Your players are not visible to others, and it has been like that since the dawn of time. I do not see the need for secrecy, and I believe the negative effect is much bigger than the positive effect. I am yet to come across anyone who have said "no" when I have asked them if I can show their player(s) to the public. I believe there is a reason why skiller tools are so popular, and it is because people in general want others to see their players. Bragging rights is one, but when others see your players they might actually gain an interest in one or more of them, thus it might become financially rewarding.
As a National Coach I see the effect it has on the transfermarket and the community itself when I have presented a skiller of the NT players. Some months ago 3-4 Norwegian U21 NT players hit the market because users started wheeling and dealing among themselves, which would not have happened if the players would have remained hidden from view.
The popularity of the skiller tools should in my opinion be a significant hint to the developers.
Analyzing your opponent becomes possible.
I would love to have a little checkbox on all my players that allows me to make his skills visible to others, aswell as a box underneath there again where I can set an asking price. Below I present some ingame graphics that I have Photoshopped to make my idea more visual.
I can understand that someone would want to hide their players and play this game without being "bothered", and without revealing any training secrets. In such case, they can just leave the checkbox empty.
So, I have marked "Reveal skills to everyone" for my Romanian player Victor Stoian, which again made it possible for me to set an asking price.
This is how the same player would look like for everyone else. Imagine you want to place a guarantee bid. Simply click on the button as displayed above.
The familiar popup box appears, that you are likely to have come across on the transfermarket itself. Here you can place a guarantee bid, and set the bid active for 4 days for example. Needless to say, you would have to have atleast 4 million euro on your account in order to place this guarantee bid, and the fund would be frozen on your account as soon as you make the bid.
The manager who is receiving a guarantee bid would then have it displayed on his team news, and preferrably have an icon of some sort lighting up on the top right corner on the screen.
A new icon that allows you to check incoming bids.
This would be a section that shows you all incoming bids for all your players. If you accept a bid, the player is automatically placed on the transfermarket for 3 days and the bid placed automatically. If you decline, then no transaction.
Free transfer for new teams
The continued growth of ManagerZone is dependant on not just getting new users, but managing to make a certain procentage of them stay. I feel so much more can be done in this department.
Some weeks ago I talked with a guy who had just started playing this game. He said that after the tutorial had ended it was basically it, nothing more he could do. He would have to wait 21 days to buy any player, he would have to wait until the start of the next season to order youth (unless he wanted to lose a lot of training days), and he could only fire one player pr day. Basically he had no impact on his squad, and all that remained was to play matches with a team of players that he just wanted to sack. Since you do not have a single player you want to keep, then using the training camp is a no go.
I can safely say that if I had started playing this game today, there is a big chance I would have quickly lost interest. Unless you sign up together with someone else, then this game will feel quite "skin and bone", when in fact this game is the best there is. First impression is first impression, but when you aren't staying long enough to gain a second impression then you are lost to the game. The reason I kept on playing this game back in 2003 was because I joined together with three friends, and because I was handed three very good players. Add to that a transfermarket that was accessable from day one.
In order for users to stay they need to feel that they got something special, something for free, something they would lose if they stopped playing. You got to throw them a bone, and a tasty one. I remember back in the day when new teams was handed three superplayers (sometimes even of NT quality) from the get go. It made sure they stayed. It also had a negative effect, such as cheating by some users creating lots of teams. I would like to see new teams being handed some talents again, but not to the extreme like in the past. Some 19-22 year olds that has around 40-45 balls will do. And in order to make them feel involved with the team, I want these players to exist on a dedicated free transfer market where they can be signed for no cost. The same players would have to be 3-4 seasons in the club before they can be sold in order to reduce cheating. Here is a visual presentation of my idea, in its most basic form. It should be around 10-15 players on the list, where 3 of them can be signed.
