BFD, man, they'd be sim teams anyway with crappy recruits. I really don't get your negativity on this. Even if it was the 16% you originally had seble saying, that's awesome. You want more coachs, but you rail against a good tool to get them here. With sebles new number of 32%... man, that's pretty good. Your only other idea is a discounted 5 pack, and I have to agree, who is going to pay that kind of cash for an online game they've never played?

Quote: Originally Posted By cburton23 on 3/04/2010
Z- This was your post in a different thread-

"

Quote: Originally Posted By doomey on 3/03/2010
And IF the population is substanativly increased due to the restored incentive, then it will have been the right move.

IF it adds 1 more coach it was the right move. "

So why is FreeHD different?

Because FreeHD is a proactive solution to bring in more people. Rewards is an in game incentive that isn't known about until one is already playing. It is a retention incentive (or it is now with the new structure). FreeHD is a population increase incentive. I see the latter as more important, and I did say that the change in rewards would be more acceptabe WITH a freeHD reprise to help retention.

z just is too young and has no idea on how to build business. With a 32% rentention rate, it's proof that it works. There is no difference between ghost teams and sims so that argument is absurd.

Quote: Originally posted by diablo11 on 3/05/2010z just is too young and has no idea on how to build business.  With a 32% rentention rate, it's proof that it works.  There is no difference between ghost teams and sims so that argument is absurd.

Actually, while I am not going to chime in on the main point of the thread - other than to say that my first experience with HD was freehd) The claim that there is no difference in a ghost team and a SIMAI is a farce. Look in wooden at ECSU.

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=3110

That team is horrid. There are seven walk-ons to five scholarship players. The worst simai team is not going to be THAT bad.

Bad example, A. First year coaches who don't recruit sim ai will sign all but 2 walk ons so its like sim ai is still running them anyways. Game planning doesn't mean much, as long as the last coach has something set up that isn't stupid you won't completely ruin them.



Your example above is a guy who has been there for multiple seasons and the sim WILL NOT recruit for him anymore. It is a hell of a lot easier to damage a team when you can have more then 2 walk ons.

Quote: Originally posted by furry_nipps on 3/05/2010Bad example, A. First year coaches who don't recruit sim ai will sign all but 2 walk ons so its like sim ai is still running them anyways. Game planning doesn't mean much, as long as the last coach has something set up that isn't stupid you won't completely ruin them.



Your example above is a guy who has been there for multiple seasons and the sim WILL NOT recruit for him anymore. It is a hell of a lot easier to damage a team when you can have more then 2 walk ons.

Its still an example of a ghost team. There are differences in abandoned teams; Although arguably its true that the WORST ghost teams are actually more of a risk with an 'introductory five pack" than with a one-off freehd.

Just pointing out that there IS a difference between a SIMAI and a ghost - not that big for one season, true.

But go over one season and the difference becomes glaring.

Is a sim team that much harder to beat than a ghost team who did that? Yes there is a slight difference, but not enough to make any difference. Ghost teams vs. sims is completely irrelevant considering the amount of sims in DIII

I hate to say this, I really do, but I agree with diablo. I dont see much difference between a one year "Ghost team" and a sim team. If they only keep 32% of the free HDers that is still that much more than we currently have. Maybe they could do other promotions as well but this is not that bad of an idea.

Personally not against Freehd if used as a temporary promotion. Agreed that a one year ghost ship is not that distinguishable from a simai. Agreed its not that bad of an idea.

So on those points, amazingly enough, I'm not in strong disagreement with Diablo, so that must be a sign of the apocalypse.


I just wish that, if a team, is not touched, even for recruiting for several full years that the SIMAI would take over again to avoid a team as hideous as that ECSU one. Its an RPI bomb that drags everyone's ratings down with it.

Quote: Originally Posted By zhawks on 3/04/2010

Quote: Originally posted by seble on 3/04/2010 To clear up the record on a few items:

- Retention rate (users who purchased at least one season after the free season) for last year's promotion on FoxSports.com (which is what this new promo is for) was 17%.

- Retention rate from FREEHD users was 32%.

- New users in their first season who used a promo code and did not yet purchase another season CANNOT use FSS.

If you aren't going to allow them to use FSS then you might as well scrap the whole thing. New coaches would be missing the biggest factor in the game today

I really disagree with you here. FSS is an advanced option of HD. Let them figure out the basics first. If they dont know what it is and havent used it they wont miss it.

not to mention they might purchase the next season just to see what the FSS is. This might even create more retention by inticing users to buy a second season and thus increasing their chances of becoming addicted.

I got hooked off of a FREEHD promo! It should entice some to continue to play... If not, I see no problem with a human recruited ghost ship compared to a sim run team..

why would there be human ghost ships? there were before because coaches used the freehd to use FSS and than let it go. Now they wont do that so what advatage would they have to signing up and not playing it out?

Good point! I just got soo used to reading that teams would be ghost ships with Freehd that I thought it was a given.

1 Free HD got me hooked and I have been here ever since......