This is written in the form of an open letter to seble and the development team.

I have enjoyed Hoops Dynasty very much over what amounts to an entire era of my life. While minor tweaks to some areas of the game are needed, by and large it is fine. There is not a need for a complete overhaul of recruiting, a move now being proposed and worked on by developers.

These massive changes simply aren't necessary. Rather than using all of that effort to change how recruiting works, the development team should be listening to the feedback it gets from current Hoops Dynasty coaches to make minor changes and improve the game. This idea to make massive changes to recruiting is complete overkill and amounts to trying to take out a mosquito with a bazooka.

I have recently had discussions with a number of other coaches who share my sentiment. We enjoy the game the way it is, and while most of us remain optimistic and open minded, we don't see why this move is even necessary when the game is largely fine. Based upon those discussions, I believe it is very likely several long time coaches - myself included - will stop playing Hoops Dynasty at some point shortly after the changes come out. You are taking away part of what we enjoy and replacing it with something else, and for no real reason.

Bottom line: DON'T FIX WHAT ISN'T BROKEN, and Hoops Dynasty certainly isn't broken to the point where it needs this kind of overhaul.

...I think it's broken...

... I think this ship sailed a long time ago ...

Long-time users have been voicing concerns about the game for years.

The developers have a vision. That vision is somewhat in contrast to the vision the users who play the game have.

In a contest between users vs developers - developers win.

This ship didn't sail a long time ago. The ship was dry docked and then left to rust.

I don't think this is a contest between users and developers.

This is an issue between a company and its customers, and in those issues, customers win or the company suffers.

It will be interesting to see how the worlds that are already sparsely populated fare in the weeks and months following the change. I could be wrong, but I think the drop off will increase, and this could even lead to the end of HD.

Perhaps "contest" was an unfortunate word to use. There has always been a difference between how a user views a product and how a designer/engineer views it. While not mutually exclusive, the priorities of each group are not always the same. I believe the two groups here are essentially at loggerheads. Since the designers are the gatekeepers, their vision, for better or worse, will prevail.

Bistiza is right on some extend. It's not like users do not want new stuff implemented. Owners are telling Seble the problems lie elsewhere, recruiting, the way it is, works pretty good. Can we concentrate on other stuff before trying to fix something that is working? It's a legit question.

Back to the point of my original post (without debating the merits and faults of the existing system) ... I think this question was answered when seble announced his decision to overhaul recruiting six months ago ... legit question or not it's time to move on ... you're beating a dead horse ...

I agree with Bistiza. Possum it's easy enough for seble to cancel his plans. Plenty of plans in the world have not come to fruition because of protest and boycott.

There are plenty of users who want recruiting totally redone. I certainly do.

Posted by hughesjr on 3/6/2016 3:42:00 PM (view original):
There are plenty of users who want recruiting totally redone. I certainly do.

I agree...though as I assume everyone, I am wondering if for the best...it was broken at Div 1

You're right cal but there are enough people out there ... vocal on the forums, and otherwise (myself included), who support the changes. So it is unlikely seble is going to suddenly stop six months of effort to now placate the voices of those who feel he ignores them. I do have reservations about how some things will work but I am not in the "recruiting is the best part of the game" crowd. Frankly, In addition to the D1 imbalance problem I think recruiting is boring and too formulaic. I agree that imbalances could have been addressed with less obtrusive changes and if seble had gone that route I'd have been okay with that but I welcome that he is trying to improve the game. I'm certainly not going to dismiss the effort sight unseen.

Posted by cal_bears on 3/6/2016 2:35:00 PM (view original):
I agree with Bistiza. Possum it's easy enough for seble to cancel his plans. Plenty of plans in the world have not come to fruition because of protest and boycott.

"Dilemmas" were protested prior to implementation, were implemented anyway, and were unbelievably awful.

Hopefully WIS has some institutional memory of that fiasco.

I've cut back on teams in anticipation of the changes and plan to cut back further. It seems like it will be a totally new product and I would not start with multiple teams in a new product. Disappointed that they have not figured out some smaller improvements to implement over the last few years.

My mind is open on whether the changes will be good or bad, but I'll experiment with a reduced slate of teams.

Posted by metsmax on 3/6/2016 8:53:00 PM (view original):
I've cut back on teams in anticipation of the changes and plan to cut back further. It seems like it will be a totally new product and I would not start with multiple teams in a new product. Disappointed that they have not figured out some smaller improvements to implement over the last few years.

My mind is open on whether the changes will be good or bad, but I'll experiment with a reduced slate of teams.

I have been thinking the same thing to some degree. Part of me just doesn't want to go thru the trouble of re-learning recruiting. I'm certainly not very good at recruiting yet on the D1 level. But the fact that I understand it at least an above average level makes it feel a burdensome to have to re-learn / adjust when I can't help but think some other changes might have been satisfactory. I probably won't drop all my teams, but we'll see how it plays out and how much different it feels.