An update

[TRW]

[quote:5d5db143a2="LMBombers"]The price is cheap enough already. We just need better promotion so more people know this game exists. $20 (5 pack purchase) to be entertained for 2 months is dirt cheap IMO.[/quote:5d5db143a2]


I didn't know Donald Trump played strat. 8-)

Seriously though. I was a pretty active customer until December. I averaged 8-10 leagues per month for the last 5 years. I now have 2 active leagues with 3 credits left. I have not purchased a credit since late last year. I enjoy playing strat online, but I'm done spending $100 a clip(for a 5 pack). If the price were reduced to $10/$12.50 per game or say $100/for a 10 pack, I would start playing regularly again.

You may think that $20/$25 per game is reasonable, but your are in the minority.

Consider that many other websites offer fantasy sports leagues for free. Why would anyone want to play strat when they can set up a regular season league on Yahoo or cbssportsline for free.

IMO - The reality of the situation is that TSN/SOM is going to do absolutely nothing. The prices will remain the same. They may do a small promotion, which may attract a few people initilally, but the sticker shock will prevent any real progress toward increasing (and maintaining) a customer base that is greater than the current 250 or so core customers.

[LMBombers]

If a $20 bill is considered Donald Trump money then I guess I'm guilty.

It is obvious that we all would like to purchase the things we enjoy for less money if possible. That is a given. This thread has gotten completely off track. Personally I'm done with this thread unless Bernie actually posts another update.

[beavis]

[quote:0eef0850e1]The cost to maintain the servers with more teams will likely go up, and the increased revenue might not cover the cost increase due to prices being slashed.
[/quote:0eef0850e1]

This is the argument that will seal the doom of the game -- don't expand the customer base because of server strain. It's sort of like saying "don't build any more buildings in this city -- someone might graffiti them."

Would more paying customers require more infrastructure? Sure. And obviously TSN has to balance infrastructure costs with pricing. No one wants to see TSN brought down by strat-o-matic costs -- but then again, I don't think anyone believes they would be.

If they care about the long term health of the game (which I don't think they do), they need to expand the customer base. Plain and simple.

[maligned]

[quote:25f16425b4="LMBombers"]Although the head-to-head real time suggestion is very appealing it is not feasible in reality IMO with everyone's crazy schedules with family, work and vacations.[/quote:25f16425b4]

I disagree with this. It's not feasible for full season play as we know it. But what if you could choose an 80M team and play games whenever you want against any other 80M team that's online at a given time until you've played 162 games? There would be amazing competition to see who could have the best 162 game season, the best overall owner win % in the head to head game, and the best individual player performances. Also, owners could have ratings, and you could enter "exclusive" game play areas with only owners of similar ratings, for example. In addition to that, you definitely could run normal leagues if you had the patience and commitment for it. The options are many.
This, along with better marketing of this amazing fantasy game in the fantasy sports/online gaming era, is a no-brainer in my opinion.

[FUDU]

Is it a 5 pack for $20, or is it $20 per team when purchasing a 5 pack (IOW $100)?

IMO $20/team isn't that bad, and for 8 weeks of entertainment as mentioned above, in today's world of ever increasing costs to do anything, I do not see the reason for major complaining.

[RICHARDMILTER]

All my friends who play Strat-O-Matic are professional people with good incomes. But they also have families. 25.00$ is a bit much. 19.95$ or even 14.95$ would be much more palatable and probably boost business considerably.

[pkwmati]

At the risk of being called a troll, a billionaire or even worse Donald Trump, I don't think some of you are giving TSN enough credit here.

Do you really think when they run specials (5 pack for $80, roll-out of 1986 for free for example) they don't internally examine the impact on revenues and business growth in the aftermath? Of course they do. They understand the impact to revenues at certain price points. Thats the point of these specials. While there is a degree of goodwill to the current customer base, its also to see how much more can be generated through a lower price. It seems to me when they do this all the current players load up on a couple 5 packs and the play doesn't seem to pick up all that much. So while revenues seem great during the promotion, I would guess there is a lag and revenues are well below average in the months afterward. Of course, I don't have their numbers in front of me but the eyeball test didn't didn't show an excess of extra leagues popping up.

I think some interesting points have been made regarding marketing. I do think TSN could probably do a better job marketing the game and make sure that everyone who plays Strato privately is aware of this version.

[ROBERTLATORRE]

A lot of good points are being made here, but we need to keep in mind that the customer niche is extremely small, and that it may be tapped to it's fullest already.

I doubt that any amount of marketing could result in growth, SOM is a great game, but it's fan base is almost completely 40 and over, with no opportunity to tap the younger market.

We all grew up on board games and text based games, so we have an affinity for them. Board games and text based strategy/sim games are relics, once us dinosaurs are extinct, SOM may be too. Try getting an 8 year old to learn chess!!!! Good luck with that!

It's sad, SOM has great strategy, replay, and game play components, but the under 30 crowd has little or no interest in that type of gaming.

I don't think price point will entice NEW players, but it may get more buys from the current players. TSN has to market to the current customer base and keep it interesting with card sets and tweaks, but I really believe the customer base is maxed where it is.

Sorry to be a downer, but it's just my 2 cents.

[ROBERTLATORRE]

[quote:d398c6b62e="maligned"][quote:d398c6b62e="LMBombers"]Although the head-to-head real time suggestion is very appealing it is not feasible in reality IMO with everyone's crazy schedules with family, work and vacations.[/quote:d398c6b62e]

I disagree with this. It's not feasible for full season play as we know it. But what if you could choose an 80M team and play games whenever you want against any other 80M team that's online at a given time until you've played 162 games? There would be amazing competition to see who could have the best 162 game season, the best overall owner win % in the head to head game, and the best individual player performances. Also, owners could have ratings, and you could enter "exclusive" game play areas with only owners of similar ratings, for example. In addition to that, you definitely could run normal leagues if you had the patience and commitment for it. The options are many.
This, along with better marketing of this amazing fantasy game in the fantasy sports/online gaming era, is a no-brainer in my opinion.[/quote:d398c6b62e]

I am doing this with a competitors product and it is a massive time eater. I've played SOM net play leagues and each game takes 30 to 40 minutes even with the fastest managers. With the competitors product, the games are 40 minutes plus. They do have 16 team tournaments which can eat up close to 3 hours, but at least it's a one night commitment, not a 3-4 month one. So maybe that approach could generate some interest.

[maligned]

[quote:03949faa49="latorrer"]A lot of good points are being made here, but we need to keep in mind that the customer niche is extremely small, and that it may be tapped to it's fullest already.

I doubt that any amount of marketing could result in growth, SOM is a great game, but it's fan base is almost completely 40 and over, with no opportunity to tap the younger market.

We all grew up on board games and text based games, so we have an affinity for them. Board games and text based strategy/sim games are relics, once us dinosaurs are extinct, SOM may be too. Try getting an 8 year old to learn chess!!!! Good luck with that!

It's sad, SOM has great strategy, replay, and game play components, but the under 30 crowd has little or no interest in that type of gaming.

I don't think price point will entice NEW players, but it may get more buys from the current players. TSN has to market to the current customer base and keep it interesting with card sets and tweaks, but I really believe the customer base is maxed where it is.

Sorry to be a downer, but it's just my 2 cents.[/quote:03949faa49]

I don't think anyone is suggesting intensified marketing for the card and dice game. That's obviously a very small niche market. However, again, in the age of fantasy and online gaming, I don't think it's unreasonable at all to suggest that there is a much larger audience that could be tapped for the online version of the game. I'm 33 and have played online strat since I was 28. When threads are started every once in a while about people's ages, there are always a large number of 30 somethings and a surprising number of 20 somethings (I remember being far from the youngest when I was 29 in a thread a few years back).
If there was a way to make the initial entry into the game more accessible and understandable, I think MANY fantasy junkies would hop on board.