The night before last, Mrs. Sipwell and myself had a thorough discussion on Powersoccer. She is intrigued by the game – although not interested in football and let alone football games at all – and especially by its community. She also knows how much her “hubby” cares about the game and reflects with him some of the things he writes on this blog. That night however, she did not only comment on or substantiate an entry I wrote, she launched an idea herself. So here goes: the idea is all hers.
Introduce “Generations”
In real life, every person is a “member” of a so called Generation. I for one, together with Powdersnow (fortunately or unfortunately), am a member of Generation Y, also dubbed the Millennials. We are the children of the Baby Boom Generation and we tend to have two important traits: first, we are peer-oriented; second, we somewhat have the Peter Pan syndrome: we don’t want to grow up. We try as much as we can to delay the rites de passage of adulthood. Looking at both Powdersnow and myself, that makes a lot of sense. Both of us are very much community-focussed and consider that to be more important than our personal profit (I hardly play a game, yet am logged in at least 1,5 hours a day). The mere fact that we ARE playing a game… even if we are in our late twenties/early thirties… is enough proof for the Peter Pan syndrome, is it not (Powdersnow is also said to get 100 krona a day to buy candy in the store next to his office)?

Generations create a sense of belonging yet they are completely missing from the game even if the partner game Managerzone does have Generations (in the sense that they organize generation cups for people who started with the game in a specific season).
Why not create Generations in Powersoccer? When you create in account in a given month (or 2 months), you are dubbed Generation 1,2,3,4… It is a tag you get never to lose again. Everybody can see what generation you are (it is on the team page) and you can see what other people in your generation do: what level are they at now? How are their ranking points? O my, person X from our generation just won a cup or a league!
You could create Generations cups in which people can compete for the title “Best of my Generation”. There could be a Generation Forum, just like there are Clan Fora. And there could even be inter-generation competitions, just like there are fan zone competitions.

People want to feel part of something. People want a sense of belonging. People want to be able to say: “This is me! I am part of this.” A generation is a good start, is it not?

Logging in and off to “our” precious Powersoccer website, I couldn’t help but notice that the number of new teams created AND the number of games played are increasing exponentially. Here are just some observations from yesterday’s growth:
00:02 : 3 new users
00:38 : 438 new users
10:00 : 3874 new users
13:00 : 5678 new users
15:00: 7890 new users
17:00 : 9143 new users
19:00 : 10956 new users
21:00 : 13531 new users
23:00 : 17654 new users

The correlation between the number of games played and the news teams is, even without a statistically based analysis, clear. More teams are created, leading to more played games. A quick browse through the forum and a quick browse through the gamerooms, the latter strictly speaking against my religion – for a substantiated article, I am prepared to go at great length – I however notice that most of the players there are not the new players but mostly the old members, who have been around for weeks, months and in some cases even years. Could we conclude that the retention of new users is high, even too high?
Surely it cannot be linked to appalling gameplay because that is not the case. It can not even be linked to the fact that you only have a 24 hour “free trial” period, because the basics of this game are completely free, at all times. Perhaps an explanation is that users are perhaps overwhelmed by the beauty of the game but feel a bit lost: nobody to talk to, just all alone in a room. If that were the case, the following recommendations could help:

1)    Create a “new user” forum section
It is hard for new users to immediately jump in the forum of the big boys. Some are probably scared by the details of the discussion or unaware of all the events that preceded their arrival and they hastily conclude: this is not me! This is not where I belong!
In nearly all of these cases they are probably right. It must not be joyful if you, as a new member, have to engage in discussions you basically have no clue what they are about. Who on earth is Sipwell? And why is everybody happy that Powdersnow returned? What is a token and why is everybody so fixated on badges?
You might be seen as a noob, a fool even and quickly abandon the game altogether.

A solution might be to have a “new user” forum section – albeit with a more appealing name – which would be limited to all the low levels. No big boy should enter their secret kingdom (apart from Forum Admins obviously), where they can exchange experiences about their first days here, ask questions to new users or look for new friends. There is nothing more fun then growing in level with somebody else. All of us have, in the strife to be level 99, had different competitions to reach level 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, … up to level 99 (cf. infra). I lost my race to be the first Belgian level 99 with only a few weeks yet I had beaten that particular user in our race to level 80 and 90 (I was the first Belgian to accomplish that).

A “new user” forum section could create a sense of belonging and an important impetus to stay and to spend tokens on this fabulous game

2)    Who are my peers?
Looking for friends in an environment where you cannot have personal contact at first is rather scary. How do you go about? What do you do? Do you step up to someone and start to talk? But who? And why him and not that other user? So far the community fails to foster “relationships”. All of us had to find our own way into this game… and most of us ended up talking to an admin and becoming friends with one (no surprise, then, that admins have the largest collection of friends). It takes some dedication and something nerve to make friends here in this game… Perhaps only the real “pushers” stay and those naturally a bit shy – yet completely into the game – leave.

Why not create a low level pool of users where you can see who also recently joined this game and who might interest you? Based on location (country), age and team name. If you have changed your team name to “Chelsea”, it would be nice to see who else has named his team “Chelsea” and who is fairly close to your own level. You at least have one opening line: “It was a good game of Chelsea, the other day, wasn’t it? My name is John, by the way.” It would be nice to see which countrymen also joined and perhaps start talking in your mother tongue about the game…

The internet is abundant with fora on one specific theme or a general one. Friendship is fostered there. People who only have met online start to engage more frequently with each other, start to feel at home… and want to stay and enjoy all the perks of this game. Powersoccer should take that step too.

3)    Races
Building on that idea: why not creating a pool of users (of the same country or region) to start a race to a specific target? Be it level 20, 100 goals or 15 victories. No strings – or prizes – attached but just giving users the possibility to engage with somebody they did not know before. Friendship might come to be established or it might not. At least the users have set their first footsteps in this game accompanied by someone else. It surely leads to friendly competition and is less distant than the current official matches where you are paired up with a for you unknown user.
If we are somewhere new, we are looking for easy markers and things we feel at home in immediately. Something distant, neutral and impersonal – although it becomes very attractive and very personal later on in the game – as official matches probably aren’t the best way to keep users here. You don’t ask from little babies to run a marathon minutes after they set their first steps, do you?
The idea of races, where you are paired with a fixed (or perhaps a number of fixed) users – not that you necessarily only can play games against him or her, but that you can keep track of that user during your first days around – might be a more starter-friendly deal. The career mode has so far proven its absolute qualities and it is a fabulous way to adapt to the game. The official matches however plunge you into a reality you aren’t adjusted to at first.

These came out of the top of my head. Probably there is more but duty calls

Tragedy has fallen upon Powersoccer. Well, that is a slight overstatement but still: “the horror, oh, the horror” and “unbearable” are the two words that spring automatically to mind.

Internet is all about “me” nowadays. I have a blog, I have a facebook account, I twitter, I have a myspace account where everybody can hear me sing so badly even your entirely deaf grandma notices something peculiar in the air. I even youtube silly dance movements from time to time. Thus, the internet is all about “me”. Apart from the egocentric and narcissist air of many of those online possibilities, an interesting change in the field of journalism is notable. With the easy access by everybody to everything – uploading audiovisual or written content – a new type of journalism has entered the building: citizen-journalism. Many blogs and even proper website offer a platform for citizen-journalists: some discuss the life in their small community – Mary Jones her kitten was bitten by the Wiener Dog of Mister Atkinson – yet others take on large issues like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the environmental changes. Pictures of war are in most cases taken by citizens on the ground and no longer by the war photographers who, at best, are “embedded” with the Allied troops. Road bombs in Iraq are spread through cell phone captures. Soccer games are recorded with digital cameras and, despite their lack of visual quality, uploaded and viewed by many people. Citizen-journalists have exposed many of the flaws of any system and have become hefty competition for journalists working for a newspaper, magazine or the audiovisual media. Sometimes the latter are just too late. Sometimes the latter don’t dispose of the sources citizen-journalists have (you prefer talking to your friend which you know will not abuse your story than talking to a journalist you haven’t even met and quite frankly doesn’t even care about your position). Sometimes the latter work through a “political” or at least politicized agenda and they always work with a rope tied around their neck: will I make the next day as a reporter? Or put more accurately: will I make the next day as reporter if I publish this damaging report? In most cases, many of these damaging reports are filed in the closet and at best appear in the memoires of a good old reporter…
Powersoccer jumped on the wagon of citizen-journalism quite soon. A powersoccer extra website had regular and interesting reports on the powersoccer community, ranging from interviews with relevant actors (a master assistant, a league winner, a crew member) over detailed analyses on gameplay or new features to overviews of the weekly news (who won this or that cup, who got to level 99, who got hired as admin). Together with the badge makers over at psgoodies, Powersoccer had a quite active “civil society” wherein the best of Powersoccer was brought together.
All of those websites were linked on the page of Powersoccer itself where users could either click on them or read the article on the website as can be seen below…

Alas, the community links are no more. The new site allows a lot but apparently not a user input. The “community links” as they were so majestically labelled have been scrapped. On our way to a autocratic system or, as we suspect, just forgotten?

The message is clear and simple. Bring back the community links AND improve their position. Make them known to everybody by either creating a tab under news (and differentiate between crew news and user news) or under the infamous “connect” tab. In any case: “We Want The powersoccer extra articles back on the site”. Hence we petition crew to do so.

Powersoccer is a game with great potential, just like Lionel Messi is a player with great potential. He is a genius now and he will be a wise/smart genius in the years to come. Powersoccer is no different.
On Friday, I defended the thesis that “standing still” is “going backwards”. Powersoccer has moved on and has proven that change is a good thing. Not only is the fully refurbished website a pleasure for the eye, gameplay is so smooth now that without doubt the number of games will triple. I got so impressed by the “career mode” that I for the first time in my life – and for the last too – played an official game (and lost). It is a dream and all the minor errors will without doubt be removed within days/weeks. But, “standing still is going backwards.” The update is old news now, we look towards the future. What could we hope for? Experienced as I am, I give some hints.

1) Expand tactics from two to three
All players have two tactical options of their choice. Gameplay is strongly dependent on this. You have your basic pre-set tactic you normally play with. It defines who you are and how you see attack, midfield and defence. Some prefer a strong defence and line up 5 players. Others are living on the wild side and pick three defenders and a strong midfield.
Next to that, you have a second option and here is the tricky part: what to pick? Do you pick a defensive tactic to secure your lead? Do you select an offensive tactic to win or draw? Do you go “all in” to force errors on your opponent by pressure play (424 for instance). A tough and hard choice and also one that may lead to frustration. Actually impossible to make. The solution is simple: you should have the option to have both.

2) Save everything
In the current version, highlights are limited to goals and some goal chances. Moreover, even if you have made the perfect goal, the way you save that goal is pre-set. Annoyingly the screen changes in the second part of your reply… which means that you miss out the perfection more than once. Moreover, you cannot include for instance the brilliant pass that preceded the brilliant goal you want to save. It however gets “worse”. Sometimes it is really frustrating that you are watching (and laughing/crying or just typing) a specific replay in which your player did something hilarious or you missed a chance in such a funny way that you just have to have it. You are set on saving it after the game… but you come to the conclusion that this specific replay isn’t in the highlight list. Frustration… if only…
Again the solution is simple: include all replays in the highlights (and skip those you skip during the game). It will for sure lead to even more attractive highlights and even more possibilities to impress your friends and the wider community.

3) Training field
It is said that Cristiano Ronaldo regularly, after a normal training, stays on the pitch to practice his free kicks. He practices from every corner, distance and with both a goalkeeper as without one. Apart from his talent as a football player, this is partially the explanation why he is so fabulous at scoring them. The wider picture is equally true: every team practices on corner kicks and on free kicks. Every player is giving a specific task. You train routine, you train goal chances. Powersoccer should include a training field in which you have the option to train specific elements of your gameplay, ranging from corners (pre-set situation) to free kicks from specific places. It will most certainly increase the quality of both free kicks and corners and, as a result, give a slight advantage to those willing to train by themselves to get better. Every powersoccer user should be given the same option Cristiano Ronaldo has: shall I stay on the pitch and work on my free kicks or shall I go and take a shower and head home (to play powersoccer).
4) Turn Cup challenges off
Users have the possibility to turn friendly/league challenges off. All users challenging them know they are unavailable at that time for any given reason. That however is not the case with cup challenges. Even if you are not in the ability to play – let alone have done a version check – you still get challenged. For high ranked users – or admins – that can be very annoying. To give an example: at work I am not always able to play. I do however get (and this is just a figure based on a review of one day of Powersoccer) 250 challenges for cup games. Although every challenge opens in the same window, it is mostly annoying if you are typing a forum thread or just browsing around in search for something. The explanation probably is that the system – in a clan or fan zone challenge – just lists the people only rather than those ready to play a game. It should be upgraded to list only those willing to play a cup game at that given time.
This problem works both ways. Some users see a clan has enough members online to participate in a clan cup. They invite the clan in the hoping of getting a cup started. They do however not know that, for instance, 4 out of 5 clan members have not done a version check. It can lead to frustration, to a repetitive movement – inviting the same clan over and over again – and in the end perhaps to quitting the cup altogether.
Thus the solution (in theory) is simple: create a button where you can turn of cup challenges. Like that all of the community members are able to see who can play and who can not. It will lead to more cups and more happy people.

5) Have designated players
Every team in real life has designated players: one is selected as captain because he stands out on the pitch and can drive his teammates to rise above their level – by shouting or guiding them. One is selected as free kick taker because he excels in taking the perfect free kick – whether it is aimed at the goal or at the foot/head of a team mate. One is selected to take the corner kicks as he has shown great skills in curving the ball neatly on the head of his team mate. Powersoccer needs to have that option too. Every user can spread skills amongst his players: he or she selects the best skills for a player on a specific position. A defender has to have good stamina and a perfect tackle; midfielders need to have a strong and precise pass and need to run like a hare. Attackers need to be cold-blooded and have high shooting skills to back that up. In a game however a tackle often leads to a disruption. Your sole attacker for instance – if you play in a 451 – is taking place behind the ball to give a free kick. If that happens at midfield, that ultimately means it is a lost ball. Nobody is standing in front of him and he cannot turn back to pass to a team mate. In corner kicks the same problem occurs. Your best shooter runs towards the corner flag to take the corner. At best, your mediocre midfielders take place in the penalty box. The quality of your striker however is reduced to zero.
Players should be able to control who does what in a game. Club members should have the option to select captains, free kick takers and corner kick takers. It can bring the game to a whole new level.

6) Build your own stadium
We can personalize our team if we devote tokens to buy cleats, tattoos, hairstyles and goal gestures. We should have the same option with the stadium itself. Perhaps I want to make a “hard side”, where die-hard fans of my team are holding banners – by me designed – to shout my team to victory. Or even make a small and cosy stadium where not that many people can enter. And, in the long term, a stadium of my own making: my personal arena just like Barcelona or Amsterdam has it. Labelled with a name of my choice and with colours of my choice.

This list could have been twice as long… The potential is so extensive that I had to limit myself to these 6 elements. Prepare for an update in some time!

I think of myself as a butterfly. Not only because I am extremely elegant and have bright colours that astonish everybody, but mainly because I never stay in one place for long. I fly around with a clear goal – live my life in the best way possible – just like butterflies go from flower to flower to live their lives in the best way… If I review my life so far, I see that I have done many things (completed few) and that a long engagement was fairly uncommon. True, I have worked in the same place for the last 4 years but then again: my job consists of change on a daily basis. Repetition didn’t happen often and every day posed new threats, challenges and opportunities.
My engagement with Powersoccer has however put a series of question marks behind the “butterfly thesis”. Today I celebrate my second year as a member of the Powersoccer community. If all goes well – and I don’t see why not – I will celebrate my second anniversary as Master Assistant of this game March 1 2010. Am I turning into a bee? How else can we interpret the fact that for the past two years I have been returning to the Powersoccer colony? How else can we interpret the fact that I spent time, energy and above all brain cells to make the community stronger? Isn’t that the behaviour of a honey bee who flies out to collect nectar in order to produce honey at home, in the colony?

I guess it is. Then again, I don’t regret being turned into a honeybee. Those are social creatures who live and die in a friendly and communal society. I guess it explains why I am hooked. It also explains why I am willing to buy tokens to gear up my players, to hire coaches and to go wild on a hairstyle or a good-looking cleat. Powersoccer has brought me more than “fast fun”. I haven’t walked the path from excitement to boredom. I have invested time and energy and I have been given much more in return: friends, unforeseen experiences, laughter and above all the feeling that I am part of something special, a fabulous online community.

It strikes me ever so often: I love my job. I feel genuinly happy coming in to the office, seeing the people, the weird drawings, pictures, messages everywhere (we sort of collect those and tape them to walls and desks), my best friend: the coffee machine, the small talk, the news, the community, the games. It feels like home.

Today’s release made me feel more proud than ever working at Power Challenge. And it’s not so much to do with the graphics or AI, goalkeeper improvements or career mode.

It’s all about the people.

The ones I work with every day, as well as the ones out there: our fabulous community.

I think it’s safe to say this was our best update and most spectacular release so far - and that’s great. But even greater is how unbelievably fantastic I feel when I’m surrounded by the Power Challenge People, all helping out, pulling together. Friends and colleagues, as Patrick would have put it.

Do I sound religious? That’s ok. Who wouldn’t be a believer on a day like this?

/ Linda - more coffee heading her way

A famous dictum says “Standing still is moving backwards”. If a system does not evolve, it will disappear. Think of Soviet Russia. Research has shown that it did not disappear because the magic worked out (the revolution was made not by the people but by the power), it disappeared because there was no magic left. The system got stuck in the late seventies and didn’t evolve anymore (Ironically the Soviet Union was brought down with a fax; the system itself was too late to respond to that “novelty”). The dictum also explains (partially) why Chinese communism seems to survive. Throughout its recent history, the Chinese government has radically rethought its goals and its ambitions. China will have a system of high speed trains in the next years and is already, both secretly and openly, researching tools to block climate change. Most Chinese companies think ahead, only those who manufactured goods for the West – cuddle bears, clothes and other commodities – perished in the recent global crisis (the possibility to adapt is also the reason why the West fears China nowadays: not because it has the largest number of people on this planet but precisely because technological evolution is a clear ambition of the Chinese government).

Of course, a national system is not a game or an internet page… But is the dictum correct for these too?
For sure. The internet has seen in the past many bubble programs which were a huge hit at first – Second Life probably being a case in prime – but burst quite soon afterwards. Mostly the cause was… standing still. Currently we see some “walking dead” online: the aforementioned Second Life is now a deserted place. Hardly anyone – apart from some die hard fans – still owns an avatar or walks around. Second Life looks like all the cities around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor: there is proof of a past society (houses, goods, …) but everything is abandoned. Websites like myspace or twitter are equally doomed. Although the idea in essence is good, it leaves limited margin for “revolution”. Some features can be added, some inherent problems can be fixed but the “been there, done that” is always luring around the corner. People will get bored with the quazillionst twitter message from their absolute hero – you should try it: it is tremendously boring after a while – and they will look for new ways to express themselves. Somewhere in a backroom a tech geek is preparing the next revolution… to die out 5 years later.

Our beloved game does not fall into the “standing still” trap. Every five months or so a major update is launched. Quite amusingly, every update screen never fails to mention: “The most significant game update in our history is almost here.” They kept promise every time. Site radically changed. The gameplay radically changed. The forum radically changed. Features were expanded (from leagues over clans to now the career mode). It is almost as if you aren’t allowed to get bored. Once you get used to something (and you develop patterns of playing and certain stereotypes), it changes. The comparison with real life football is striking. Although there is a certain order in the quality of teams – Real Madrid will never demote – every new league start is a fresh start: new players, new opportunities and new threats. Powersoccer is just the same. Every update is a new start.
In the past couple of hours, I have been exclaiming “ooooooooh” and “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” all the time. Couldn’t get any work done. Curiosity forced me to be in Powersoccer. I honestly think I would have given a finger if somebody told me “give me your finger or I will pull the plug”. The website got an extreme make-over, gameplay got a radical update – making some actions less comical – and a new career mode was launched. We are given some months to adjust and then probably another radical change will be our part again.

The system evolves, the system survives and more than one hundred thousand people can continue to live the dream.

People. If you’re trying to log on to the site right about now, you’ll see something completely different - and need I point out fabulous/gleaming/fresh/stunning/beautiful/superb - from what you’ve ever seen on Power Soccer before.

The biggest update ever is taking place at this very moment. If you were here, at the office, you’d feel the excitement in the air. Exhausted but optimistic game developers everywhere, whos bodies are filled with  Management by Milkshake milkshakes, code around the clock coffee and please-stay-awake-cake. Everyone has done everything within their power to make this a successful release, to make this the biggest day yet in the history of Power Soccer.

So stay tuned. It’s going to be a great day.

/ shaolinda, heading for another cup of coffee

The development blog seems to be abandoned. The last blog post was one by me. You could interpret that as a very bad sign, namely that crew couldn’t care less about blogging about its endeavours and above all ‘parties’. You could (and should) however interpret that as a very positive sign and you should know the story behind the absence of blog posts. And that is what you are about to read.

In early summer when Sweden is hitting its peak 15° C/58° F and the rain goes from heavy rain to moderate rain, many crew members take their holidays to lose all the fat they gained in the months of sitting behind their computer screen making this game better and better. It is stated in their contract that if they have on July 1 an weight increase of 12 percent they have to start working out in order to become healthy again. Yes, dear readers, the owners of Powersoccer are well aware of all the scientific literature on the correlation between overweight and productivity. Thus, all crew members – with the exception of the ever slim shaolinda – need to lose a certain percentage before they can re-enter the Powersoccer premises: a guard by the door has a specially designed weight scale to calculate how many “fat” – thus not weight in itself – they lost. If it is not sufficient, the crew member is sent back home with a specially designed work out program. Rumour has it that our good friend Powdersnow, who is known for his exuberant dinners– he got kicked out of a “all you can eat” diner when touring the United States of America with his band Surreal last spring – is still busy with his weight loss program and has his exam on Monday the 17th of August. Hence the complete absence of activity on this blog on their part.

As for me, I just was too busy working in my real life job. I have A-grades in procrastinating, slacking but also in making deadlines with work that blows you of your feet. And that is just what I did. I worked hard, all day and all of the night…

… wait a minute! Wait a minute! I just recalled that some of the crew members are so slim that you could pull them through a key hole! No way they could reach the 12 percentage of weight gained level! What have these guys been up to then? Our slim heroes?

The answer is very simple, dear readers: they have been working all day and all of the night on an improved – and that is the right word for this change – version of Powersoccer. I am so glad my deadline is over (and that I met it) because Powersoccer will be where you can find me… all day and all of the night!