the ultimate online strat.

Here is an idea. How about making online strat interactive like all other games online these days. I play many games online. Poker, backgammon, chess etc. All have the table feature, live players, message boards and live chat. Rooms to join an connect with other players etc. Im not sure why strat just cant take tgeir board game and forego the netplay version of the game and put it online in a gaming room where you can meet others join leagues, draft players, have manager ratings etc like all other games out there.

Wouldnt it be awesome just to go to the website, sign in and play as you choose. A subsciption pay system could be used where you pay for a month or year etc. And the interface would be like it is when you are playing the game face to face. Much better idea than cdrom net play or online strat as it is now. Join the website download the interface and join everyone there like it is with pokerstars or yahoo games.

Scott.

Here is an idea. How about making online strat interactive like all other games online these days. I play many games online. Poker, backgammon, chess etc. All have the table feature, live players, message boards and live chat. Rooms to join an connect with other players etc. Im not sure why strat just cant take tgeir board game and forego the netplay version of the game and put it online in a gaming room where you can meet others join leagues, draft players, have manager ratings etc like all other games out there.

Wouldnt it be awesome just to go to the website, sign in and play as you choose. A subsciption pay system could be used where you pay for a month or year etc. And the interface would be like it is when you are playing the game face to face. Much better idea than cdrom net play or online strat as it is now. Join the website download the interface and join everyone there like it is with pokerstars or yahoo games.

Scott.

I think interactive online strat would be a great idea. However, it would be a different game that wouldn't need to replace the current Online Strat game. I mentioned the main advantages and enjoyable aspects of the current system on another thread, but other people already know them and there's no need to repeat them here. However, a main advantage of On-line strat, that couldn't be arranged for actual interactive Strat, is that you (and all other managers) don't have to actually be there to participate; you don't have to organize your schedule around the other players' schedules to play. In the interactive online strat you propose, it would be extremely difficult to arrange leagues and play out the games in those leagues with all of the disparate working schedules of the league's players: It would demand a pretty rigorous time commitment from all of the league's players to actually complete a league.

That being said, it would be cool if Strat could provide it's current service and and interactive strat option. I would be curious if you could come up with a way of establishing interactive strat leagues that could accommodate every manager's work schedule...I'm not sure that I could.

I agree. I do a lot of netplay, and have no problem hosting. BUT I know a lot of players that cannot host due to some kind of router or port issues which are way over the head of most people

The best way to solve the issue is just as online strat is now...that is...if its time for u to play a scheduled game and cant be there u just have hal play the game for u.

Scott.

The best way to solve the issue is just as online strat is now...that is...if its time for u to play a scheduled game and cant be there u just have hal play the game for u.

Scott.

That would complete the games players couldn't play; however, it wouldn't prevent the problem of there being an inordinate percentage of games meant to be played person v. person actually being played person v. HAL...which negates the very purpose of establishing an inter-player strat league. As I said in my post above, it would be very difficult to schedule regular 1-2 hr game times--about the norm for a regular strat game--that could fit the time schedules of all the league's players so that most of the leagues players could actually play most of their games...if the players had many nights when they could set aside 1-2 hours at all.

So, I'll rephrase my original question. How would you schedule an inter-player strat league so that all of the leagues players could actually play most of their games and not render most of their decisions and game-play to HAL, making their own participation in the inter-player league negligible?

The usual thing is that players who dont have the time have a 2nd manager to cover games. But there is nothing syopping strat from moving the cdrom and net play game fully to an online format. Thus bringing in everyone. Those who wish to stay with this version can do so.

Personally i prefer playing live againt another person but the netplay cdrom version of the game seems stuck in the late 90s in its concept. Get everyone online, play live if you wish, play with hal in this version too if you wish.

There are 1000s of players who play strat. Some can only play once a week some more. Like me it would be mostly on sundays. So i would join up with others who play on sundays. If its only a couple hours a week thats fine we just set up a 54 game schedule instead of 162 games or something of that sort.

If we can get everyone in the same place, the rest would be pretty simple. we just find the guys who have similar schedules as we do. And in emergencies hal can cover the few missed games.

Scott.

The usual thing is that players who dont have the time have a 2nd manager to cover games. But there is nothing syopping strat from moving the cdrom and net play game fully to an online format. Thus bringing in everyone. Those who wish to stay with this version can do so.

Personally i prefer playing live againt another person but the netplay cdrom version of the game seems stuck in the late 90s in its concept. Get everyone online, play live if you wish, play with hal in this version too if you wish.

There are 1000s of players who play strat. Some can only play once a week some more. Like me it would be mostly on sundays. So i would join up with others who play on sundays. If its only a couple hours a week thats fine we just set up a 54 game schedule instead of 162 games or something of that sort.

If we can get everyone in the same place, the rest would be pretty simple. we just find the guys who have similar schedules as we do. And in emergencies hal can cover the few missed games.

Scott.

Yeah, I kind of figured a Sundays (or Saturdays) league would be the feasible way to go. Since most working players can't set aside any particular work night for so many consecutive weeks for a strat game, it would be difficult to get "everyone in the same place" for a mid-week schedule.

However, I'm not quite sure how Strat could make money providing a service that would be primarily used once a week over 54 or 162 weeks. They now charge 16 or 20 dollars for roughly 7.5-8.5 weeks of gameplay, not including drafting and waivers period, which comes out to about 2 dollars or 2.50 per week per player for a service with regular participants. Would players be willing to pay out that much a week for Strat to facilitate their interleague play of one game a week, or would they demand a rate too low for Strat to make money? Strat would probably have to provide a subscription rate for this to work, but I'm still not sure if they could come up with one that would satisfy its subscribers while making its providing this more selective service profitable...particularly since some players already consider Strat's current rate too expensive.

As I said in my first post, I do think interleague Strat is a good idea, despite its inherent scheduling difficulties. So, I think if you and/or any other players seriously want it, you should probably come up with both a hypothetical way Strat could feasibly and effectively provide the service, as well as a reasonable rate a player would have to pay for that service. As one of those players, I'd be happy to join in once you started.

The usual strat player, the guy who plays in leagues online or through netplay will also usually buy the cards as well as they find it easier to study and rate the players each year. I myself come and go every few years. But when i buy i purchase the whole lot. So far since coming back after a break of a few years (2009), I have spent over $200.00. I think that initial cost may be a bit of a cost. But once its set up, having a monthly subscription rate of 15.00 or a yearly one of 150.00 would be workable. I can set up a simple interactive website that has a database and input from users as well as video uploads etc for less than 20,000.

With at least 20,000 people playing strat in north america if they get only 10,000 people to join that would be 1.5 million a year. It would be mostly profit after the initial set up costs.

Of couse im guessing on the amount of people who play strat.

Anyway, it definitely would be awesome.

Scott.

I take it that wouldn't include teams for the regular Online Strat game, since that would allow someone to get infinite teams for 15 dollars a month.

However, I could see dedicated Strat players paying 15 dollars a month for an on-line service that allowed them to play against other players and manage the entire game, and I would probably be one of them.

Sounds like a cool idea, Scott, and I hope you move forward in gathering support for it.