Feedback from sitestaff around here. Topic

I suggest that sitestaff come in here every week and give feedback on all of the suggestions given.  I thought it was good even when they gave stock responses such as "this will never happen" and "this is on a list for future updating".  It would help to know if we're ******* in the wind here or not.
10/7/2012 11:42 AM
As a WifS apologist and someone who doesn't think every suggestion is worthy of a response, I have to agree.  The overwhelming belief is that support has disappeared.   With the previous admission of "Sorry, we weren't around for the last 18 months" last year, the occassional public response, even if it's a canned "That's something we're considering", would probably go a long way with user relations.
10/7/2012 1:40 PM
Patrick885 was on top of things there for a month or so
10/7/2012 8:16 PM
I've been playing for 2 1/2 years. I've read about a time when there were updates & improvements to the game. In my time, I think HBD added a few barely useful screens and they fixed a bug in a browser. That's it.

For better or worse, HBD is a dead game. What we've got now is all we're going to get. Maybe Fox Sports will pull a Diablo & release a new version of HBD in 10+ years, but I wouldn't count on it.

Take out a calculator & add up the numbers.  How many worlds,  How many teams in each world. How long a season lasts. Allow for the time between rollover. Then subtract expenses for customer support (they do reply to questions & serious issues like alias abuse), computers, rent, free seasons, credits for coming in last place, etc.

It doesn't take a math or business genius to realize HBD does not make Fox Sports very much money. 

1-2 minutes of commercial time on the worst Saturday afternoon baseball game of the season probably brings in more money than running HBD for a month.

HBD generates enough money to be a great business for 1 or 2 programmers who love baseball, someone who knows how to market, and 1-2 support people.  The only hope we have of seeing a better online MLB simulation is Fox selling this off or a few people deciding to build their own game from scratch.

I post suggestions hoping that programmer out there somewhere reads these posts & is considering them for the game they are building.

None of this is any reason for new people not to start playing. HBD has a lot of good points. I played a seven year old game on my XBox last week. That's a dead game, too, but it was still fun.

10/8/2012 2:33 PM
I tend to agree with most of that(because I've stated the financial/business part of it a few times).    But here's why ignoring it is bad business:

1.  It's guaranteed money.    Just say it's $15 per team after all the credits are paid.   That's $81,000 every quarter(assuming quick rollovers).   Over 300k per year.   Not money that concerns FOX but enough to hire a couple of people to "piddle" with it.    Hell, putting someone on it for 10 hours a week, half of that just being a presence, would keep most people happy.

2.  There is advertising money beyond the actual game.   I have no idea how much "Force of Empires" pays to be the banner I see right now but it's something.  I don't know exactly how the whole thing works but I imagine some of it is centered around "hits".   HBD lends itself to a lot of "hits" due to the cycles.

So, while it may not be a cash cow, it generates constant money.   It can be staffed well enough to keep it rolling for virtually nothing.    Ignoring it is a poor business decision.
10/8/2012 4:12 PM
Well that's depressing. Should I buy my second or wait until Mike takes over the site?
10/8/2012 8:31 PM
I'm not trying to blindly trash WIS, Fox, or HBD.  From what I've seen, they do staff HBD well enough.  I've sent in 4 tickets in 2 years. All got a reasonable reply in a reasonable amount of time.

They seem to handle major problems within a few days.  For some reason they seem to have a history of erring on the side of letting bad customers ruin the game rather than support better customers. I don't think any of us really know all the decisions they make or why they make them.

WIS is not taking our money & not delivering what they promise.  Unless they refuse to refund money to anyone who gets tired of waiting for a world to start & decided to move on. I seriously doubt Fox would fight with anyone over a few dollars if they asked for a refund.

A year ago I pointed out that last fall was way worse than the one before. This one seems worse again.  I don't see anything reversing this trend.  

IMO, the best option they have is letting a world decide it will open up to anyone bringing their team into that world. A few clicks and your team in World A replaces an open team in World B.  It would make the history of the world a lot less relevant.  The more stable worlds wouldn't allow it.  But I'll bet a lot of people would rather be playing with their team than watching a world with a clear history stall for months at a time.

That would taking time & money to program, so I don't see it happening.

10/8/2012 9:33 PM
Worlds are filling.   We have the same thing every fall and it resolves itself.   The worst "solution" ever was the issuing of free teams to the user base.   So the amount of openings isn't the problem.

The problem is their lack of presence.    The customers think WifS is unmanned.  That's a problem.
10/9/2012 8:21 AM

JUNE, 2016

10/9/2012 8:30 AM
Posted by MikeT23 on 10/9/2012 8:21:00 AM (view original):
Worlds are filling.   We have the same thing every fall and it resolves itself.   The worst "solution" ever was the issuing of free teams to the user base.   So the amount of openings isn't the problem.

The problem is their lack of presence.    The customers think WifS is unmanned.  That's a problem.
It's only a problem to them if it means money is being lost.  I tend to believe that we are like heroin addicts and will come back no matter what.  They will keep making their money even if they don't talk to us.  When that stream starts falling off, there will be a system fix then.
10/9/2012 10:20 AM
Dammit, I responded in the other forum.

It will make a difference eventually.   Maybe they wait til then.   Or maybe they just pay someone a couple hundred bucks a week to be their "presence" so it doesn't fall off.

They should probably pay me.  Well, if I agreed to be nicer about the moronic suggestions.
10/9/2012 10:31 AM
I'm going to go respond in the other forum now.  I like to keep you on your toes.
10/9/2012 12:08 PM
I submitted a ticket at 10:46am this morning.

It was responded to and addressed at 10:56am this morning.
10/9/2012 12:11 PM
Ticket submission/response isn't the problem.    Maybe 1% of HBD owners submit tickets.   Probably 50% frequent the forums.   And it appears that no one is driving the bus.
10/9/2012 12:19 PM
yeah, I would be that there is a "team" of whatifsports employees that respond to tickets from all of the games on the site.
10/9/2012 3:20 PM
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