TBL is four years old!

[archibalduk]

Yesterday (27 June) marked the fourth birthday of TBL!

I think it's quite an achievement that our community is still very buoyant despite the fact that the last EHM was released nearly two years ago. There have been a lot of members of the community that have contributed to keeping this site going. Not only do we have many active posters, we also have many people who have spent a lot of time working on addons (for example Devils88 and Andyjayp's RSL facepack that is being released today). The hard work of these people are the key to keeping this community alive.

Here is a brief update on current and future projects on TBL (and the wider EHM community):

* Lidas is working on a 2008/09 roster update. This is going to update a very wide range of leagues in EHM. He's getting assistance from a fairly large group of researchers who are researching various leagues. The amount of work Lidas is putting into this project is astounding - the final product is going to be well worth the wait.

* Kidhander and friends at The Breakaway Network continue to work on their 06/07 update (aka 'Updated Unfaking']. They have taken the original 06/07 database from EHM and have greatly improved its accuracy and coverage. If you're after a set of rosters for the season EHM was designed to start in, I'd highly recommend theirs.

* If you can't wait for Lidas' 08/09 update but want to play with some up-to-date rosters, I suggest using the TBL 07/08 update. This updates a wide range of leagues in EHM. Version 1.5 (the final version) can be downloaded here.

* Several users are continuing to provide facepack updates as well as other graphical addons. I highly recommend browsing through the downloads section of the site. If you're new to the site then it would also be well worth looking at the TBL EHM Guide

* The TBL Challenges are still going strong. We've found this a great way of playing with teams that you'd never think of playing with. It's not too late to join in on the Phoenix Coyotes Challenge. For the next Challenge, there will be the opportunity to play with a non-NHL team (probably Canadian juniors).

* Next season will see the usual prediction league competition. We also have other competitions such as Geek Hockey and Create a Star.

Will TBL be here for another four years? I'd like to think so, but it really depends on whether we can maintain the community spirit and activity that we currently have. The TBL Moderators are working really hard to ensure that the activity continues (e.g. running competitions, helping with the 08/09 roster update and running the Challenges) and that the forums don't descend into a mess like those at the official SI EHM forums. The number of enthusiastic posters we have play a major role, too - if they weren't here then the forums would be dead. Take a look at the Most Veteran Users section of the Hall of Fame and you will see that we have plenty of active users who have been with the community for several years (JoeHelmer and Taloncarde have been here for nearly three years, for example). I don't see any reason why we can't continue with this activity and so hopefully the future of TBL is quite bright.

As for EHM, I'd personally (and I don't speak for any of the other Mods on this - this is just my own personal view) be very surprised if we ever saw another commercial version of EHM again. EHM 2005 clearly didn't sell enough and resulted in EHM 2007 being download-only. EHM 2007 obviously didn't sell well either - partly due to piracy affecting sales - and so SI have put the game on indefinite hold. Riz and Graeme Kelly are working on other projects at the moment, meaning no chance that another EHM will be developed any time soon. I think the crucial time is after FM Live has been released (I've beta-tested FML and it is absolutely brilliant). This will obviously free-up resources, allowing for another EHM to be developed. If we don't hear any news a while after FML and whatever the current version of FM is is released, I think it would be reasonable to think that SI won't be developing another EHM. That's only my opinion - I hope I am completely wrong. At least we're prolonging the life of EHM 2007 with all of our work on updates and addons - it makes EHM an absolute blast to play!

[Manimal]

Congratulations TBL!

You are all doing a great job with this site and the game. Keep it up!
If there is anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask.

[Andyjayp]

Happy Birthday TBL!!!

First Rounds on me!!!

[archibalduk]

What better way to celebrate than with the release of three new addons:

• RSL Facepack (three part download) by Andyjayp and Devils88
• Niagara and Pacific Junior Leagues Logo Pack by Kidhander/Alessandro
• Custom scoreboard by Phil09

[Andyjayp]

Just to let you know the Russian Superleague pack 3 link doesn't work. It says the file doesn't exist.

[bigargon]

Congrats!!

I know i really enjoy this community. the people are friendly and intelligent, and competitions are great.

Long Live TBL!

[archibalduk]

Just to let you know the Russian Superleague pack 3 link doesn't work. It says the file doesn't exist.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to ask D88 to e-mail me the file. We have a 10mb upload limit on the site but it looks like the third part is only 6.9mb so that won't be the cause.

[Andyjayp]

I have a copy of the file two files I sent Devils88. If there is a problem with the upload spacey thingy maboby.

If that helps at all.

[Tasku]

Just to let you know the Russian Superleague pack 3 link doesn't work. It says the file doesn't exist.

Thanks for pointing that out. I'll have to ask D88 to e-mail me the file. We have a 10mb upload limit on the site but it looks like the third part is only 6.9mb so that won't be the cause.

I've seen files with a little more than 5mb getting this error, and I always thought that was our limit.

[Andyjayp]

I have a copy of the file two files I sent Devils88. If there is a problem with the upload spacey thingy maboby.

If that helps at all.

Oh well. I have just uploaded the two files now. Along with a staff pack to.

So hopefully they all get approved. A tense moment waiting for files to be approved.

P.S. I also think I may off uploaded the staff pack twice. If I did, Ignore the first one I uploaded.

Thanks
Andyjayp

[archibalduk]

Pack 3 is back up and working. Andy uploaded it to the site and it worked fine. Not sure what happened to the first attempt at uploading

Your update and staff packs are now available too. Nice work

[TWolf]

As for EHM, I'd personally (and I don't speak for any of the other Mods on this - this is just my own personal view) be very surprised if we ever saw another commercial version of EHM again.

Too bad that they cannot rework the whole concept and their approach to the customers. The strategy was wrong all along if they expected the game to grow into an ice hockey counterpart of CM/FM series, especially when the game was behind it's bigger brother by multiple years in development. Small and flexible would have made the more approachable, similar to what the original freeware version is. Naturally it's easy to say these things now...

EHM 2005 clearly didn't sell enough and resulted in EHM 2007 being download-only. EHM 2007 obviously didn't sell well either - partly due to piracy affecting sales - and so SI have put the game on indefinite hold.

I think they should have opted to develop the game as download-only all along, even though some people might have been scared by the approach. It would have suited the whole EHM world better as the freeware version was more or less based on internet distribution. Piracy probably hampered the boxed edition sales instead of the digital distribution sales, which affected the project. They did the math on how much they lost on piracy with the first two boxed editions and allocated those expenses to the third edition, which naturally snowballed the expenses. Some companies tend to do that to make their economy look more viable (for example my home town club TPS, which has lost some 1 million euro per season the two last seasons).

Riz and Graeme Kelly are working on other projects at the moment, meaning no chance that another EHM will be developed any time soon. I think the crucial time is after FM Live has been released (I've beta-tested FML and it is absolutely brilliant). This will obviously free-up resources, allowing for another EHM to be developed.

They can shuffle the workers if they want to, but frankly it's unlike that they want. FM is the thing that makes money, piracy or no piracy. If they opt to only develop FM, then atleast we can gripe about the name of the development studio. Shouldn't it be Football Interactive instead of Sports Interactive if they only function as SEGA's FM development studio?

I wonder what kind of forum changes they make now that some SEGA pass will be used on the forums. Will EHM be there and with what kind of support? We should create a thread with the title "Football Interactive" on their forums...

[archibalduk]

I completely agree with you, TWolf. Although I think a lot of that can only be said with the benefit of retrospect. I think the main flaw was the lack of marketing over in North America (particularly Canada) - although I guess it would have been a big risk and expense to get the game known throughout such a large region.

It was only a few weeks back that the EHM forums were merged into one. I think that shows just how unlikely a new EHM is. But still, it's a good game and it came on leaps and bounds since EHM 2004. We have to be grateful for SI being willing to take the risk and develop a hockey game for three years. They did the same with OOTP Baseball - haven't they ceased developing that, too? I guess the lesson is that, to a large extent, the only commercially viable management game is a football (soccer) game.

[flea]

CONGRATS TO TBL!!!!

And a big Thank you for doing this great site. U guys are really great!!

...as I said before....TBL RULEZ


BTW, I know Iam late....but better late than never, right???

[Alessandro]

I completely agree with you, TWolf. Although I think a lot of that can only be said with the benefit of retrospect. I think the main flaw was the lack of marketing over in North America (particularly Canada) - although I guess it would have been a big risk and expense to get the game known throughout such a large region.

It was only a few weeks back that the EHM forums were merged into one. I think that shows just how unlikely a new EHM is. But still, it's a good game and it came on leaps and bounds since EHM 2004. We have to be grateful for SI being willing to take the risk and develop a hockey game for three years. They did the same with OOTP Baseball - haven't they ceased developing that, too? I guess the lesson is that, to a large extent, the only commercially viable management game is a football (soccer) game.

OOTP survives

[TWolf]

I completely agree with you, TWolf. Although I think a lot of that can only be said with the benefit of retrospect. I think the main flaw was the lack of marketing over in North America (particularly Canada) - although I guess it would have been a big risk and expense to get the game known throughout such a large region.

Naturally this is an important factor, if not the most important when it comes to customer base and sales figures. Canada and the northern states of the US to a lesser extent had an enormous potential, which was not utilized at all. It should have been the main market from the start. Naturally it is problematic to have the main market overseas when you develop the game in another continent. However, they could have taken an actual (visible) risk to accomplish a more regular fanbase. I think Scandinavia was considered an important market due to hockey being the top sport in Finland and Sweden, but the problem is the small population.

I guess the lesson is that, to a large extent, the only commercially viable management game is a football (soccer) game.

If another company had picked up Riz, things might be different. Surely we wouldn't have as good a management sim as we have today, but it could well be that another set of people would have opted a drastically different approach in marketing. I think that SI believed too much into the fanbase that enjoyed the freeware EHM. It had a sizeable following for a small project and people thought that they wouldn't need to market it much due to the reputation of its predecessor. However, many were not attracted to the commercial edition. The problem escalated when they had released a couple of editions, while the series wasn't selling.

A start from scratch would have been better instead of trying to incorporate hockey into the football platform. Marketing should have been conducted in a similar fashion instead of trusting into an internet community.