it was a few years at least, after FOX bought WIS, that they canned tarek. maybe even 5?

Posted by andrew5975 on 5/27/2013 9:24:00 PM (view original):
is there another simulation sports website that could potentially push WIS out of business...or are they just not growing?

Just not growing apparently.

There are 2 other WIS-styled games/simulators I've played since I came to WIS and I was underwhelmed by both and I think both are out of business...1 I know for sure is.  The first game I played (I'm not even sure what the web address was now, I think it was fairly popular) was at a site where you could create/buy your own baseball or basketball team...basically just like Simleague baseball and basketball but with career stats.  Played a season of the basketball and was bored to tears, I don't think we were that successful either.  I think I paid for a baseball team but ended up having them refund me since the basketball sucked lol.

The other game/site, which I know for fact is out of business was/is sportsim or sportssim.com ...they had a college basketball game that basically mirrored HD except for the fact that it was clunky, poorly designed, and just not as fun or aesthetically in tune, and trust me, I was looking for something to blow WIS out of the water in my mind...I was looking for that "better competition" and this wasn't it.  I think they banned me from their message board (shocking I know lol) because I basically laid out everything I didn't like about the game and told them how I thought WIS HD was better, etc, etc.  Their seasons were cheaper...I think you could get 5 for $25 or so? but the game sucked.  The ratings and everything were like HD, but it just didn't execute well...it was garbage.

I'm not aware of anything currently, though I'm always kind of on a quest to find/determine the best games in everything/anything ever.

Unreal. I played sportssim for a few months too. Should have taken them to small claims court. Such a rip off. If whatif made a college baseball team I'd lose my job, academic scholarship, girlfriend, and everything else positive in my life. Baseball and recruiting together?? Wet dream.

I also voted to bring back CRD

Posted by colonels19 on 5/27/2013 11:02:00 PM (view original):

Posted by gillispie1 on 5/27/2013 9:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by colonels19 on 5/27/2013 9:07:00 PM (view original):

Posted by phillyboy107 on 5/27/2013 8:34:00 PM (view original):
I think if WIS could make one of these games then they could most likely stay open longer and not close down for good.

I don't think they're close to shutting down...people have been predicting doom and gloom for 10 years now...not gonna happen.

i would argue that they've been close to shut down ever since i got here (2007). in business, when you arent growing, you are dying, period.

Well they are owned by FOX Sports now...the dumbest thing TK ever did was sell WIS to them, then they canned him pretty quickly.  I always say this is the best site that no one knows about...the marketing has always been terrible and I remember trading emails with Admin back in 2003 discussing potential marketing ploys/strategies.

I think the problem with FOX is that they only seem to use/try to use WIS to enhance their fantasy baseball and football, which are both terrible, so it's never really been a center-stage entity for them.  I think what we have now is kind of what we're damned to, especially in terms of playership, and it's a shame because I think HD is the best game in anything right now, period.  Unfortunately, I think today's kids (I'm 29, will be 30 in August) are so enamored with graphics, 3D, unlockables, gimmicks and gadgets (see all the odd and end nonsense that they've added to NCAA Football and Madden since 2005), that a silly text/strategy game isn't **** to them.

When I first discovered WIS in 2001 (my first user name was $$$ if curious lol and I signed up in Nov 2001 apparently lol) I realized that it contained/included everything I ever wanted to do with a sports game/simulator since I was about 5 years old...I don't think kids nowadays would have that same fascination...though I'll admit I'm a bit of a different cat too though.

To be honest I love this game and I am 15. I do also enjoy playing NCAA Football anf I think they really need to start making NCAA Basketball again. I am trying to get my friends into playing HD but it is a little hard to explain to them or their parents. I will eventually get them to join though.

Posted by gillispie on 5/27/2013 11:04:00 PM (view original):
it was a few years at least, after FOX bought WIS, that they canned tarek. maybe even 5?

I guess you're right...just did a little research...I knew Tarek sold WIS to FOX Sports in 2005 and I came across a message board post somewhere of some guy on 1-15-09 saying that TK got canned today lol...so my bad.

I wish WIS would bring back a good college basketball dynasty game. 

Posted by thinair on 5/27/2013 11:15:00 PM (view original):
Unreal. I played sportssim for a few months too. Should have taken them to small claims court. Such a rip off. If whatif made a college baseball team I'd lose my job, academic scholarship, girlfriend, and everything else positive in my life. Baseball and recruiting together?? Wet dream.

Do you know what happened to the site?  I played one season when it first started but that was it...I went searching for it earlier this year to happily find *crickets* lol

Posted by thinair on 5/27/2013 11:15:00 PM (view original):
Unreal. I played sportssim for a few months too. Should have taken them to small claims court. Such a rip off. If whatif made a college baseball team I'd lose my job, academic scholarship, girlfriend, and everything else positive in my life. Baseball and recruiting together?? Wet dream.

College baseball for the playstation was insanely fun! Too bad my damn game got a scratch in the top that looked like a raindrop and it never worked again, I was so mad I just kept cleaning it with windex but it wouldn't work.

Posted by thinair on 5/27/2013 11:15:00 PM (view original):
Unreal. I played sportssim for a few months too. Should have taken them to small claims court. Such a rip off. If whatif made a college baseball team I'd lose my job, academic scholarship, girlfriend, and everything else positive in my life. Baseball and recruiting together?? Wet dream.

tarek was definitely somewhat of a genius, his ideas for these games were great, even if he wasnt a great software development manager (the way HD releases were handled was really poor for a product in production, but i mean, thats fine. people who are great idea people, like a great product designer, are very frequently not great at execution, especially of thing like development processes for production environments :)

I always found TK to be a bit of a pompous ***, but with that said, I think WIS would be better off in his hands as opposed to FOX's...I think a lot of us lamented the sale to FOX pretty quickly afterwards.

Posted by colonels19 on 5/27/2013 11:23:00 PM (view original):
I always found TK to be a bit of a pompous ***, but with that said, I think WIS would be better off in his hands as opposed to FOX's...I think a lot of us lamented the sale to FOX pretty quickly afterwards.

i did too. i dont really hold it against him though, i didnt think he was really a great person to be in customer service, but i dont think that makes his ideas and game design abilities any less impressive.

Posted by gillispie on 5/27/2013 10:50:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Weena on 5/27/2013 10:38:00 PM (view original):
How about one or all of the following:

Pro Rodeo - do I upgrade my calf roper or go for a top notch bull rider; my barrel racer is getting old but my clown wants to go to vet school

Bowling (5-man team) - do I want a left or right handed anchor man; my lead-off guy just broke his thumb and his backup can't break 190

X-Game Lawn Jarts - do I go for a better skilled trapeze artist or put my money into a phenom who can do a handstand and throw with either foot

Rugby - meaner is better, right

Tag Team Kyaking - better swimmer or better oarsman, it's a constant debate

:)

i honestly struggled to see the game behind half those ideas myself... everything but college baseball, pretty much. i still cant tell if simulation golf was a joke :)

id be all for simulation world series of beer pong, though.

Hahaha +1. Philly, most of these game ideas are ridiculous (I like the college baseball idea).

I'd vote for curling, but since the OP forgot to include it I abstained from voting.

Posted by colonels19 on 5/27/2013 11:19:00 PM (view original):

Posted by thinair on 5/27/2013 11:15:00 PM (view original):
Unreal. I played sportssim for a few months too. Should have taken them to small claims court. Such a rip off. If whatif made a college baseball team I'd lose my job, academic scholarship, girlfriend, and everything else positive in my life. Baseball and recruiting together?? Wet dream.

Do you know what happened to the site?  I played one season when it first started but that was it...I went searching for it earlier this year to happily find *crickets* lol

Nope. All I know is the guy sold it off to someone else because he was "too busy". I used to get emails from them to come back and check things out. The one time I came back the site was dead. It still existed and looked like some work had been done but it was definitely dead. They had just gotten the NBA stuff going to. I think a lot of people dropped some decent money for the draft order. I don't sweat the little things much but I'm sure someone out there had to have been livid.