Something I had been thinking of, was that yes, the community is small, but there also is no social media presence (or very little) to go by for the MFN community and the site itself. The FB page for MFN has 700+ likes, but no posts since 2017, same with the Twitter feed, so anybody who went searching on social media about it will see that and think the site is dead or worse, so they will avoid it.

Same goes for the YT presence, the help videos are great but nothing else. I’m sure in the many versions of the game, things have changed and it would be good to get new videos out there to help the new members of the community.

I know it does take a bit to do, and JDB may have a bit much on his hands to put some commitment into boosting it, but highlighting different leagues, sharing more about the game, offering tips and tricks to the game, getting a social media presence built up again, gets people talking about it. Obviously, private leagues are a different question, but for all the public leagues, you could share different leagues on a regular basis so they generate new owners, celebrate league champions and other big events in the leagues that are out there. You can have a Friday Question Time (just an idea of thought of) where JDB (or whoever runs the social media) puts out a question or something about MFN and gets people interacting with the thread by answering said question, and it again, turns into another avenue of community forums where people like us, who already play the game, can answer questions from those who are new or wanting to get involved in the community.

Another thing is the forums here. Not sure what sort of forum software is being used, but I’m confident that there would be a good amount of support for additional features such as more BBCode to allow for a wider ranger of customisation to threads such as colour, etc… and allowing leagues to customise their own league forums. I know for the private league I’m in, the trade block and rivalries forum area is barely used since we have a Discord that we use more than anything to discuss our league, trades and rivalries.

Just some thoughts here…

Social media presence would help. Unfortunately, the product, as it currently is, will not attract enough new owners long term. We need a better engine. That’s the bottom line. Until we get an engine that allows for more dynamic game planning, we are going to struggle getting new owners.

There are roughly 300 people that actively play this game. While JDB may want more people playing....it's not his main focus right now.

This is a passion project for JDB but unfortunately it's not his real job and he develops it in his free time alone.

If it helps, if you play MFN right now....you are play testers for a beta version of an eventual final version which will one day be released to the masses. That's where all the social media and future advertising of the game comes in.

The sim is fun right now but has serious flaws which he will eventually iron out so JDB has to balance out pushing the game to more people versus "It's not really ready yet".

Personally I love this sim and can see its great potential and JDB has told me he has big plans but just doesn't have the time to invest more into the game. He said slow and steady is the best he can do and hopes it's enough for enough people.

I'm excited to be a part of it and while I would love quicker development...I understand how real life gets in the way of things we are passionate about.

Let's face it....5 years in and I'm still playing....that's not common for most games. I focus on running my leagues and adding my own extra content while I stay patient waiting on JDB to creep along with his development of the game.

In the end, we are all Beta testers and one day we will be able to say we were there long before the mass final release of the game.

I don’t have any plans to leave the game, compared to others, this one is much better. It’s why I joined MFN-1 and a roster only league, so that I have a bit more involvement. Depending how they go, I may consider a couple more in time. In the private league I’m in, I am a whole lot immersive as I’ve built the team from the foundation draft so I spend a lot of time doing team news, graphics for said news articles and the like, and I like that. I commented that I’d like to see a bit more functionality with the forums, but I’m sure that will come in time.

Again, I love the game. If I can get better at understanding and doing game planning, I’ll enjoy the game even more. A couple of league titles and I’d be hooked for even longer :)

I have 2 leagues in season 25 and my XFL has a ton of added content. Check it out if you have time. It does add an immersive quality to the league and owner retention stays fairly high

https://xfl.myfootballnow.com/forums/3

I started a comprehensive help thread which I shared below but I haven't finished the gameplanning sections yet.

Much like JDB...I have big plans but limited time so I add as I am able.

https://xfl.myfootballnow.com/forums/4/1129?page=1#8557