They need to fix this. It is unplayable on my phone.

Nothing good about it! This is horrible I'm not even going to wait until all my seasons are up I'm out!! And so should be the idiot that done this!

Posted by tecwrg on 10/16/2015 9:30:00 PM (view original):
I really don't get all the ********.  The old design had not changed in nearly 9 1/2 years.  It was dated.  It was not mobile friendly.

The new look is visually very different.  But all the old functionality is there, with a few little extras added.

Yes, there are some bugs to be worked through.  The important thing is that the game is FINALLY getting attention.

It seems like most of the people ******** about the change is because they don't like change.  If people never changed, we'd still have tails and be living in trees.

As a general rule, people do things for the rush(endorphins pumping) or out of routine.

You get the rush from an active participation.   Sports, sex, exercise, etc, etc.   The blood is flowing and you're invested in the activity.    There's usually a high-five, hell yeah! moment. 

The routine is cup of coffee, read the newspaper, eat a bagel sort of thing.   Almost a mindless, going-thru-the motions thing that you always do.   You might get a high-five, hell yeah! moment but it's unlikely and they are few and far between.

I think we know which category playing simsports falls into. 

So we've got a change in our routine.    Not necessarily the worst thing ever but, with change, you like to see benefit.   The people ******** aren't seeing a benefit.   From my perspective, it seems the changes were geared towards mobile users.   I'm not one of those.   22-32 y/o me would beat 52 y/o me's *** for even thinking about playing a nerdy internet game on the phone.  Young me would say "WTF is wrong with you?  You don't have anything better to do than punch buttons on your phone?  I'm sure that can wait until you're home alone.  Put down your phone and interact with the world.   ****, what happened to you?"   I get that messing with your phone 24/7 is the direction the world is heading but it's not me.   There is no benefit for me.

That said, some mobile people are complaining that it's unplayable on their phone.   So you've got the Desktop Dinosaurs telling kids to get off their lawn while seeing no benefit to the changes and the Phone Zombies pressing their buttons and finding the site changes made the game frustrating and unplayable.

In summation, I don't see how these changes benefit me or HBD as a whole.   Maybe there will be a flood of new owners and HBD will be full of healthy, active worlds.  Until then, I just see change for the sake of change. 

For everybody who so far has publicly said "it's unplayable" on their phones, there's been an equal number who have said it's much more usable on their phones.

Most of the people who have said that they hate the new UI have done so without listing any reasons.  When pressed, a few have responded along the lines of "I don't like the colors", or "I have to hit different buttons", or something along those lines.  In other words, trivial ****.

There are some bugs.  It's seems like they are being addressed promptly by WIS.  Though I will question the decision to push this out on a Thursday rather than a Monday, under the assumption that they're not going to have full staffing over the weekend to address the additional bugs that are being uncovered.  Two "dead days" of support after a massive overhaul of the UI is not going to win points from those who are upset.

Overall, I see this as a foundational change.  Some time ago (a year ago, maybe?), they upgraded the hardware that HBD runs on.  Cycles run much faster now.  Everybody cheered, because it was a noticeable improvement.  Then, a couple of months ago, they made another upgrade to the software that the game is coded in, so that they could position themselves to support and make updates to the game with more current software infrastructure.  Everybody "ho hum"ed that change because there was nothing "visable" to the user experience.  Now, they respond to one of the most prevalent "demands" from their user community, which was to make the game more mobile friendly.  I was assume that the old UI could not be adapted to mobile because it was written before the prevalence of iPads and tablets, and when the majority of people had flip phones and not smartphones, and playing a game like HBD on a handheld device was not on anybody's radar.  So they had to come up with something that was completely new, but that retained all the old functionality and same overall layout with respect to menus.

My guess is that this is just another step in the evolution of the game.  Bringing it forward from 2006 technology to 2015 technology.  As I said in the last paragraph, it's foundational in that it's positioning them to evolve the game even further.  And I would assume that should they actually do the marketing they say they're going to do to bring in new customers, that a lot of these new customers will be using handheld devices as well as desktops.  Seeing this version as their first experience is likely to be a lot more attractive than seeing the old version as their first experience on their smartphones.

Like I said earlier, some people hate change, period.  They want things to stay the way they're used to, forever.  As I also said earlier, I think in another thread, some people will always find something to complain about.  If you stand on a busy street corner handing out $100 bills to people passing by, somebody will complain that the guy in front of them got a crisp new $100 bill while they only got a wrinkled old $100 bill.  You can't please everybody at all times, no matter what you do.

At best, this seems to have been received with about a 50/50 split.   It's the nature of this site for the complainers to be louder and more than willing to share their opinion.   However, if half the people responding don't like it, that can't be a good thing.   WifS is not going back so those folks have to decide if they're going to adapt or move on.   That doesn't seem to be the proper path for advancement.

As a 52 year old with a desktop computer - because I have a desk - and someone who works with online media - I guess I have a foot in both worlds.

With the old site, sure, I got used to working with the desktop interface.  Problem is that using the desktop interface on a mobile screen was just too much swiping, scrolling, maximizing things so I could find what I wanted to do.  I hated trying to mess with the settings or lineup or pitching, because I always felt like something would **** up.  I would only do "important" things on my desktop.

The new mobile appears to take the visual element out of it, but use steps to let me get to actually being able to game manage with it.  That looks like what the goal was to me.

As for what my 52 year old self thinks, well, you can find stats that will show that internet usage is exponentially more mobile than five years ago.  It's not that people are pushing buttons all day long, it's more like they're not waiting till they sit down at a desk to see "their ****" anymore.  Online sites that don't have mobile accessibility will eventually be forgotten by their users.  Once you're not in someone's bookmarks anymore, you're forgotten.

Five years ago, talking **** with a 30 year old guy I worked with, he flat out laughed when I mentioned I had a desktop setup at home.  In his mind no one used desktops anymore, why would you buy anything but a laptop?  He was probably just as surprised that I even had a desk.

I'll disagree with people pushing buttons all day.

It was old-timers day at the gym, evidently, but the dozen of so under 40 were playing with their phones between sets.   Every one of them.

Posted by Guzzoid on 10/16/2015 10:36:00 PM (view original):
How about giving us a setting to use the old setting or the new. Kind of like the "full site" option you see on web pages

This.  Can this be done?

i just keep finding cool and useful new things...like telling me how many pitchers and hitters i have on my roster and telling me how many that will be once i submit my roster moves...incredibly helpful for end of year roster moves and i'm sure i'll love it even more at the beginning of next year

Posted by bighead34 on 10/17/2015 4:27:00 PM (view original):
i just keep finding cool and useful new things...like telling me how many pitchers and hitters i have on my roster and telling me how many that will be once i submit my roster moves...incredibly helpful for end of year roster moves and i'm sure i'll love it even more at the beginning of next year

That was already available an update or two ago.

I'm OK with the design but disappointed with the total lack of functionality to recruit NEW WIS members to join my specific world. I misunderstood. I thought they were going to give us a sign up link that we could use on something like Facebook or Twitter to link directly to our leagues. What they gave us, to my knowledge and please correct me if I'm wrong, is the ability to spam current users to invite them into our open and public worlds. I'm not sure about this because I'm not in an open/public world right now but I have begun to get invites. I am also very skeptical about this ad campaign. I won't say they are lying but internet advertising is tough and it could easily fail. This happens to be something I make my living off of. At any rate, if WIS starts finding that it takes $40-$50 in ads to get 1 new user, the ads may not last long. AND that's not out of the question (it could easily go even higher). What is really needed is an easier way for current players to bring their friends aboard. Word of mouth is crucial online. I am not bragging but illustrating a point. I make a modest income of about $65-$70,000 a year online and I do that with ZERO paid advertising. Until WIS learns how to generate organic/referral traffic we will continue to have slow filling leagues because there just won't be enough new players. A lot of people are putting a lot of hope in this advertising that is coming. I am not and I do hope I'm wrong because it's crunch time.

I can live with the new format if they change the damn color scheme.  Put some contrast between lines like the old version.  Also, personal pet peeve, male the scoring in the play by play that orange-yellow mix of the old style.  I loved that

Posted by jibe on 10/17/2015 4:44:00 PM (view original):

Not happy about having to zoom down now for numerous things. Such as to even be able to see the IFA signings tab on the reports page. As well as having to do so to see all the players on the lineup page and the page to set up the pitching staff. I now need a microscope to see what I easily could before this.

I don't use a phone to play HBD, I don't even have one nor want one, so this has done little for me. I'll second what MikeT already said. I'll give this a chance and them a chance to work on it but I'm not feeling too great about this update. I guess I'll get used to it.

Agreed on the players pictures now appearing on the lineup and pitching staff pages.  It spreads things out too much such that not everything fits on one screen without scrolling.

It was suggested during the beta test that there be an option to not display players pictures on any pages.  A "work mode" option.  It was obviously not acted on.

I will post more later when I have the time but I have been playing WIFS for a long time and I absolutely hate the new interface. I don't find it user friendly, can't see what I want where I want when I want and am instead forced to see things I don't want to see when I don't want to see them. I am going to give it a little bit of time but I have already (since the change) spent less then 25% of my normal time on the site. I would really like the option to go back to the old interface if allowed...