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.

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!

Belgium is known for many things. Chocolate, beer, fries (mistakenly called French becomes they were served in British noble houses by French cooks and not seen before), pretty women (sometimes after a couple of the before-mentioned beers), sprouts and waffles but we are also quite successful in the art of movie making (the brothers Dardenne who occasionally win the Golden Palm of Cannes Filmm Festival) AND we are rather successful at surrealism in all its forms. The running joke is that Belgium, politically speaking, is actually something surreal… as you are probably all ignorant or uninterested creatures, I will not dwell on that… but you all heard of René Magritte, the world most important painter if you scrap the odd-500 top painters out. (the fact that a realist like Powdersnow actually chose that for his clan is “surreal” from our point of view (cuckoo as we might define it) but completely illogical from his point of view but that is a totally different discussion).

As always, I needed a rather long introduction to get to a basic point: the following video. When you are currently not able to play powersoccer to make you feel a bit better in these dark and lonely days, just watch the following video. It was made by a Belgian and it will give you a smile (and in some cases laughter) and an overall feeling of joy. Yes, we Belgians tend to bring joy and laugher in your pessimistic and boring life. That is why we are so adored!

Enjoy:

watch?v=jedd2FiZTqM

Note: the movie was shot in the tram of Sipwell. I take that tram to work and back home every day. It does happen the tram is laughing at something, so the film has, although dramatized, a real core.

Note 2: yes, I am the typical Belgian. Where ever there is fun to be made, there you can find sipwell

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?!?

It seems I have become part of the establishment. I woke up this morning, too early I might add, and discovered I had a key to the Magical Powerchallenge Development Blog. It found it on my doorstep, in a brown paper wrap with golden print and all the logos this company has. I opened the package and there was, written on parchment with a goose feather pen: “Dear Sipwell. Thou art the Chosen One. With thee Magical Key thy shall open the Gate to extensive blogging on the community development of Powersoccer.” The key was out of pure Gold and was massive and had a ball and a racing car as imprints! The trick however was to find which door to open…
Our good friends over in Sweden – and elsewhere in the world so I’ve heard – may be bursting in traditions, they are and will remain Gamers for the rest of their lives. And in how many games do you actually get a key AND a door where it fits directly? None. You have to look for the door. That is the eternal quest (and in some games even the only goal). In some games you have to slaughter ten dragons first – and a Superdragon at the end who can both spit fire and dance the lambada to make you die of laughter, a cunning tactic – and in other games the door is on a hidden place, one you only find by sitting in front of your screen for weeks in a row, giving up and starting to browse the internet or ask colleague gamers. So I had to look for the door as well…
It seems I found it. I won’t tell you about that endeavour, about the cold and near-starvation I went through. I only can inform that, if you manage to survive that challenge, you really are part of an elite. You really are cunning, intelligent, clear thinking and MacGyverish. As I rejoined all the crew members at the end place, it means we have a spectacular crew creating brilliant games, as they survived this ordeal long before me!! How great is that?
On a sidenote – and as I have went through the same struggles you did, dearest crew: we do want to see some more MacGyver in Powersoccer! I know you can do it, as you have proven it on your long journey towards the Magical Kingdom of Powerchallengia. Wouldn’t it be awfully cool if, when the ball was almost in the goal, the game paused and we got a puzzle: “stop the ball with a) two electrical wires, b) a funnel, c) a 2 volt battery and d) some Swedish pie. You get one minute.” Then another Power Challenge starts… Think about it!

Anyways, for those short in time and unwilling to descend in my somewhat absurd yet quite amusing world, here is the short, dry, accountant-like version: thank you Powerchallenge for the opportunity to blog. I really appreciate what you guys are doing with the games: they have evolved spectacularly over the last 2 years (when I was playing). The Community knows you are a great team and is looking forward to yet another level of fun you always seem to be able to bring to us.

Dear old Sipwell answered my prayers and tried out Superstar Racing. He pretty much sums it up as “crappy” with graphics bringing him back to the 90’s.

I’ve been in the nineties. I don’t want my games to be the same like then, the nineties are over… we look at the future. The screenshots of PR give me the future.

Well people, there you have it. Seriously though, I agree. I’m not impressed either by gameplay or graphics - or even their somewhat acclaimed “socializing” community part. I just wanna scream “get out of my face!” to those running around the paddock, getting in my way, standing to close. Invasive!

Anyhow, besides ripping that not so great game to pieces he also sent me a picture that proves, once again, the almightyness of my being… I’m not just a mum - I’m also a bot.

And have a great weekend everyone. See you on Monday!

/ Linda

Ruben, at the delicate age of seven, hasn’t completely lost the ability to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. He can pretty much lie down on the floor for a couple of hours, doing…something? Nothing? I’m not sure. He likes weapons and super heros and knights, so maybe there’s some kind of role playing game taking place, quietly. Maybe the rug he’s lying on is a magic one, maybe Dimitar the cat is a dragon.

Sometimes I let him play games, PS2 or on the computer for hours. Sometimes I realise that he needs to keep his very own imagination going, the one that’s activated when you’re busy doing nothing. He can stay out for hours - hours! - on his own, even in the dark, and apparantly be part om some mighty adventure, on the hill some 50 meters from the house. It has a couple of nicely situated tree, perfect for climbing. And because of this, and his ability to lie down anywhere and do nothing for a long time, it doesn’t worry me the slightest that he likes to play Battlefront II for hours sometimes.

Anyway, my point is, it’s good for kids - or anyone - to be bored sometimes. To not have anything in particular to do. Being unscheduled. Use. Your. Imagination.

Why this subject came up today is that we’ve been home for three days cause he’s got some kind of nasty cold and coughs around the clock. Still, he’s not so sick he’s in bed. He’s up and about - and bored. So we’re exercising those imaginative skills, mixing action figures with wooden train tracks, the knights and their castle and some classic board games. And, of course, the latest favourite: Lord of the rings spoofs on youtube. (that one’s in Swedish though…) He laughs himself silly, then begins to cough again.

Anyway, just some thoughts on this whole being allowed to be bored or not issue. Parents today seem to compete with eachother who’s kid have the most social activites. Soccer practice, ice hockey, gymnastics, singing, basket ball, swimming…you name it. Practice, matches, competitions. Hurry from school, rushing from one place to the next. Talking to the other parents, comparing, being the busiest, winning the prize…

How about valuing taking it easy, hanging out, finding out what happens when noone tells you what to do..?

Of course it’s great getting exercise, fine tuning those social skills and being part of something bigger than yourself. But I strongly doubt those scheduled activities are gonna decide who and what you become, what kind of person you are. Are parents doing it for the kids - or themselves?

Common sense, a walk in the woods and some peace of mind goes a long way I think.

And yes, Sipwell, my conscience and better self will soon remind me that my standpoints prove I’m nothing but an old hippie, but that’s fine. I choose flower power over SUV’s in the suburb any day…

Sorry, just had to add one more. (I could keep this up for ages, really, gotta stop. GOTTA STOP!)

Just came to think of our dear old Sipwell. His precision. His to-the-point-too-damn-clever remarks. His wit - and his lack of forgivness for those who act like idiots.

Don’t you agree?