Posted by pajammies on 9/30/2015 1:04:00 PM (view original):
It seems the recent HBD updates have generated some good discussions and conversations on these boards lately, and I was curious to hear what other people think of the general state of the game right now.
I've been commissioner in one league (potentially soon to be two) for probably 6-7 seasons now, and have heard stories from the "good old days" when recruiting for fewer than 5 openings would take a day on the classifieds board. I would say my league has a great core of 15+ owners, but over my time there we've seen a huge variance in openings, usually around 4 or 6 but sometimes in double digits -- we're not one of the 'healthy' leagues, but at the same time we have never stayed unfilled long enough to discuss a merger or going public.
Still, filling between 4 and 10 openings now takes a TON of effort, and this is anecdotal, but I have NOT seen it get any easier. And it makes me think WIS has a real problem, and I'm curious if people think they are handling it appropriately.
IF HBD indeed has a shrinking player base, the nature of a 32-player game will necessarily result in more stagnant worlds, which results in slower roll-overs, which results in less revenue for WIS.
They appear to be trying to rectify this problem by simply attracting more players by updating the game and working on mobile features. I even had a response from CS that said something along the lines of, "We're hoping the latest updates to the game will result in an influx of new/returning players."
In worlds like mine, other than trying to recruit friends/post on the classifieds boards/lobby for owner swaps, WIS offers two other alternatives: hope their updates eventually attract more players, or work with another set of leagues on a merger.
All of these world-filling options are flat out BAD and in my opinion are contributing to the continued failing of HBD. The updates so far appear to have made building a team more luck-based, which makes success less predictable and is more interesting to patient, long-time owners, not new folks trying to learn a game. And mergers are only appealing to folks to have an attachment to their players; otherwise we would be seeing more leagues contracting and those owners readily taking new teams to fill stronger leagues.
I do think the long-term success of HBD is directly related to the quality of the game, so I can understand why WIS wants to primarily make updates/improvements to the game. However, I also think WIS needs to think about some short-term options to KEEP players playing their game -- whether it's offering incentives for weak leagues to disband and join stronger leagues, or allow owners to move to a new league and take an existing team with them. I think slow roll-overs and leagues that necessarily are 25% filled with temporary owners are doing way more to drive folks away than any flaw in the game itself.
Sorry for the ramble -- it's coming from a frustrated owner who works really hard to keep 20+ owners happy but has to spend months recruiting at the end of each season. Would love to hear some other thoughts/perspectives, and even tips to make my job easier!
mergers ARE NOT the way to go......I invested 35 seasons in Ott only to lose all the data of the past during a merger. Merger as a last resort ONLY!