Sometimes I wonder what I like most about Powersoccer. Theoretically you would have to like the game itself most, because that was the reason why you initially started playing and which made you go all the way to level 99 in a period when that was still exceptional.
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that what I like most about Powersoccer is its exceptional community. Although crew members are deciding more and more (so it seems) to put the community central – and not the game in itself – it seems that this decision followed rather than preceded a community.
What would happen if you would take community building elements (the clan zone, the fan zone, the personalized player items, …) out of the game? Probably just a lot of mumbling in the forum. The community would continue to live, thrive and make this game the best online game you can find on the wider web. It is interesting to see that this game has so many intriguing tentacles:
- a reporter team collecting information and posting them in on a specially designed website;
- a public forum where, next to the questions concerning gameplay, especially community matters are discussed (user A is sick and won’t be logging in for a couple of days, user B his granny died and looks for support, user C got to level 99, user D faced an unfriendly user, user E her rates dropped in school and her parents are blocking this game, user F …);
- many external for a and discussion platforms (the Marx Brothers clan blog being one of them);
- a Powersoccer “youtube” community where all the highlights, matches with comment and tricks are collected

… and many more…

Talking to a lot of users have learned me one thing: people stay in the game because they like the community, because they like the wide variety of people to engage with. People talk about this game on other platforms, talk about the thrilling community there… A while ago I noticed many low levels directly participating (in a very qualitative way) in ongoing community development discussions in the forum. Intrigued by who they were and how they got here, I talked to some. It turned out that they read somewhere on the world wide web that the community of Powersoccer is amazing: you get easy access and you are fairly quickly part of a small and wide group. They wanted to check it out, played some games (enjoyed them!) and noticed that those “unpaid marketeers” were right. They decided to stay…

Why am I writing all this? Generally I am bored with analyses on soccer games or on futile details with regards to practical matters… In the wide variety of community output, I found this brilliant article.

I smiled (again) and it suddenly became even more clear: Powersoccer is an all-in package. You get excitement, action, humour and friendship… all for free. Now that’s what I call a killer game! I hope I will get to be very old to see the uphill evolution this game will make.

When somewhere in the world there is a serious earthquake, a all-damaging flood or a hurricane hitting hard, many countries have what they call a “Rapid Respond Force”, a team of highly skilled and severely trained people which can rush out within a day to come to the assistance. In Belgium that team is called B-FAST, the Belgian First Aid and Support Team. This team rushes out to sites to assist people, to give them first aid and to build up tent camps in order to make the site disease-free.
Why am I telling all this? Firstly because it is worth noticing that the world has become a better place if such teams are used all across the world. Misery and human suffering transcends political, religious or philosophical boundaries: in essence, we are all humans and we should all act as humans. That is in essence also something you learn through powersoccer: even if you are 1000s of kilometres away, you still act, sense and respond as a human being. It is something we, in these dark days, fail to see from time to time. Whether you are a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian or an Atheist, you are part of the (world) community and you should be looked after. Administrators are not “politically” biased: they help out everyone who is in need, from the poorest Bengali kid to the son of the Prime Minister of Great Britain. All on equal basis.
Secondly because crew last week performed an act of “Rapid Respond Force” that has led to admiration and felicitation. The update came with some unforeseen (and unexpected) minor problems. Rather than having to live with them for too long – like in many other online games where some bugs are hardly taken care of or where other problems remain there for as long as the game is online – crew immediately communicated to the community that they would launch 2 updates and immediately asked for feedback on those patches. Within a week, two sets of problems were fixed. They may need some minor tweaking, but the overall problems seems to have been taken care of. Major help was out with the speed of a satellite orbiting around the world.

I was so stunned by the speed I simply had to blog. It was a drift. And perhaps it was also a message to crew: now we for 100 % know they can act quick if the need is high.

A grave injustice has entered the realm of Powersoccer. More conservative readers of this blog might assume I will start talking about a crappy new version, which I won’t as I tend to like the new version a lot. Yes, there are some minor flaws in the new version but crew couldn’t have known these and is working hard to get them out: we will soon be playing yet an even more perfect game. There are some elements I dislike about the new version but these are personal opinions on gameplay rather than bugs, so my opinion might differ with every other player of this game. To give you just one example to show it has more to do with appreciation of a game than with perceived mistakes of the makers of this game: I don’t like that when you send a long ball in the air, the recipient of that ball always controls the ball on his chest. In the past version, you could start running with the recipient of the ball without him actually stopping the ball. Like this you could break open the game or you could lose the ball (you ran next to it), just like in real football. The recipient in this version has a tendency to run towards the ball and you are without powers to undo that compulsion.

The grave injustice is on another front and is twenty, nay hundred times worse than everything else! I am not quick to complain, nor have I a big ego. I am what they call a ‘social player’, somebody who is happy if he can, together with a team, move both forward and upward. Status, privileges or powers don’t say me much: as long as I can do my thing, I am a happy man (I would however have difficulties to give up the privilege of having a box of Swedish meatballs sent to me every other week – you can say many things about Powdersnow but not that he is a bad cook).
The unheard of unjustness is all in details but nevertheless something I spotted directly. It sent shivers through my spine, rendered me speechless for a number of minutes (something highly unusual for me) and in the end led to a weeping session that lasted 2 hours and one box of tissues. How could they do this to me? Me! Of all people: me!

Did you spot this grave bias?
These are screenshots taken from a commercial that is run on the game of Powersoccer to make some of the features of the game clear. The commercial takes about 6 seconds of which I am for the full 3 seconds NOT visible! Aaahgrrr, the horror, the madness! Why did these letters have to overlap my name? Anyone a sensible answer for that?
I have only one request for crew: rectify that negligence! This is not how you treat a man of standing like myself, is it?!?

The game of Powersoccer would never function properly without its backbone of devoted volunteering administrators. They are the ones who keep the gamerooms nice and tidy and are there with advice for every user who needs it. Every problem is discussable, every helping hand welcomed. They are also the ones that prevent crew members from being overrun with questions, remarks, swears and the occasional marriage proposal. Administrators allow crew members to do what they are good – I would have said brilliant, but then it would resemble a “good news show” too much, so I stick to good even if they are just plain brilliant – in, namely the further development of Powersoccer.
According to Hogweed, Father Admin as we tend to call him, the role and functions of the administrators have been expanding ever since he was hired. Administrators got more means to help or ban users and to make this game number one in user friendliness. Of course, there is still a long way to go and many items are still on many wish lists. But then again: in every bureaucratic system, which the system of administrators ultimately is, there is a tendency to complain if it is under resourced and understaffed. Times have changed since the first admin was appointed and the administrators have seen an incremental increase in possibilities. If you want to hear wild story about the old pioneering days, just contact Uncle Hog and he will invite you to the Museum of Powersoccer and tell you his long passed memories by an open fire and some pork.

Ultimately, no system can survive without the presence of clear thinking, clever, outstanding people. One of those was/is Master Assistant Belfue, a user who has proven that every (positive) stereotype concerning Swiss is completely true: a consensus driven, outside the box thinking and utterly loyal person who has been a Master Assistant (a number 2 position in the administrators skeleton within Powersoccer) for as long as I can remember. It was Belfue who discovered I had potential as an administrator and who tried, unsuccessfully, to get me on board of the Chat Admin team. It was Belfue who stood next to me with advice in my first weeks as Master Assistant or, when I had an attack of aggression as I disagreed with a decision, calmed me down by letting me rage and giving on-topic remarks. To make this statement even bolder: if the world would consist only out of Belfue’s, it would be the happiest place to live in as there would be no wars, no aggression as all problems would be easily resolved… everything would run smooth and every person would love the other dearly.

His loyalty, his sense of perfection have led him to decide that he will resign of the team. Not because he disagrees with its decisions, not because he resigns from the game altogether but simply because he feels he has not enough time to do his Master Assistant job as he intended it to do: perfect. If every (wo)man were to act in this way, the world would be the best place to live in.

Of course, this would be just “internal Powersoccer” news and nothing to be posted on this blog. I decided otherwise, as I want to give Belfue the credit for all of the invaluable work he did on an open platform. Powersoccer is a “gated community”: you can’t get in unless you have a (free) key. I consider it my duty to let the wider world know there is a role model, somewhere in a superb game somewhere on the world wide web. His name is Belfue… and we will miss him dearly as MA.

Yesterday a major update was launched, another step towards perfection was set. The gameplay was basically reset and all of the trodden paths are now out of order. Again. How spectacular is that? Not only do we get a new look of the game (with an active audience in the back of your game, a pitch greener than the greenest pitch imaginable and new ball reception moves by the players) but also a completely new game. Powersoccer as we knew it is no more, welcome Powersoccer 2009. You have to reinvent your game style, the tactics you follow and the passing schemes you with an eye for detail developed.
I have been witnessing many updates in my powersoccer career and each and every time I had to restart. As all players. Yesterday, late in the evening, I played a game against the former number 4 in the world – he was, just a week ago – and he really had to struggle to defeat me and in the end did not succeed: we drew 2-2. We were like two schoolboys on the brink of doing something completely new (what that is, I will leave open for your imagination): both uncertain and both very eager. This is what powersoccer is all about: new challenges!

For me personally, the most important element of the update is the fact that “my” precious forum moved up a rank, from a meagre tab within a tab to tab of its own. The forum no longer is hidden away – as probably a dangerous place to enter – and is no longer out of sight: you simply cannot miss it.
O joy! Out of sheer happiness, I opened up a bottle of Italian wine of the exceptional year 1997. I also took out one of my best Montechristo sigars – market prize 22 euro – and sat back, gazing at the screen for more than half an hour… thinking: “The forum has its own tab. The forum has its own tab. The forum has its own tab. The forum has its own tab.”

This has nothing to do with the fact that I am Forum Master Assistant – and has been one for as long as I can remember – or that I am a top poster (silently approaching 10000 posts in the forum). It has to do with the importance for Powersoccer as a forum can develop a sense of belonging, a sense of community.
Entering the forum, replying to messages, engaging in the community all develop a sense of common identity. You form part of a group; you share some feelings/ideas/… People who are part of a group tend not to betray their group, either out of peer pressure – the community expects you to behave well – either out of a sort of honour – you uphold the values of your community. In every case you can say that sharing a common history – a fun action in the forum, like the daily quizzes or a crazy Marx Brother activity for example – leads to a shared future and a shared belonging. Why would I cheat on my brother? Why should I cheat on my friend? This or that user – even if I don’t know him personally – is part of the community I belong to too. Even in confrontations with the minority of bad seeds of this game – cheaters, offensive players who are swearing, insulting… - their reaction will be moderate: they will send a report to our email address or inform the nearest admin about what happened. No need to retaliate, no need to start swearing. Being part of a community also makes you responsible for the good functioning of that community. Standing outside that community makes you individualistic and selfish: an eye for an eye. If he swears, I swear back. If he cheats, I cheat back.

By giving the Forum such a prominent place on its website, the developers and owners of this game have shown to completely follow that logic. The forum was already there. The forum was already booming. The forum was already creating a sense of community. Now it can shift to sixth gear… and that makes me unbelievably happy.

Powersoccer is being updated. The game will, just like a snake, lose its old skin and have a brand new, fresh, unharmed skin to continue to live with. Personally I think that is a great feature of the game. In the old days, when I was still young, you only had Arcade games which never changed. Frogger eternally stayed Frogger. Mario Brothers was Mario Brothers: if you passed level one once, you passed it always. Powersoccer refreshes, starts again, gives us new hopes.

Powersoccer as we know it, will again be a completely new experience. We will again have to learn to adapt to a new gameplay and a new environment to interact in. There will be elements we don’t like at first (I can name already two at least) but which we will start to like over time. Every downside has its plus sides and adaption is, according to Darwin, our only chance of survival. Those refusing to adapt, perish. In the case of powersoccer that is: those who refuse to adapt, quit the game. Powersoccer in that respect is a pars pro toto, a part that exemplifies the whole.

The full day of maintenance for me personally is also a day of nail biting. I am so used to open the game with my early morning coffee – or late morning Aspirin plus water for that matter – that I feel uneasy when I can’t, especially when it is not my choice. Sure, it happens when I don’t have time (or don’t feel to for that matter) to open Powersoccer and browse its forum, but that is of my own choice. Now, we have no choice. Crew decides and we have to undergo. That leads to my closing observation:
Life without Powersoccer is like a broken pencil: pointless.

A couple of months ago, Powersoccer (and later on Managerzone too) decided to expand the personalization possibilities every player had. Before that time, only the colours of your kit could be changed and you could give your players nicknames which would show on the field. Many player copied the colours of their favourite team and nicknamed their players as the line up of their favourite 11. You can’t believe how many times I tackled “Ronaldo” or beat “Reina” in a one on one. It made me wonder whether they actually are the class players everybody says they are, but that is another discussion.
The new personalization went much further and was, in my opinion, a much bigger success than the previous one. Not only could you know change the hairstyle of your players, you could also turn them into real man with tattoos, male goal gestures… and a pair of colourful cleats.

Cleats… in different colours? Why?

Only a small print of the selection you have. And they keep on developing new types!

That’s a question that puzzled me for quite some time. Why on earth would we need to change the cleats of our players? In the old days, all cleats were black. Once in a while, a company decided to be extravagant with their label – yellow instead of white – but in the end all shoes basically remained black…
I think David Beckham changed it all. All men had to be metrosexual in order to survive in this man-eating world. We have to enjoy colourful outfits, labelled t-shirts and have to be very correct in the colour of cleats we select. You cannot have yellow shoes under a red outfit, can you? To actually prove we are considerate about the choice of our cleats, we have to discuss it with colleague players and designer experts in the game. And then you have the following discussion:
User A: Nice cleats! They really fit well with the outfit.
User B: Thanks! I wasn’t sure whether to buy the red shoes, so it was a gamble!
User A: Well, your guess was right. I was thinking about buying a pair of those golden shoes for my striker, but that would mean I would have to change the colour of my socks. White and Gold don’t match that well, what do you think?
User B: No, White and Gold are a horrible combination. I have seen a player like that in one of my league games and I really had to laugh very hard. You can’t take that serious, can you?
User A: My thoughts exactly. It’s a hard choice though: these shoes are really cool and they are limited! Only 500 pairs.
User B: I know. I bought some as a back up, if I ever were to change my outfit.
User A: Would you do that? But your outfit is so cool. One of the nicest I have seen around here! Don’t change it!
User B: Thanks. Got to go now.
User A: See you. And I also bought those golden cleats, as you did, for a foreseeable future. I am about to change my outfit. I don’t like it anymore.
User B: Good luck! Bye!

This game is more than just football. All men are being trained to become designer experts. Their future wives are so lucky! They will have men who actually will give honest opinions about new clothes or will assist their lady friends in buying them. All thanks to Powersoccer. Perhaps we should open a “thank you” bank account and ask for donations?

The Fashionably incorrect Sipwell outfit

Personally, I am still trying to resist to the appeal of “correct outfit” and I buy cleats that do not match. Then again, I read in Vogue the other day that colours that do not match are a statement in itself, so I guess I have fallen for trendiness myself!If you can excuse me now, I just heard that the new shirts of my favourite brand have arrived in the store.

Visa Card: check

fashionable sun glasses: check

fashionably correct pair of jeans and matching t-shirt: check.

Signing off.

sipwell

The Powerchallenge company is wide in its offers. Not only can you play football in the magnificent Powersoccer, you can actually coach a team in its sister game Managerzone. It is a pity there isn’t a certain overlap, but I guess it is hard to put into practice. The organisation of such a combination probably is something for a distant future, as I am pretty sure it has been discussed frequently by the fantastic crew.

As a respectable Powersoccer player, I had to have a Managerzone account too. My success rate in Managerzone is fairly limited. I am stuck in the before-last division for 2 seasons in a row now and I don’t think I will be moving upwards in the coming decade. Still, we have hope. I seem to win more and more matches and my team seems to be developing well, according to all the –  I must say – brilliant MZ tools you have at your disposal. I am always stunned to see that our Swedish crew seems to be able to create a community feeling where people are volunteering to do a lot of work and extras and to actually share that with the community at large. I personally was bribed by Powdersnow as he offered me a two weeks full pension in Linköping, an offer I accepted but am unsure of now whether I should actually go  (it is rather cold there and Saab seems to go bankrupt anyways, so what is there to do?).

Why do I talk about Managerzone if I am a full blown Powersoccer dude. Well, because something struck me this morning, as I read the game report of a friendly match:

Managerzone crew gives us life lessons! If you make a mistake, shake hands as to apologize yourself and see the apologies accepted! That way life will be easier and much more enjoyable for everyone!

This message was secretly hidden in a for me unimportant game report, just like we see secret messages from commercial companies in their ads. Remember the movie ‘Fight Club’ where Brad Pitt edits movies and adds a male tinkle to family movies? Coca Cola did the same just before the half time break as to subconsciously influence people to buy a bottle of Coca Cola. And our dearest crew does it too! Important life lessons are not the core of their message and are not billboarded on the pages of Managerzone so we would certainly NOT take them into account. No, they are secretly hidden and invade us subconsciously. I was already wondering why I was shaking hands and apologizing myself all the time today. Now I found out!  Not only is the crew responsible for a large sets of highly enjoyable games, it throws in life lessons for free! Is there anything more we can ask from them?

Today I stumbled across something odd. You have many very strong players in powersoccer, players I have difficulties with to beat in normal circumstances (or not to lose, phrased perhaps more ad rem and for sure more MarxBrotherian). Belfue for instance, with his impregnable defence; denmark212 with his splitting passes who leave the whole of your defense exposed; Airfix_9 with his horribly efficient style of playing (1 shot on goal equals 1 shot in goal) and many others. I only list those I play regularly, yet I could add quite a few others as well.
But then, all of a sudden, I become nearly invincible. Impossible to get through my defense, my passing becomes world class with high success ratios and my efficiency is so high it hurts your eyes. I almost become a machine: steal the ball, pass, pass, score. Steal the ball, pass, pass, score. Nothing that can be done, as Belfue was confronted with today.

It should make me happy and then again it does not. As it implies – and here comes what will be known as the  Law of Sipwell - that a new version, an update of the game is imminent. The moment I start to play really, really good is one day less of a new version. I have no clue when the new version will be implemented, but as my gameplay (and ultimately my results) improves the number of days to wait is shortened yet again. A new update always involves learning to understand the game again, grasping with new tackles, new passing and new ways to score (or see your shot blocked). It always involves new tactical styles, new structures to be build up as your old ones do not work anymore…
Don’t understand me wrong: I like those new updates. They seem to refresh this game on a very regular basis. You get a complete new package for no extra fee (isn’t that superb, dear Pro Evolution and Fifasoccer makers?)… but the only thing that puzzles me is: why do out of all those thousands of users I have to be the weathercock? Why does that responsibility fall on my shoulders? Can I for once be exempted from that task? Please?

We (Magnus, myself, Marcus, Jonas and Michael and at times of despair: Niklas, who proved to be have the far best understanding of the project tool from hell) have been more or less locked in the conference room for three days, trying to pinpoint the entire Power Challenge development for the next 8 months or so. It might sound like a walk in the park but no, it’s a bit trickier than that.

1. What needs to be done? 2. How long will this take? 3. What resources are needed for those tasks? 4. What resources do we actually have? 5. What can be outsourced?  6. What is top priority? 7. Where are the dependencies?

Many boxes, colours, menues, lines, arrows, sweets, nuts and changes later we seem to have it all sort of organized and under control. Or so we like to believe. We’ve done the three point estimation; best, worst and most likely outcome of the project/task. We’ve put little flags next to the features that are most suitable for outsourcing. We stared at the numbers in disbelief, sighed, laughed and drank innumerable cups of coffee.

But know, finally, we have a starting point and rather detailed knowledge of what is happening with the games during the rest of the year.

And now Easter is coming up. I truly love my work but I’m very much looking forward to a few days off… and eating some of this:

…that’s been hidden somewhere in the garden by one of these..:

So, have a nice & merry easter everyone. And make sure you watch out for any bunny looking like this:

See you!

/ L

p.s. I don’t really despise MS Project as much as it may sound like…I just suck at it a bit too much. Have to get to know it better.