Jeez.   The ol' "I didn't mean this game.  I meant that other, yet to be created, game" defense.

Just like in the real time FA thread, where he pretends 3 years later, that he was just trying to so how far he could take everyone "down the rabbit hole."

Admit you had a bad idea that was universally panned and drop it.   

Tufft have you ever played a free-to-play game or a demo version of a paid game? You get one pitcher and one team, you don't advance in a season in the demo. Ever.

Posted by MikeT23 on 6/26/2015 7:40:00 PM (view original):

Posted by tufft on 6/26/2015 7:33:00 PM (view original):
4 replies so far. All of which didn't get a point I tried to make in the first post. So let me try again.

Please don't make any posts explaining why you think it's a bad idea to let people play the current HBD game, exactly as it is today, for free.  Or for cheap with in-game purchases.

I agree with you.  Even if I didn't, that's not the topic.

Do you have any suggestions on how an MLB simulation could work under any other model than exactly how HBD works today.

• be fun to play for newbies and pros,
• result in more people playing the game at some level (some of those people would move up to higher levels of play),
• and make the game owner enough money to allow for ongoing improvements and maintenance.

If you have no ideas, or feel compelled to post that free or cheap to play this exact game is a bad idea, please don't post.  You are correct.

Thanks.

Here's what you want:

You have a free game, say RBI Baseball(which was good back in the day, haven't played the newer versions).     You get the Phillies.  They play the Red Sox only.   That's your free game.    You want access to other players, other teams, other owners to compete against, you pay for them.

That said, this is a HBD suggestion forum.   Since you're not talking about HBD, I suggest you DELETE YOUR posts.   Thanks in advance.

This?

1-BE FUN TO PLAY FOR NEWBIES AND PROS:. How about this: Make it possible for newbies to take over a rebuilding team in a world filled (mostly) with people who will help them learn. Let those teams improve through draft and development while the newbie learns the game, and set it up so that after 2-3 seasons — just as a competent newbie is becoming good at the game — the team is ready to compete. Maybe ask some of the more-experienced players to, I don't know, mentor the newbies?
2-MORE PEOPLE PLAYING THE GAME AT SOME LEVEL: Do you mean set up a dumbed-down level (one level of minor leagues, auto-sign FA/IFA, autodraft, etc.)? If not, what would a different level of HBD look like? If so, how would that do anything other than increase the time needed to learn the game? If people want a simplified baseball sim, maybe WIS could invent a Sim League Baseball game that uses basic stats and has no minor leagues.
3-MAKE MONEY TO ALLOW FOR IMPROVEMENTS: This would be the basic goal of any game commercial effort. The answer is to make a successful product. There are as many ways to do that as there are businesses.

HBD is not a game that works simplified without changing it to something completely different. If you want a dumbed-down version, Sim League Baseball already exists. And since that kind of game does work well with a limited-feature free demo, guess what ... They have one! If HBD worked with a limited-feature free demo, guess what ... They would have one! HBD is only going to attract people with an interest in devoting serious time to learning it. Free apps are designed for people who want to open a program and play 30 seconds later. The percentage of the latter who become the former would be well under 10%.

Since most of your posts disagree with my premise, please delete them.

Condensed version for those requiring Twitterish responses:
We already have a game that's fun for newbies and pros. Adding levels would be stupid. Everyone wants to make money, including WIS. HBD is not suited to a free, dumbed-down version. That's SLB.

Yet another user who just doesn't understand the brilliance that is tufft.

Don't see a completely free to play working in HBD, not enough optional things they could charge for that don't involve competitive balance however a couple things I can see that they could charge a small fee for are:

1)  Allow team color changes and logo / hat letter changes for a fee
2) Allow ballpark adjustments at the start of the season for a fee.. ie move the left field fence in one notch, cut the infield grass shorter (+1 singles)  things like that.. I would limit how much it could be changed from that ballparks original by +/-1 for standard parks   or  +2-0 / +0-2 for parks that are already at extremes.

They might be able to make the open league free to play by putting advertisements in the currently empty space on the sides and perhaps condense the season to say 54 games just to be teaser to get people wanting to play 162.
Don't see the private leagues working ftp, that brings in a lot of less dedicated people who would only check their team once a week and would quit after one season etc.

Just throwing an idea out there

I don't think a fully free to play HBD would ever work either, but I think that they could add a few free to play leagues (with ads to increase revenue) that could allow people, who may not be fully committed to paying money to a game they haven't ever played before, to get an idea of how it works and whether or not they would like to commit their time and money to playing it.  If they decide they enjoy the game they could pay for an ad free, more competitive paid league at the same or potentially lower cost than what it costs us now to play.

Also maybe making those free leagues a shorter schedule maybe half season (81 games), or limiting certain features like no arbitration, no rule 5 draft, limiting the minor leagues to AAA and AA only for example, May drive more people to try it out and gain interest. Also if they like the game play they will be more likely to pay for a full 162 game season in addition to more MLB familiar features.