An update

[geekor]

[quote:6afbaa685c="Valen"][quote:6afbaa685c]I have absolutely no problem with spending $24.95 for 8 weeks of entertainment.[/quote:6afbaa685c]
Several have said something along these lines. On the surface it is hard to argue with this logic. But it never felt right. This morning I realized why.

Most of the fun for many is putting a team together. For several I have talked to once season starts team is mostly ignored until playoffs if the team makes it. They are moving on to their next team.

So do you really get 8 weeks of entertainment? How much time do you actually spend on a given team over those 8 weeks? There are movie theaters in town where I can see a movie for a buck. I can see 25 of those for the cost of one team. Going weekly that is 25 weeks of entertainment. If I do not have $25 I can get some entertainment by using one dollar to see one movie. To play strat at all I have to plunk down the full $25. For a person struggling to make ends meet that is a steep entrance fee.

A person like myself who is already addicted will pay what it takes to buy a 5 pack and play regularly. But for someone not already hooked and on a budget that is a significant barrier to entry.

But I understand economics. Without increased volume decreasing price does not make sense. So in the end it all comes down to increasing customer base. That means the ultimate question is how to get the word out and attract new players. In other words how can it be better marketed?[/quote:6afbaa685c]

I made that same point a page or 2 back. I'll give another example, facebook. There are a myriad of games on there, that give me more enjoyment if you count total minutes spent on it over an 8 week time that are free, or if I really want to spend $20 on it can really push me over the top. Or consider any other online mmo game, WoW or anything in that type of area, where you can be constantly playing.

sure it 8 weeks, but what 5 min a day, if you're really analyzing your next opponent what 20, 30 min? It's more like $25 for 7-10 hours of enjoyment, spread over 8 weeks.

[LMBombers]

This argument doesn't hold water. You pay a certain amount for TV but you don't watch TV 24/7. You pay a certain amount for unlimited calling or a landline but you are not on the phone 24/7.

It is what you make of it. Is the glass half full for you or half empty. I enjoy what I get for the money on this site or I wouldn't be here.

[mykeedee]

What LMBombers said!

[Musialfan6]

I think more people would spend more time if trade / add/drop restrictions were made easier. A whole other thread on how to make trades easier. If you didn't have to worry about min.max players until the 10 pm dead line you could do a lot of trading because you could than add drop until you were at min/max.

[LMBombers]

Good idea but what would happen if you didn't contiue the transactions (intentional or not) that would get you back within the rules of salary cap and roster minimums? Would HAL then make automatic transactions at the 10PM EST lineup deadline for your team cutting whoever and adding whoever? I don't think that would sit well with owners.

[Valen]

[quote:f1a6b413e6]You pay a certain amount for TV but you don't watch TV 24/7.[/quote:f1a6b413e6]
But I could, and with the help of my DVR almost do outside of work. This analogy does not hold water. To be apples to apples you would have to be paying for your tv one show at a time.

[nomo4evers]

I really think a bit of a better break for regular users would help. Now you can get 5 teams for $100..make it $80 and I think there would be a modest growth. Times are tough today and any small break will pay off.

[MacTK]

[quote:6baa7601dd="latorrer"][quote:6baa7601dd="maligned"][quote:6baa7601dd="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:6baa7601dd]

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:6baa7601dd]

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.[/quote:6baa7601dd]

You could easily play a 162 game schedule. I, too, have played that competitor's game of which you speak and when the draft leagues eventually fire up, games like the one offered here will dry up and disappear.

All of the games don't have to be played...they can be simmed just like they are here. You have the option of playing whichever games that you have time for that are up on the schedule at the moment, play head to head if the other manager is available or play the computer manager.

This is the direction that this game should be going in because the competitor is going to beat them to it and this type of online game will fall by the wayside. The internet should and will be used to it's full capacity whether it is here or elsewhere . 8-)

[DOUGELKE]

I''ve played his game when it was known as Smallworld. That's many years ago.And it will be aroud for many more.I have the computor game and have played head to head, but I would rather play here.I HAVE MADE MANY FRIENDS HERE. i look forward to getting game results every night.There aren't many that have more teams playee than me and I think the game will get better in the near distant future

[Valen]

[quote:97d27f2fd0]I really think a bit of a better break for regular users would help. Now you can get 5 teams for $100..make it $80 and I think there would be a modest growth. Times are tough today and any small break will pay off. [/quote:97d27f2fd0]
The $100 5-pack is a 20% discount off the regular price of $25 a team. Now if you increased your game play rate 20% in response to the introduction of TSN would not break even because of the increased server load and the corresponding increased costs. So really for that to have maintained or increased profit level everyone would have had to increase their play by 30-40%. Is that what you did? When you are waiting for a league to fill does it seem like everyone is playing 40% more teams?

Can you look TSN in the eye and guarantee that if they decreased price another 20% for a total of 40% that you would increase the number of teams you play by 50% and maintain that level? Can you point to your track record and show where you personally dramatically increased your participation in response to the last 20% price reduction provided?

I am sure someone in TSN management looked at what happened to team purchase level when they introduced the 20% 5-pack discount and used that to measure elasticity of demand. If demand remained flat then all the marketing training I ever received says another 20% decrease in price is unwise.

Suppose TSN used tiered pricing?
10% discount for a 5-pack.
20% discount for a 10-pack
30% discount for a 25-pack
40% discount for a 50-pack
50% discount for a 100-pack

What tier would you buy at? If you bought at the high discount 50% tier would you play a lot more teams or just go 5 times as long between purchases than you do now with a 5-pack. Remember if your rate of credit usage does not increase it makes no profit sense for TSN to offer a higher discount.

Suppose to insure that you really did play at a higher rate that TSN put an expiration date on these high discount purchased packs? Would you still buy? Should not be a problem if you really intend to play more often.

Here is another idea. At any time a person reaches a really high number of concurrent teams they get a discount. Suppose every Tuesday you could buy a 5-pack and your discount for that 5-pack was whatever the number of active teams you had going. You have 5 teams going you get a 5% discount. You have 20 teams going you get a 20% discount. You have 40 teams going you get a 40% discount.

Additional 5-packs purchased that day or any other day would be the regular price of $100.

For reference purposes if you play 1 team a week that would probably be 8-10 teams going at any given time depending on how often you made playoffs/finals.