Subject: Is Sokker dying?

The problem is that most users log in once, twice or even never. Basically when they log in and see what sokker looks inside - they rapidly lose the interest.

Indeed :) Almost all never login again after registration and 1 visit, even after their team is accepted by an admin they never come back again. And we don't even know how many don't even register because of the outdated look when they see Sokker the first time.

I agree that what you say is a bigger problem. And even your comparison is relatively ok with the washing machine and the light bulb. But your conclusion is totally wrong. You would stil first change the light bulb because it costs less time and money. It's the same with redistribution of skils. It's really relatively easy to make this change and make skills simply be effectively stronger than now. I am sure of that. Proof: in junior league games pace already has a stronger effect than when they come to seniors.

So, let's first discuss and try to agree whether this should be done or not and leave prioritisation to devs who are the only ones who can really alocate the necessary resources. I would also rather want them to change design and attract more users by that but even when we do that they would also stil want to leave the game because of quality gap later. So, let's turn on the light first so that we can see what we are putting in the washing machine when we fix it. ;)

You would stil first change the light bulb because it costs less time and money. It's the same with redistribution of skils.

seriously? an immense change in the way the game works is in your opinion easier than...making the layout more pro-looking? :p

Proof: in junior league games pace already has a stronger effect than when they come to seniors.

And you really underestimate the amount of work necessary to change the entire design of the game.
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YES

Arthur Hughes, age: 18
club: GRANGEMOUTH FC, country: Scotland,
value: 33 000 £, wage: 540 £,
very good [9] form, tragic [0] tactical discipline,
height: 173 cm


tragic [0] stamina tragic [0] keeper
solid [8] pace poor [3] defender
good [7] technique hopeless [1] playmaker
hopeless [1] passing average [5] striker


when this player just sold for £2 !!!!!!!!!! lol

But this change wouldn't change Sokker completely. It would only "flatten the pyramid" (check the pyramid pictures again) in a sense that quality gap between clubs would be reduced. We would only have more of simmilar level clubs. Nothing else.


What a stupid idea.

So you want new teams to have almost similar levels than teams that have already been playing for like 6, 7 or 8 years?. Ridiculous.
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The problem is that most users log in once, twice or even never. Basically when they log in and see what sokker looks inside - they rapidly lose the interest.

That assumption might not necessarily be correct. I know many websites of games, one specific with game cards, with the same problem. New users log in once, or twice and never more. New users like to try on many games before choose one, or even not choose any, they register with the intend of playing once indeed.

So, the "many registers and much less active users" problem is much more common to internet games and it's not specific to sokker. It does not mean that sokker’s look might not be the improved, but it means that changing the sokker’s look and not change the game itself might not solve the problem. If you check other internet games what you will see the most is players that want to spend the time just once or twice in a game and not become a regular user.

And you still miss the point. The problem is not users who leave after 2-3-6-8 weeks because they discover that the gap is too big/they team sucks/whatever.

That might not be correct either. This users are much more close to become a regular user than those that log in just once that might want just to spend a little time. Just to assume that they are less in numbers so they are not the problem might be a great mistake.

And the gap problem might create a snowball. Old users, when stop playing don't want to come back because of the time it takes to get back at the place where he were. And new users might calculate how much time to reach the top and not be stimulated.

And I repeat that, for me, the problem is not the just the gap, but is that the game it's too slow. That is, the problem is the TIME to reach top level of the top players. Most new users might not be willing to spend so many years to reach that. That's where the game should focus, to reduce time, in order to demand users less years to rech top level's with good strategy.
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Having recently joined my second soccer manager game After 5 of just Sokker, I agree wholeheartedly with your post. Everything takes too long for the casual user, but I was happy with this at the beginning. Now, for the last couple of months, I haven't even really tracked my pops that much, and nothing exciting is happening for me in the junior school so I am a little bored, and find myself playing another, weaker, manager game as there are 3 training sessions and at least 3 games per week. You also have to log on daily to get the income you need.

If sokker were to speed things up two-fold then I think it will invigorate my love for the game again.

I have done a little research in this last minutes over new manager's look and some of them have been well suceded with more than 600k - 700k users with a layout similar to sokker (some a little better and some a little worse in my opinion) and some have not been succeded losing many users with good layout or not. I thought it didn't make such different but the two most well succeded - FIFA Supertars and Top Eleven - have a much better layout. I liked the second one's layout but not the game ( the ME is poor with games every day) but it's good to reach some conclusions of mine:

1- There have been raised the competition in manager online games. Mainly over the facebook.

2- There have not been droped the interest for manager games, just to see how some have been well succeded. In fact it has been increased.

3- The look can make a good difference, or it might be just because of the mark and the facebook, but we can have an idea on how sokker could look like.

Still I do not think my last post is wrong, of course it's just an opinion, sokker slowness is a great negative point.
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sokker will never work in this age unless it's adapted to the current speed of living ... in this age that would actually mean daily matches instead of 2-3 matches a week (and only one matters).

if they start with such things, i'm pretty sure you'll see an even bigger outflow ...

More than one league game/week = I stop playing, because I won't have enough time...
this would also mean faster training, so faster buying/selling etc.

the biggest difference is that in sokker you don't just choose whether to play a 352 or 442 or 541, but you have to take time to make the tactic, improve it etc. and it's impossible for someone who has a life outside internet to do so more often that twice a week [league + NT for example]

The 'slowness' of a game like sokker is exactly what makes it tenable for many. You can fool around with it, but then you'd alienate a (huge) part of your user base in order to attract a different crowd. A crowd which you will lose eventually because a daily need to do stuff wears out and means trouble the minute real life with wives, children and work hits.

Anyway, I can safely guarantee you nothing of the sort will happen with greg in charge. And for once, I'm glad about it.

sokker will never work in this age unless it's adapted to the current speed of living ... in this age that would actually mean daily matches instead of 2-3 matches a week (and only one matters).

This would kill the game. I barely have time to play this game with only 1 league match per week and another friendly. People with actual busy lives wont be able to play games in which you have to log in daily.

Is it really impossible to increase speed without having to add more games a week?

I do agree with you. I don't have time to be creating tactics all the time, and would quit myself if there were more games every week.

But as the last person said, we don't have to have more games to speed things up. At the moment all I care about is Thursday, and some Sunday's when I have a tough enough game.

Sokker "makes" you log in every week (to set a friendly) but we need more things to happen and to get excited about. When you look for green on your ageing squad for pace pops it can get pretty boring.