Quote:
Originally Posted by HRBaker
I just looked at the results from last season and the numbers are basically the same. The top 3 teams in Rookie, for example, won 147-149 games. In Stone, 145-150 games, and in Iron, 138-146 games... all well above an .800 winning percentage.
All I'm trying to say is when you have Whales in the lower levels, which represents well over 50% of OOTP's PT players, most of these teams are going to be abandoned well before the next version comes out.
That said, maybe the money they make from the top 10% is enough to make it a successful venture, but over time the number of people playing PT (in my opinion) will ultimately go down. It becomes like playing Chess when you only get to play the World Champions
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I have the same opinion. I don't work for OOTP so of course I don't have access to any figures, but I do know gamers and the gaming industry. Gamers, as a whole, are not exactly known for their exemplary patience.
Here we have a game with TONS of content for the baseball fanatic. Some of the user base of this game is also just as fanatic. I myself bought every single iteration of the game since I discovered it (OOTP8).
But...here we are, more than 2 months after release, and people are STILL waiting to get an even playing field. TOW MONTHS ! And to me that is the biggest challenge this mode faces. We are not exactly in 1988...gamers have tons of options for spending their time and money. Many gamers don't have the patience to wait that long to start reaping the benefits. So that leaves your player base as mostly baseball/OOTP fanatics...
Then over time, people's situations change...some of those fanatics will lose income, interest, whatever...and with the current system, it would be difficult to "replace" those fanatics with just random gamers because the game itself is really not "average gamer friendly". Tourneys help some, but even that area of the game would need some serious QOL additions to it. If you're a newcomer not very familiar with OOTP, just opening the list of tourneys for the first time is a disheartening experience.
That's why I'm also with you that the game could really benefit from a ladder system and do away with the pro/rel system (I have been stating this opinion since the very first iteration). I would do it differently than what you propose - I would have it as a formula that takes into account the top 40 cards in one's collection (not all cards are created equal...a perfect live does not equate a perfect Jackie Robinson), but I would also have it take into consideration record, GM score, playoffs and maybe a few more "random" variables. Then fill the leagues FROM THE TOP. No more of that getting promoted while playing 9 games under .500 BS alongside teams that should get promoted to help fill a need MONTHS down the line (Eventually getting a Perfect League)
So I think it's a legitimate concern to have. How much more new revenue can OOTP expect with the current model if they start to slowly see the number of "fanatics" dwindle due to a bunch of circumstances ? I don't know that answer. What I do know, is that if you go grab a random gamer on the street and ask them if they would be willing to invest a lot of time and/or money into a game that still wouldn't have an even playing field 2 months into the games' release...you're probably not gonna have a lot of takers...and that's basically what we are asked to do.