There has to be something whatif can do.  Maybe cut the price of a season in half to $6.50 a season, I could picture that drawing more people.  I bet there could be some other good idea's brought up, but the game is way more fun with it packed like it used to be, and when you had battles on more than only the top recruits.

for me its advertising.

I would have never known about WIS at all except for someone posting an opening for an HBD dynasty opening on a missouri football message board.

WIS suffers from lack of exposure.

It's definitely just a lack of marketing. I really don't understand why whatif in general isn't advertised more. Foxsports owns them now so it makes no sense they can't splurge a bit to put out commercials on ESPN or during any sporting event.

I will third the lack of advertising/marketing. They could grow their customer base. There are many people out there who would be interested in playing HD. There just hasn't been even a minimal effort made to connect with them.

need a big advertising blitz in fox sports coverage of college hoops - and maybe now during college football - links, use the results of the SIMMIng games on the website, talk it up......

and cut the price more for into users - not a free game - a cheap first game and a cheap first six pack....so they get hooker......but I can quit anytime I want......when will the damned Crum games post!

metsmax:  so they get hooker.....

Freudian slip?

aaaak

I think they're cutting back on traditional advertising/marketing budgets. I notice a lot more "refer you friends" and "we're now on facebook" type of viral marketing. And I think that's a good idea. However, I think all the changes to HD was POed a lot of people. And if you're a frustrated owner, you're not gonna refer anyone.

Posted by toysboys on 9/29/2010 10:53:00 AM (view original):
I think they're cutting back on traditional advertising/marketing budgets. I notice a lot more "refer you friends" and "we're now on facebook" type of viral marketing. And I think that's a good idea. However, I think all the changes to HD was POed a lot of people. And if you're a frustrated owner, you're not gonna refer anyone.

Which is exactly why they need to have a more aggresive marketing. The only reason the changes PO'd a lot of people is because they were used to the old way you bring in new faces and they won't know the old way and will enjoy the game.

Its advertising, advertising, advertising...and the money issue is nonesense...The could plus WIS only on Fox telecasts and see an increase of users 1000 times over...Why they don't do it, is probably because in the grand scheme of things WIS is such a small facet of their overall business that it gets overlooked.

mmt - I fully agree - if they used their clout, they could double the number of worlds near overnight.  I think money is the big issue however, what is the breakeven point, what might the staffing demands be for a serious fox product (I think you know what I mean), etc.

If the cost could be $9.95, there at least used to be a huge advantage to that, when I studied in business grad school, the sales figure of 9.95 over 10.50 (I realize 12.95 is different, just saying what is the b/e point vs fixed costs?)  was simple astronomical, that was over twenty years ago, but still has to be true?

Money could be the problem, but atleast advertise hard on their own websites.  All of the Fox websites should really have something about Whatifsports on it.  They could really add owners for a cost-effective advertising campaign.

Posted by metsmaniac2 on 9/29/2010 12:55:00 PM (view original):
Money could be the problem, but atleast advertise hard on their own websites.  All of the Fox websites should really have something about Whatifsports on it.  They could really add owners for a cost-effective advertising campaign.

They have links on the FoxSports games page to HD/GD/HBD, and links to GD from the Coll. Football fantasy page and to HD from the Coll. Basketball page.  They should at least try a link on the main coll. football or coll. basketball pages.  I didn't see anything on the MLB pages to either HBD or the regular baseball sim (I know that is how I got here, followed a link on mlb.com and started w/ SLB). 

I think what OR said actually finished off the point I was making.  And yes, what you learned 20 years ago (rest assured) still hold true today.

There's a ton of advertising on the Coaches Corners. And I have tried to refer friends - the few who tried got their ***** handed to them their first season (as did most of us), and weren't about to pay $12.95 to re-up.

I would think that a banner ad on unofficial school fan pages/message boards would be a relatively inexpensive way to reach out to people who, you know, aren't actually playing HD already.

edit: I had no idea HD or WIS existed until an argument between a me and a friend about Duke vs. Carolina sent us to google to look up a "historic game simulator." Even then if I only simmed the game in question and closed the window, I still wouldn't know about the dynasy games,