1. Yes, worlds are undersold.
2. Yes, "new" sells better than "old".
3. It might indicate recognition of the current situation. But I agree somewhat, closing worlds indicates failure.
4. Didn't suggest merging worlds as an option. HBD requires 32 owners to agree. I indicated that it would be difficult to get every user in HD worlds to agree. In fact, I pointed out the disaster that could occur.

The "user base" likely hasn't changed much in 5-8 years. A lot of the users who quit had multiple teams. The newer users do not. WifS has the data but I suspect there are actually more HD players now than there was this time last year. With the low cost of running HD, there's really no reason to "pull the plug." In lesser terms, think of the bubble gum machine in front of the store. Maintenance is nothing more than refilling it every week. You won't make much but the cost is a trip to the store. No reason to remove the bubble gum machine.

Personally, I think WifS should open an 11th world. I think it would match the rough total of 300 that populates every world almost immediately. The only concern would be the effect on the other worlds. Some would drop teams to start "new". And I think we all agree that playing a human-populated world is more fun than playing SIMAI over and over.

Posted by rogelio on 5/3/2017 9:28:00 AM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 8:58:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I think I know what it means. And my statement is correct. I'll explain.

Got it. No world ever created can ever close, no new worlds can be created because they would only drain other worlds - this is sarcasm
(even though that is patent bullshit) - this is where you screwed it up. You don't explain your sarcastic remark because it loses effect
...all we can do is wait for HD to slowly and painfully die and WIS to simply shut it down. Good plan. - more sarcasm

Hope you learned something today.

Wrong. I was only being sarcastic with "good plan".

The prior sentence, which you found confusing, would be better labeled "mockery". The parenthetical was added due to my concern that you might not follow along. Well founded concern, as it turns out.

OK, I tried to be polite but you're obviously a bit slow. If you don't know what "sarcasm" means, that's OK. Most 8 year olds do not and that seems to be your intelligence level. Have a good day.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 9:39:00 AM (view original):

Posted by rogelio on 5/3/2017 9:28:00 AM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 8:58:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I think I know what it means. And my statement is correct. I'll explain.

Got it. No world ever created can ever close, no new worlds can be created because they would only drain other worlds - this is sarcasm
(even though that is patent bullshit) - this is where you screwed it up. You don't explain your sarcastic remark because it loses effect
...all we can do is wait for HD to slowly and painfully die and WIS to simply shut it down. Good plan. - more sarcasm

Hope you learned something today.

Wrong. I was only being sarcastic with "good plan".

The prior sentence, which you found confusing, would be better labeled "mockery". The parenthetical was added due to my concern that you might not follow along. Well founded concern, as it turns out.

OK, I tried to be polite but you're obviously a bit slow. If you don't know what "sarcasm" means, that's OK. Most 8 year olds do not and that seems to be your intelligence level. Have a good day.

Sounds like someone needs a cookie...

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 9:37:00 AM (view original):
1. Yes, worlds are undersold.
2. Yes, "new" sells better than "old".
3. It might indicate recognition of the current situation. But I agree somewhat, closing worlds indicates failure.
4. Didn't suggest merging worlds as an option. HBD requires 32 owners to agree. I indicated that it would be difficult to get every user in HD worlds to agree. In fact, I pointed out the disaster that could occur.

The "user base" likely hasn't changed much in 5-8 years. A lot of the users who quit had multiple teams. The newer users do not. WifS has the data but I suspect there are actually more HD players now than there was this time last year. With the low cost of running HD, there's really no reason to "pull the plug." In lesser terms, think of the bubble gum machine in front of the store. Maintenance is nothing more than refilling it every week. You won't make much but the cost is a trip to the store. No reason to remove the bubble gum machine.

Personally, I think WifS should open an 11th world. I think it would match the rough total of 300 that populates every world almost immediately. The only concern would be the effect on the other worlds. Some would drop teams to start "new". And I think we all agree that playing a human-populated world is more fun than playing SIMAI over and over.

This is interesting. We agree on virtually everything. The only point of disagreement is over what to do after WIS opens an 11th world.

I doubt that WIS is willing to expand beyond 10 worlds, but I would like to think that it could manage 11 or 12 for a year, then let it naturally level out at 10, unless revenue happened to improve enough to justify a higher number of worlds. There would be plenty of time to adjust.

As a side note, which I think is obvious, the current 3.0 recruiting would not function in a new world rollout. Teams would have to be generated with existing rosters for season #1. One can imagine that the race to D1 would get stalled when a D3 coach signed a #1 OVR recruit. At D3, that player would probably not be able to go EE. A lot of that would have to be worked out before a new world could be released.

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 9:37:00 AM (view original):
1. Yes, worlds are undersold.
2. Yes, "new" sells better than "old".
3. It might indicate recognition of the current situation. But I agree somewhat, closing worlds indicates failure.
4. Didn't suggest merging worlds as an option. HBD requires 32 owners to agree. I indicated that it would be difficult to get every user in HD worlds to agree. In fact, I pointed out the disaster that could occur.

The "user base" likely hasn't changed much in 5-8 years. A lot of the users who quit had multiple teams. The newer users do not. WifS has the data but I suspect there are actually more HD players now than there was this time last year. With the low cost of running HD, there's really no reason to "pull the plug." In lesser terms, think of the bubble gum machine in front of the store. Maintenance is nothing more than refilling it every week. You won't make much but the cost is a trip to the store. No reason to remove the bubble gum machine.

Personally, I think WifS should open an 11th world. I think it would match the rough total of 300 that populates every world almost immediately. The only concern would be the effect on the other worlds. Some would drop teams to start "new". And I think we all agree that playing a human-populated world is more fun than playing SIMAI over and over.

This is a long post.

Posted by rogelio on 5/3/2017 10:03:00 AM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 5/3/2017 9:37:00 AM (view original):
1. Yes, worlds are undersold.
2. Yes, "new" sells better than "old".
3. It might indicate recognition of the current situation. But I agree somewhat, closing worlds indicates failure.
4. Didn't suggest merging worlds as an option. HBD requires 32 owners to agree. I indicated that it would be difficult to get every user in HD worlds to agree. In fact, I pointed out the disaster that could occur.

The "user base" likely hasn't changed much in 5-8 years. A lot of the users who quit had multiple teams. The newer users do not. WifS has the data but I suspect there are actually more HD players now than there was this time last year. With the low cost of running HD, there's really no reason to "pull the plug." In lesser terms, think of the bubble gum machine in front of the store. Maintenance is nothing more than refilling it every week. You won't make much but the cost is a trip to the store. No reason to remove the bubble gum machine.

Personally, I think WifS should open an 11th world. I think it would match the rough total of 300 that populates every world almost immediately. The only concern would be the effect on the other worlds. Some would drop teams to start "new". And I think we all agree that playing a human-populated world is more fun than playing SIMAI over and over.

This is interesting. We agree on virtually everything. The only point of disagreement is over what to do after WIS opens an 11th world.

I doubt that WIS is willing to expand beyond 10 worlds, but I would like to think that it could manage 11 or 12 for a year, then let it naturally level out at 10, unless revenue happened to improve enough to justify a higher number of worlds. There would be plenty of time to adjust.

As a side note, which I think is obvious, the current 3.0 recruiting would not function in a new world rollout. Teams would have to be generated with existing rosters for season #1. One can imagine that the race to D1 would get stalled when a D3 coach signed a #1 OVR recruit. At D3, that player would probably not be able to go EE. A lot of that would have to be worked out before a new world could be released.

We don't agree on two key points.

1. The effect of opening a new world would have on existing worlds. I think it's a big negative so, really, the only decision to make would be as to whether the positive would outweigh the negative. I think it would. But I also think at least one world would wither and die on the vine. Maybe that's not the worst thing. In nature, the strong kill and eat the weak. Might be what HD needs.

2. The shutting down of HD. I don't think there's any danger of that. As stated, I'd wager there are actually MORE users now than a year ago. Just less teams as long-time users with many teams quit. I think the team numbers will gradually increase.

In the fantasy world where WifS actually does open an 11th world, I think it would be awesome if ALL D3 teams were identical from the start. The cream would rise to the top just as it should. And, since everyone theoretically qualifies for D2 after 1 season, signing that HUGE D1 player would indicate that someone is making a home in D3. Which is healthy for the world anyway.

We don't agree on two key points.

1. The effect of opening a new world would have on existing worlds. I think it's a big negative so, really, the only decision to make would be as to whether the positive would outweigh the negative. I think it would. But I also think at least one world would wither and die on the vine. Maybe that's not the worst thing. In nature, the strong kill and eat the weak. Might be what HD needs. Agreed.

2. The shutting down of HD. I don't think there's any danger of that. As stated, I'd wager there are actually MORE users now than a year ago. Just less teams as long-time users with many teams quit. I think the team numbers will gradually increase. First statement, I only partially disagree...I'd wager that there has been a more modest drop in "actual" users than it would currently appear on a glance at total usernames. Second statement, I expect that there may be modest increases, but that total world populations will level off after about 30 seasons at ~96 per division under the current bonus structure. Each new world, I'd wager, would have an initial ~30 season period with higher than rational population totals.

In the fantasy world where WifS actually does open an 11th world, I think it would be awesome if ALL D3 teams were identical from the start. The cream would rise to the top just as it should. I could live with that. And, since everyone theoretically qualifies for D2 after 1 season, signing that HUGE D1 player would indicate that someone is making a home in D3. Which is healthy for the world anyway. Ok....fine...I flatly disagree with these last two statements.

Maybe, I'd hope WifS knows how many actual users there are. One could look at their lack of attention to "problems" presented in one of two ways: 1. User base is same/near/better than before. 2. Neglect or disinterest. An argument could be made for both.

A world will need users at all levels. I do wonder if those moving to D2 would be able to overtake those staying at D1 for the big recruits. A simple fix would be to load all D3 with FR/SO/JR so no one has more than 40 AP in the 1st session of recruiting. I think D2 teams would be able to beat D3 in recruiting during RS2 for the big fish.

The existing worlds have too many sims already. When WIS has opened new worlds in the past, old worlds lost humans. If there are too many sims already in ten worlds, any action that further increases the number of sims in ten worlds is a negative. Adding an eleventh world would increase the number of sims in the existing worlds. Adding an eleventh world is therefore a negative action.

The existing worlds have too many sims already. If there were fewer worlds there would be fewer teams overall. If enough humans kept their teams or took new ones in a universe of fewer worlds, the proportion of sims would decrease. That could be a positive action.

That's a bit shortsighted. Yes, people will drop teams and/or only add a team in a new world. But it also stands to reason that they might drop a team and not add one anyway. So, really, it's what would put the most fannies in the seats so speak. Would there be a net gain in user teams? That's the question.

Of course, there's nothing to indicate that WifS has any intention of opening/closing worlds so this is nothing more than "What if....?"