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Tomaz Kranjc of Basketsim
Following is an interview that was done with Tomaz Kranjc of Basketsim :
OMGN: Let's start with a self-introduction of yourself, the person behind the
Game Master.
My name is Tomaz, I'm from Slovenia and I'm 27 years old.
OMGN: Were you a basketball player before Basketsim? If so, what experiences
would you like to share with us?
I only play basketball on recreational level. But currently I'm resting
because not so much time I managed to broke my ankle and it will take some
time to recover.
OMGN: What was your experience as a gamer before Basketsim?
I started playing online games in december 2002. Previously I was only
familiar with offline games like Championship Manager and similar. My first
online game was Hattrick where I soon became national coach and was the
first one to enter Senior World Cup with Slovenia. Later I started with a
new club from the bottom. I tested many other games in recent years and some
of them were really good.
OMGN: Are you the creator of Basketsim? If so, what was your
inspiration/motivation for creating the game?
I was always frustrated due to lack of good basketball simulations online.
At first it was a joke when few of us were thinking of creating a new game.
Later it was only me who did all the programming and everything else, but as
the work was progressing day by day, it was less and less a joke.
OMGN: Is Basketsim based/inspired on any BBS games? If so, which game(s)?
From the interface point of view it was inspired by Hattrick - very nice,
clean interface. From other points of view it was meant to be very original
game and I think it is.
OMGN: Why was Basketsim created as a browser-based game instead of say, a
downloadable program game?
Because to me, internet is a logical choice as a media to create the best
possible community of users.
OMGN: Why was the decision made to create a sports game when there were already
many games in that genre?
As I said the main reason was lack of good basketball simulations. So I was
sure that I can offer something fresh and new.
OMGN: In what ways has running a game enhanced your gaming enjoyment?
When it comes to Basketsim it's always the biggest joy to see everything in
the system to work as it should. Wins or losses of my team are less
important but I still managed to keep competitive attitude. In other games I
just understand developers better now and I don't blame them for any losses
that effect my team.
OMGN: Running a game is often a labor of love as opposed to being a money maker.
How active is Basketsim's community in helping to promote the game, creating fansites for
the game, making good suggestions for new features and ways to operate the game or other
help with the game?
Basketsim community is what I love the most about the game. They are bunch
of great managers and I daily see new personal team pages or national pages
or national teams pages. Users really care about their clubs, they have an
option to upload shirts designed on their own and some clubs have amazing
shirts and logos. There are also some very good tools and since I'm only a
programmer and not a designer, I was on many occasions assisted on this
field by the users. When it comes to suggestions it's like this - there are
always more suggestions then the amount of hours available for work. Users
often have very good suggestions and some of them were already implemented.
OMGN: How much influence has Basketsim had on other games?
Lately I haven't been testing any basketball games but when it comes to
other games you can never be sure if it's new idea, similar idea or was it
seen somewhere, perhaps even on Basketsim.
OMGN: There is a website at http://www.basketsim.yoyo.pl/ . What is this website
and what is its relationship to Basketsim?
This is the site of polish community but I'm not sure how active is it at
the moment. Basketsim have very active national forums so it's always
difficult to persuade users to use anything else to chat about the game.
OMGN: What has the response to Basketsim been like?
The response was at the start purely positive. Lately users were positive
when a new features were added but also negative to some things. I think
both is good and as a developer you must see what is good and what is bad
and then always set a new path for the future how to improve the game
further!
OMGN: Some say that Basketsim is just another browser-based game. How do you
respond?
At the start there were claims that it's like Hattrick, but later user
realised that features are entirely different and there were no complains
about the interface similarity later on.
OMGN: There are some who believe that inovations has disappeared from online
gaming. In what ways does Basketsim break the mold?
It depends how you define inovation. When we talk about text based games
you have some basic structures to work with like basic forms and so on. So I
would rather talk about creativity as inovations. You can always think of
new staff, you can improve presentation and so on. For example in Basketsim
you can watch live statistics for team and each player during the match.
That, in my opinion, was creative solution that is respected by the users.
OMGN: How many play Basketsim?
Curently there are just over 9000 active users.
OMGN: What do you think that the future holds for browser-based games?
I see the bright future for brower-based games. But to succeed they will
have to combine great community, creative features and good reliability. I
think that many browser-based games lack from the unpredictable factor and I
always enjoy surprising users with brand new features. Something must be
going on in the game to make it enjoyable.
OMGN: If you could go back in time and start all over, what would you do
differently?
It's hard to say really, but probably either nothing or - on the other hand
- lots of things. While programming Basketsim I just learned programming and
later I was forced to make many adjustments.
OMGN: Where do you see Basketsim a year from now?
Some engine and background changes are planned and if they will turn out as
planed then Basketsim will work fast all the time, even during the live
matches in big countries and this will enable the future growth.
OMGN: Finally, would you like to add anything?
See you on Basketsim!
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