Hi,

I just returned to GD after about 9 years away. I really enjoyed it when I was playing back then but eventually gave it up because of too many other demands on my time.

Now that I have a bit more time available, I thought I'd come back and try my hand at it again. I've been a bit surprised - even shocked - by what I see and I want to share some observations:

1. GD is a Ghost Town

I'm playing D3 in Bryant and there are only 26 human coaches among 228 teams. Back in the day I recall so many actual humans playing that GD opened up new worlds to accommodate them.

Looking at GUESS Reports I see the same situation across the other divisions and worlds. It really deprives GD of any competitiveness, and since most of the conferences have 1 human coach at most there's no trash talk and no opportunity to develop rivalries.

And recruiting against sims is harder than ever, and almost all the coaches are sims.

I wonder if the management of WIS even values this business. They should have considered combining worlds in order to reduce the ghost town aspect.

2. The "Updates" Have Not Improved the Site

I think there have been two major site upgrades since I last played. Some things are better but the GD learning curve is steeper than ever. The challenge of learning the game is of course part of the fun but the new game planning is obtuse and opaque even at D3 where it's dumbed down. If there was a decent help site that explained everything maybe that would be OK but you have to search high and low for bits of information and some of the most basic information is only available from other coaches in the forum. For instance I couldn't find information about when recruiting cycles take place and only after a time-consuming search of the forums I found the answer - plus the information that there are no recruiting cycles during the first 24 hours. (I think that is "new" within the 9 years I was away.)

3. yatzr's Tool Doesn't Work

I was really looking forward to using yatzr's recruiting tool to cut the mundane grunt work of listing and analyzing recruits. Everyone in the forums says it's a must-have. So then I found out that the latest "upgrade" makes yatzr's recruiting tool unusable. Back to mindless click-to-copy and click-to-paste into an Excel sheet. Really too bad, it doesn't require any skill other than a tolerance for grunt work. Why didn't GD incorporate it into the site upgrade or better yet just buy the tool from yatzr?

4. Where's the Smartphone App?

Guys, it's 2019. Shouldn't I be able to manage my team from my phone, especially during recruiting when cycles are short and I can't be chained to my laptop?

5. What's Up with the Veteran Coaches in D3?

There are only a handful of human coaches in D3 Bryant but most of them have been with their current teams for 70, 80, 90 seasons (one of them 146!) and naturally they have built powerhouse teams that are invincible for even a pretty good D3 team. So I guess they're enjoying it but they're essentially not part of D3, they're really D2.5, which means that for the rest of us the best we can hope for is a top 20 team. That would be OK if there were other humans to compete against but (see point #1) there aren't.

=======

I don't want to sound whiny, and I'm enjoying being back, but the upside here is very limited due to the neglect by GD management and I'll probably stay around only long enough to have some 5th year seniors who can kick the butts of some of the better Sim teams. It's really too bad.

Answers to your statements.
1=Yup.
2=Yup.
3=Yatzr recruiting supposedly(never used it) doesn't work . But there is mass recruiting now where you can put in what you want for various groups of players and do em all at same time.
4=Yup(this answer getting repetitive aint it ?)
5=Sorry, but Yup.
Welcome Back !

You do sound whiny.
The game is still worth playing, but not at D-III, imho.
My advice is to move up.

There is a lot that needs updating. Heck when you get to the site and see a Twitter post from 2017 you wonder if someone is still driving this ship but the game is still solid. An app would be fantastic as well. I've talked to several people that said they would play/stick around if things were just up to date.

Hey. Join one of my conferences in d2. Love to have you.

I agree that we have too many worlds. I believe that most of the long term veterans like myself would be open to a downsizing plan.

PLAN IDEA: Let coaches vote if they want a change. Majority rules. If so, here are my thoughts

Give current players a few seasons notice while the reboot is being programmed.

*Create a D3 Newbie world for newcomers only. Give them 1 Free season in that World against equal competition. Do away with the dumbed down, limited options. Give all rosters the same value of ratings and balanced position numbers.... Give them all 10 recruits to go after.... Then they either quit GD or pay to play in one or more of the New Worlds. Rosters would revert back to equal default every season for Newbies....

*Create 5 new worlds and give veterans a per world discount to join them all if they want. Everyone starts at D3 (Not dumbed down). Then it's off to the races to get your favorite D1 team, or plant yourself at whatever level you prefer...Do away with the D1A Elite advantages, and create an 8 team playoff.

*I know some coaches would hate to lose their dynasties. I think it would be more fun, a better competitive experience, and a great chance for newbies to stick around and grow into veterans.....

*What are your visions of downsizing? I think Seble has the tools and skills to make these kinds of changes if voted in by the majority.

I believe the owners of WhatifSports now sees it as a very small part of their business and won't focus the energies of staff and or the money to pay them to make changes .
It would be nice to be proven wrong. But until that happens it's what I believe.

I appreciated sebel making some changes, including a couple of my suggestions. That being said, you're right about us being a minor part of their business and I'm glad they haven't shut the site down. Hell, I'd love to own the site and employ people who are passionate about the games.

Is there any chance we could collectively pick a world to populate heavily? I doubt people want to give up their teams, however I'm willing to join a world that has a lot of real coaches.

I think some new owners get discouraged in DIII (which I recently rejoined to test crazy ideas and game plans), when it's supposed to be "beginner mode" yet some guys have over 100 NC's... I think more people would stay and move up to higher divisions if they could have a little playoff success.
Just my opinion. Luckily I have enough disposable income to play poorly and still have fun with it

Everything has a life cycle. I'm sure ten years ago (or whatever number of years it was) when GD started, there was less competition for such games on the internet. And of course some people will just get their fill and leave. I see this as a good game to play, and could imagine more human coaches making it more competitive, but it has peaked and will not return to it's peak.

But numbers don't tell the whole story. Because I have teams on three servers, I can kind of compare between servers. And I can tell you that there are servers with less players, but which are more competitive. In other words, they may have less players, but the players on those servers are better players.

It is what it is. I enjoy the game. It's not perfect, but there is plenty of competition on many of the servers.

In an ideal situation, fewer more populated worlds would be better. I don't know if WIS should legislate it with a vote though. Any change that will run off owners because of the change isn't good.

If playing in a more populated world is really important to some, it is within their ability to make it happen.

I would like to see some type of mentor/tutor system set up for new players. A new player signs up and if he wants, can be partnered up with a veteren coach who has volunteered to be a mentor. New players are the lifeblood of the game if it is to continue. Currently a new player asks a question on the forums and many times receives incorrect 'advice'. Really makes it tough as a new player to push through the beginner stage.

As far as downsizing, I suggested it in another thread (I think when Sebel was making his improvements) and many objected. If you downsize servers, you have to give players the option to transfer their profiles onto other servers. And offer incentives, like ten free seasons. I still think that is the way to go.

Remove two or three servers and consolidate everyone else onto the remaining servers.

On another note, I've always thought I'd like to go back to DIII and see if I could knock off some of those powerhouses. I've noticed when they do venture to come out of their DIII baby cribs to higher levels of competition, they never are able to repeat their success.

Posted by robust_trex on 8/17/2019 4:01:00 PM (view original):
I agree that we have too many worlds. I believe that most of the long term veterans like myself would be open to a downsizing plan.

PLAN IDEA: Let coaches vote if they want a change. Majority rules. If so, here are my thoughts

Give current players a few seasons notice while the reboot is being programmed.

*Create a D3 Newbie world for newcomers only. Give them 1 Free season in that World against equal competition. Do away with the dumbed down, limited options. Give all rosters the same value of ratings and balanced position numbers.... Give them all 10 recruits to go after.... Then they either quit GD or pay to play in one or more of the New Worlds. Rosters would revert back to equal default every season for Newbies....

*Create 5 new worlds and give veterans a per world discount to join them all if they want. Everyone starts at D3 (Not dumbed down). Then it's off to the races to get your favorite D1 team, or plant yourself at whatever level you prefer...Do away with the D1A Elite advantages, and create an 8 team playoff.

*I know some coaches would hate to lose their dynasties. I think it would be more fun, a better competitive experience, and a great chance for newbies to stick around and grow into veterans.....

*What are your visions of downsizing? I think Seble has the tools and skills to make these kinds of changes if voted in by the majority.

I'm a veteran coach, and I actually like TRex's recommendation.

I would be fine scrapping the current worlds, and playing in new worlds, if it meant fuller worlds and increased competition. It's risky for GD, but it's riskier for them to stay on their current path and do nothing.

they should just create a new world that has DIA playoffs and watch it fill up

Posted by Indpnt1 on 8/18/2019 2:29:00 PM (view original):
On another note, I've always thought I'd like to go back to DIII and see if I could knock off some of those powerhouses. I've noticed when they do venture to come out of their DIII baby cribs to higher levels of competition, they never are able to repeat their success.

I couldn't do it. 3k per scholarship, so very restricted recruiting. Playbook, practice plan and game planning are pretty much non existent. It all comes down to vision and how many undecided you can see.