Subject: [Idea] Merge of small countries/leagues

Yeah, although there it also gets lost in the talk that could be in other threads as well. A lot of small country managers have agreed and continue to remind them that this is not only what we want, but what is needed.
And waiting for some magical amount of new managers won't fix it as I pointed out earlier, all the experienced managers will have left from the small countries, so the new guys coming through will get bored too.
And even if the experienced managers stay, it's still a couple of real life years before the new side may even attempt to put up a fight, so we are talking at the minimum, 4-5 real life years before a new manager, even if they were to come from advertising, is even a good contest.

This game is very quickly going to end up with less than 6 competitive teams, and less than a dozen with any sort of numbers, completely killing the NT in the progress, as well as any profits that can be made by being a world wide game

Raul has already answered in person. What more do you expect?

There will be no merging, or not before a "general update" (which is going to be a long long long time).

At best we can hope for an international competition for all, which does not follow national competition pattern.

Nevertheless, it's not because it is not planned that it couldn't be changed...
The NT change was not planned either, but still they announced that it will get a higher priority then before...
Achmid is right when he claimes for merging small(er) countries, because it will benefit the amount of plus users for the rise of the fun ratio.
Also, it can perfectly be set that x amount of countries in 1 continent must be merged until the merged state has a minimum of y amount of users.
Once 1 country from a merged state reach y amount of users and the remaining countries also reaches y amount of users together, the bigger country can become autonome and the remaining countries form a new merged state after the season ends IF, by vote, ALL of those bigger countries users, have voted in favor for a split.
Imo... y should be 200!
(edited)

Just because he has said something doesn't mean we should just stop bringing attention to it. More and more small nation users are finding their way to various boards saying we need help.
We need help keeping the game fun, we need help to stop losing players, we need help because we only have 2 or 4 matches per season that aren't against bots.

We keep bringing it up now, because we won't be here to bring it up later when the devs realise this is a big problem, and by then, it won't matter.

This occurring helps all nations, not just small ones, because without small nations, the world cup qualifications are dead. Even the world cup group season will die.

We will keep fighting for it because if we don't, and there is no hope, why stick around?

Places line NZ and Australia have a very high disposable income compared to may places in the world, that means if you look after these places, and they grow, and they don't lose members, they will buy plus. They will buy plus because of their disposable income. And the proof is there, going back a few years (when I first quit the game due to real life), a high proportion of Aussie users bought plus regularly. We had a thriving A league and div 2 and a majority of those teams had plus.

So there are many reasons this is needed, many people who will benefit, and more money would end up in the game

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+1

You are right, but it doesn’t matter.

That won’t happen before a « general update » like Raul explain it clearly (in page 3 or 4 as i remember).

As a side comment :

in France (so, not a « small » country) few new users played only 1 or 3 matchs during a season (others are won by forfeit) because when we gain new users many of them stop to play and set no team (no team = forfeit).

This creates a paradoxical effect: Attracting more new players will make the game even more boring (than playing against poor bots) for those who want to start and stay in the game.

I am agree with you since the start ( of this topic) but the problems are :

— it is much broader than a « small nations issue », this impacts all lower leagues of all nations. A merger of a few nations will not solve the problem it will move the problem in these merged championships.

— Devs don’t want to rewrite the core game, clearly their strategy is to write new things on top of the core game first (see diaries and Raul comments). That s why I very pessimistic to see a solution within a few seasons, Maybe never, because there's no point in developing a game that is so unwelcoming to new users and small nations, never mind the efforts made on a "better interface" and "new features" for their global update : it will fail.
(edited)

I certainly see your point and agree with you mostly.

This problem affects the bottom leagues in all countries, the problem is in small countries, they are only the "bottom" leagues, and there's no upper leagues with people demoting to improve the strength of a division, or average fan club etc.

And they will definitely focus on their main changes, but that is also the perfect time to do this, because leagues already need to be re-written. And other games I have been part of easily combine leagues etc. regularly so it can be done.

I am also just re-warning them that if they don't do it now, they will miss out on the potential for a lot more income in the future.

But given this kind of game is not what most people want these days, I also don't think it matters what skin is placed over the existing core game, the people here are those who have played in the past, playing for nostalgia, not because they think it's the best game out there. Hell it's not even the best management game out there, but nostalgia is what brings me back. If I played a different Football management game in the past, I would be there.

Anyway I do hope they merge, because I want to keep playing this game, and I will even consider re-investing in plus again, but if the people I like talking too keep getting bored and leaving, then I will end up leaving too. The only reason Australia was revitalised is because I came back and then went on a big recruiting drive to bring back old sk-members. It has partially worked, but it's still just a band-aid. I've done my bit, it's now time the Dev's do theirs, and so far they have cut down other ideas brought up in the past that would help keep the interest of small nations too, so it's not looking good

I’m not totally agree, it’s not only about nostalgia
There are no other cross-os web games with a « true » match engine and tactic editor. Others are poor tactic or artificial match simulation, and/or not web browser game. It’s unique. That’s why the game keep few users too, and sokker had a good (commercial) potential to target this niche market. But obviously if newcomers are welcomed like this, we can't expect anything.

A simpler (and more radical) solution would be to create an international league that would allow active users (with a team!) to compete each weeks according to a new (international, ELO like) ranking, without the constraints of championship model and pools and without eliminations (cup). Then keep and make the traditional national championships much more secondary, with few consequences on our clubs and our finances.

It is even possible that this was also the idea of the Devs when they proposed an international championship.
(edited)

"without the constraints of championship model"

This is no more than basically computer generated friendlies.

A competition model is still necessary even in an International competition

But either way, that's a different topic. This one is all about merging :)

This is no more than basically computer generated friendlies

Well with an int ELO ranking and stadium price and sponsor according to ranking that should be less friendly :-A

competition model is still necessary even in an International competition

Yes, ok, but much more flexible and simple. If we can hope a new model generator to solve the consequence of empty leagues I bet on my solution.

Anyway, that’s not your topic… keep your hopes up :-)
(edited)

I will certainly keep the hopes up and the reminders frequent, because without it, might as well just quit now haha

If this game need more new managers to make sure more Plus will be sold so the new owner is happy, these kind of things should get priority ASAP! Change it, so new manager have more fun and hopefully keep on playing,

Or, just keep it the same and expect a different outcome out of the blue. Well, quess what ..

Well of course the game will need new managers, that’s why Devs are working (and spending money).

But in the meantime (once they have completed a general update) it is the current users who are likely to leave.

It has become very clear over time with the lack of answers from the Devs on many of the points raised by its community: The strategy is clearly to aim for a more attractive and easier to access Sokker to find new users with their well established plan, and certainly not to fix the problems raised by the players currently. Like this one in this topic.

This is a strategic mistake in my opinion, but was it possible to do otherwise? The game had become technically too old, never updated regularly for years, so we were in a situation where we would have to rewrite everything, at the risk of losing the little it had left: a small, loyal community that was desperate for changes.