Subject: Funny

You are only in Div IV because you want to be there

You clearly have the cash to compete in Div I - but that is your choice not to do so

My post was about loads of cash (£34m) & the Clubs having no idea what to spend it on

England user numbers are declining - England NT is struggling - the wealthy top-level Managers in England posting about their wealth gets my goat

Sokker England needs some/loads of support from the top

Just my opinion - no problems if anyone disagrees

I lost interest in the game around 1.5 seasons ago with the implementation of the latest match engine. Once that has gone its hard to get it back & hence I have just let things drift, its marginally better than just quitting all together.

That said, spending my piles of cash wouldn't make much difference to my teams performance in England anyway.

If you had £34m, how would you spend it in a way that supports England, either the NT specifically or Sokker England as a whole?

There really isn't much to do with money apart from buy a vanity stadium and that accomplishes little. I don't think there is a single decent English player on the TL at the moment. The highest value English player appears to be 380k on the list, compared to 2300k ish for the top foreign player (not that that necessarily means anything).

I can't see any outstanding young players that would fit my training, and there are no older English players for sale either that would be worthwhile either for me or for England.

Of course I could buy my way back to II (maybe, I don't actually bother much with tactics..), but I would have to use foreign players or keep on training my players after 21, and I have grown fond of the reasonably regular payments I get when my youths are sold on..

I think active forums would go some way to making the game experience better for everybody and your posts are currently generating a fair bit of activity..

Sokker has everything to do with cash

Enthusiasm - enjoyment - expectation

Try playing the game with no/limited cash, & you will see what I mean

Your lost interest in the game - was a huge loss to England for sure

mr_gibbage & forestman are fantastic Mods – in a game like Sokker they are exceptional

Phil_Fox85 & doughnut_jimmy could make a real impact to help Sokker England progress – but I fear they may leave it too late

eirikr is the dark horse – if he was much more positive & progressive – he certainly could be the leader England needs

But like the other 2 – he fails to come forward & do anything to support England right now

JMO – maybe wrong

Though i agree with what your trying to achieve, you can't tell people what to do, they have to choose to do it :) eirikr is nothing but positive to this game, and for England. so im not to sure what your trying to say about him.

That's ok - np

I have nothing but 100% respect for eirikr, & the others I mentioned

But you may have missed my point

I think I probably agree with you broadly, except for your point about money being so central to enjoyment of the game, even for new players.

I've already said that I prefer the lean times in the beginning of games when you need to think before you spend and check the weather forecast hoping for the sunshine that will bring in the crowds. That disappears once your finances are settled. At that point success on the pitch may become your focus, or whatever else takes your fancy.

We all start in the same financial position and I don't particularly feel the need to apologise for having slowly traded and trained my way up to my current position. It was probably 4 seasons before my finances stabilised; maybe some people expect too much too soon.

I can't remember who suggested it a while back, but I always offer Div IV sides friendlies at my ground in the hope they might get a bit of extra cash that way, although given how few fans I have left now, that probably doesn't help them much any more..

There aren't many possibilities for sharing the wealth (I think you used that phrase) in this game. I do have a habit of overpaying, if that helps?

I've sent a welcome email to every new team that joined my Div this season, but I don't think any of them logged in much more than a couple of times. The problems are perhaps broader than a lack of community engagement.

Speaking for myself, I play games for a challenge and usually for a long time but there are many other kinds of games and gamers out there and perhaps Sokker just doesn't float their boat..

I suppose I should do some work for the last hour of the week now...

edited for spelling and, believe it or not, brevity.

(edited)

@NCFC

I clearly AM fantastic all round great guy, however am a pretty poor mod now. I hold the role more in name - allowed to continue with it as was first non-Polish mod in sokker.

However you are badly wrong about gibbage. He is, and will always be the least valuable member of Sokker England. We only let him play and win occasionally as we all have to do our bit. I frankly have been very charitable to him over the years, just to see the smile on his little face.

However your comments on Phil & Jimmy are pretty harsh. I know, for a fact that Phil did a huge amount to help promote sokker for a number of years. He organised many *ahem* campaigns in places like Hattrick to get new users. Jimmy too has done much, and is and has been an active forum member for yonks, which is much of the battle. There are others who have been on sokker for years, rarely post on the forums, rarely interact and they do much less. But that's up to them - no rule on it.

On money. Well yes, and no. Clearly everyone wants more. If you asked me, you, even gibbage, would you like the much mentioned £34m for free, dropped in your account. I reckon we'd all say. Yes, please. Ta very muchly. Frankly, I'd then waste it, some on overhyped trainees, some on ridiculously good players whose wages I cannot afford.. However......I do agree that the most fun times are when you get the big team improvements in player skills, team capability and growth that does come earlier in your life in sokker. After a while, you get to a point of near stagnation. Your players age and start losing skills, or you end up losing money due to wages just as fast as you can improve. This then makes it less "sexy" in many ways. Many Prem players reached a peak in ~2009 and frankly it's not gone that far.

BUT....that's the good news for people like you. The game clearly has to reward longeivity - we don't go to square 1 every few seasons, but it has made itself more aligned towards helping new users. For example, the gap between player levels shrinks as you get higher, AND takes longer to train. Double-whammy (some of us remember when it didn't use to be like that). So unearthly to divine takes much longer to train, and gives much less improvement than excellent to formidable. Plus with all the aging, and stuff such as tactics (which really can make a decent difference), it means that it really is possible for others to challenge over time. AND there is the junior league which is much less biased due to junior age. Yes, to get to II or Prem takes time, but it can be done. If not, frankly gibbage and I would be winning every season, as probably about the only 2004-ers left in the game. And at least one of us doesn't do that.

Wow, my longest forum post since 1988.

:)

Cheers, I forgot that I recruited anyone!

I hope you don't make a habit of making posts that long, you'll quickly develp arthritis in your old joints ;-)

I couldn't read all of that through the spouting of barnacles ;).

I'll summarise:

Gubbage is weak & smells of fish.

and Phil got me chucked out of hattrick.

Your team was always rubbish on there anyway ;)

Good to see some posts (long ones again)

Have fun guys