SCR- Owners. They do have some personality don't they?

Owners being the onery cusses that they are in stock car racing, play a role in the game.

How so? Let me discuss some of what you can expect from owners in SCR.

Of all the categorical positions in the game, we know how important the pit crew and crew chief and drivers are, but we have the owners... how do they play a role in the game?

Well there are basically four types of owners.

• Luxury Box Owner
• Just Win, Baby! Owner
• Realist Owner
• Miser/Profiteer Owner

There are some other owners in the game, but this is the four major archetypes. You know the types.

A Luxury Box Owner is here to have a great time, get some face time on the local or national TV, and of course quotes. A little meddlesome for the Crew Chief, but profitability and spending are average.. Can be impatient but also could be malleable to the right CC. High Profile means High Profile Sponsors as well.

A Just Win, Baby! Owner is here for one thing. Win. Period. Don't talk about 2nd place, it is all about the Checkered Flag and the Big Check. His involvement with the CC can vary from hands on, meddlesome to hands off. Very volatile in his expectations, a savvy crew chief will look elsewhere if the team isn't all first rate. Bottom line is winning, money can be an issue. Former driver, crew chief, can be a novice owner to a multi-sport owner (think Joe Gibbs).

A Realist Owner is someone that has deep roots in the sport, or at least very savvy when it comes to balancing results to expenses and income. Budgets are good to follow, but sometimes to get the results you need to spend money. For the most part he is pretty patient, but if he doesn't get the results he is expecting, he will react quickly to bad results. A crew chief could work for an owner like this as long as the team keeps getting good results.

A Miser/Profiteer Owner is a hard owner to work for and with. Winning isn't important. Never was. Saving and making money for the bottom line is. Profitability? "We don't lose money. We bring in money every week. Got it?" Budget? "If it isn't on the budget, we don't buy it. At least not for full price. If you can get by with what we have, MAKE it WORK." Patience? Well as long as the profit is up, and the sponsors are happy EVERY week...we are happy. Involvement? Oh yeah. He is hands on with EVERYTHING. "My way or the highway, pal. Deal with it. I pay you good money, right?"

There are other owners for SCR, but these are four of some of the guys you can expect to meet in the game when you interview for the crew chief position. So who would you like to work for, eh?

So while dealing with the drivers and their needs, and sponsors needing their input on the weekly results, the crew chief has to deal with the owner as well. Think it is going to be easy? I don't know about you, but I could use a understanding owner while I try and juggle all these balls in the air, couldn't you?

That is a quick overview of some of the owner types that you will encounter in the game, and how you handle them will be just as important as handling the pit crew and drivers.

Thanks for reading! Make sure to stop in at the forums and let us know what you think!

TC

I need to post more often. Even small news is good!

Hey folks. How are you doing? Here is some news for April 2006, that I can talk about.

In the process of creating this fun game, (or at least I think it will be..) I also have to deal with other issues that sometimes don't make the light of day. Consider a couple of interested folks wanting to possibly join Medley Games and bring a new market of fans to sports sims! Man that makes me excited just thinking about it.

So... let's talk. Over the last 30 to 45 days, as well as working on the SCR game, Joe Bryan, my confidant and co-conspirator, is working on his version of a pro football sports sim. He has mentioned to me in various meetings that he is going to try and emulate OOTP (Out of the Park Baseball by SI and OOTP Developments of course) for football. He doesn't have a time frame yet for the game, but our valiant alpha testers that we have at Medley are jumping in and volunteering to make this one of the most interesting games to play for pro football.

We are talking about plays plays and more plays.. We are talking about a team playbook that tells you what each player's job is for each play, be it offense or defense. That is a lot of plays you say? Yep, that is why the guys are banging on it now to make sure we get all of them we can before alpha and beta test.

Kudos to cogdog, fjvieane, GeoWar, and DAED, for going beyond the call of duty and helping with all our games! They are truly warriors.

IF you have the interest and want to work on all sorts of games in various production stages, make sure to visit the forums at: http://www.medleygames.com/forums/index.php. There are links there for you to sign up for beta testers..


Joe is targetting the American football pro market, and how deep the customization goes is still being developed. He has twin boys that were born about 4 months ago, so his project is a slow one and very part time at this point. I am still excited though with the ideas he has come up with.

The name hasn't been finalized yet, but we will hopefully be announcing that and other info on the game between now and May 31st.


Next on the schedule is the possible expansion of the Medley Games line. Some good friends of mine are looking to get their hockey game on the Internet sports sim map again so to speak, and we are discussing how we can both make it happen. I really respect these guys, and I hope that they can be able to join us. No , I can't speculate on who or what right now, as I am still talking with them.

Also another person has a niche sports sim game that might be interested in joining us even though we are small, they see some possibilities. :) SO.. instead of maybe 2 games, we could be talking about 4 or 5 before the end of summer! Wouldn't that put a jolt in your juice!

Ok more to come about SCR in the next post!