I agree with it being a limited market. Not a single person I play in my fantasy leagues with has ever tried this game, and Ive shown them all. Im often asked how my teams are doing. They know of some of the players Im trying to develop or trades Ive gone through... and they ask me about them. Over beers, Ive spent time going over the site trying to show them the simplicity of which it takes to get started but the complexity it takes to master. The single most common response is, "It looks cool, but looks complicated". Which I dont get, as they arent dumb people. They are fully capable of playing… they just don’t want to get started.
Then I remember fantasy sports were the exact the same way when they started. When I had to use my Baseball Weekly to play, I heard the same responses. What changed (besides the internet), is the fact that Fantasy sports started becoming 'cool'. Video games started tying into feeds, sport stations showed off fantasy stats, and actually players talked about themselves in the 3rd person spouting fantast gibberish. None of those things will ever happen with HBD.
I too found the site through MLB.com years ago, but only played the simleagues for the first few years I was here. Maybe Im the single exception, but If I were a commish trying to fill a league, Id reach out to the sim owners who have played a few seasons of that but never tried this. Long time owners probably wont be game, but people who have played less than 25 season of that and none of this may give it a try. I would’ve if I had received a sitemail… especially with the first season being discounted. Again, their side may not be growing either, but it would be hard to convince me that 100% of the owners there have tried or thought about trying HBD and decided not to. The plus side is, they already have a basic feel for the site, parks, some engine basics and they wont have to eat any cookies.
Id love to see more advertising, but unless they rebrand themselves into something 'cool', it is unlikely people will flock to the site. And to Mike's point, if they arent smart enough to search it out they likely wont be good owners anyway. A warm body just to fill an opening is a detriment to the entire world.
Advertising should happen… but unless they change the way people view sim baseball, it wont make much of a difference.
Oh… and I loved baseball mogul.