Posted by dyoungquist on 12/7/2024 1:08:00 AM (view original):
Big announcement when new ownership took over, then nothing for the next few weeks. Same thing that has happened every other time new owners have taken over. Big announcement promising big changes/updates, then no communication for weeks, then maybe a few small changes, then silence for weeks that turn into months that turn into years.

This is starting to look like the same thing. I hope I am wrong, but I have no confidence this time will be any different than the others.

Quote from the new owner announcement e-mail....

"...and we're committed to transparent, frequent communication going forward."

Not a peep out of them since the takeover announcement a month ago.

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/7/2024 3:51:00 AM (view original):

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/7/2024 1:08:00 AM (view original):
Big announcement when new ownership took over, then nothing for the next few weeks. Same thing that has happened every other time new owners have taken over. Big announcement promising big changes/updates, then no communication for weeks, then maybe a few small changes, then silence for weeks that turn into months that turn into years.

This is starting to look like the same thing. I hope I am wrong, but I have no confidence this time will be any different than the others.

Quote from the new owner announcement e-mail....

"...and we're committed to transparent, frequent communication going forward."

Not a peep out of them since the takeover announcement a month ago.

Peep.

We're getting closer to completing the transition from SportsHub to our own infrastructure. I'll have a more detailed update next week.

Trust me, we did not buy WIS and hire a team of devs without having some big plans for the games.

I would also encourage you to join the Discord servers. We hang around in there and it's a great way to interact with the communities in real time.

Hoops Dynasty - https://discord.gg/pffFZ595b6

Gridiron Dynasty - https://discord.gg/za7h2hC2aA

Hardball Dynasty - https://discord.gg/CHxTAjwX4x

Posted by cosborn on 12/4/2024 8:00:00 PM (view original):
It would be good the HEAR from then new owners. What, in general, is the plan? What are priorities? Which games will one discontinued, if any? Just something.

We're working on a public development roadmap. Stay tuned.

One big change I'd like to see is more variability in player development. If you do "all the right things" your players should develop better. Currently if you look at teams' ML rosters it's full of first round picks. It's like anything past the second round doesn't matter, and DITR is 99% luck. Need way more variability - both positive and negative - in player development.

I’m in a league still trying to fill since the rollover on July 17th.

Reduce the number of teams in a league from 32 to 24. Two leagues of 12 teams in two six-team divisions. Top two teams in each division make the post season. That would help a ton.

Posted by cosborn on 12/10/2024 10:53:00 PM (view original):
I’m in a league still trying to fill since the rollover on July 17th.

Reduce the number of teams in a league from 32 to 24. Two leagues of 12 teams in two six-team divisions. Top two teams in each division make the post season. That would help a ton.

Pass - that world needs to merge with another. 6 months of trying to fill? Either kill the world or merge it with another. There are FAR TOO MANY worlds out there - it's an issue of supply over demand. Less worlds, more demand. But it's a fine line because that's the income; and you don't want people waiting around to get into a world or they'll walk away before even joining the game. But cutting teams is just going to pit All-Star team against All-Star team at some point. I'd much rather it keep closer to the MLB (though I know the MLB has changed a bit since this game was released),

And I highly suggest people join the discord, helps build the community as well.

"And I highly suggest people join the discord, helps build the community as well."

Between work accounts and personal accounts, I already have over 20 different accounts with different passwords I need to remember. I'm not thrilled about having to add another one to the list.

If you’re so unhappy with the product why are you still around? I assume it’s because you still enjoy the game. I hope people realize that in any business transaction, the day it transfers over it doesn’t mean the end users will immediately see an update. Sure the last ownership change didn’t provide much to the end product, but at least give this one a chance. This one is also a player of the game, so a little more invested than the previous ones. At least give them 6 months before back to your rants. I. The least for the community; give it a chance to grow again.

Will they have anything in a 6 months? I don’t know, I’m not a programmer nor do I know what they feel are the most important issues. I hope people have enough sense to released that some of the business side needs to stay behind the wall, how many gaming devs have you seen that try to be 100% transparent with ideas they are working on or timelines; but the communities grows impatient because timelines and goals change? Quite often. So holding the cards a little close and being aware of what they release makes a lot of sense too.

And the discord isn’t a rabbit hole, mostly just a group of people who share ideas on the game, share thoughts on moved an owner is about to make like contract size for a FA, has A LOT of tips and tricks - many pulled from the forums but now in an easy to find place, and people answering each others questions about the game or theories they want to try. Not much negativity on the discord and hope to keep it that way.

Posted by Mwett on 12/14/2024 2:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/14/2024 12:24:00 PM (view original):
"And I highly suggest people join the discord, helps build the community as well."

Between work accounts and personal accounts, I already have over 20 different accounts with different passwords I need to remember. I'm not thrilled about having to add another one to the list.

You're on similar pages with me lately. I was just gonna add my own "discord - pass" when I saw your reply. First of all, what has multiple ownership changes and non-significant game fixes but a lot of blahblahblah promises got us in just the short time I've been here ? But if you've got something to say, keep it out here in the open. With enough real-life already in the way and built-in site-mail/TC/forum threads, I don't need another rabbit hole to jump down that ultimately goes nowhere as I'm sure is happening there

STOP ALREADY with the more frequent and now new versions of ad spam. Yeah yeah there's ad blockers but let's start at the top. I'll contribute $0 to any of your sponsors on simple irritation navigation principle

100 on kill dead leagues, rough baseline could be double-digit formation openings after 3 months. More merge attempts are happening than previous yet many of them are still in trouble after only a couple seasons. There's way more multiple 10+ openings leagues doing nothing for 3+ months, and a couple 20-ish openings 6-ish months. Most of these are obviously not trying to fill and no chat for months. Are you blind or stupid on bizzness practices and customer service ? I dare anyone with authority here to admit there's orders on high to ignore and not fix this, or let me guess those convs are already taking place in your backroom private think tank discords ?

Mwett - My site mail is open. I am genuinely happy to answer any and all questions you have, but maybe I can shed some light in here..

• The discord servers are community run and a way for WIS users to interact in real time. If it's not for you, that's ok. All updates from us will be posted in both the forums and the discord servers, so you won't miss anything (other than the good natured ribbing in the HD discord) if you're not in there.
• The good news is HBD is running at over 95% capacity right now. The bad news is some worlds take a long time to fill. I've been in worlds that roll slowly and it's super frustrating. Optimizing filling HBD worlds is VERY high on my priority list. If anyone is looking to merge worlds, send me a site mail and I'll work with our customer service team to get that done. Having 20 owners waiting months for 10+ people to join their world isn't a good user experience or business practice.
• It's not a secret the codebase is outdated. This makes simple game updates and new features difficult to implement. Since closing a little over 30 days ago, we've more than doubled the WIS staff and have committed to updating the codebase as a way to invest in the longevity of WIS.
• We haven't touched the ad frequency since we acquired the business. It's the same as it was under SportsHub. I know the ads are annoying though, so it's something I'll look into.

-Bob

Right now, I'd be satisfied with having the ability to submit a support ticket to replace an AWOL owner..... been trying for two days...

Posted by WISBob on 12/15/2024 12:05:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Mwett on 12/14/2024 2:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/14/2024 12:24:00 PM (view original):
"And I highly suggest people join the discord, helps build the community as well."

Between work accounts and personal accounts, I already have over 20 different accounts with different passwords I need to remember. I'm not thrilled about having to add another one to the list.

You're on similar pages with me lately. I was just gonna add my own "discord - pass" when I saw your reply. First of all, what has multiple ownership changes and non-significant game fixes but a lot of blahblahblah promises got us in just the short time I've been here ? But if you've got something to say, keep it out here in the open. With enough real-life already in the way and built-in site-mail/TC/forum threads, I don't need another rabbit hole to jump down that ultimately goes nowhere as I'm sure is happening there

STOP ALREADY with the more frequent and now new versions of ad spam. Yeah yeah there's ad blockers but let's start at the top. I'll contribute $0 to any of your sponsors on simple irritation navigation principle

100 on kill dead leagues, rough baseline could be double-digit formation openings after 3 months. More merge attempts are happening than previous yet many of them are still in trouble after only a couple seasons. There's way more multiple 10+ openings leagues doing nothing for 3+ months, and a couple 20-ish openings 6-ish months. Most of these are obviously not trying to fill and no chat for months. Are you blind or stupid on bizzness practices and customer service ? I dare anyone with authority here to admit there's orders on high to ignore and not fix this, or let me guess those convs are already taking place in your backroom private think tank discords ?

Mwett - My site mail is open. I am genuinely happy to answer any and all questions you have, but maybe I can shed some light in here..

• The discord servers are community run and a way for WIS users to interact in real time. If it's not for you, that's ok. All updates from us will be posted in both the forums and the discord servers, so you won't miss anything (other than the good natured ribbing in the HD discord) if you're not in there.
• The good news is HBD is running at over 95% capacity right now. The bad news is some worlds take a long time to fill. I've been in worlds that roll slowly and it's super frustrating. Optimizing filling HBD worlds is VERY high on my priority list. If anyone is looking to merge worlds, send me a site mail and I'll work with our customer service team to get that done. Having 20 owners waiting months for 10+ people to join their world isn't a good user experience or business practice.
• It's not a secret the codebase is outdated. This makes simple game updates and new features difficult to implement. Since closing a little over 30 days ago, we've more than doubled the WIS staff and have committed to updating the codebase as a way to invest in the longevity of WIS.
• We haven't touched the ad frequency since we acquired the business. It's the same as it was under SportsHub. I know the ads are annoying though, so it's something I'll look into.

-Bob

Bob
Why was the information about the site being down next Tuesday only sent to world commissioners? Why was it not sent to all HBD users? Also, in one of my worlds the commissioner posted 2 sentences about the site being down in our world chat. In another world I am in the entire (I assume), much longer, message was posted in world chat.

The entire message was good information/communication. Not sharing that full message with all HBD users (along with past experiences) is why many of us remain skeptical that things will be different this time around.

Another thing. Since your group bought WIS, ads are popping up where they did not used to pop up before you bought the site. When I try to read a thread in the forums I now have to close an ad before I can read the thread. We never had to do that before your group bought WIS. The frequency of ads may not have changed but where they are popping up absolutely has changed. EDIT: A little further investigation shows it happens when moving around the site in general, not just the forums. Had one pop up when I clicked on "Main" in the upper left and had to close it before I could do anything else. Annoying to be forced to close an ad where I never had to close one before.

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/15/2024 11:39:00 PM (view original):

Posted by WISBob on 12/15/2024 12:05:00 AM (view original):

Posted by Mwett on 12/14/2024 2:37:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/14/2024 12:24:00 PM (view original):
"And I highly suggest people join the discord, helps build the community as well."

Between work accounts and personal accounts, I already have over 20 different accounts with different passwords I need to remember. I'm not thrilled about having to add another one to the list.

You're on similar pages with me lately. I was just gonna add my own "discord - pass" when I saw your reply. First of all, what has multiple ownership changes and non-significant game fixes but a lot of blahblahblah promises got us in just the short time I've been here ? But if you've got something to say, keep it out here in the open. With enough real-life already in the way and built-in site-mail/TC/forum threads, I don't need another rabbit hole to jump down that ultimately goes nowhere as I'm sure is happening there

STOP ALREADY with the more frequent and now new versions of ad spam. Yeah yeah there's ad blockers but let's start at the top. I'll contribute $0 to any of your sponsors on simple irritation navigation principle

100 on kill dead leagues, rough baseline could be double-digit formation openings after 3 months. More merge attempts are happening than previous yet many of them are still in trouble after only a couple seasons. There's way more multiple 10+ openings leagues doing nothing for 3+ months, and a couple 20-ish openings 6-ish months. Most of these are obviously not trying to fill and no chat for months. Are you blind or stupid on bizzness practices and customer service ? I dare anyone with authority here to admit there's orders on high to ignore and not fix this, or let me guess those convs are already taking place in your backroom private think tank discords ?

Mwett - My site mail is open. I am genuinely happy to answer any and all questions you have, but maybe I can shed some light in here..

• The discord servers are community run and a way for WIS users to interact in real time. If it's not for you, that's ok. All updates from us will be posted in both the forums and the discord servers, so you won't miss anything (other than the good natured ribbing in the HD discord) if you're not in there.
• The good news is HBD is running at over 95% capacity right now. The bad news is some worlds take a long time to fill. I've been in worlds that roll slowly and it's super frustrating. Optimizing filling HBD worlds is VERY high on my priority list. If anyone is looking to merge worlds, send me a site mail and I'll work with our customer service team to get that done. Having 20 owners waiting months for 10+ people to join their world isn't a good user experience or business practice.
• It's not a secret the codebase is outdated. This makes simple game updates and new features difficult to implement. Since closing a little over 30 days ago, we've more than doubled the WIS staff and have committed to updating the codebase as a way to invest in the longevity of WIS.
• We haven't touched the ad frequency since we acquired the business. It's the same as it was under SportsHub. I know the ads are annoying though, so it's something I'll look into.

-Bob

Bob
Why was the information about the site being down next Tuesday only sent to world commissioners? Why was it not sent to all HBD users? Also, in one of my worlds the commissioner posted 2 sentences about the site being down in our world chat. In another world I am in the entire (I assume), much longer, message was posted in world chat.

The entire message was good information/communication. Not sharing that full message with all HBD users (along with past experiences) is why many of us remain skeptical that things will be different this time around.

Another thing. Since your group bought WIS, ads are popping up where they did not used to pop up before you bought the site. When I try to read a thread in the forums I now have to close an ad before I can read the thread. We never had to do that before your group bought WIS. The frequency of ads may not have changed but where they are popping up absolutely has changed. EDIT: A little further investigation shows it happens when moving around the site in general, not just the forums. Had one pop up when I clicked on "Main" in the upper left and had to close it before I could do anything else. Annoying to be forced to close an ad where I never had to close one before.

The message was posted in the critical news forum, which is for all users regardless of which WIS game they play. As commissioner in two worlds, knowing not everyone checks forums every day, I posted the link in world chat in both worlds to keep my owners informed.

I know there is a way to post a note from WIS to each world's world chat and maybe that can be done as a reminder of Tuesday's outage.

"The message was posted in the critical news forum, which is for all users regardless of which WIS game they play. As commissioner in two worlds, knowing not everyone checks forums every day, I posted the link in world chat in both worlds to keep my owners informed.

I know there is a way to post a note from WIS to each world's world chat and maybe that can be done as a reminder of Tuesday's outage."

Drummer_66 -- I just went to the Hardball Dynasty Baseball > Critical News Forum. Last post there was in 2016. I did finally find it in the WhatIFSports > Critical News Forum (after having to close a popup ad for something I have already bought). I'm guessing most HBD users never check that forum.

Posted by dyoungquist on 12/16/2024 9:19:00 AM (view original):
"The message was posted in the critical news forum, which is for all users regardless of which WIS game they play. As commissioner in two worlds, knowing not everyone checks forums every day, I posted the link in world chat in both worlds to keep my owners informed.

I know there is a way to post a note from WIS to each world's world chat and maybe that can be done as a reminder of Tuesday's outage."

Drummer_66 -- I just went to the Hardball Dynasty Baseball > Critical News Forum. Last post there was in 2016. I did finally find it in the WhatIFSports > Critical News Forum (after having to close a popup ad for something I have already bought). I'm guessing most HBD users never check that forum.

Not for Hardball Dynasty, for all WIS games.

https://www.whatifsports.com/forums/Topics.aspx?forumID=524&Timeframe=0