Clay & Mogul Staff: Benevolent or Money-Hungry

[Schlim]

I was very disapponted when Baseball Mogul Online was turned into a monthly fee game. I took this as a money-hungry action by the Sports Mogul Staff.

But things are different with Clay and Football Mogul. Clay keeps contact with many of the Football Mogul Online Leagues and has helped out our MLFL (http://members.tripod.com/william4192/id8.htm) a lot.

Why does Sports Mogul seem like a money-hungry company with online Baseball Mogul while it is a helpful friend in Football Mogul? I'm not sure, but I'm quite happy with Clay in Football Mogul, but disappointed with Baseball Mogul Online.

[mikeh5]

I don't think Clay and the people of Baseball Mogul are being money hungry by charging for the online game. It costs money to operate the online game and Clay and Co. aren't running charity. Plus these guys are just trying to make a living.

Speaking for myself, Baseball Mogul online is a form of entertainment and is something that I'm willing to pay for. The price is reasonable and the game is fun and I'll keep playing as long as those two things are true.

Also, as someone who owns multiple versions of the baseball and football cd games and who has played the online baseball game for awhile, I've always found the Sports Mogul people to be helpful whether I'm paying a monthly fee or not.

[James Grove]

Schlim -

I appreciate your frank feedback about our games and fees.

I wanted to make a small clarification about the conversion from free to subscription for Baseball Mogul Online.

When we first allowed people to play BBMO, it was part of a Beta Test. We started off with about 50 users, and over time increased the membership to over 5000. We used the Beta Test to help find bugs in the code, help increase usability, help fix issues that did not appear in the CD-ROM game (like users trading away players from a fake account), etc. The Beta Test was free because the product was not finished, and was subject to unexpected crashes and restarts.

When we felt the game had reached a where there were no major features still to be added to the first version, we announced the end of the Beta Testing period, and a few weeks later we introduced the monthly subscription fees.

If we were not clear enough in the Beta Test signup forms, I'm sorry for the confusion. But BBMO was always intended to be a subscription-based game. We had to find a way to recoup the costs that went into its multi-man-year development.


So I hope this helps you understand our motivations. We aren't particularly money-hungry, except insofar as any small startup company trying to stay afloat is always looking for revenues. ;)

Thanks for helping with the Beta test, and I hope you enjoy our future games.

Regards,
James Grove

[nysteinbrenner]

Schlim --

Money hungry?

Not to sound like a smartass, Schlim, but allow me to explain a basic tenet of economics - you don't make money, pay the bills or put food on the table, by giving stuff away.

I find it ludicrous that anyone would think that Clay, Ian, James, Dee, etc., are so magnanimous that they would create this outstanding online version of BBM and then give it away. BBM Online is an extension of the "Baseball Mogul brand," and one that in time will produce a continuous revenue stream to keep the company afloat while new CD products are created.

Keeping the revenue stream flowing in periods between releases, "slow" periods if you will, is the thing that separates contenders from pretenders in business during their early stages - if you can do it, you succeed. If you can't, you wither on the vine no matter how good your product is.

SportsMogul is, first and foremost, a business. Though Clay undoubtedly started its predecessor (Infinite Monkey - BTW guys, good marketing idea to change the name! :) ) not knowing what would eventually come to pass, if anyone thinks Clay's intent was to operate the company to lose money long-term, they should have their heads examined.

[ramsfan125]

Obviously, they are doing this for money, duh! It's a business. Sure, it's for gamers, but they have to make money. I would appreciate a flat rate or even free, but I know they are doing this because they need to get some dough. They already charge 20 bucks less than normal games for BBM and FBM. They, for a low price, gave me a new past time. So I'm good.

[jeffkohut]

I think it should be best put that Sportsmogul is no Microsoft but just a small company trying to make money which is the mission statement of every business. I was hugely involved last year with teh BBMO and enjoyed assisting in making the game better and I hope the advice I gave to improve the game was impliment and saw some of them done. It's amazing how many ppl complain about things but were first in line to join when things were free. As I recall maybe 1% of the ppl subscribed kept their subscription. I know first hand that these guys are trying to make money to survive not to further build an empire.