Well, it looks like the "my locker" page for what if has been redesigned. Personally, I am pretty ticked off that they would spend time redesigning the my locker page (poorly laid out as the new design is), and we are stuck with no new updates for the hockey sim yet again. When are the Fox Sports people going to care about the hockey sim and its users? Well, I can tell you that answer, and it is never. As a loyal user who has spent countless $$$ on this site waiting for the long ago promised hockey dynasty only to watch time and again other sports on this site get priority over the hockey sim, let's just say that myself and many others have about had enough. We wait three (or more) months for the new players to arrive, and the new baseball players are out in a few days after the end of the season. We've asked time and again for MINOR tweaks to the hockey sim (snake style draft, additional $ cap options for leagues when we are building one, etc...) and all requests have fallen on deaf ears.
Back in the day, open leagues would fill in less than one week, and a good theme league would fill in a few days. Now? Good luck filling an open league in less than three weeks and many themes never do fill. If you eliminate the fifty or so loyal users in the hockey sim, you wouldn't have any new leagues filling at all. The lack of advertising and promoting What If is disturbing and puzzling. A few well placed ads would send the hockey sim skyrocketing. Alas, the lack of advertising and lack of updates are just an indication that Fox could not care any less about their loyal customers. There was a time when I personally would have 20 or so hockey teams going at one time. Now, if I joined every available league there was, I still don't think it would number 20. When someone questioned admin about this a few years ago, they were told that improvements would be made when more users would come onboard the site. That is akin to owning a restaurant with a bad cook and lousy food and service and telling customers that a new, better cook and service improvements would be implemented when more people started eating there. How does this make sense in a business?
When you do a search for What If Sports, Wikipedia has a nice description and states that What If won a Webby Award in 2005 as the best sports website. It isn't difficult to see why. It also isn't difficult to see that What If could be a major player again if Fox Sports wanted them to.
I guess what I am saying here is that the hockey users (myself included) in general are extremely frustrated in the lack of attention paid to the hockey sim in general. With veteran owners dropping out or losing interest on a weekly basis, and little to no new users to speak of, I fear the hockey sim will soon be a thing of the past like clutch racing dynasty.
Lastly, I've sent a copy of this to admin via a ticket. I will post here their response.

Well, if nothing else, here is their prompt response...

10/15/2015 10:39 AM Customer Support
Hi Chuck,

It is vital to us to have a site that is mobile friendly before moving forwards towards updates to individual games to drive more users to the site.

Thank you for your comments.

I responded....

10/15/2015 10:54 AM chuckinrlp
But what about the other concerns expressed in my ticket such as lack of updates to the hockey sim for YEARS?????
Seriously, how much programming is involved in listing different caps for leagues when you are constructing one? Sure, the snake style draft may take some time to construct, but it can't be that difficult in looking at the required programming.
I guess what I am saying is that users are dropping like flies and you (Fox Sports, not you personally) just don't seem to give two cents that they are.

10/15/2015 10:58 AM Customer Support
Chuck,

We do hope to make other updates to the rest of our games much sooner rather than later, but there were technical upgrades that were of higher priority, including making the site responsive. We cannot update every game at once and we are using our resources to the best of our ability to grow and maintain the users across the site.

Thank you.

Beating a dead horse I guess. I know some of the computer equipment was antiquated, but NO updates for several years to the hockey sim? I guess I'm just fooling myself that they really care about the hockey users. Kind of like farting while sitting in a mud puddle and convincing myself I'm taking a bubble bath.

I can say that if they managed to frustrate chuck, man that took some doin'.

However, the site wide redesign was really needed.  It's 2015 now and it looks to me like everything's been optimized for mobile use.  Having done that, now they can invite new users to try the existing games, and then get back to upgrading.

Hell, at least they're doing something forward looking.

As for how long we've been promised Dynasty, upgrades, etc... the people who mentioned those things may no longer be employed at WiS by now.

Sitewide redesign is not a start, but being optimistic, I'd say maybe it's a long overdue reboot.

A little background on this. The landing, login, accounts and locker pages have been redone to work better on modern devices.  The idea was to spend some resources modernizing a game to open it up to mobile users. Hardball was chosen to go first, but in order for that game to fully work on a phone, some of the required core site pages needed to be updated as well. So the new Hardball is launching today. It looks great on phones and hopefully will help attract a new set of users. I know the obvious solution would be to let us do more updates to our games. We all know this, however our resources have been spread thin over many Fox projects. But if this update goes over well for Hardball, we can use this as ammo to prioritize updates for the other games. We're not giving up on WIS, just trying new approaches because what we've been hoping for isn't going to happen on the current course.

Mike, this wasn't directed at you personally. YOU are the only person that we see and have contact with that actually cares about the hockey sim and the users. I am just voicing frustration that myself and other unnamed owners are expressing, and that is the lack of updates are making the veteran owners find another hobby to take up their time and $$$. We have been promised an update and a dynasty version for so many years that many of us are just tired of waiting and are moving on. Open leagues are taking three weeks to a month to fill, and themes can take even longer, if they fill at all. I personally love this site and the many friends I have made on it. I've even met a few in person and they are great guys. Understand though how frustrated we all are at the perceived lack of interest in keeping the hockey product fresh with much needed updates and changes.

I completely understand where you are coming from Chuck and definitely don't blame users for leaving.  Trust me, us WIS guys have been hearing you all loud and clear for years.  We've been trying everything we can to change things but it is tough to have a real impact from our position.  So we're trying new strategies that may help turn the tide.  We all love our WIS games and you know that if I had my way, we'd all be playing the most realistic hockey dynasty game available at this very moment.  But, alas, hopefully some day (before Gollum gets too old)!

Nice to hear from you Mike, glad you're still there (if that's where you want to be LOL).  I know your feedback will matter to many longtime users.

Posted by damag on 10/15/2015 4:07:00 PM (view original):
Nice to hear from you Mike, glad you're still there (if that's where you want to be LOL).  I know your feedback will matter to many longtime users.

It's a great job -- working on games and with technology that I'm interested in!  The only bummer is that it's not always the games I have at the top of my list.

Posted by bronxcheer on 10/15/2015 4:08:00 PM (view original):
JUNE, 2019

Let's not be overly optimistic 

Well said Sir Charles .. Well said. Over 50 teams a year averaged for the last 10 years. How may leagues started?? How much I've spent and generated for WIS and for what? being told the same damn thing again and again "changes are coming" , damn right they are ...on the eleventh hours for me.

I think the whole site has really suffered recently (not just hockey).  There was a major update etc planned for the Sim League Baseball (SLB) almost 2 years ago.  Even a forum set up etc etc  To this date, nothing has been done. It would seem it died 'on the vine'.   Baseball (HBD & SLB) are the biggest communites in WIS and a planned revamp for them died...can't expect anything for the smaller hockey community.  

Overall it seem the whole site was on 'auto pilot' for past 2 years. Due to that, it  has lost a lot of people due to that neglect.  Only recently has does it appear they woke up... A small HBD update and now this new look for the site....  We'll see if it continues or do they flip the auto pilot button again.

Note this is just what I've seen over the past 2 years and it appears to me.  Not knocking Mike etc just saying how it looks to me.