[Rain Man]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I realize that you all have the advantage of seeing the product, so your views are a little skewed in that respect, but it's helpful.

Our initial thought was a price of around $15, but seeing cdcox's great game engine, I've been lobbying to go up to the $18 or $19 range. I've also enjoyed having multiple teams, so we would do a significant discount for a second or third team, and I think that would keep player interest higher, too, since the odds are that one of the teams will be doing well at any given time.

Per dj's comment, I think our biggest challenge is going to be people dropping out if their team is weak. In midseason, cdcox will have bots to run the teams, and our current thought is to have some tiered pricing. If a new player looks at the site, they can start a new team from scratch for a relatively high dollar amount (e.g., $30 the first year, than $18 or $19 thereafter), or they can adopt an existing team. Existing strong teams would go for the $18 or $19 base every year, and a .500 team might be more like $9 the first year and then ramp up, and a weak team might be free the first year, ramp up to $9 the second year, and then full price after that. I'm working from memory right now, but that's the general system we're pondering.

I think the outcome of that would be two good things: new people would take over weak teams and bring enthusiasm to them, and then as they rebuild the weak teams they then might get interested and want to build a new team from scratch, hence more revenue for us.

We're working on the free agent system, but I think it's going to be pretty nifty. We're toying with a concept that is simple but effective, and will produce turnover of key players, but with some owner control over the timing. We'll unveil that once we get through the season and start on the offseason work.