Yeah, I'm with you, jf. Wow, you and I agree :-)

This is absolutely a business decision, taking into account a possible loss vs gain equation. Some dude who made it halfway through his actuary exams thinks the net gain will exceed the net loss.

I understand that this is the way most businesses think. It just ****** me off.

I will be dropping my Chicago team (the first team I played as when I joined and the one I've been at for going on my 30th season)

Yeah, that's not something I'm interested in seeing. I can see the merits, but to have every world like that is going to be utterly frustrating for any coach who has the desire to be in D3.

Why can't there be a newbie world? Or, even better, an optional NAIA for this? Customers are going to be very upset about this.

Just simply fix the current interface....it can be a lot simpler, and half the crap doesn't really matter anyway.  This is complete idiocracy.  Business model my ***....

harris, tell us how you REALLY feel. Not sure where you stand on this one. 

This coming form someone who has played GD awhile, not the best coach, but not the worst either. I agree with Harris 100 %. To WIS - if you just made talent matter and gave the basic users the same ability to set their depth charts as the advanced users that would probably help you a lot more.

Curious on what happens to all of the gameplans and formations that a coach builds? I assume if you have multiple teams across worlds at higher levels, then they'll stay in the system much like they do today. 

But, if you have 1 D3 team or are a coach that only plays in D3, do you lose all of your formations and gameplans if you don't move up to D2? 

thehuseman makes a great point. But I think it should be 2 or 3 seasons since I've spent the last 12 + building up my D-3 team. But that's crazy talk we'd be lucky to get a single free season...

I believe I'm going to like this about as much as I liked the first season in GD 2.0. Might be a good long term business decision for WIS and they gotta do what they gotta do. If they reintroduce random results and force me to move up I will likely return to other forms of entertainment. I have no desire to start over. I get too attached to my team and players. I've never moved up because I enjoy the player development. Time for another year or more break from WIS.

Wow, I guess this is why I got the credit for "its been a while since you've played so here is 5 bucks" thing. I may use my credit before it expires and play one more season, but I guarantee you this insures that regardless of my financial situation I am done with this site. You've done the one thing that I just can't deal with. All of my favorite teams are DIII teams. Bridgewater, a team that wanted me to play basketball for them. Christopher Newport, a team that is local to me I grew up watching a great deal of their games.

I enjoyed the added complexity, and I enjoyed playing against users like Albright who played at his favorite school. This is just sad. You think dumbing down the game in DIII is going to attract more users? Personally, I think at this point your best bet is to keep those that still enjoy the game. This engine is nowhere near finished. I haven't paid for a season since beta ended for a reason.

Signed,
An original defender of the current developers of this engine who for years enjoyed this game and others on this site.

First, let me say that I like the screen shots provided in the Critical News forum.  They have done some nice work on the practice plan page and the depth chart interface.

I am sure the folks at WIS are basing their drastic re-design on feedback they received from folks who didn't come back after the free season they received last year.  It's easy to understand that many of those folks, who had little to no previous experience to GD, found the new advanced features overwhelming.  Heck, many experienced GD players found them overwhelming. Combine that with the lack of any kind of user guide, it's no wonder almost all of them dropped after the one free season.  (Historically, of course, that's the same trend seen every time a mass offering of a free season was offered - mass influx, mass exodus afterwards.)  I applaud their efforts at making the game more accessible to new players.  I just think they've missed the boat on the best way to do so, while maintaining their current user base.

When they announced the planned modifications in the coach's council forum some months back, nearly all of us made the same point many of you are now - while complexity can be off-putting to new users, forcing an entire level of the game to use a beginner interface was not the way to accomplish the goal.  My suggestion at the time was to develop a single-player tutorial mode, that walked a player through the entire game, from recruiting to setting depth charts to creating formations and playbooks and gameplans.  No one at WIS even responded to the idea.

Those of us who have been around for a long time have asked for ONE thing above all else - consistent results that can be reliably predicted based on a known set of attributes (or, more accurately, the difference in attributes between one team and another.)  Things like fatigue and injuries and yes, a VERY SMALL bit of luck would factor in, but we want to know that our RB should do well on outside runs based on his speed, or that a QB might throw more interceptions due to his poor game instinct, or that a DB might successfully defend more passes because of his technique.   I guess we're still going to be waiting.

I care only about a few things:

1. That I don't have to move up from DIV 3
2. That the game is still somewhat interesting at DIV 3 (It will be even without lots of advanced features, just like it was in the past).
3. That the rewards stay the same.

 I do not play this game to move up coaching ranks, I play it to stick with a team and build a dynasty. I quit this game a long time ago when they reduced reward rates for DIV 3, after many many seasons of loyal play. Only came back recently and will definitely quit again if something similar happens, but will happily play as long as I can just play with the same team I start with. Why does this game even have to involve all of this random coach moving crap anyway? Can't you just make one combined world with a few hundred teams and that's it :)

Sorry to hear about these changes.  Many of us asked for more control in version 3 and while some call it all "bells and whistles", others have learned how to use that increased control to our advantage.  Now they will take it away in an attempt to get new customers.  Unfortunately, you will be losing some established ones who enjoy div 3.  I guess this coming season will be my last....

Oriole,  Since Div 3 will be modified to help new players, will it be possible for experienced players joining a new world to start in Div 2?