Tema: Hockey Pro Pack

So... my pro-pack in hockey expired today, and I won't be renewing it. Nor will I be investing much of my time in the sport from now on.

I will be on PPM for handball though, so I plan to do the following with my hockey team:

- Stop all player and staff training so I don't need to worry about ratios at all.
- Camp out in division III, where I should be able to win most of my games without needing to bother watching my tactics, lineup, chemistry, energy, or really anything else.
- Continue gradually building my arena and facilities such that I can still be of some benefit in the future to the national team(s).
- Show up to the (now much more manageable) bi-seasonal drafts and pick my players. I'm logged in every day for handball anyways, so scouting my draft list won't be a problem.

Other than that, I'm done with it.

A large reason for this is the draft feature. The main reason I won't buy another pro-pack, and have therefore lost interest in hockey as a diversion is because I refuse to send PPM anymore money as a protest to the on-going mess they've created with the rollout of the draft(s). The credits that I do currently have, I prefer to use on handball going forward.

It really is a shame that PPM's developers STILL haven't figured out a way to make the game more inviting for new users. I'd probably would have paid for pro-packs in all 3 sports if I could be as competitive in them as I am in handball.

Hockey is my favorite sport in real life, but in PPM, I could care less about it... because I'm still probably 5 seasons away from really being able to compete in much of a meaningful, SUSTAINABLE way. You're asking for a lot of dedication from new users when you basically tell them that they won't be on an even playing field with existing managers for 2-3 years.

Lucky for you the draft is being reduced to a "bonus" feature. Basically they're reverting back to pulls every week with 2 drafts per season and a player pool the same as it is now. So, in short, compared to past seasons they've added 2 drafts which is like having 2 more pulls per season but where you can influence the type and quality of players you get.

Well that's a huge sigh of relief.

Such a simple thing. I honestly think this is how it should have been rolled out from the start.

Not sure why it took them so long to realize it. Perhaps they just got tired of everyone complaining. =/

I don't like it to be honest. The complaints about the draft were that it wasn't worth people's time. They reverted back and have not addressed that. On top of that, they've increased SA pulls to being weekly, which, given the implementation of the draft, will result in 18-weeks worth of players being pulled each year instead of 16 - which will upset the balance and market value of players in my opinion.

I still feel as though they seriously need to address how to keep these games "current" though.

That includes two things:
1) keeping longtime managers (who have maxed out their facilities and arena) interested
2) keeping new users engaged

The problem is that most new users (myself included) don't really want to buy a pro-pack for something that we can't compete in - for the mere fact that we didn't find the site as early as the other guys did. I have a pro-pack in handball, and really enjoy it, but hockey is (and always will be) my favorite sport, and so it's somewhat sad to me that it'll take me so long to "catch up."

When PPM comes up with a solution for those very different, very difficult issues, I will truly cheer.

I mean... those were fair complaints. After 2 different draft rollouts, the vast majority of managers were left with nothing to show from their time spent at the drafts.

It's hard to convince them that "no, players will be more valuable going forward!" after they've already been somewhat burned by poor players from prior half-baked draft setups.

Had the developers anticipated this (as well as many of the other complaints), and addressed it/them prior to the draft's implementation, things would be very different i think.

Honestly, I probably would've been fine with some sort of compromise between this (v4) and v3 of the plan. I'd be fine with 2 weeks without draftees for a draft where you get 2 weeks worth of players. But 28 days just seemed excessive.

It's one of those things that microsoft was confronted with when they released windows 8.

People, in general, don't like massive change. It's best to gradually tweak things overtime. Let people get comfortable with new features before you make them mandatory.

When I said, "Such a simple thing. I honestly think this is how it should have been rolled out from the start" that's sort of what I meant. Add the feature in, but don't make the game completely dependent on it initially.

Had they started with the draft as something minor, and given the people a chance to get comfortable with it, and further... given themselves the time to iron out the issues, it would've been fine I'm sure.

But when they go from 0-85 km/hr with a new product, there's just no room for error. People HAVE to love it. Or, they'll hate it.

why couldn't they just give a fee sort by potential thing??? that alone would solve most of the issues.

this chance once again prove they have always intended to have draft as a pay feature as main source of revenue.

In short, I will still not draft in Hockey or soccer and will still be far behind other teams.

while there is no strong reason anymore to quit hockey over draft this feature made things even more impossible to catch up other teams.

At the end it just feels like they gave a kid a candy then took it away from the kid.

so now it is going to be bonus pack not even free for pro managers???

"so now it is going to be bonus pack not even free for pro managers???"

What feature are you referring to? Sorting is free for ProPack managers.

I think you misunderstand.

When he says "bonus" feature, he means that it's there in ADDITION to the normal operations of the SA.

So up til now, every week there's a draft, that week, there wasn't an SA pull. So we'd never have more than 16 pulls in a season (and these would include all pulls from the draft). Whereas now, we would have 18. 16 from the random SA, and 2 from the "bonus" drafts.

He's not saying that the draft will be part of the pro-pack or pay system.

I think there are 14 SA pulls and 2 drafts. So still 16 weeks of players but we'll have access to 14 + 8.

ok... now I'm lost again.

Where's the "8" come from? Each draft is the equivalent of 4 pulls? or what?

Yes. 4x the current player pool.

May be best just to wait for tomorrow's news.

oh damn... they're already updating the news with the changes.

ok. will wait for that then.

I think this is a compromise between the "draft needs to be more valuable" and "we love our SA" people. The trade off is an increase in the number of good players we'll see year after year.