| [THB] Admin |  |
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As some of you already know, the games (and gaming staff) managed by Golem IT were taken over by Melderon, a company setup solely for the purpose of developing games. During the planing phase it became painfully obvious that, although there are quite a few active players (couple of thousands actually) that seem to enjoy TeamHB, the support for the game is just not there. The income from the game barely covers basic server costs and currently doesn't warrant administration/further development of the game. To paint a picture of the situation: the game monthly revenue equals to less than 0,10€ (10 cents) per active player.
Now, we really, REALLY don't want to stop supporting the project - we will avoid this if at all possible and we are actually developing a total graphics/GUI/platform overhaul (similar to the one at sister game Grid-Iron) for TeamHB, to make it more "pleasing to eyes" and more attractive to old and new players. But, we need to discuss a few things with you, the managers that play and enjoy the game.
So, the main question is, how do we go about this in order for the game to start at least covering costs of running it and to develop it further? To just let it stagnate would be out of the question.
So, do you guys have any idea what would it take for you to feel that supporting the game is justified? We know about controversy about full live-text being visible only to supporters (after the game of course), but we don't believe this is the sole reason for almost non-existant support, because the support for the game was on similar levels even before "after-the-game-full-match-text" became a supporter feature (this was done for the same reason to hopefully increase the support for the game).
Now, when thinking about the situation, we had another idea that might work. We could open up the full-game to all players (so abolish the supporter account altogether) and put the game "up for donations", where managers who enjoy the game could support it with any amount they could afford. So in short, every manager in the game would own a supporter account and those that could afford, would support the game by donations. We would set a very reasonable monthly goal that would enable us to not only continue to run the game, but also to develop it further.
In this case, supporter "stars" would become "donator" stars and all options in the game (as said) would be available to everybody. We would also involve the community in development more in this case - maybe even by creating a special module that would allow all donators to vote for future game upgrades?
So managers, do you also think the "donations" would be better suited for this project? Or do you have any other ideas on how to continue with this project?
We all knew from the beginning that handball manager is aimed towards a "niche" market. So it's not our plan to get rich from TeamHB. But we do need to cover the basic costs, the developer's and graphic artist's fees and, at the end of the day, at least earn "a nickle" so we have something to show for our work (we don't think any of you are working for free for your boss, right?  )
So, we hope that we will come to a solution for this together and that we'll proceed to make TeamHB the best handball manager game. It would certainly deserve it.
Please discuss...
TeamHB administrators |
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| Filip13 |  |
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| you have nice idea..but I have some also..what if you gave every player supporter account,but every player has to pay 0,10 € (10 cents ) per month.? you said it is your pay for month,but with this project everybody would be happy |
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| pepguardiola | |
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I believe that the live text should be visible to everyone, but there are some other features that might be included in supporter account. But I do think that supporter needs to stay, because you will probably get even less from donations.
I think it would be more efficient if you'd put more available stats (detailed player and team history), additional friendly maybe for no game money just for fun(I think Thursday would a good idea for that since only 16 teams play LoC) for supporters and maybe some other features to the game (U-21 or 23 NTs) and perhaps a little change in LoC competition that would attract even bigger base of players and maybe make some that quit come back.
LoC is good but I think its quite poorly put together, since only 4 maybe 5 teams play with their best teams for most LoC is just a good way to earn some money and get experience for younger players. A better way I think it would be if 1 and 2 form every 1st division would go to LoC which would also need a different format of play and another seperate competiton for Cup winners and after that both winners would have kind of like super cup in football.
If possible it would be nice to make some changes to the game engine as well which is still having here and there some very weird games. That you just cant explain even now after 10 season of playing.
Also it would be good if there were some other tactical possibilities, like man marking and changes between offence and defense...
Supporters might also get maybe some help with player searching (more detailed information) that would probably make people buy supporter at least in my opinion. I tend to buy players considering on their sum of skills and it would be nice it that was put in search engine and I'm sure everyone would like that so it would be a very nice thing to have and a tempting features to make players buy supporter.
That is my opinion I know some will probably disagree with something but many will also agree, this is just a couple of suggestions that might work. |
| Last edited on 2013-05-24 at 13:14 |
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| pepguardiola | |
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Filip13 wrote:
you have nice idea..but I have some also..what if you gave every player supporter account,but every player has to pay 0,10 € (10 cents ) per month.? you said it is your pay for month,but with this project everybody would be happy |
Bad idea the game has to remain free to play, everyone just cant afford or doesn't have the means to pay.
You cant expect a 12 year old kid (or maybe younger)to pay for a online manager game. |
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| jmfaria | |
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About some changes, I suggest more games per week. I know that some players left the game because it sucks play only two games in the week in most part of the season. Weak teams lave the cup early and then they only play sundays and mondays. This pace is boring. It should allow to play more friendly games, or another kind of tournament in one week.
Thse games should bring some income (similar to frienly games) to the teams in order to prize the players that spend more time playing the game. This way is mora easy to fidelize the gamers and brings more interest to THB. |
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| [THB] Admin | |
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| [THB] Admin | |
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pepguardiola wrote:
Filip13 wrote:
you have nice idea..but I have some also..what if you gave every player supporter account,but every player has to pay 0,10 € (10 cents ) per month.? you said it is your pay for month,but with this project everybody would be happy |
Bad idea the game has to remain free to play, everyone just cant afford or doesn't have the means to pay.
You cant expect a 12 year old kid (or maybe younger)to pay for a online manager game. |
First of all, we won't close the game to subscription only, don't worry 
Now, I'm sorry, but even 12 years old with internet access and mobile phone CAN afford 1€ per month for the game that he likes, that's (I think) is a given. You pay more for ice-cream, coffee or coke for crying out loud
The problem is the means of payment, where I do agree that 12 year old cannot pay with PayPal or credit card without the help of his/her parents.
But this should be solved using another comparison though. Every grown up with internet, phone and credit card CAN afford 2 or 3 € per month and that should, hm, "negate" the problem with minors. Yet we see that THB only earns less then 10 cents monthly per player. And this is a mystery that we must solve... |
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| Jnkrnk | |
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Agree with pepquardiola. Nice work.
But i am afraid that nobody hear our ideas. I have few expiriences with that. In the begining I try few times with some good ideas, but without even an answer at all. So I stopped.
I am supporter from beginning and I will be until the end.
But give as oportunity to pay through Pay Safe sistem. That will be much easier for a lot of us. I always need to bother my friends, to pay for me...
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| [THB] Admin | |
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Jnkrnk wrote:
Agree with pepquardiola. Nice work.
But i am afraid that nobody hear our ideas. I have few expiriences with that. In the begining I try few times with some good ideas, but without even an answer at all. So I stopped.
I am supporter from beginning and I will be until the end.
But give as oportunity to pay through Pay Safe sistem. That will be much easier for a lot of us. I always need to bother my friends, to pay for me...
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You see the problem is that even new additions never increased the number of supporters (the non-supporting problem drags on basically from beginning because the game gathered quite a few players quickly, but never had any substantial backing from the managers).
We did a couple of fixes and upgrades to the engine, we build a new live text, we added features at the beginning - and nothing changed.
That's why we decided to bring this on the open, to see if maybe some other supporting model (like donations) would work better in this case, or to discover the reason behind the non-supporting.
How can we justify adding new features and upgrading the engine, when currently the revenue just covers the server (and it covered only the server basically from the start)?
Saying that, remember that we are currently in the process of upgrading the game platform (similar to GI), but even this is developed on our expense... |
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| Chrill | |
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Every successful online game require incitements from the developers to involve the community. It's seldom about graphics and nice extra additional features that make people pay in the long run, people will continue paying if they feel the developers are as invested in the project as the players. For example regular updates, bug fixes etc.
I would gladly support a project that brings good entertainment and is willing to continue to improve the game. However improvements over the past couple of years have been very few and some bugs that a were pointed out years ago (some of which are easy to fix bugs) still exist today. That doesn't send out the best signals from the development team. It's nice to hear developments are on the way, but why not involve the community earlier? The developers really need to create a better relationship with the players if they expect to get any support in return. I like the initiative from the developers side to be willing to be more actively involved. I think that is essential. I also like the idea that players who dedicate time and help the game get recognition for it and that ideas brought forward are not ignored.
All manager games revolve around information about numbers and statistics as far as I can see it. So how these are presented play a crucial role. And the information in the FAQ (outdated) is very difficult to interpret, and the statistics from the games is not enough as I see it. It's actually impossible in any way to know how a player that plays as LB uses different stats in crossing and jump shots. It's practically impossible to figure it out too. Since matchrating is exactly the same for the player in the two different setups but clearly the engine uses other variables to calculate. It's just that the players have no idea of figuring out which ones. I think the developers should bring more clarity into such questions that have been unanswered for many years now. Then there will be more ideas on how to make use of the various tactical options, and that will indeed enhance the gaming experience. And is very easy to implement, if not yourself make the community write a new faq.
The other thing I miss very much are summarized statistics from the games. All actions on the field are recorded in strings so all information is there, just not summarize for the team or players in the game. I've been able to create an excel sheet for this. It generates a report like the one posted below (from my latest friendly). Just looking at this summary gives me alot more than going though all text strings in the game. I think something like that should really be considered as a new tab in the match info.
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Kaer Loche - chks I lodz 1016 Friendly
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Team Setups
Kaer Loche
Start Form: Jump Shots 2-4 Left ||| 3-2-1 def ||| 13 - 17
1st Form: Run Ins 2-4 Left ||| 3-2-1 def ||| 8 - 17
not used
Start Formation: 0 - 31 min ; 1st Formation: 31 - 60 min
Rune Adler (not used)
Paul Eskhult (not used)
Harald Bergmark (RB) [ATK-EFF: 6 : 2] [DEF-EFF: 10 : 7]
Dorian Andriuta (PI) [ATK-EFF: ] [DEF-EFF: 2 : 0]
Calle Marklund (LW) [ATK-EFF: 4 : 0] [DEF-EFF: ]
Matei Irimie (RB) [ATK-EFF: 8 : 1] [DEF-EFF: 2 : 1]
Leonard Lorion (LB) [ATK-EFF: 16 : 5] [DEF-EFF: 1 : 0]
Dante Andersson (PI) [ATK-EFF: ] [DEF-EFF: 10 : 3]
Xavier Prazeres (LW) [ATK-EFF: 13 : 6] [DEF-EFF: 13 : 2]
Hans Ragnarsson (RW) [ATK-EFF: 2 : 0] [DEF-EFF: 4 : 3]
Filip Leman (PI) [ATK-EFF: ] [DEF-EFF: ]
Luis Miguel Abeitia (RW) [ATK-EFF: 4 : 0] [DEF-EFF: 2 : 1]
Ted Jordell (PI) [ATK-EFF: 1 : 0] [DEF-EFF: 1 : 1]
Oskar Båverud (LB) [ATK-EFF: 19 : 7] [DEF-EFF: 7 : 1]
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
chks I lodz
Start Form: Jump Shots 1-5 Left ||| 6-0 def ||| 20 - 13
1st Form: Jump Shots 1-5 Left + Right ||| 3-3 def ||| 14 - 8
not used
Start Formation: 0 - 36 min ; 1st Formation: 36 - 60 min
Dawid Spyra (not used)
Teodor Zon (not used)
Jure Kopina (not used)
Tymoteusz Szlendak (not used)
Krystian Pracz (LB) [ATK-EFF: 23 : 18] [DEF-EFF: 8 : 6]
Jan Soltysek (LW) [ATK-EFF: 11 : 4] [DEF-EFF: 4 : 4]
Michal Kaczmarek (RW) [ATK-EFF: 4 : 1] [DEF-EFF: 1 : 1]
Aycholos Ryabtsev (CB) [ATK-EFF: 3 : 2] [DEF-EFF: 8 : 7]
Gregorio Lucas (PI) [ATK-EFF: 1 : 1] [DEF-EFF: ]
Safet Culjak (RB) [ATK-EFF: 8 : 7] [DEF-EFF: 35 : 23]
Fabricio Calo (RW) [ATK-EFF: 2 : 1] [DEF-EFF: 17 : 11]
(not used)
(not used)
(not used)
============================================
Additional Team Statistics
Attacks: 73 - 52
Goals: 21 - 34
Goalkeeper Saves: 5 - 13
Shots Off Target: 0 - 0
Offensive Fouls: 12 - 5
Free Throws: 21 - 6
Technical Mistakes: 6 - 2
Fast Breaks: 1 - 1
Pivot Blocks: 0 - 1
Rebounds: 10 - 8
Yellow Card: 1 - 1
2 min: 0 - 1
Red Card: 0 - 0
Steals: 0 - 0
============================================
Scoring Development
0 - 5 min: 1 - 1
6 - 10 min: 4 (3) - 4 (3)
11 - 15 min: 6 (2) - 6 (2)
16 - 20 min: 8 (2) - 10 (4)
21 - 25 min: 11 (3) - 13 (3)
26 - 30 min: 12 (1) - 17 (4)
31 - 35 min: 13 (1) - 19 (2)
36 - 40 min: 14 (1) - 24 (5)
41 - 45 min: 17 (3) - 27 (3)
46 - 50 min: 18 (1) - 29 (2)
51 - 55 min: 19 (1) - 31 (2)
56 - 60 min: 21 (2) - 34 (3)
============================================
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