Quote: Originally Posted By bigal888 on 7/12/2009
We just rolled into our 5th season and I noticed a lot of new teams joined up. The key issue I noticed is that they will all start with a 5000 standing room stadium. Why not put these new teams into a second division where they can compete and work their way up? Shouldn't we be at about that point where a second division can start?

Knowing what I know now, if I had a new team like this I would sign a crappy team to 1 year contracts (maybe 1 or 2 solid players to long term deals) and dump all the money into a stadium. Then grab free agents the next season.

My team is middle of the pack so I let the older big $ free agents go and added 10,000 seats this season and will get back into the swing next season with my 20,000 (12,500 seats) stadium.

Just noticed that there are 36 Mexico teams playing with 6 on the waiting list. That would make 42 teams and there are 2 leagues with Mexico. With the 2 extra teams would that bring on a 2nd division for the next season or where would the extra teams go?

If they want to get to 5 countries per world, it makes sense that they would wait for a few more Mexico teams and then add Mexico to another world. We probably won't see second divisions until every world has 5 countries or the USA is in every world and they have 20 USA teams waiting.

The total number of clubs listed includes the ones on the wait list.

Number of clubs for a country are all user owned clubs, including those on the waiting list and those that haven't clicked to join a league yet.

Quote: Originally posted by norbert on 7/15/2009Consolidation is not in the plans, but I would not say it would never happen. We want to wait to see if we can get the number of users we need for the current worlds from Fox Soccer, which has been a very slow process because they have a lot on their plates, but it will pick up eventually.  They are behind the game 100% and have a stake in it now.  We have the number of people playing now with no advertising and very little presence on just our site (basically a menu link and forums), so it's not too far fetched to think we could get 10 times that number with Fox Soccer throwing some real estate up for it.  I'd like to see at least 5 countries per world and 2 or more divisions per country.The first few updates will most likely be improving the basics of the game, like play by play, tactics, and players, but the game really reaches full potential when we can start looking at youth academies, international competitions, and national teams.

I know we have to be patient for this to fill but I think that if we had/when we have a realistic World formation with the above mentioned full potential assets in place is when the europeans will come knocking at the door and we will have no problems filling vacant spots.

People are currently talking about combining 2 worlds as "consolidation", as in, take two worlds with an England League, each with several AI teams, and then combine them to eliminate the AI teams. So here's my question: Why not take two worlds with DIFFERENT national leagues (i.e. US, England, Italy, and US, Germany, Brazil), and smash them both together? Without increasing or decreasing the number of slots available, you would instantly create a 5-country World (US, Eng, Ita, Ger, Bra). You would also instantly create a US with 2 divisions. This would accomplish much of what WIS is trying to do, without having to eliminate teams/Leagues. Just my 2 cents.

Only problem I see is the driving up of FA prices. But, I guess that would correct itself in time. I love the idea.

Combining worlds appears like an attractive idea. But don't forget that there needs to be a steady stream of worlds rolling over, for new players waiting to join. This will be even more important with "Fox Soccer throwing some real estate up for it." (Good phrase, Norbert.) They really wouldn't want to reduce the number of worlds and leave brides waiting at the church. (All right, I guess that isn't as good of a phrase.) What I mean is that there need to be worlds rolling over for the influx of new players to join pretty promptly, before they get tired of waiting to get in somewhere. I'm really looking forward to an influx of new players from somewhere besides North America.

Gotta say - I've been here from the start - with little change and no huge flood of users - I'm close to walking away. There's exactly 1 person on the waiting list for my country so I can count on playing against half CPU's and never having a 2nd division for the forseeable future

It could be worse jwendt. My world has 9 owners in the US, 10 in Scotland and just 2 owners in England. Our world starts up 12 hours after a mirror world starts, so they get the waiting list and we get the overs. Usually nothing.

Quote: Originally Posted By vancouverg on 12/10/2009It could be worse jwendt. My world has 9 owners in the US, 10 in Scotland and just 2 owners in England. Our world starts up 12 hours after a mirror world starts, so they get the waiting list and we get the overs. Usually nothing

This is the biggest problem I see with too many worlds. There are "mirror worlds" as you call them that take all the new coaches. I don't mind playing SIM teams because at least they build up their stadiums and help with revenue, but to not even have a shot at getting new owners is a major problem.

I really hope Norbert is looking for a fix in this. I understand we are patiently waiting an increase in users but it's not happening. Something needs to be done because marketing is ineffective right now. Hopefully Norbert finds a good solution to keep us around to allow more time for that increase.

People are going to start leaving if something doesn't happen.

Agreed. It's a dead fish right now, and this is after Fox Soccer started putting a link on its site. It's a free game, so price isn't the issue. Truthfully, they ought to just put some real development time into the game and get the play-by-play and stat record fixed. They might need to charge for that, but they already charge for other dynasty games and they are much more active. I don't care if they get to 10,000 users. I'd just like to have leagues with real owners. Time to consolidate leagues - in my opinion. That might help a little.

Agree with cosborn, especially regarding league/world consolidation.