Online Leagues vs Game Versions

[laving39]

I kinda now that the answer will be no on this one, otherwise you would have done this already. But it has to be mentioned anyway.

The current format of releasing a new game every year is kind of killing the online leagues.

Some leagues decides to stay on one version of the game, resulting in GMs dropping off because they want to play on the newest game version.

Other leagues decides to migrate every year (or so) to ensure they are playing on the newest version of the game, resulting in GMs dropping off because they don't want to buy the new game or want to wait until the new game comes on sale.

Why not finance the game subscription style? Add your new features, update the rosters, do the things you want to do to the same game, and let us pay annually. This way less GMs will drop out from online leagues, and you can still make the same amount of money. Offline players will not notice any difference.

It has to at least be worth thinking about.

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by laving39

I kinda now that the answer will be no on this one, otherwise you would have done this already. But it has to be mentioned anyway.

The current format of releasing a new game every year is kind of killing the online leagues.

Some leagues decides to stay on one version of the game, resulting in GMs dropping off because they want to play on the newest game version.

Other leagues decides to migrate every year (or so) to ensure they are playing on the newest version of the game, resulting in GMs dropping off because they don't want to buy the new game or want to wait until the new game comes on sale.

Why not finance the game subscription style? Add your new features, update the rosters, do the things you want to do to the same game, and let us pay annually. This way less GMs will drop out from online leagues, and you can still make the same amount of money. Offline players will not notice any difference.

It has to at least be worth thinking about.

If the subscription is $40 every year, hows that any different then buying a new version every year? And if it's more then $40 a year, why would anyone sign up for it? Not only that but a subscription style penalizes people like me that normally buy every other year.

[tomkmb]

This will still divide people. I play in online leagues and single player - so what would I do? pay for the game and then an additional subscription?

Thing is, with online leagues or just any group of people, you'll never get 100% to be on board with any single idea (usually at least) so whatever way you go you're gonna have GM's leave. Best you can do is make your league visible to those that want to look to make the jump to online leagues - I had to search hard to get into the ones that I'm in when I first wanted to make the jump.

Hopefully they make gradual improvements to the online experience in general because it does lag behind the single player experience in many areas of it's core functionality.

[laving39]

Originally Posted by drummerJ99

If the subscription is $40 every year, hows that any different then buying a new version every year? And if it's more then $40 a year, why would anyone sign up for it? Not only that but a subscription style penalizes people like me that normally buy every other year.

That last part is an argument.

[laving39]

Originally Posted by tomkmb

This will still divide people. I play in online leagues and single player - so what would I do? pay for the game and then an additional subscription?

Thing is, with online leagues or just any group of people, you'll never get 100% to be on board with any single idea (usually at least) so whatever way you go you're gonna have GM's leave. Best you can do is make your league visible to those that want to look to make the jump to online leagues - I had to search hard to get into the ones that I'm in when I first wanted to make the jump.

Hopefully they make gradual improvements to the online experience in general because it does lag behind the single player experience in many areas of it's core functionality.

No. Not subscription and a new game every year. My thought is that you do one of them. Preferably the subscription. But as Drummer pointed out, that would penalize guys that typically buys every second game.

I know you can't get everybody on board forever. But I have a long background from STHS leagues. I started a league back in 2008, and handed it over to another commish in 2014. That league is still running, and half of the GMs are still the same. I don't really see that happening on FHM, and I think that the format of one new game every year has a lot to do with it.

My online league is visible. Most viewed post on the FHM 9 Online Leagues forum. I don't really struggle with this yet, I started my league this summer. But after talking with a lot of guys, I realized that the current format is a problem for online leagues in general.

Yeah, the online experience is not the same as the offline experience. And I'm doing a custom league for my online league, it's even a lot worse. Hopefully thing will be cleaned up in the future.

[Bluenoser]

It's no different with OOTP Online Leagues, and they've survived very well for 24 versions.

A subscription service would be no different, you'd have owners who would take the upgrades and owners who wouldn't, leaving you with owners who have different versions. You then run into compatibility problems with league files during import/export.

[laving39]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

It's no different with OOTP Online Leagues, and they've survived very well for 24 versions.

A subscription service would be no different, you'd have owners who would take the upgrades and owners who wouldn't, leaving you with owners who have different versions. You then run into compatibility problems with league files during import/export.

Why does other simulators that does the subscription model not have this problem?

[tomkmb]

Originally Posted by laving39

Why does other simulators that does the subscription model not have this problem?

I didn't really want to make these points but the league I am in (iNHL) has spanned 3 iterations across all games since online play was introduced in the franchise and is still going strong now with GM's both old and new.

You started a league less than a month ago and you're already having perceived problems with longevity - It could be a multitude of factors - I've not been in your league, so I can't speak to it with any degree of certainty but there are enough long running FHM leagues that date back to the advent of OL play for me to think you're not just the latest in a long list of constant OL casualties regarding this 'issue'.

However, I have spent a brief time with STHS, and for ANYONE to suggest that a successful product like FHM(game54) or their parent publisher OOTP Developments needs to take a leaf out of the 'business model' of STHS is insane, the products are night and day.

There is merit to subscription models when done in a certain way, there are plenty of games that use this model but it's tailored to their core audience and allows them to utilise things like constant DLCs.

The majority of online sports games are still FTP based at a one off purchase price - unless they're browser based to begin with.

Hell games like EHM are still going strong with an online community and that hasn't been touched since 2015.

[drummerJ99]

Originally Posted by laving39

Why does other simulators that does the subscription model not have this problem?

What other simulators are you referring to? The only ones I know of are racing simulators and they cost $100 a year for a subscription alone.

As for the league, starting a hockey league in summer would have similar results to starting a OOTP league in December. By then people are looking to the upcoming game.

[GMO123]

Any possibility of having a separate price for online leagues?

An online league buys a group licence (costing much more than a single licence) and online players can use that licence to play the game for the online league, so they don't have to each individually buy separate licences?