Public FAQ (public-safe)

Public FAQ (public-safe)

Status: stub — first-pass questions, answers to be expanded after founder review Audience: public Last-reviewed: 2026-04-29 Sources: anticipated from visitor patterns + Captain Cookem voice in marketing/lib/cook/system-prompt.ts

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This is the canned-Q&A surface. Captain Cookem and the marketing site copy can both lean on it. Each Q has a one-line short answer + an expanded answer; write the short answer like a strong take and the expanded answer like a doc paragraph.

What & Who

Q: What is READYPLAY?

Short: A peer-managed pickup-sports platform — runs, reviews, and a verified record across 15 sports. Expanded: READYPLAY is a multi-sport pickup platform for iOS, watchOS, and the web. Basketball is the deepest live experience; volleyball, tennis, padel, pickleball, soccer, baseball/softball, flag football, track/run, pool, fishing, bowling, billiards, and golf share the same shell. The product layers a game session, peer reviews, and a fairness engine that keeps the rating system honest.

Q: Is this a league?

Short: No — it's organized pickup with trust layers. (Leagues live here as a B2B add-on.) Expanded: READYPLAY is pickup-first — anyone can create or join a game, set rules, and play. The B2B league layer is a separate product on the same rails: commissioners enroll teams, players join via invite, stats roll up into the same verified profile.

Q: Who is Captain Cookem?

Short: READYPLAY's AI agent — read the docs, watched the runs, won't hedge. Expanded: Captain Cookem is the platform's customer-facing AI assistant. Voice is Stephen A. Smith energy applied to pickup — confident, theatrical, knowledgeable, strong takes. He's an AI built for READYPLAY, not a real person. He knows the public-facing docs and won't leak engineering internals.

Q: Are you affiliated with NBA 2K or NBA Live?

Short: No. The OVR / attribute language is our own schema, inspired by common video-game scales. Expanded: The 2K-style profile (OVR, attribute bars, measurables) is a player-created blueprint inspired by common video-game attribute scales — it's not affiliated with, endorsed by, or licensed from any commercial title.

Sports & Features

Q: What sports does READYPLAY support?

Short: 15 — basketball is fully live; the other 14 share the shell. Expanded: See 02-Sport-Catalog.md. Basketball, volleyball, tennis, padel, pickleball, soccer, baseball/softball, flag football, track/run, pool (swimming), fishing, bowling, billiards, golf. Live scoring depth ramps sport by sport — the app shows an honest "MVP coming soon" banner where it's not there yet.

Q: Why basketball first?

Short: Hardest sport to ship live. Prove the engine there, every other sport graduates onto it. Expanded: Basketball demands the most from a platform — fouls per tile, shot zones, multiple scoring modes, sub-minute auto-end logic, Live Activity, watch parity. Building it end-to-end first means the multi-sport shell isn't a half-built abstraction. Other sports get the same engine when their live depth lands.

Q: How does scoring work?

Short: Tap a player's avatar, pick the points — score and history update instantly. Expanded: The live game shows two rows of player avatars (Team A, Team B). Tap a player → bottom sheet opens with point buttons (scoped to the rule set: 1s/2s or 2s/3s). Tap the value → team score updates, Live Activity refreshes, history records the event with the scorer attribution and a running snapshot. Long-press an avatar to open the in-game mini profile.

Q: How does the fairness engine work?

Short: Reviewers who consistently disagree with the room lose weight over time — they aren't erased. Expanded: See 04-Trust-and-Fairness.md. The math is consensus-gap based: each reviewer's grade is compared to the same-game team average, the gap accumulates into a rolling fairness profile, and the resulting reviewerWeight (capped between 0.35 and 1.0) shapes how much that reviewer pulls future weighted averages.

Q: Are reviews anonymous?

Short: Yes to the reviewee, no to the engine. Expanded: You never see who graded you. The fairness engine sees every reviewer-reviewee pair so it can compute consensus gap and reviewer weight; that's what makes the math work without becoming a popularity contest.

Beta & access

Q: How do I join the beta?

Short: readyplay.app/beta → TestFlight invite. Expanded: The marketing site has a public TestFlight onboarding page at /beta. From there: install TestFlight, accept the invite, install READYPLAY. New testers see an in-app onboarding flow on first launch.

Q: Can I sign in on the web?

Short: Yes — Sign in with Apple at readyplay.app. Expanded: Web auth uses the same Sign-in-with-Apple identity as iOS, so your account, history, and reputation travel between devices. The web sign-in flow is currently rolling out (see docs/Auth-and-sync.md for status).

Q: Where is the public leaderboard?

Short: readyplay.app/leaderboard — real-time SSE. Expanded: The public leaderboard streams live updates over Server-Sent Events. Every signed-in player has a public profile at readyplay.app/p/<id> linked from the leaderboard.

Q: How do I get my games / stats on the web?

Short: Public profile at readyplay.app/p/<your-id> — share-friendly link. Expanded: Anyone can browse player profiles without an account. Once you sign in on the web, the personalized "your stats / your games" surface lights up (in flight).

Privacy & guests

Q: Can I add a player who isn't on READYPLAY?

Short: Yes — guest player system, with optional partial U.S. phone for privacy. Expanded: Pickup happens with strangers. The guest system lets you record stats for a non-registered player using only a name. To make merge-on-signup easier (and respect privacy), guests can optionally provide a partial U.S. phone (last 5 digits) — never the full number. When that guest later signs up, identity-verification signals can match them to their existing record.

Q: Do I need to give my full phone number?

Short: No. Sign-in with Apple is the primary path; phone fields are optional. Expanded: Sign in with Apple is the primary identity. Phone is optional throughout — the guest "partial phone" pattern is documented in-app so guests aren't pressured to give strangers a full number at pickup.

Q: What data does the fairness engine see?

Short: Grades, scores, and same-game consensus — not who you're friends with. Expanded: See 04-Trust-and-Fairness.md. The engine sees grade values per reviewer per reviewee per game and computes consensus gaps and reviewer weights. It doesn't model friend graphs or social relationships beyond same-game review patterns.

Money & marketplace

Q: Does READYPLAY cost money?

Short: Pickup is free. Paid roles and league features are on the roadmap. Expanded: Pickup, profile, reviews, leaderboards — free. The roadmap adds in-app credits (earnable for roles like scorekeeping, with optional StoreKit bundles) and an on-demand marketplace where players post open spots and General Managers can pay individuals through Apple Pay with escrow. League features are a separate B2B layer.

Q: When can I get paid to play?

Short: When the marketplace ships — Apple Pay + escrow, trust-gated. Expanded: The on-demand marketplace is on the roadmap. Players will post availability with a rate (or play free); GMs assemble squads and pay individuals through in-app Apple Pay with escrow that holds funds until post-game release. Confirmed via trust-gated RSVP — the same fairness signal protects the money side.

Help & contact

Q: How do I report a bug or request a feature?

Short: In-app: tap your avatar → Help → Send Feedback. Expanded: Bugs and feature requests are easiest from inside the app (avatar → Help → Send Feedback) — they go to the team with the right context attached. For league / B2B inquiries: leagues@readyplay.app.

Q: How do I sign in?

Short: Sign in with Apple — on iOS, watchOS, and the web. Expanded: Sign in with Apple is the single identity across all surfaces. iOS / watchOS use the system flow; the web uses Apple's web OAuth (/auth/apple/web/*) and a rp_session cookie scoped to .readyplay.app.

Q: Where do I follow updates?

Short: readyplay.app, beta page, in-app Roadmap tab. Expanded: The marketing site's beta page is the best entry. The in-app Roadmap tab inside READYPLAY shows current features, screen targets, and narrative changelog notes — that's the live source of truth for what's shipping next.