It's not much of a game without other players. And people playing several leagues are the most dedicated players. Will new people join if every league is mostly vacant?

Well some warning this was coming would have been nice (for as many leagues as I'm in, I don't often check the community forums, so if there was forewarning perhaps an email to all users would have covered this better).

I have no objections to paying a subscription, especially after enjoying MFN for free for years, but its almost like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Two years or so ago there were FIVE pages of leagues, and users galore. Now we're down to just two pages and many of the same users populate the busier leagues - and there are several leagues that barely hang on to the 50% user population requirement.

And now you're asking for payment? I think there's every chance you may have just holed MFN below the waterline, and now it will sink (and perhaps quickly at that).

Like I said I'm happy to pay up (and am fortunate to be able to do so), especially as I play in probably every league going, but pay-to-play obviously isn't for everyone and I have grave misgivings for MFN's future. I do hope I'm wrong.

I have 6 - 7 months out of my credits. If there is no road map and no visible improvement in known bugs or in general by then, I will leave the game with a heavy heart.

Surely you should release updates and improve the game then ask for payments as we can all see the direction of the game going. I left the game about 6months - a year ago and the interface was being worked on and it’s still only at 75% ????

I’d be happy paying for the game monthly if I seen constant improvement but I’m not paying for something that has a dwindling player base . My leagues will be going from 5 to 1

Good post, hope to see these addressed. The scale is intended to maximize individual transactions but that odds fools gold based on last few years of non maintaining or progress.

No real goals defined or milestones set.

Cheaper subscription model would appear more honest to JDB effort prior to release of subscription model. You said no more Nicole and dime - you’ve instead turned to highway robbery.

Give the people something tangible to look forward to. UI in 2024 is baseline when most exisiting users questions are not based on the visuals. Seems like a deflection to not address users concerns directly or with this demand for money.

The game just isnt good enough to justify this. This will end up being the death of MFN.

Just a cost analysis regarding the price for ad-free and what you actually get from ads. I can only use myself as an example, so that's what I'll do.

I visit the site three times a week, I check the results of my game, gameplan, and then check league forums, which aren't very active. I usually spend less than 5 minutes on the site at a time.

You get what, $10 CPM on the ads? If I'm visiting the site 125 times a year, it's going to take you 8 years to make $10 off me. But you want me to pay $30 a year? If you get $1 a month off me that's a lot more money than you would be making from ads. And far more people are going to be interested in a $1 a month cost than $2.50 a month.

When I bought credits I viewed it as donating, but with a subscription I view it as paying. Once I'm paying for something it becomes a matter of value. This is the way it works in people's minds. By doing this you have changed the way a lot of people view your service, and the value proposition has just dropped off a cliff.

It has been mentioned elsewhere but bears repeating: what are people paying for? There's no proof that you will continue to improve the service, I've been playing for a year and a half and the only update has been removing a single play.

A major concern for everyone; What if the money you get from all of this is not enough to justify you working on it more? Knowing that it might not mean any changes to MFN, I'm very reluctant to spend my money to support the site. I'm very apprehensive to spend money now. You really should have waited until you at least released a new update before considering a change like this. People have absolutely no confidence that you will make real updates to the site and the engine because your track record isn't great. And now you say you need more money to justify working on it, and everyone here realizes that most people aren't going to want to pay in the first place, which just compounds the idea that you aren't going to be getting enough money to warrant updates, which makes everyone wonder what they're going to be paying for - they're going to believe that to be nothing. That strongly discourages the people who want to support you from supporting you.

I want to support you, but I can't justify it. I don't customize my team often, I'll have my admin do it. I'll use an adblocker because $30 a year for ads is astronomical. I only play in my one league as most of my league does (we make up about 10% of your player base btw) so the free tier is fine for me. A UI update will be welcomed, especially for mobile, but that's not a real update to the game. You need to make paying worth it. Add more features for a paying customer, and stop paywalling existing features.

I just want to add my general support for this amidst the criticism. After all I'm on a monthly plan and I can always leave when I want to. David deserves to make money on something he's spent time on. I'm just hoping to see some subtle improvements in the near future.

Can I still use Tickle Me Elmos as footballs during team practice under the "free" model?

Only thing i can add is i stayed free and 1 team, as i was.
However, My adblocker still does the trick.

If paying for no adds for 1 team is to be of any benefit to the game owner then, there needs to be a way to make players turn off their ad blockers.
Like any news site for example (looking at you nbc news..) forcing the disabling of adblockers can be done.
I would like to suggest taking advantage of dev tools available (I assume they are if corperations use them) to force disabling of adblock apps.

Personally, i believe the 2.50 tier is going to be where the most money comes in - sorta like end-cap impulse buys in a box store and the long lost dollar menus of yesterdays so long ago.
:)

Keep on keeping on with the plan, JDB. Haters gonna hate.

The ads on this site are far too annoying to endure, and $2.50 a month is too much to remove them. If a successful adblocker blocker is implemented, I'm done with this game.

Now if $2.50 got you adblocking and customization for a single team, that's a much better prospect and I'd be willing to pay that. I'd LIKE to be able to change my player's names after TC though so I don't waste a good name. Not a deal breaker though.