Let's make this a petition-please add your post if U agree

I received this response from strat:

"Hi Geoff,

We apologize for the problems that we have had so far with our game. Unfortunately many of these problems did not show up during our testing but we are working around the clock to correct these as soon as possible.

We have received everyone's suggestions on the game and appreciate all the feedback so far. Once we have the game back up and running we do plan on releasing new features for the game including adding Game Replay in. However at this time we don't anticipate changing the structure of the game. We have created a similar game to this in the past on The Sporting News and this time have intentionally tried to make a simpler game, although we know that some users will want more control. Again, we appreciate all of the suggestions and feedback we have received and will continue to try to make this the best game we can."

Bill's response:

'I received a very similar reply to my email to Strat. Here is my response to them.

"Please take this in the spirit it is intended (hoping to make your product as successful as it can possibly be).

Your gaming community does not want simpler (Strat for Dummies). We want a robust representation of the Strat-O-Matic football game in its advanced form.

There are plenty of freebie "simple" online games available. You have to make the product sophisticated enough that your online gaming community is willing to pay to play over and over again.

The online football game as it stands seems pretty boring to me. There just isn't enough to do to justify spending money to play."

Thanks,
Bill'

I received this response from strat:

"Hi Geoff,

We apologize for the problems that we have had so far with our game. Unfortunately many of these problems did not show up during our testing but we are working around the clock to correct these as soon as possible.

We have received everyone's suggestions on the game and appreciate all the feedback so far. Once we have the game back up and running we do plan on releasing new features for the game including adding Game Replay in. However at this time we don't anticipate changing the structure of the game. We have created a similar game to this in the past on The Sporting News and this time have intentionally tried to make a simpler game, although we know that some users will want more control. Again, we appreciate all of the suggestions and feedback we have received and will continue to try to make this the best game we can."

SIMPLER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

It was to damn simple the first time on TSN that was the single biggest problem with it. To simplistic in it's controls so as to not give us enough control. ARGH they don't get it.

I bet you (if you could somehow meet in person and talk with them), that if you made a $10k bet on a simple version (this) and a pro version (With actual controls) and which would be more popular, they would lose easily.

But a version with more control means more programming, it wouldn't fit their timelines.

I received this response from strat:

"Hi Geoff,

We apologize for the problems that we have had so far with our game. Unfortunately many of these problems did not show up during our testing but we are working around the clock to correct these as soon as possible.

We have received everyone's suggestions on the game and appreciate all the feedback so far. Once we have the game back up and running we do plan on releasing new features for the game including adding Game Replay in. However at this time we don't anticipate changing the structure of the game. We have created a similar game to this in the past on The Sporting News and this time have intentionally tried to make a simpler game, although we know that some users will want more control. Again, we appreciate all of the suggestions and feedback we have received and will continue to try to make this the best game we can."

SIMPLER?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

It was to damn simple the first time on TSN that was the single biggest problem with it. To simplistic in it's controls so as to not give us enough control. ARGH they don't get it.

I received a very similar reply to my email to Strat. Here is my response to them.

"Please take this in the spirit it is intended (hoping to make your product as successful as it can possibly be).

Your gaming community does not want simpler (Strat for Dummies). We want a robust representation of the Strat-O-Matic football game in its advanced form.

There are plenty of freebie "simple" online games available. You have to make the product sophisticated enough that your online gaming community is willing to pay to play over and over again.

The online football game as it stands seems pretty boring to me. There just isn't enough to do to justify spending money to play."

Thanks,
Bill

Let's make this a petition - please sign with a post if U agree

I agree with Bill (above)

Geoff Brookes

Yes, we are all saying pretty much the same thing. I agree with Bill.

I'm with you fellers.

Agree. We will wait for a more advanced game. Willing to pay double for that. And half a game a night...please!

Clearly I want a more advanced game

Fully agree - I just recently signed up hoping that the bugs would have been at least somewhat worked on by now -- and since they were marketing it I figured that even though the feedback was pretty much bad across the board (except for the handful of strato plants of course) that it was workable. Don't know why they advertise it if they were having problems but since I imagine the majority of people in here are crossovers from baseball, what did we all expect?

I am beginning to think there is a massive lack of programming skill in the entire company, as it seems like one guy could make more progress than this entire company makes. And I guess I'm thinking I'm the biggest fool of all because I signed up to play their new game while their baseball game still has huge, glaring holes that could be easily fixed with one or two lines of code.

I don't know how much longer they have -- a lot of you guys are getting really, really old...
and I'm older than that so maybe they're not investing because they know their market is not nearly at a replacement level. Sad thing is that in the hands of some qualified and credible programmers, strat could be utilizing present technology to make their current programs run much better and also attract new customers. Hell, it wouldn't be too difficult to have an online interface for the games, allowing us all to play in a system that more closely resembles the face to face games that got me hooked in the first place. If they don't get it together soon, they're going to lose their market or end up getting replaced by a similar program someone decided to whip up some weekend in a moment of boredom.

I know they aren't going to open their code for others to take a whack at for fear of embarrassment of how simple their engine is in the first place and the different multipliers they have added in just to make it somewhat function. But truly sad that as many years have gone by and even though they had thousands of hours to improve on football, it ends up being just as big of a mess as before. Where's sporting news when you really need em huh?

Ultimately, I'd just like to be playing rather than waiting on a timeline that no one knows. Its a shame that they haven't acted better about coming out an offering some options for customers whose money is tied up while they ??? or at least like others have suggested, keep running it and let us be part of the solution. After all, if my backup quarterback has to throw a td pass to my 3rd string running back in order to win the game, so be it. It can't be as bad as the mvp of every baseball league being a relief pitcher or having my relief pitcher bat in the bottom of the 8th only to be replaced in the top of the 9th without throwing a single pitch right after he strikes out.

What does the Strat programming office look like? Anyone seen it with their own eyes?