Swan Song Part 2

Jeez I am only at March 2009 I think FML reached on of its high points here with the launch in beta of the new tactics system. WWFan and Millie were instrumental in getting it in and it was the sort of upgrade, to my mind at least,where you used it once and then thought how on earth did we manage without it.

By April I had started to Org in beta the NFA and changed it to a ladder league system which I still think would be the best way to do FA's but we did at least get a slightly watered down version which still lives on in terms of the EFA.I think I would accept the blame or the credit for that one.

During that time I said this:-

If success or failure is say being in the top 100, of a thousand managers only 100 can be successful. So 900 will fail, so how can you possibly design a game where all 1000 are in the top 100, you can move the goalposts around a bit or even create new ones, ultimately though there has to be losers for there to be winners.

I'd say you'd fanny about on and on, going around in circles trying to make it fairer for everyone so every manager has a chance to be successful. If they were not successful they'd move on or give up.

Ultimately, bottom line, you can't design that game.

You can design a game where as long as managers follow some simple guidelines they can become a big club and become successful, enjoy their time in the sun as it were. Eventually though as many clubs progress you'd have to have a system in place to allow managers to move. Otherwise you become top heavy again.

So back to the thread if the game is minnows to giants or rags to riches why give new managers a boost? Then it becomes 'not quite rags' or 'a fairly average club to giants'.

So to labour the point, "Ultimately, bottom line, you can't design that game" SI are still trying though!

By May 2009 I was starting to get a little despondent, I was pitching the same storey and first got seriously stuck into things like inflation and the other topic that has been common to this blog, rags to riches.

June 2009 and does this sound like deja vu

There is now a very strong undercurrent of unrest on the forums and in Gameworlds the managers left are smarting a bit. Pretty much you enter a gameworld with a long term plan only as it comes to fruition to see the gameworld dead or dying, at the very best limping along.

Yet SI have said there is a plan, only they can't say what it is they have to 'get permission'. Scratching my head what would you need to get permission for, reading between the lines it's an SI idea that needs to get approved by Sega.

Now I read that SI are paying close attention to the situation in GWs and cannot say what they plan to do but hey they are listening. Does anyone have confidence in them now?

Well have a look at just one month later they announced their big plan!

There are a lot of complaints about GW activity, SI managed to keep these quiet during May / June as they were announcing something 'soon'. The announcement came in the form of free trials, that kept the mob at bay for a few weeks. I think there is a slow realisation that in fact trials are not going to do much so the posts are getting angry again now.

Some are a bit over the top and fairness SI / Sega have said this is top priority and they have plenty of ideas just nothing concrete yet. Taking my fanboy hat off this has been an issue since beta for at least a year. With the best will in the world having a few good ideas but nothing concrete is that good enough?

Eighteen months later and we are back in the same position, was this caused by 1.65 and bonkers increases in sign on fees or was it the more sensible wage demands. Actually Turk was already dying it started at 800 active managers (signed in last 7 days) and just six months later was 500 odd.

So the dying of Turk GW situation was not caused any economic meltdown or opening too many GWs. Its cause is more fundamental, it simply does not have enough appeal.

I will not quote it in full here but FML Fail it seems incredible but I do recall pitching a full on rags to riches idea and getting told it was lower league manager. Distinction between the two was lacking I think.

Onto September can you believe the game a year old the old jump FA's for easy games exploit is still running, still it was sorted after the reset but that was two years from beta to doing something about it. To underline that issue Rage Like T Bag post. To recap I joined Lofthouse in Season 8/9 to find the Qualifiers going on, after a fairly dismal first season for the second season I found myself in the third tier and due to FA jumpers that third tier was stronger than the top tier. You could not make it up!

The game had been out a full year now and my patience was wearing thin, I can see the posts changing from being optimistic and thinking that SI knew what they were doing, to suspecting they actually did not know what they were doing, actually they were making it up as they went along.

Ok Part Three Soon.