A lot of this sounds like the old-timers getting riled up because things are changing in their little corner of the world and they don't like it. All this bashing of n00bs (which is the correct spelling by the way) and worry about new products hurting the products they have come to love. Things change and businesses grow. That is the way it will always be and I'm not sure it is worth the aggravation to rail against it.
Okay, I have nothing to lose and no one to impress so let's dance.
1. Neither Mr Dei or anyone else that has posted here has the slightest bit of factual evidence to support the claim that ITP hurt v6. None. The mere fact there are bugs in v6 proves nothing as there have been bugs in every release of OOTP. I have been playing since version 2 and find version 6 as playable as the others. Granted, I am not importing leagues or doing much fancy with it, but aside from minor bugs it works.
Plus, how do you even know how long it took to produce ITP or whether they hired another programmer for the task? You don't. You have not clue how much time Markus et al spent on ITP or on v6. Isn't it just possible that the new engine took time and attention from the other little details moreso than ITP? Isn't it just possible that weak beta testing allowed v6 to get published with more bugs than usual? Why the need to blame it on ITP?
2. I have read the boards. I have seen unhappy people like Mr Dei. However, ready to leave and leaving are two different things. Imho, a customer is not lost until they stop playing any product of the company. As long as you and others play v5, you are still customers. If you said, "I hate version 6 and I think ITP is to blame so I will never play OOTP again!" THEN I would say maybe their strategy has cost them a customer.
3. I did not realize Mr Dei was a marketing guru. I did not know he had done indepth studies of the OOTP buyers to be able to conclude with certainty who their customer base was. I'm sure you have all the statistics to back up your claim that the core OOTP customer is a hardcore baseball simulator fanatic that don't want anything else. I guess it is just not posslbe that the majority of the customers are casual gamers looking for some fun like me and don't really mind if it's not baseball.
4. Even if it IS correct that the core of the business is currently hardcore baseball guys, that does not mean it has to stay that way. Look, Markus et al are in this for the money, not to make you happy Mr Dei. To make more money and grow your business, you HAVE to expland your customer base. That means offering different products OTHER than OOTP. It worked just fine for Microsoft (yeah, let's get THAT debate going to!
). ITP was an attempt to grow as is their recent merger. I'm afraid more of the same will probably be coming whether you like it or not. You are the one who is wrong Mr Dei if you expect the company to be happy with just a small "core" of customers loyal to one specific game.
(dons his flame-******ant suit)