world population data UPDATED - 7/13/16 Topic

Smith Openings
DI 216 (out of 324)
DII 194 (out of 276)
DIII 303 (out of 384)

If this trend continues after the "marketing push" it pretty much blows the theory that 3.0 is easier to use for new players.
9/29/2016 1:16 PM
I was at 10 teams only four months ago, and now six going down to five (maybe).

With only ten seasons in my renewal box, we will just wait and see what happens!
9/29/2016 2:30 PM
No way it is easier to pick up!
9/29/2016 2:30 PM
This is so depressing and yet unsurprising. What's worse is they will dig their heels in, and by the time they realize their mistake, it will be too late. Worse yet, they might not even realize their mistake. They might just keep trying to convince themselves that the game just wasn't good and ignore the fact that they just didn't market.
9/29/2016 11:23 PM
Not just WIS, but it's the worst when people can't admit they're wrong. This was clearly going to be a failure from early on, Seble never put out a survey to asked coaches what was actually wrong with the game and ended up listening to the minority.
9/29/2016 11:25 PM
In the beta forums I protested as loudly yet positively as I could saying we hadn't passed the point of no return and didn't have to go through with this, seble didn't listen, obviously because the goal was to get a new game forced out before he quickly left the company. It all makes sense in a nothing ever makes sense with wis way.
9/29/2016 11:40 PM
I don't think WIS saw the same 50 players with 10 teams each as a sustainable model for the game going forward. Easy to imagine why.

I also think they saw a mobile-unfriendly game as outdated and hard to grow. Easy to imagine why.

It's definitely much too soon to call HD3 a failure. Fact is HD2 was already failing.
9/29/2016 11:55 PM
You don't seem to know what facts are.
9/30/2016 12:25 AM
Fact: populations have been in decline for years, predating HD3 (see top post).

Fact: HD2 was not designed for mobile.

vandy, I am sorry WIS didn't view you as their only customer and design the game to your personal liking, but give me a break.
9/30/2016 6:25 AM
Bath, you are missing his point.

To this moment it's a failure. To late to recover from? No. But early results are bad. When this many users leave all at once = failure. Your points about HD3 arepretty much irrelevant because their only goal to bring in users for HD3 is on finally marketing the game - something that could have helped HD2 if they ever bothered to market the game. And they could have changed the layout to make HD2 mobile user friendly without making such drastic game changes. None of your arguments hold up against the validity of HD2. But HD3 early returns are still horrendous. HD2 didn't lose over 150 users in one rollover.
9/30/2016 7:35 AM
it's impossible to miss his point. he's posted it over and over again. i just don't agree. there's a difference.

the game has been in population decline for awhile and WIS decided to try something different. hard to blame them from a business standpoint. the game was not mobile-friendly. they said they couldn't update the old code for various reasons. they have no reason to lie, so i accept that. ultimately they decided to work on multiple issues at once and change the product substantially as HD3. the early returns show a loss. i surmise that the loss is mostly people who decided they did not want to learn HD3 or want to curb back their teams while they try it out, and that is a completely valid prerogative. calling something a failure while it's still being rolled out is premature though. if these numbers continue to decline over the next year, then you can call it a failure. i am quite sure WIS fully expected this to happen in the short term.

when facebook changes their layout and features, people always freak out and revolt and say they'll quit forever, but it always dies down once people get get familiar with the new user experience. that's been my exactly experience with HD3--i hated it at first and decried scouting an immense time suck and complained about it. ultimately, my opinion has evolved as I've played more in HD3. but that'll never happen for users who expect HD3 to be HD2 and don't even give it a chance.
9/30/2016 10:54 AM
My only point in my post was you are calling your opinions facts based upon arbitrary standards you seem to believe in. In the same post you threw out random numbers about users and teams as if those were facts.
9/30/2016 11:03 AM
dave, what's random? the top post in this very thread lays out the rise and then decline in world populations pre-HD3.

edit: i guess you could be looking at me throwing out "50 users with 10 teams each." fair point. I'm sure this could be calculated, but I don't have time to do that. but I think it's a safe point to make that HD has a good number of players with teams in multiple worlds, and that makes the existing user base look artificially inflated. my point was that a tiny but rabid user base is probably not sustainable. for one, a lot of those users play for at a substantially discounted rate. i am speculating that WIS is addressing this in some of their decisions.
9/30/2016 11:14 AM (edited)
Here's a fact, people are relying on this new "marketing strategy" which they could have done in HD2. If they pull in some people with this new marketing, it's disingenuous at the very least to attribute it to HD3 when in reality the marketing is the sole reason. Just like FREEHD, there might be a slight surge, initially, but it will have to be seen if they can sustain it.
9/30/2016 11:38 PM
Posted by poncho0091 on 9/30/2016 11:38:00 PM (view original):
Here's a fact, people are relying on this new "marketing strategy" which they could have done in HD2. If they pull in some people with this new marketing, it's disingenuous at the very least to attribute it to HD3 when in reality the marketing is the sole reason. Just like FREEHD, there might be a slight surge, initially, but it will have to be seen if they can sustain it.
I think doing the FREEHD is the worst way to market for a game like this. If something is totally free, any person is going to at least give it a shot for a minute. But that's it. They can sign up but since it's free, they have no investment in it so who cares if they ever visit the site again. It was free.

The reduced cost is a good idea though. That way it's easier to get their foot in the door and they'll actually CARE to try it out because they spent their own money on it. Heck, I say give them 5 seasons of reduced cost.

But they need to market it towards people who actually want to play the game and give it a legitimate shot. When they did the FREEHD thing in Allen several months ago, my conference filled up. But around 6 teams didn't recruit a single player. Who knows if they even attempted recruiting at all. Who knows if they even signed on at all after making an account.
10/1/2016 8:32 AM
◂ Prev 123
world population data UPDATED - 7/13/16 Topic

Search Criteria

Terms of Use Customer Support Privacy Statement

© 1999-2024 WhatIfSports.com, Inc. All rights reserved. WhatIfSports is a trademark of WhatIfSports.com, Inc. SimLeague, SimMatchup and iSimNow are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts, Inc. Used under license. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.