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!

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.

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.

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?

There was a new version of Power Soccer released yesterday. Normally, if you work here you can’t miss when there’s a release around the corne. The pace is far from sustainable - it’s frantic.

And that’s the number one weird thing - yesterday it was…calm. Quiet. I would say that instead of despair and grief the general mood was optimistic and cheerful.

We’ve gradually improved the process, workflow, during the last six months and I think we’re actually getting somewhere. Production- and otherwise. Meetings, checklists, teamwork, testing…it’s all beginning to come together. This has probably helped a lot with keeping people out of the stressloop.

As always- more can be done. We can get even better with our planning and estimating, stop lying to ourselves and everyone else with how much work that can be done within a sprint, we can probably improve how we communicate with our users and hundreds of other things. But still - it was a good release and I’m very proud of everyone here who’s worked hard to make it so.

I read some of the posts in the PS forum yesterday and, as always, most of them basically said “bring the old version back”. I spoke to Thorbjörn (Powdersnow, a legend in PS and now part of the crew) about it, just checking if this was normal procedure and guess what? It is. It’s like this after every release. So I’m very curious to see what the buzz in the forum will be like during the next week or so. If our users will be able to rise above the fact that we changed some of the things they were used to and try to accept, embrace and enjoy the improvements.

Because, as we all know, us humans are creatures of habit. We like to know exactly what to expect, be in control. Change can be really hard getting used to.