Wed Oct 16, 2024 7:48 am
The statement "new programming team to modernize the underlying structure of 365" seems a clear acknowledgement that the game engine is compromised and/or broken, which I can see after only playing two seasons. I will not be back.
The number of times I've seen a RP come into a game and give up a HR to the first batter, both for and against my team, is ridiculously out of proportion. I've corresponded with other players and there seems to be a consistent pattern of certain teams' top-priced SP or RP constantly rolling 54-55% on hitters cards. Several of these players also notice uncanny and repetitive W/L patterns for teams that apparently kick in at a season's 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 point.
While I was researching some of these patterns with a few other players, who were going through their old teams and noticing the patterns mentioned above, and others, that was when all the archived Strat teams disappeared. Quite the coincidence.
The letter from Hal Richman only further proves to me that the game engine is broken, or, more likely, has been compromised to reward certain paying customers and punish others. As I said, I've only played this online game twice, after rolling dice for many years of my youth, but I only needed to play it twice to know I don't want to play it any more.
As for the confiscatory 25% price increase, StratOMatic seems to be pursuing a foolish pattern that's being pushed out of modern business schools, and embraced by other dying brands, like Disney and its parks: Keep raising prices for the "true believers" (who are actually called "suckers") as the customer base vanishes. This is a strange new counter-productive capitalist strategy that rarely if ever works out because more and more customers leave for greener pastures (compare Universal Parks attendance to Disneyland in Florida now, for example).
Best I can tell, the average age of an online Strat365 player is 65+. When that generation of players dies off, so too will the game. It makes me sad, but it makes me sadder that I was so looking forward to re-igniting my youthful passion for this game in a new digital age but all it did was convince me even further that everything in America has been broken and corrupted. Thanks, Hal.