Subject: # of users

I think you are facing a losing battle, Football is our No.1 sport yet we have low user numbers compared to other countries. I know we have less population, but other games I can mention that are not anywhere near as good as Sokker are played more. It must be something that puts users off at the beginning, maybe its too hard and daunting at the start?

What makes me surprise is that England population is something like 50 million and in Eesti we have around 1.3 million people. But we still have 100 users more, than you.
No need to mention the fact that USA population outnumbers ours approximately 200 times. So ~1 user for every million people seems funny if you think about it. I even can`t come up with an idea why is it so. Is it because soccer isn`t very popular, different culture....who knows.

I guess some majority just prefers playing those FIFA/PES games.

You have a point there, Xbox etc are quite big things I think especially here and the US. I would never have guessed your population was so low. I can understand the low amount of users in the US though as it is probably their No.4 sport at best I would guess.

I would think US Football, Basketball and Baseball all eclipse what they term as Soccer. Then there is Ice Hockey too but I doubt thats more popular?

I am quite sure that also Ice Hockey is more popular.

I have no idea, it would be good to get an American perspective on that. Its why Beckham, Pele etc have failed to spark a huge interest in their game.

Ice hockey is number 4 in the US, according to news reports. ice hockey is even below NASCAR racing (actually, they flip-flop). Sokker is either 5 or 6. Which would explain the low number of users here.

Another issue is this is a long term thinking and developmental game. You have to adjust and grow your team at different levels. Unfortunately, us Americans (most of us anyway) are more immediately focused. I've noticed among younger people i know that games which take a while to get moving in tend to lose a lot of US players. I don't know how worldwide that problem is. If we could find a way to provide a level of immediate gratification while encouraging them to stay on and develop their team, we might solve the problem. One thing i think would help is providing more "flash" to sokker. I just don't know what type of "flash-bang" will attract and keep users. any thoughts?

I think thats a general thing amongst youths worldwide to be honest, my son is exactly that way inclined. He used to use cheats to complete games which drove me mad. lol

If we could find a way to provide a level of immediate gratification while encouraging them to stay on and develop their team

Sokker doesn't have well defined goals of the game. Yes, you could say you want to improve your team bla, bla, bla but that's too vague. Winning the Major league is an abstract possibility, as remote for me after a year of playing as it was in the beginning and there are no cheats :-). Winning your own league somehow doesn't matter. You don't get anything for it, and often it means a financial penalty (if you fail to win a qualifier). Everyone has to define his own goals. So people come, look around, and don't know what is the purpose of all of this. Coach Mark is right, we need to find some way to help newbies define achievable short-term goals. I don't have answers but maybe we should make winning your league more important. Give some cash reward to buy a player, give away a month of plus, something that would make people feel that they reached some goal.

Other than that: stop putting newbies in B-leagues where they become punching bags for more experienced managers and compress C-leagues to give every newbie an appropriate level of human competition and help create some local rivalries. Mission impossible :-)
(edited)

its a dead horse and all, but the c-league's do need to be cut back. we can't support 64 c-leagues. my buddy just joined, was put into a c-league and won 4-1 with his crappy team. he's already asked how long it will be til he faces actual competition.

he's already asked how long it will be til he faces actual competition.

I guess every Wednesday, in a friendly.. :(

Definitely too slow paced here.

You really only need to check the site two or three days each week, to check your two matches and training pops. The other two soccer simulations I play need to be checked every day. Spend a lot more time on them than here, and both are into 6 divisions in the US.

Misses the point. Sokker is MUCH better than HT, which has 6331 US users.

Yeah, but HT has 6300 US users mostly because of the social element, which is lacking in sokker.

I'll be selling off my players and quitting Sokker after the next game.Major reason is the game is too static and slow moving,improving your team is extremely difficult when you reach a certain level.I've really lost all interest in the game over the last few months and it's just not fun anymore.
I'll take this opportunity to say good bye to everyone I've interacted with and wish you all the best in the future......................med

wow. i'd be sorry to see you go dude.

Shame you didn`t warn about listing your players. I really like few of them and would like to to buy one defender. I guess 4mil € isn`t enough getting the best ones:)