Posted by doitagain on 4/21/2011 9:36:00 AM (view original):
Posted by treyomo on 4/20/2011 11:37:00 PM (view original):
10 of the 11 worlds dropped by at least 15 coaches from year 3 to 4, and all 6 reporting worlds have dropped at least another 13 in year 5. At what point does this hit their wallets by losing paying customers instead of free players? And at what point do paying customers grow tired of playing 80% SIMs and stop paying?
with all the goodbyes in the forum, the overall drop in teams is less than 10%. Although it is still significant, it doesn't necessarily spell the end of GD as some have predicted. Mind you, GD worlds weren't all that populated to start with, so it is nonetheless a bad situation.
having said that, I don't think WIS will feel any noticeable hit to its bottom line for a while. People don't realize how many coaches were playing for free pre-update. If you averaged a level 4 bowl appearance, you were playing for free if you bought seasons 5 at a time.
What is bad is all the worlds filled with sims. That makes it boring. I don't think the reward points for long term veteran coaches have run out yet. My guess is that it will take another 4-6 months.
the way it stands now, the only way to increase the population is to recruit new blood. GD can be saved only through that method. I believe the engine will more or less stand as is, with perhaps some minor tweak going forward. So all the veteran coaches who are unhappy will remain so. Fee free to disagree, but I don't buy the argument that the new blood will become dissatisfied with the engine once they gain experience in the same way a veteran coach is dissatisfied about the game. With all the valid complaints about the new engine, there were arguably as much crap about the old engine (there is plenty of room for debate here).
I'm sure it's more than 10% of veterans who have left. There's probably some who got the free season a few seasons ago who have stuck around. That's what makes things even worse. Even after giving out hundreds of free seasons to coaches who weren't playing at the time, the numbers have still dropped below pre-update. That's a very bad sign in my opinion.
I dropped down to one team but hung on for a few seasons to see if things would improve. But I'm just not having any fun anymore and after tonight I will be without a team. The game just isn't as exciting anymore, especially when there are so few coaches around. I may be back after awhile, we'll see.