Change language
Hello, i have this chance to Interview the Crew for the next the zone France and i would like share with the international community.
Thorbjörn
Peter
> Hello, who are you ? What is your job at Power Challenge AB?
Hi, I'm Thorbjörn/powdersow. I do many different things, a lot of it revolves around artwork, game design and community.
My name is Peter, some know me as Thunderexpress in ManagerZone. I am the Studio Head of Power Challenge.
> How long have you been at this job?
I was hired back in 2007 but was actually admin for our old title Power Soccer for a few years before then. That was how I got to know the folks at Powerchallenge. I can't remember exactly when I moved from PS to MZ but it was gradually over a few years in the early 2010s.
I have been working for Power Challenge for 8 years and as Studio Head for almost 3 years
> Can you tell us more about Power Challenge AB? Where is the company based? How many people work full time on the Managerzone game?
It is based in Linköping in south-central Sweden. At the moment we have 4 full-time and several part-time employees. Those numbers tend to bobble up and down depending on our needs, but all of our current full-time employees have been with the company for a long time.
> What do you think is the biggest improvement of Managerzone in its last years?
Making ManagerZone mobile ready is the most important update we have done, but the most fun update is probably the new Youth Scout Report - I worked on its' design extensively and tried to involve the community as much as possible. The final version is an important change since it forces all of us to reevaluate how we build our squads, and it gives each manager much more control over the Youth Academy. I think it has changed the game in a very positive way.
Honestly, the greatest improvements in the last years are probably nothing that the users see so much. We have worked a lot with renewing the code, upgrade servers and making sure that ManagerZone will survive for at least another 10 years!
> For some time, MZ has not undergone major changes, according to you Managerzone holds up against the competition on the market? TopEleven has a mobile application, why has Managerzone fallen behind in this area?
We made the concious decision several years ago that we wanted to focus our efforts on the mobile browser, rather than making an app. Making an app is a big decision, not only is it lots of work, but it forces you to think about how the game is distributed and how to charge for products. Keeping it a browser-game means we retain the control over our own users and that is important to us. We did launch an iphone app a long time ago but we were not happy with the result and removed it from the market.
It's a question with no simple answers. We tried to convert MZ to an app but the problem (and the beauty) of MZ is that it is very complexed and large. There are lots and lots of menus and the user can chose for him/herself the path through ManagerZone. That is very hard to translate to a native app. We are constantly looking for ways to improve MZ and creating an app in MZs current form or a slimmer version of MZ in a native app is definitely something we are considering.
> Why do you think a large majority of players come from countries like Argentina, Brazil and China?
We have a few more "big" countries, like Sweden, Turkey and Romania. I believe that the answer is simple: it is easier to grow in markets where you are already big. People know friends who play the game which means they have likely already heard of it, and already trust us to some extent. I can't tell you why we became big in those particcular countries in the first place, maybe we made a successful marketing campaign at some point and it just snowballed, or maybe the game fits the mentality of many people in a certain country, and they themselves started spreading the word.
Most of the reason is word-of-mouth. ManagerZone picked up momentum in those countries and users started spreading the word and that is the main reason for them being so large countries.
> Why are the competition pool prizes not so great compared to the start of the game? (Ipod for example Ipod, ...)
Because physically sending stuff out is a major pain, mostly doe to different laws of taxation in different countries, and because it's expensive to send out physical objects. Sending a mug to someone costs 5 times what the mug is worth. Also, people use their smartphone for everything these days and have little use for other gadgets.
> According to you, is it still possible to compete against the big team by playing the game for free?
The most important thing that you would miss if you are not a member are Probably the training graphs. You can get by to some extent, but the graphs give you a lot better control over your team and on the Player Market. We do of course hope that once a user has played the game for a certain amount of time, they become a member, it is very hard for us to survive financially otherwise. But we want to give the user a good amount of time to make his/her mind up and the free package in MZ is very generous.
Of course. By all games that are out there today, ManagerZone is extremely rare when it comes to 'not buying success'. We have loads of free players. However, for the game to evolve, we are dependent on money. All money that we have made since I started working for ManagerZone has gone back to ManagerZone. 100%. The hard truth is that we need money to stay alive. And the more money we get, the more we can develop. We have given people around the world a really cheap hobby for almost 2 decades. I promiss, if I could have made it free I could, but the reality is that we need people to spend money for MZ to survive.
> Why is the Sponsor not visible on the shirt, as at the beginning of the game?
I believe that a long time ago, when the sponsors were introduced, there was no 3D and the sponsor feature was not meant to work in that way. And when the 3D came out it was not meant to be ultra-realistic, but a nice and fun way to watch your team play.
They disappeared before I started, so I don't have a good answer for that. Probably some legal issue
> Why not make the Senior National Cups Free? (Hattrick or TopEleven competition reference)
I don't think it is fair to compare us to other games in such a way, because we have different monetization styles. They might offer National Cups for free, but they probably charge money for things that we offer for free. From a strategic standpoint, offering freebies is a gutsy move because if you satisfy the market with freebies, the game could be in real trouble. We have many years of experience working with games and we know about these things. It is all about finding the right balance, and each game/company must work their balance out for themselves. This is where 99% of all online enterprises fail early on, but we have found a great platform for our game (credit to former MZ crew such as johan, cattleyard and many others).
They have other things that cost money that we have for free. But I will think about if we could make them free. Would be pretty nice :)
> Can you give us information on an upcoming addition to the game?
At the moment we are busy working with "boring" things like modernizing/optimizing our site and server structure, while also working on security measures for the game. We have had problems lately with things like spam and multi-user signups, it's no cause for alarm but it needs to be dealt with. In addition, we are rolling out minor bug fixes on almost a weekly schedule, and we are working on automated scripts that will take care of many maintenance duties for us, freing up time for more fun stuff. This type of work might not seem sexy in the eye of the user but it is extremely important for the game - MZ has been around for 18 years and we seriously feel that the game could have 20, 30, 50 years left in the tank, but only if we protect the game and build it in a smart way. Just like the most of our users, we are in this for the long haul. And just like most of our users we also want to get back to more fun tasks of developing the game. Maybe the SIM is also something we should have a look at soon, but I don't want to make any promises there.
> Can you explain more in depth what your job is?
My job description has changed many times over the 13-14 years I worked here. I am someone who can perform a wide range of tasks but over the years I have turned more and more into a game designer, while always retaining my original community role - I think the two roles are amazing when combined. I've designed a large number of features in MZ (such as the elections, hire-coach process, achievement system, scout report and many others) and an even larger number in Power Soccer. The thing about me though is that I am extremely user/community-oriented. I love to talk to people, pick their brains and listen carefully. Sometimes I have a direct way of addressing people and never been one to "suck up" to people just because they happen to be customers, superiors, or whatever. I see each user as a person with important feelings/thoughts/ideas and I address them the same way I would address anyone else around me who I find interesting. I never lie and I try my damndest not to sugar coat or falsify things. There are those who see that as unprofessional (hello hanzinho;)) but I find the large majority of people appreciate an upfront, honest attitude. I appreciate the same in return. That was a very long answer to a very short question, haha.
> Why are the competition pool prizes not so great compared to the start of the game? (Ipod for example Ipod, ...)
Because physically sending stuff out is a major pain, mostly doe to different laws of taxation in different countries, and because it's expensive to send out physical objects. Sending a mug to someone costs 5 times what the mug is worth. Also, people use their smart phone for everything these days and have little use for other gadgets.
> Do you plan to give a new graphic is it planned on the simulator?
We always had a dream of incorporating the vastly superior PS graphics in MZ, but it is unclear when or even if we can actually do this. That would be amazing though, the PS graphics is better than anything I have seen in a manager game.
> Will we be entitled to a return of 3D for users of the majority of web browsers (chrome, mozilla)?
Unless I misunderstand your question, this has already happened. :) We worked for a long time on porting the 3D from flash and it is now available in all PC browsers (as of last year). It is not yet available on your phone though.
> The managerzone game is not based only on football, but also on hockey, does it work the way you want it?
The hockey game is not as developed as the football game and in particular, the tactic view is lagging due to still being flash based and thus unavailable from mobile devices. Flash will be discontinued at the end of 2020 so the clock is well and truly ticking. It is something that we talk about a lot and will have to address sooner rather than later.
> The project of motorsport management totally abandoned?
I have to be honest, I have never heard of that project. :)
> Are advertisements planned to attract new players?
We sometimes run ads through Facebook and other channels, and we work with a SEO company to improve our search rankings. We do other things, for instance sponsoring a kids football tournament in Poland (kudos to our user kunas who helped us with this), and we work with several games portals around the world. This is a work in progress and there is always room for improvement, but users are finding us and we're fairly pleased with the current situation. Often, users think that the game is shrinking because some high-profile users have left, but this is just a normal part of any games' life cycle and as long as new users are ticking in, that's ok. ManagerZone users have a monster life-expectancy rate that almost no other game can compete with, but we cannot expect to retain all users for all eternity. That just isn't realistic. That said, if we could somehow increase the amount of actives drastically, that would be amazing. If people who read this have ideas, I am all ears on pow@powerchallenge.com.
> What do you think about nominate a country to host National Team competition like WorldCup or European Championship.
We were thinking about a system, for example if Sweden is chosen for the next European Championship, the Crew will select the nicer Club Stadiums of the country and the matches will be played there. Of course to create interest in this update it's could be cool to reverse money from the ticketing to the Stadium owner.
The hosting is a nice idea but I am not sure it would be practically doable, also Stadiums and Stadium names are trademarks, so we can't use them any way we like.
> How's extra time determined ?
It's a good question actually. I believe that the Sim doesn't actually "add on" time. Instead it tries to find a suitable moment to end the game, when neither team is attacking in a good position.
> Is it possible to review the rule of 2 players maximum bought to the same team in a given period for small community like ours? (especially hockey or it's galley)
It is possible to review it, but I doubt this is something we would want to change. I understand smaller communities will struggle, however we need to prevent cheating any way we can and this is an important rule.
> Is it possible to add the assists in the stats? like hockey with the assists.
We would like to, and I think this could well happen in the future at some point. The current SIM would need to be tweaked before that could happen though.
> Possible to remove the yellow lightning in the eyes of all on the transfer market?
No, I personally feel very strongly that it should be there. I suggest you read my posts in this thread to find out why I think so :)
https://www.managerzone.com/?p=forum&sub=topic&topic_id=12534741&forum_id=10&sport=soccer
> Is it expected that the tactical aspect (hockey) is available by any other means than Flash Player which has become totally useless for today's web browser?
Yes we plan to port the hockey tactics editor fairly soon. I cannot give you a date but we are already working on it. When released, you will be able to change your tactic on your mobile device too, which will be very useful.
Thanks you Thorbjörn and Peter for your time 😎😎😎
Football
Football » English » ManagerZone talk
-
Edited: 19-09-2019 18:00
Total edits: 1
Views: 313 Posts: 5
- Page 1
-
Re: ITW Crew / The Zone [France] / [ENG]
By
maccorosso - 19-09-2019 19:06Wow 7h 14 views........did not get that hanzinho joke anyway
I tell you for my economy is way too expensive for what it is
-
Sv: ITW Crew / The Zone [France] / [ENG]
By
manekaster - 20-09-2019 02:43Great interview, though I would've addressed some more critical questions. You know, like the Norwegian community is known for 😎 But again, great. And thanks for sharing the interview.
maccorosso wrote:Wow 7h 14 views........did not get that hanzinho joke anyway
I tell you for my economy is way too expensive for what it is
I guess the Europeans were busy watching Europa League tonight, and the South American user base barely visit the international forum. You didn't get the hanzinho joke? Then I advice you to check out these threads:
https://www.managerzone.com/?p=forum&sub=topic&topic_id=12422253&forum_id=10&sport=soccer&offset=0
https://www.managerzone.com/?p=forum&sub=topic&sport=soccer&forum_id=10&topic_id=12472037
https://www.managerzone.com/?p=forum&sub=topic&topic_id=12456639&forum_id=10&sport=soccer&offset=0
https://www.managerzone.com/?p=forum&sub=topic&topic_id=12466966&forum_id=10&sport=soccer
-
Sv: ITW Crew / The Zone [France] / [ENG]
By
deleted_7550185 - 20-09-2019 20:45
Didnt know they were just 4 full time workers and several part timers. Interesting to read your interview. Thanks!
-
Re: ITW Crew / The Zone [France] / [ENG]
By
piti_chivu - 20-09-2019 23:19Charge more PT for some Cups and bring back real prizes ;)
Like in the friendly Leagues with 40% win;)
-
Re: ITW Crew / The Zone [France] / [ENG]
By
charef - 21-09-2019 17:20Interesting interview
Thanks for sharing
- Page 1