I'll add that there are 13 worlds with 12+ openings. In this environment, give it up already. I've always been "Let 'em sit, they're not hurting anything." But, with so many openings/unfilled worlds, I think they are. If I'm Joe Newuser, I look at that and think "Is this a viable online game?"

I think that if they spent the time and figured out how to create the programming so that they could merge 2 worlds and still keep the historical data from those worlds intact, they would solve a lot of the problems. At least be able to take your franchises records with you. They would be able to merge 2-1, 3 to 2, or even 5 into 4. Think how quickly this would eliminate the amount of worlds that are sitting around waiting. Plus you would be combining owners that actually want to be here for multiple seasons.

Also, are they allowing new worlds to form?

No new worlds.

I did this because a lot of people were saying this - wasn't - a problem. Since it is obvious that there - IS - a problem (like Tech/Mike pointed out before Christmas), and since the numbers pretty much back that up, I'm gonna stop doing the updates.

Taking a look at a few numbers -
Including this past week, 87 worlds have been open at some point in the last month. Throwing out the ones that just opened this past week, that leaves you with 69 that were either open on 1/29 or opened after up to - but not including - 2/29. Of those, 30 filled.

Lets look at the 30 that filled -
Of the 1/29 worlds that were open - 20 filled. 7 took a week to fill, 4 took 2 weeks to fill, and 9 took 3-4 weeks to fill. Again, we don't know when those 1/29 worlds really opened up. So the 7 that took a week to fill could have been open a week, 2 weeks, 8 weeks, whatever.

Of the ones that opened after 1/29 - 10 filled. 5 took 1 week. 2 took 2 weeks. the rest took 3-4 weeks. Most of the 1 week fills were only short a very small number of teams. 1-4.

This is obvious, but from looking at the turnarounds, it appears if you begin close to what you need, you are good to go. but if you have (what appears to be) 6 or more openings, you are - probably - looking at 4-5 or more weeks at a minimum.

So does going public help for the private worlds struggling to fill? Well15 worlds went from private to public. Only 4 filled. 2 rolled because they merged. Thats not a great track record.

For the worlds open on 1/29 that haven't filled, we still have 17 of them out there. From 2/5 - 8 still open. From the last two weeks (not including the new ones from 2/29) 14. And of course, 17 joined on 1/29.

So in the end, there's no magical post-Superbowl period where owners are gonna jump in and get more teams. I think we are seeing an exodus or reduction by owners combined with a lot of one and done noobies. And as Mike said, its unsustainable.

Here's the sad reality. HBD is not a cash cow. There's no real reason to shutter the doors but there's no real reason to put much into it either. Looking at it from a business standpoint, I'd let it sputter along and show "some interest" from time to time to keep the long-time users on the hook. Which is pretty much what they do. It's sort of like if you placed a gumball machine at the grocery store entrance. It's not going to bring in much but, if you throw some gumballs in their once a week, you'll still make a few pennies.

Let's say FOX makes $150 a month off a HBD league. I think that might be high after discounted teams, promotional prices and credits. But we'll work with that number. 120 worlds roll 3 times a year on average. 360 seasons, 3 months each, $150 a month. That's 162k. Yeah, most of us would fart around with an internet game for 162k a year. It's obvious that you don't have to put much time into it. But FOX is in a different income bracket. A realistic numbers guy would say "There just isn't a big market for this. Should we put a lot of money into this?" The next guy says "No, not really." A third guy says "Yeah but no need to shut it down. Maintenance is minimal and there are other games on the What If site. Keep it open and put minimal time/effort into it."

And here we are. Don't expect some groundshaking advertising campaign. Or massive update. It's just not worth it.

No idea how much of it is a by-product of merging but progress has been made. 225 public not counting Draft Tournament World's 32, and 144 private.

TO be fair, Spring Training is starting, and that's going to drive people toward baseball games. In a perfect world, we could compare this year versus last year at this time (in that regard, it would be nice to keep tracking numbers so next year we can compare.)

You're working under the assumption that people are coming to this site because it's baseball season. There is nothing to indicate that such a thing is happening.

Time to euthanize Draft Tournament World, since it's completely abandoned.

That leaves 230 public and 120 private openings.

I didn't count that world on 3/4 so we've added 5 public openings and reduced private by 24.

Hey all,

I have been playing Hoops Dynasty for almost 5 years now. I've never played HBD, but for all you who do play, I'm curious why you choose to play this game over something like OOTP (Out of the Park Baseball), especially when HBD appears to be dying (as HD is too...and all WIS games).

With HD, there doesn't seem to be any comparable game on the market that allows you to play online, so that's why I choose to play it despite the dying worlds. But at least with baseball you have the option to play OOTP instead which honestly may be the best sports sim period. And it ends up being cheaper than HBD by far over the long haul, unless you are getting a ton of free credits or something.

Anyway, I don't mean this to be a sales pitch or anything. I've just always been curious since joining WIS as to why people would play HBD over OOTP.

Any thoughts?

Wait. Is Hoops Dynasty... basketball?

Posted by sjpoker on 3/11/2016 7:30:00 PM (view original):
Wait. Is Hoops Dynasty... basketball?

Yep. Very fun game. I recommend trying it despite the emptying worlds. Definitely has more users than HBD at least...or so it seems.

I remember basketball. I played it as a kid. Soccer too. They had that Magic Johnson guy,

Posted by pepwaves on 3/11/2016 7:13:00 PM (view original):
Hey all,

I have been playing Hoops Dynasty for almost 5 years now. I've never played HBD, but for all you who do play, I'm curious why you choose to play this game over something like OOTP (Out of the Park Baseball), especially when HBD appears to be dying (as HD is too...and all WIS games).

With HD, there doesn't seem to be any comparable game on the market that allows you to play online, so that's why I choose to play it despite the dying worlds. But at least with baseball you have the option to play OOTP instead which honestly may be the best sports sim period. And it ends up being cheaper than HBD by far over the long haul, unless you are getting a ton of free credits or something.

Anyway, I don't mean this to be a sales pitch or anything. I've just always been curious since joining WIS as to why people would play HBD over OOTP.

Any thoughts?

I actually would like to hear responses to this as well.