Everybody seems to have great ideas on how to improve the product and make it more profitable.

So....let's hear it. You can do TWO things on your first day. What are they?

Mine:
1. Email users who no longer have teams. Even one and done guys. I ask them the MAIN reason they left.
2. Sitemail current users. Ask them for ONE item they'd change.

I'd ignore rambling responses that list 27 things they don't like or would change. I'm not building a new game, I'm improving this one.

thats a very good start - although for item #1 I would rather ask folks to do a short - like 5 questions - one minute suvery monkey - would let one get a bit more quick data.....maybe take emails but also ask for survey monkey and promise it will take less than 60 seconds

I would take the opposite approach, Mike.

1. Close the forums
2. Eliminate customer service department

Just kidding. Kind of.

If this is my game, I'm not interested in making it more accessible or popular. I would make it the best game I could make it, and trust my instincts as a game developer and designer. Go back to the garage, so to speak. Obviously, I want to have a market in mind, and I want to develop a game according to the things I believe that target market will value. But I'm not interested in growth and expansion.

I think, if it was your main source of income, you might be more interested in growth and expansion. Starving musicians are the ones talking about staying "true to their music" while driving a '77 VW bus from small gig to next small gig. Beyonce' buys airplanes and throws them away after each tour stop.

But closing the forums isn't such a bad idea!!!

Posted by MikeT23 on 3/24/2017 11:02:00 AM (view original):
I think, if it was your main source of income, you might be more interested in growth and expansion. Starving musicians are the ones talking about staying "true to their music" while driving a '77 VW bus from small gig to next small gig. Beyonce' buys airplanes and throws them away after each tour stop.

Apt analogy in this case (I'm a musician, though I'm not starving yet). Beyoncé doesn't, to my knowledge, run polls for her fans to tell her how to write and produce. She does what she does, and people buy her albums, or they don't.

Bob Dylan didn't ask fans when he decided to go electric. (Many of his hippie-folkie fans still haven't forgiven him). Would he be considered one of the greatest modern composers if he did?

I'm forced to believe that music has a larger potential audience than internet simsport games.

Posted by MikeT23 on 3/24/2017 11:21:00 AM (view original):
I'm forced to believe that music has a larger potential audience than internet simsport games.

Walk around any Tech school and you will see THOUSANDS of nerds.

Swing a dead cat over your head and you'll hit a fan of music in the face.

Yeah I'm kidding. Obviously Beyonce is different than HD.

But the music industry does know what the consumer wants and knows what will sell. Then you have thousands of copy cats. People know what they're doing in that industry.

There are musicians who make a good living playing classical music. Niche market.

There just isn't a big market for sim sports games, with no ties to real life, no graphics, no actual in-game command, and one that requires patience and long-term planning. We are a small market. That doesn't mean no one should make products we are interested in buying. I don't accept the idea that someone who develops such products needs to focus on growth.

That's probably a good comparison.

My point is, however, it's nice to make the best game possible in your opinion. But, if the consumer doesn't agree, you've built a game for yourself. That's a very limited market. I'd want to know what my target audience thinks but, as I said, I'd try to improve THIS game not make a new one. That's why I'd ignore the response that tells me 27 different items that needs addressing. That guy is never going to be happy and would be better off designing his own game.

I think your 1. is allright. I'd start with this. Then, I'd move to 2. Then I'd meet with everyone, put everything on the table, take décisions and implement a strategy to bring back customers by improving the game. There are holes in this game. I won't discuss them. But your idea would be a good start.

The problem is that this game NEEDS users to be fun. If there were 20 users in each world spread across 3 divisions, would that be fun? I guess some people might think so but I think the vast majority of us would say that the quorum needs to much higher than that (100ish per division).

im sure you could have an okay time playing your jazz in front of 5 people just as much as 50 but this game must have users.

Or the thing it needs is some more innovation. Maybe it needs actual video replays. Maybe it needs more instanteous control over outcomes. New generation of people, new generation of game.