Swan Song!

Aye time has come to depart from FML not a hissy fit kind of way I think I can stand tall and say I gave some decent constructive criticism, it may have been harsh but it was always constructive.

Overall I have enjoyed the experience even if it go immensely frustrating at the end. So a little recap of the last two years of this blog. Lets us travel back in time to March 2008 in which I was rambling on:-

There is one big feature I'd like to see and that is to allow a Manager to hand over his club to another Manager (not my idea originally saw it on forum). I played lots of different CM/FM games and I enjoyed taking a non-league team to a higher level, managing a high profile team or returning the glory days to a club. After a while it became 'job done' and you'd want to start again or move on. You could limit it so that only the original Manager could change the team name. This would add a lot of longevity to the game.

Ha!

More of the same in March 2008 when I started to wibble on about the pyramid structure in Broken Dreams:-

The game has a very flat Pyramid structure, the gameworld is broken down into Federations, each federation has a 'Premier League' and then up to four feeder 'Division One's'. The difference in money between a top team and bottom is no where near as pronounced as in the real world. You could afford to put together a decent outfit and challenge all but the very top clubs very early on. I think potential football managers is a bit like Driving, ask anyone, Are you a good driver? More importantly ask any man and I bet you get very few negatives.

Hey that is a full two years ahead of the FA's getting sorted out, two years! Moving on to April 2008:-

I don't know if I'd just started I'd have honestly stuck with the game..

This is a massive problem facing FM Live if you ask me. I've already covered it previously but how many will play if their in the bottom 300?

Well it would appear not many, with GW6 launching in March by May I was posting that GW6 was on it's last legs.

It's surprising how quick a GW goes into decline. Every season so far we've had a fresh influx of managers to replace the idle ones. SI have to get new Gameworlds up and are not bringing in fresh faces this close season. Combine this with five or six previously very active managers leaving, the close season, and the Gameworld feels it's on the floor.

Said this in a recent podcast and blog, there are lots of numbers in FML, JP, Wage Demands, Inflation, Transfer Values but the biggest most important number is the number leaving.

At the time I raised this I was told 'it is beta will be different when people are paying for it'. If you cannot give a game away for free then you have issues.

By July I was whining about form or morale which prompted me to write this:-

• Bad form if you have it then would like to be able to see it on the pitch not see my team dominate X number of games then be unlucky. Although my team is having bad form currently and not playing so good so would much prefer that!
• Would like to be told I have it, dressing room morale seems unlinked to it. A simple message before the game along the lines ‘the team isn’t confident today due to having a lack of experience in the squad’
• Wage Auction enforced 50% sell on, end of contract wage auction has 40-50% sell on clause, should prevent bidding to sell.
• Injuries are turned up to be realistic but only for official games. So if you get into UFFA then you have a real life dilemma of having strength in depth. This is stickie injuries from games they still work exactly the same way. Competitions have ‘Injury Realism field’ and FA’s must run their senior leagues with this set to realistic. There are teams in GW6 with 14 players!

Two Years early! Onto August :-

However looking back at GW6 (these figures are pulled from memory) then we’ve had around 3000 users in the last six months and only around 300 remain active.

A retention rate of 10% doesn’t bode well so I’ve two concerns from this. First, if you play a long term game with a youth policy you could quite easily be playing in an empty gameworld in a few short months. Second, are there enough potential customers who’ll get the bug and keep playing.

Ohh that big question again that is prior to the games release. Just prior to retail release October 2008

Numerous posts repeating myself massive concern on how SI will keep the GW's full. Posed the question to them directly, no reply, silence.

Again December 2008:-

The burning question I still have is Gameworld longevity and become more convinced that I'm right with my solution of not allowing new subscribers into new gameworlds. New users find the game very hard and it's not a nice game to be losing in, a form of apprenticeship served in an established world ensures they don't go making mistakes in new ones.

If the current batch of gameworlds don't stay active for more than a few months the game is in the smelly stuff and I don't see any other viable solutions been touted.

Jeez when I read this stuff back it is a wonder I have not gone long before this. Was not always right though in January 2009 I said:-

SI have always seeked and appreciated feedback from the community but you can be left in no doubt SI have a vision for the game which won't be changed no matter how many toys fly out of the pram.

There was no vision they were making it up as they went.

Have to have a chuckle though Big Stadium Warning this change is going to be massive. I was told by an SI employee I was being dramatic, did it have a massive impact, ohh yes it did. Also see Deflation huge.

By February I was having a go at SI for this crazy new policy of new GW being open to only new subscribers it was so bloody obvious that was flawed.

SI now have a new subscriber only policy to new gameworlds, 'omg hold the phone' I bet there are a good few old pros literally salivating at the prospect. So it's not really going to be a newbie only gameworld, then the actual newbies who for quite genuine reasons would like to move to a new gameworld WON'T BE ABLE TO!

Good grief.

Just going to take a breath here and move on through the blog history more tomorrow. However around February I seem to recall posting in beta, mod (I was a mod then) and suscriber forums that opening too many worlds was a big no go.

This is February, by October and November I was proved right with the reset being announced and in SI's own words 'we opened too many worlds'. I seem to recall a podcast around that time and Sega marketing guru saying 'it was not a diaster'.

I beg to differ, by SI's own admittance the very future of the game was called into question.

If you read back over the blog you will see I have gone from coming up with ideas, being positive and supportive to slowly over time losing all faith in the direction the game is taking.

Today a comment was made to which it was the final straw the sentiment was that users who were critical of the game should cease playing. I'm a tough old bird and it is water of a ducks back however it is obvious that the points I put forward are treated with contempt.

Contempt is too strong a word but bottom line they do not want me beta testing from that comment I suspect they just want managers who are going to say 'great job SI'.

I will rap this up tomorrow as I stated in the opening I am not leaving in a hissy fit more a sense of frustration with the potential of the game not being realised.

I do sincerely wish SI, the current subscribers, the game overall a great future and I still harbour hopes that one day it will become massive.