I know this is long but if you are interested in signing up, please read it all.

Well it looks like the holiday season was definitely not the right time to start a new league and GWJFL3 appears to be DOA. At least it gave the veterans a chance to try out the new settings and decide if they like them or not as well as give some rookies a chance to figure out if this game was for them.

While I'm not yet interring GWJFL3, I wanted to go ahead and figure out how many people are interested in the next iteration. So let's make a couple things clear.

(Edited to move this up so I can get it out there early.) I hope that I don't come off as a hard-ass and anyone who's played with me or participated in GWJFL3 will hopefully tell you that I'm not really as grumpy as my avatar might indicate. I am only trying to be thorough in setting your expectations so as to ensure the success of what will likely be the final iteration of the GWJFL as played on/with ESPN NFL 2k5. Remember that your participation affects your fellow GWJ'ers in the league. We like you, we really like you, but please read the #1 below twice.

1) We don't care how good you are just that you are dedicated to playing your games. This means that we expect you to be proactive in trying to get your games set up. Whether it be checking the weekly thread, sending PMs, or whatever it takes to make a "good faith" effort, when the new schedule goes up, people should coordinate their schedules earlier, not later. (Yes, we understand that things come up and that's not a problem... but even SpyNavy and his odd schedule manages to get his games in.)

2) You have to use voice communication. As Reaper so succinctly put it, "I like being able to either see the person or chat with them as they're wiping the floor with me. Otherwise, I feel as though I'm simply being annihilated by an ultrapowerful game AI." No one is asking you to recite Shakespeare during the game but there are many reasons (that have already been discussed at length and so I won't go into them here) why voice is a good thing.

3) The length of the season will equal the number of teams so that everyone gets to play everyone else at least once. Since the maximum number of weeks is 16, this means that the maximum number of teams will also be 16. I would be willing to have more weeks than teams if 100% of the players wanted it but not less.

4) If it is necessary to truncate players out of the league, it will be based purely on a first-come, first-serve basis. The game only supports certain multiples of players. I don't know all of them but, for example, you can have 16 or 20 players but nothing in between. As such, if, for example, we have 13 interested parties and can therefore only support a 12-team league, then the last one to post in this thread will miss out. I'm sorry but it's the only fair way to do it. Exception: If someone wants to abdicate their slot in favor of another who would not "make the cut", they are free to do so.

5) Except for a) number of weeks, b) AI, and c) Player EQ, all settings will be the same as they were in GWJFL3 (which should be the same as they were in GWJFL1). The number of playoff teams will be as close as possible to half the total number of teams, rounded up.

So here's what we need from you. If I haven't run you off yet, please post your top 3 choices of teams, and your preferences for the AI and Player EQ settings in the following format:

1) Team 1
2) Team 2
3) Team 3
4) AI (All Pro or Legendary?)
5) EQ (On or Off)

If you want to change your choices, please edit your original post. If someone further down the thread makes you change your opinion on one of the settings or you decide you don't really want the New Orleans Saints as your first choice, please edit your post. Feel free to add new posts that contain commentary but please only post your 5 choices once.

Which leads us to: 6) This method of picking teams seemed to work fairly well in GWJFL1 since it allowed people to see in advance what everyone else was picking and, in certain cases, allow players to abdicate a team because they saw that someone else really wanted it more. I will try to give every one their first choice but in the case of two people who both have the same first choice, the team will go to the player who is higher up in the draft order as determined by the NFL-draft-rules-based method used at the beginning of GWJFL3 using the GWJFL1 final results (new/expansion players will again be placed in the middle of the pack in first-come, first-serve order of posting in this thread).

Finally, I want to extend a personal invitation to everyone who has participated thus far. I know some of you may be feeling a little burned by the last couple leagues but please give us one more chance. Hopefully, you can see that we're taking steps to try to ensure a high level of fun and a minimum of frustration in GWJFL 2005.

Thank you.

P.S. So as to make sure that we are completely out of the holiday season and hence don't run into conflicts on opening weekend, the target start date is Wednesday, January 5, 2005.