Asunto: The "give your team the hairdryer treatm

i'm on a 8-match winless streak, my supporters hate me, i'm losing supporters for the past 3 weeks, and i reeled in 210k in sponsorship this week. make what you will from that ;)

You clearly havent followed what's is happening then or keep ignoring what the consequences are so far... let me put in capital so maybe you can register: THIS RULE DOESNT WORK!

Vivski with all due respect you haven't experienced the situation and are camping on your position. I appreciate you're giving a different view on the subject but I found very little to cheer us up from it in the end.
I'll take a step back and will put it this way to you:
- Do you enjoy 2 digits score lines week in week out?
- Do you learn from these 2 digits score lines?
- Would appreciate all the economic regress that comes with it (sponsor, less fans, lower attendances)
I'm guessing you've answered No to all of them...

It matter a very little if I have an highway to DII "thanks" to this rule. It doesn't prepare me and my team to survive in DII when I'll get there. What exactly do I learn from these games... not much really, oh yes I can field my trainees because they can do the job....
I'd rather play a BOT team, most of them have a decent tactic and good enough players to challenge a new team for a season or two. I've learned loads from BOT teams getting relegated in my league, I had to scratch my heads on few occasions to get things right. BOTS have fans and a good ranking, they allow your team to become wealthy enough to enjoy the game like afford a decent YS coach for exemple... That benefit the NT in the long term you would think.
Now that is gone, look at the gap between II and III get bigger each season, look how well teams that promotes from III are doing each seasons in II. My team is lucky enough to have been there for a while so I only have to sell a couple of players to cope with the new cut but for people like Uber (2nd season) it makes all the setting up harder.

In conclusion, putting team back in IV will help the lack of competition in III because these people will learn within a season the basic and come a lot more prepared in III (they all promote anyway). We can still support them the same way we do today (sk-mail, show them forums), a support we were not giving a season back remember or at least the quality and quantity of it (there is a few of us really helping here, you are I know).

I do want more people to come in and I have put a great deal of effort in it (playing with some of my trainees with a "soft" tactics to show them various option, answering their question on the forum and sk-mail) but in the end despite all the good work we do, they get bored of losing which is fair.
I get bored too because I'm not given the chance to learn from the game anymore (thanks the SC for giving something to think about!), my team won't be as robust as it could have been when it gets to II (if it does one day).
All it has done it is created bigger margin between II and III (economy, tactic knowledge, player skills) as well as between III and the new teams.

1- you rely too much on Ellem to be the messiah
2- you're crap
3- you're going to take this seriously when you shouldnt :p

I give you a game to make you feel better :)

Can you calculate your loss of income as a percentage of your gross income for the season (sponsors and gate receipts separately)?

Given the choice, I would prefer to be in DII than DIII. What would piss me off is having a bot take my chance to auto-promote. That's my personal preference. You have expressed that you would prefer to play bots.

I am confident that had I been inserted directly into DIII at the expense of a bot, my road to where I am now would have been much the same. Let me ask you this... if you were a new manager, would you prefer to join III.12 or IV.12? III.12 is probably the best of any league in Australia to be initiated in.

What's done is done unfortunately. Some managers have taken it up the rear end. Looking forward, what's best now? I would contest that all things considered, it's 50/50. The only solution is to have a fully functional DIII and until that happens, there will be a great divide between DII and DIII regardless of this rule.

With the help of this rule, I think III.12 will become a vibrant breeding ground for a batch of future AL managers. If in 2 seasons time the league has 6-7 active managers, then this rule will have been part way successful.

I have the figures for the last 3 seasons for every component of my budget so I will calculate the loss of income and get back to you with it.
In the mean time I can disclose this easily:
wk10 sponsorship Season 12: 159k (madly in love, 1st in the league)
wk10 sponsorship Season 13: 184k (madly in love, 1st in the league)
wk10 sponsorship Season 14: 174k (madly in love, 1st in the league)
It just shows the growth has been tempered with... slightly :)

I prefer to play a BOT on the basis that they offer a challenge for a longer duration than a newbie that comes in and stay 3-4 weeks in the game. If the newbie decide to stay and does stay then no I prefer to play him as I value the interaction involved. The problem is they don't stay in the game. When you start the game a BOT is in my opinion a good benchmark as they come with a user defined tactic, it gives you a chance to see what can be good or bad. Playing another newbie is not going to be very instructive straight away.

if you were a new manager, would you prefer to join III.12 or IV.12? III.12 is probably the best of any league in Australia to be initiated in
Common sense would want me to answer yes. But that would be the answer of someone who doesnt know the fact and consequences of this rule. Sadly some of us are suffering from it and despite all the effort we've put in only 1 in 4 stayed. That in my eyes is not good enough to justify the rule, 1 people in (Uber) at the expense of 3 others (Uber(1st and only newbie that stayed with us), Rick and I). I'll get back to this at the end as we can compromise.

When this rule was activated, I was sceptical... now after a bit more than a season and a half we have enough data to back up the fact that it's not good enough, and worse it does harm established teams. I’m quite sure we don’t keep more newbies than we did before as well.

With the help of this rule, I think III.12 will become a vibrant breeding ground for a batch of future AL managers. If in 2 seasons time the league has 6-7 active managers, then this rule will have been part way successful.
I'm sorry but that is just wishful thinking. We can leave it there for now but I am ready to bet (a pass at OZ rally next year?!) that III.12 will not have 6 or 7 managers in two seasons time. We have evidence that we managed to keep only 1 guy after a season and a half in this league, how are we gonna get 4 or 5 more to stay in 2 seasons? It would take much longer and by then I don't think promotion to II will be a feasible thing anymore.

The compromise:
It's something I'd like to be considered/discussed as an alternative to this rule.
- new team in IV
- new team picked up from the post Javier is updating each time someone signs in and sk mailed all piece of information needed (which Cometer does already).
- new team could be given a tutor that monitos progress and offer advices (volunteer basis)
- new team learns the ropes in IV and will promote in III at the end of the season.

One thing I'd like to know is how long does it take for a newbie to give-up this game on average? it would be interesting to get the figure to tackle the problem efficiently.

Don't know if we're losing teams more frequently. I'd be inclined to suggest it's roughly the same.

It's something I'd like to be considered/discussed as an alternative to this rule.
- new team in IV
I'm on the fence here as I believe we're fortunate to even have a IV division atm but in saying that it was a nice structure to have. I didn't think sponsorship would have such an impact when it was announced and I also thought we'd be able to keep more people in the game via active forums but it hasn't appeared to have made much difference currently.

- new team picked up from the post Javier is updating each time someone signs in and sk mailed all piece of information needed (which Cometer does already).

Still doing as well, although I don't know it's effectiveness as I haven't had replies and a large percentage of those who sign up never sign in again after the first time, so they don't see the message.

- new team could be given a tutor that monitos progress and offer advices (volunteer basis)

This would work if we were all on the same page and had people who had time. Time is the issue here, along with new user interest as well. I'd be happy to arrange something like this again if there was strong interest, although we're not getting a large number of users which is the another issue.

- new team learns the ropes in IV and will promote in III at the end of the season.
That's a handy thing we've got but not a lot of other countries do, although it certainly was a nice feature to have.

One thing I'd like to know is how long does it take for a newbie to give-up this game on average? it would be interesting to get the figure to tackle the problem efficiently.

At least from what I've noticed somewhat, there seems to be a large percentage that quit before they spend a week on the game. That includes those who sign up but never log on after being accepted, those who log on once take a look decide it's too hard and quit etc. Appears to be if sides are active for a month or so the chances of sticking around are a lot greater. That's without any hardcore numbers but I can go through all the users signed up in the past few weeks and grab some numbers there.
(editado)

II.03 is pretty much decided now. Bears will take the crown. I'm left to rue the week I didn't manage to get online, handing a win to Bears which could have changed the outcome.
Can beastly do what krayzee has failed to do for the past 5 seasons, can he promote out of II.03? It's now 6 seasons since Bears were relegated from A-League at the hands of Boyd Singers.

All I need to say is.. DO YOU BOYS KNOW HOW TO FINISH!!???

Looks like another season in div III for me *sigh*

This game is so cruel...

Can beastly do what krayzee has failed to do for the past 5 seasons, can he promote out of II.03?

I say no but then again I'm biased as I don't really want to get relegated again ;).

bah, its true, when ellem misfires, the whole team suffers :(

i deserved at least a goal from that, seeing how my majority of shots were on goal. that being said, GG played a super frustrating offside trap though....

Injury number 12 on wednesday and number 13 today...

on the other hand...

CHAMPION :)

I've had 7 injuries all season :). Been a fairly smooth season from myself but I believe the higher division the less injuries you get because opposition players are better, but it could just be a coincidence.

wow, the things a win can do for your supporter mood. from furious to depressed. that's 3 whole levels! after a win against the bottom feeders!

nah would have also included the win in the state cup against Steel Fury. Still a nice jump in a week though :). My fans got to delighted but dropped back to satisfied after the draw today.

Biggest rises/falls occur in qualification games and they're fast approaching :).

Bit of a bloodbath for me. 2 players injured, one sent off and another received 3rd yellow.
If there was ever a good time for injuries, I guess it's now. Not much on, all well stamina'd.