To much of a rush

[21cOwner]

Is it just me or has the beta test entered a rush with the hope of sending the game out before the football season starts? Why not spend the next 11 months working on mogul so it fits all of our needs and then in july worrying about the 2003 rosters. I have talked to other Beta testers and at this point we don't think we would want to buy the game and start a league with it. If we were to start a league that would be around 25-32 more games sold. I would like to hear the opinions of others.

[bblaney]

Well let's see (I am playing devil's advocate here).

They are a company that exists to make products dealing with sports, and as such would like to make a version every year for many reasons, mainly so they can make a living, but also want to give the public a good product so they will come back for more.

As the game is NOW I would not proabably buy it, as it is clunky and buggy, but that is what we're for to help test the product and make it better before it comes to the rest of the public.

If I were in their shoes I would definitely want to release it this year, because if they don't they will miss out on a year's worth of sales, but it may or may not be possible. Personally I want to see it come out in the next month or so, but we will see.

I am all for a quality product, but the last few years there has not been a football mogul updated program, has there?????? So they are a few years behind on the bandwagon, so they are in a bit of a rush in trying to get a few years worth of work done in a short time and are really trying hard to get it fixed and updated.

Remember the competition is getting stronger and nastier out there so they need a few things to attract the sports fanatic to this product so let's see what happens, especially with our help.

[waltwa]

as far as i know there is no competition in career based football games. i am not counting fof which is a dead product. i think the game needs some pizzaz and also debugging. if this takes a little longer so be it.

some games that are released are simply no fun to play. the college years and puresim baseball are good, sound games but they are not any fun to play. i think as football mogul stands it will not be a fun game to play at this point. it simply needs more features to make it an attractive game.

[Undertoad]

Infogrames claims to have "Season Ticket Football" ready for release. I don't know anything about it, it may suck.

[waltwa]

i think season ticket football is already released. i have tried to find out some thing about it in order to decide if i want to buy it. but i have not been able to find out anything about the game.

[Nittany Lion]

I just got Season Ticket Football. It's pretty good. Not quite as good as FOF but at least STF2k3 has Multi-Player Capabilities. As far as I know, there is 2 leagues out for it. It's nothing great but it will keep me satisfied till Football Mogul is released.

There's a few other football games being developed as well. I forgot the links but I'll post them once I can find em.

[Nittany Lion]

All right, I found them. Didn't take very long.

First one is called Maximum Football:

Maximum Football

Here's one from a solo guy who's doing a very good job and coming along very nice:

Fantasy League Sports: Football

And .400 Software Studios (OOTP4) is working on a football game. Haven't released much info on it though.

[waltwa]

som football is due out in the next week or so. last year was the ist edition and it had a lot of problems but it is a good game. som is a solid company and from the reviews that i have read the second edition will be a much improved game. the ist edition had problems but it is an entertaining game. it is not as career based game however simply replay.

[georgefc3]

Football Mogul is just not ready for prime time.

If it is released in anything like its current condition it will hurt the Sports Mogul name. This will hurt the sales of Baseball Mogul and Baseball Mogul Online.

It is better to release the product when the bugs have been worked out and all the important features are in. That is just not the case right now.

Sorry, but I think it's important that this point be made.

[21C]

I agree.

I think that Football Mogul ( FM ) can fit a real niche in the market but it lacks polish at this stage.

It will get compared with Season Ticket Football ( the rebadged Action PC Football ) which offers multiplayer but no career play to speak of - apparently it does but does it poorly and is mainly set up for season replay.

It will also get compared to Front Office Football which has just announced that it will release a Fourth Edition in October. It offers real career play but only comes in single-player mode. This game offers everything a text simmer is looking for in a football game.

FM can offer both multiplayer and career play. It lacks play-calling - something that both others offer. What attracts people to the Mogul brand is that it provides a realistic universe in a simple playing environment with realistic results/stats.

FM can provide the best of both worlds and satisfy customers of each of the other two games. But it has to offer something substantial. What it needs to do IMO is:
* Allow for effective stat output ( text, html or csv ). This is vital for multiplayer play.
* Incorporate the headline feature of Baseball Mogul.

There are a lot of other enhancements that would also add to this but this is a start.

[AncientPharaoh]

What competition?


You guys do know that Jim at Solecismic is going to be releasing his new game...Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition. Right?

Front Office Football: The Fourth Edition

I'd say this game has plenty of competition...