooker), break off a key ball (14.1). It might get clear in time, and maybe the audio/video sync issues made it confusing... but it was confusing
- The stream was the worst I have ever seen. April 2013 was the best streaming month ever. Amazing free and PPV streams. All better then BB's free.
- The combination of 24 second shot clock and very tight pockets = lots of missed shots. Not exciting. Baffling given the target audience is casual fans. I believe if they loosened the pockets that would be solved.
- Given the stream quality, it's difficult to tell the purple ball from the black ball. Given the last decade of experience creating Tournament Blue and TV ball sets, I would think this would be one of the first things they thought of.

I'd like to see it succeed and I'm such a pool fan I'm going to keep watching for a while, but I just don't know.

Ive tried to watch but for the second day no stream....the commercials come through ok but not the pool......

 

[golubushka]

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[center pocket]

This is a really good thread with some good critisism. Very refreshing compared to all the sarcastic comments in other threads about this.

Its very easy to sit behind a keyboard and verbally poke at WPBL attempting to be funny or just bash them. It's another thing to organize something of this magnitude and get every detail right. Anyone who has tried to operate a league or assist with managing a league will understand this.

Look its not perfect but in my opinion it has more things right about it than anything else I have seen in pool in a long time. Also, I feel the league format appeals to all the league players out there. Learning a new type of game peaks my interest because its different. I am trying to figure it out and in doing so my interest grows, just like any other viewer that stops to watch it for even 30 seconds.

I agree bigger pockets will offset the lack of runouts from only shooting at 3 pockets. I think you will still get multiple innings from either team even with bigger pockets; I feel their intent of using 3 pockets was to increase the innings at the table.

I feel the one thing that is going to make or break this is the delivery of the product. I mean the streaming has to be improved quickly, and the archived videos have to be available. Whats the point of having a product if you can't get it to the customers or you have to give it away for free to keep the customers, which is what they are currently doing.

 

[JB Cases]

A lot of people have commented on the game itself and I agree with a lot of those comments. But what I found fascinating were various details about the production. It's obvious a lot of time has been spent thinking through details of BB. I'm really amazed at the quality of some things, but baffled by others and the overall package.

Details I'm impressed by:

- Three of the pockets are colored white and three black. The team jerseys match the pockets they are shooting at.
- The score banner, WPBL emblem on the wall, and studio colors change after every shot to tell you what is the on color (purple, orange, black)
- They have a cool web page, complete with schedules and player stats. They have a nice Facebook page. They sell hats and tshirts. I heard they have (or will have?) a fantasy league.
- The player jerseys have their name on them, which helps in scotch doubles if you don't know the players
- It's amazing the obvious money put into this. The logos, the studio, the web page, the jerseys, etc

But:

- This is game by committee: Teams have designated pockets (1P), shoot colors in order (Snooker), break off a key ball (14.1). It might get clear in time, and maybe the audio/video sync issues made it confusing... but it was confusing
- The stream was the worst I have ever seen. April 2013 was the best streaming month ever. Amazing free and PPV streams. All better then BB's free.
- The combination of 24 second shot clock and very tight pockets = lots of missed shots. Not exciting. Baffling given the target audience is casual fans. I believe if they loosened the pockets that would be solved.
- Given the stream quality, it's difficult to tell the purple ball from the black ball. Given the last decade of experience creating Tournament Blue and TV ball sets, I would think this would be one of the first things they thought of.

I'd like to see it succeed and I'm such a pool fan I'm going to keep watching for a while, but I just don't know.

I didn't see any of it due to stream issues but 3/78" pockets? WTF?????/

REALLY??????

I mean let's get to the point of ridiculousness on the pocket sizes. I am sure there was some great play but I am also sure that a LOT of position play was KILLED due to the tight pockets and a lot more safeties were played instead of going for shots.

 

[King T]

Pockets..., WTF is right!

Why would anybody watch a game that no one can make a ball playing?????

If Earl cant run out GOD help us all!!

The game could work, but not if it looks harder than it is.

 

[flyvirginiaguy]

It's just not entertaining.

And just think how regular fans who are really not into pool would feel


Traditional 9 ball (very short races) between different members of the teams. Rotate shots or something even, would be more exciting than this game. And looser pockets for sure. Regular viewers would not understand loose/tight pockets, they would just see them miss a lot.
But there is some good about it as well, as the OP pointed out most of them.

 

[Poolshootindon]

Here are my thoughts

I am not a big fan of Bonus Ball . But

There are a few things that might change my mind.

1. 30-35 second clock

2. Change the felt to Green or Blue

3. Put some white spots on the Black ball (like the measle ball).
From a distance hard to tell the purples from the black.

4. I did like the crawler at the bottom of the screen that explained some of the shot options. Keep that coming.

Just a few ideas.

Don

 

[Ralph Kramden]

- Given the stream quality, it's difficult to tell the purple ball from the black ball. Given the last decade of experience creating Tournament Blue and TV ball sets, I would think this would be one of the first things they thought of.

Red and yellow balls like the ones in a casino set. These would contrast well with either a blue or a green cloth.
There wouldn't be any confusion on the black. Solids and stripes would work but no one would buy Bonus balls.

 

[jeffj2h]

Solids and stripes would work but no one would buy Bonus balls.

Yeah, I hear all the time "nobody wants to buy a $200 set to play BB". But you don't have to. Solids, stripes, and the 8-ball and you are in business.

Actually it would be easier to follow on the stream if they used a standard ball set.

The commentators could say "He could shoot the 11 and come back 2-rails blah blah". Actually now that I think about it one of the problems with BB is the 24sec clock and it allows very little time for the commentators and audience to think about what they would do.

 

[Put_upor_shutup]

I didn't see any of it due to stream issues but 3/78" pockets? WTF?????/

REALLY??????

I mean let's get to the point of ridiculousness on the pocket sizes. I am sure there was some great play but I am also sure that a LOT of position play was KILLED due to the tight pockets and a lot more safeties were played instead of going for shots.

I would agree but Thorsten ran 60 points earlier.

 

[JB Cases]

I would agree but Thorsten ran 60 points earlier.

Yeah I am kind of rethinking this.

On the one hand it's often been put out there that the public doesn't respect pool because pros make it look too easy. So maybe on that score it's good if it's not too easy.

And if the pros are really practicing and playing on these tight of pockets it can only help them to tighten up their own games against the rest of the world.

Would be great if American players started asserting themselves more outside the USA again.

 

[AtLarge]

I would agree but Thorsten ran 60 points earlier.

In the 8-game format -- team game, 3 doubles games, 3 singles games (all different players), and team game -- how could one player possibly run 60 points? Perhaps Hohmann was in the final doubles game and the first singles game? That would be about the closest way.

Edit -- I just learned that Hohmann did, indeed, run 60 points. He did it in a tie-breaker shootout after the match was tied 7-7 after the normal 8 games. I was not aware of that possibility. Now that's quite a performance!