How did you first hear about Front Office Football?

[Solecismic]

I'm interested in finding out how people first learned about the Front Office Football series of games. I'll be posting a second poll momentarily related to this topic.

I'd appreciate it if everyone who reads this item answers the poll. Thanks.

[flere-imsaho]

I think I googled "NFL simulation" or "NFL sim video game" and ended up here. :)

[maximus]

OTHER-

I did a search on google for NFL/Pro-Football simulations and found a link to the Solecismic site. From there I looked for fan sites and found FOFC.

[rkmsuf]

I yahoo searched "Drew Bledsoe naked". It's a miracle I made it here.

[cartman]

It came to me in a vision. At first I thought it was the Virgin Mary, or maybe The Tall Man. But as the light receded a bit, the shape became clearer. And then it all became clear. Front Office Football.

Either that, or I found it during a newsgroup search back in '99. :)

[Kodos]

I heard about FOF on a Madden board.

[Chas in Cinti]

I'm interested in finding out how people first learned about the Front Office Football series of games. I'll be posting a second poll momentarily related to this topic.

I'd appreciate it if everyone who reads this item answers the poll. Thanks.

I was on the EA Sports site and found the link. That version wasn't out yet, so I bought the old one....

:)

-Chas

[JeeberD]

I think I did a search (AltaVista is what I used back then, I think) for "Pro football simulation" or something similar and wound up on EA's site. This was during the FOF2 days...


Doing some research on the best way to market the new game, Jim? :)

Sorry...I tried to resist. :(

[Marmel]

I remember buying Football Mogul in a store, and being fascinated with it. I searched online for anything I could get my hands on and came across FOF, not sure if it was through your website Jim, or via FOFC Sidelines.

[sabotai]

On the Sierra message boards (I was a regular on their FPS:Football Pro section). It got a lot of attention there.

[vex]

I selected other. I googled something like football simulation.

[John Galt]

I can't remember. I know I went from Baseball Mogul to FOF, but I don't know what led me to that transition. I'm guessing it was a websearch as I was often looking for patches or user utilities for games like FPS Football. So, I'm guessing web search, but I really don't know.

[henry296]

It was a High Heat message board that Tony ran that discussed Front Office Football which was my first introduction to the game... I think I then starting coming to the original FOFC and bought FOF2.

[Crapshoot]

OOTP messageboards.

[sabotai]

Kind of odd that the first place people would hear about FOF is on an FOF fan site...

[Ben E Lou]

Baseball was my first love, both in real life and in gaming. I had been writing Strat-O-Matic every year for maybe 3-4 years and asking for their computer game to have some career progression stuff in it. Then, I started searching the 'net for a career baseball game, and ran across Baseball Mogul. After playing it for a while, I started looking for football, and Metacrawler led me to Solecismic.com. The rest is history. I checked Solecismic.com in the poll, but more accurate would have been: "internet search."

[jeff061]

I googled text football sim, think I found FOFC and little else.

[NoMyths]

Found a link to the old Sideline forum when looking for information about the Title Bout boxing sim.

[Godzilla Blitz]

I checked FOFC but in hindsight probably should have checked "other". I found out about FOF through people on a now defunct baseball simulation board. Bunch of us (SkyDog was one of them) were playing Baseball Mogul and a few people there mentioned FOF. That led me here, and what I saw here convinced me to try the game.

[flere-imsaho]

Clearly "Google" should have been a poll option. :)

Just buy some Google Ads and call it a day, Jim! :D

[Subby]

Other - Word of mouth...

[KWhit]

Hmmm.... It was the EA version of the game with the NFL license. I believe I read a review in a gaming magazine (PC Gamer, if memory serves).

[33sherman]

Googled for it, like others.

[Ben E Lou]

Clearly "Google" should have been a poll option. :)

Just buy some Google Ads and call it a day, Jim! :DIf Google was around when I did my search (shortly before the release of FOF1), I didn't know about it. Metacrawler, baby! ;)

[Easy Mac]

I was a regular on the SIgames forum and saw something about it. I kind of brushed it off until finally giving TCY a try. So I guess word of mouth.

Is this market research Jim... or can this be considered viral marketing? Quick, someone post a pick of a fake screenshot of FOF Baseball being played in an empty apartment.

[digamma]

I saw a post on the Georgia Tech message board about TCY and landed here.

[kingfc22]

OOTP boards

[Anthony]

i had purchased the non-functional FPS '98 from Sierra, and i was extremely excited to read the manual and all the stuff it said it'd do. it was everything i couldn't get with Madden. it didn't work, but it piqued my interest in the management side of pro football. i coincidentally read a PC Gaming magazine, i think it was Computer Gaming Monthly, and they had an awards article, best action game, best RPG, etc. i got up to best sports and this game called Front Office Football had received like 4.5 or 5 stars. i remember being in the computer lab the day i printed out the Solecismic website to read on my way home.

[NoSkillz]

'Other' for me as well: I read about the FOFC community and FOF on the OOTP boards. Having been a fan of the old Front Page Football games from Sierra, I moved over here to get my football fix.

[Hammer755]

I was looking for a baseball simulation, found OOTP, and discovered FOF there. I was a fan of FPS Football Pro as well.

[hukarez]

I remember buying Football Mogul in a store, and being fascinated with it. I searched online for anything I could get my hands on and came across FOF, not sure if it was through your website Jim, or via FOFC Sidelines.
Same here. I had bought Football Mogul, and thought there had to be some other simulations. I think I googled: "football text sim" or something a few years ago, and came across Solecismic that way.

[moriarty]

I read a glowing article about it in an online game review site. Computer Gaming or somthing like that.

[Lonnie]

Was playing Madden in sim mode and was frustrated with the lack of data and the cumbersome way to handle things like signing players. Remembered Front Office Football I had seen on store shelves, but never bought. Googled "Football simulation" and "Front Office Football", found solecismic.com.

[VPI97]

Google or whatever the search engine was back then. After discovering soccer management simulations in the mid '90s, I had a habit of searching for new ones every few months and FOF showed up one day.

[korme]

EA SPORTS website, heh

[John Travolta]

Christian Slater introduced me to it.

[Bee]

On the Sierra message boards (I was a regular on their FPS:Football Pro section). It got a lot of attention there.

me too.

[Critch]

Other - I'd played CM for years, all the way back to the first one, and thought there must be something similar for US sports. Searched the internet (probably Yahoo back then, not Google) and found FOF and Baseball Mogul.

[John Galt]

Christian Slater introduced me to it.

Aren't you dead yet?

[maximus]

Aren't you dead yet?


soon

[PilotMan]

OTHER-

I did a search on google for NFL/Pro-Football simulations and found a link to the Solecismic site. From there I looked for fan sites and found FOFC.
Exactly how I came across it.

[Butter]

Found FOFC when I was searching for some topic or another related to football... it was shortly after TCY came out, and I gave the demo a try and liked it so much I bought it.

[markprior22]

OOTP boards

[Senator]

That was a long time ago, but I think I stumbled across an interview you gave using at the time a yahoo search engine, what was that 1997 or 98 maybe, I can't remember, for a "football sim" and it led me to you, and then the green Sidelines forum that morphed into this God Awful monstrosity.

[cthomer5000]

I am about 99.9% positive I stumbled upon a review through a web search (so I'm giving the web search credit here). I disctinctly recall that i played a demo of FOF2, but then when i went to purchase found out that FOF2001 had been released.

[vtbub]

Sideline

[John Travolta]

soon

I'll be toasting my health long after you've gone the way of the dinosaur, my friend.

[rkmsuf]

secrets of the universe

[WSUCougar]

I voted for "online gaming magazine," because I want to say I read a short review of FOF somewhere online. I later followed up by searching for the name of the game (or "text sim football" or somesuch) and finding Sideline that way. After lurking there for awhile, I picked up FOF2 and the rest is history.

Edit: Actually, looks like Senator and I followed a similar road.

[dacman]

I saw a link to "Front Office Football" on EA's website (FOF2).

[Cuckoo]

I remember buying Football Mogul in a store, and being fascinated with it. I searched online for anything I could get my hands on and came across FOF, not sure if it was through your website Jim, or via FOFC Sidelines.

Yep, this is me too.

[Poli]

I voted other. A friend of mine told me about the game.

[Raiders Army]

Usenet for me. Wayyyy back when. I think the original FOF had been out for a little while by the time I stumbled on it. I played the demo and was hooked immediately.

[gottimd]

I was searching for a game exactly like this in regards to managing a team back in the early 2000's, and a friend of mine told me about this game, and I looked into it, and bought it immediately.

[Pumpy Tudors]

Other - because it was none of the presented options, and I don't remember how I heard about it.

[gstelmack]

I'm pretty sure it was a Usenet newsgroup posting back in the day, but I may have also / instead saw a review in PCGamer or Computer Gaming World or one of those. I missed FOF and came in with FOF2.

[wade moore]

EASports.com

[Daimyo]

Other: My best friend saw me playing franchise mode in Madden 2000 without playing out or watching any of the games and started telling me about how his college roomate spent all hours of the day playing FOF and telling me all the stuff you could do, etc, etc. I was interested but because it was sold online only from a non-reputable site (at the time I had no idea who or what Solecismic was) I passed. Several months later after hearing it mentioned again by my friend I looked it up and found fofcentral and read a bit about it. A couple months after that I found the forum tab at fofcentral and found more discussion about it and that it was now sold directly by EA. So around March 2000 I purchased FOF2.

[George]

OOTP message boards

[Front Office Midget]

I voted other... I wasn't sure to vote for that or solecismic.com

I googled something like "NFL Sim" or "NFL GM game" or something like that and ended up at solecismic.com

[jbmagic]

i heard about it on the Total Pro Football forum ( .400 software studios forum)

[Radii]

rec.something.something.ibm.pc.games.sports or something like that... Usenet. I am trying to remember if I found FOF or CM2 first. I was a beta tester for the original Baseball Mogul, which I heard about through that newsgroup as well.

[SackAttack]

Way back in the days of FOF1, when I first got onto Usenet, I saw people talking about FOF, went to the website, fiddled with the demo, sent a couple emails to Jim, and finally decided to take the plunge. I've bought every version since.

[albionmoonlight]

In the fall of 1999, I went to EA's webpage and searched for football games. I found FOF2 and realized that this was the game that I had been wishing for without even realizing that I had been wishing for it.

I didn't even know that sports text-sim games existed at the time.

[wishbone]

I heard about it on a Madden site.

[mhass]

Other - Search engine. Likely Yahoo! if you care.

[Glengoyne]

I found it on the PureSim message forum. Someone posted a thread asking what other sports had text based simulations available. That lead me to FOF/FOFC, TDCB, and CM. Just imagine the time I would have saved had I not clicked that link.

[tucker342]

I can't remember. I know I went from Baseball Mogul to FOF, but I don't know what led me to that transition. I'm guessing it was a websearch as I was often looking for patches or user utilities for games like FPS Football. So, I'm guessing web search, but I really don't know.
Same here... All I remember is that I started with Baseball Mogul than somehow found my way to FOF

[MikeVic]

Same here... All I remember is that I started with Baseball Mogul than somehow found my way to FOF

Yup. I got into Baseball Mogul because of some baseball sim leagues I was in... and I got to the Mogul sim leagues because of the first ever sim league I was in (using Diamond Mind Baseball). But I can't remember how I got into that first league, or how I moved onto Mogul leagues either. Same goes for FOF.

[Raven]

I think it was early 2000 for me.

I was looking for info about Tony LaRussa baseball. I hadn't played it in a few years and was looking to see what it was like again. That lead me to OOTP. I think OOTP was in v2 though, and I didn't care for it. Somehow that reminded me of an old text style football game that I bought once, but couldn't get to work correct. I think I did a search for Football sim, and found FOF.

I wasn't using google back then though, was probably AskJeeves.

[Blackadar]

It was an article - a preview - of the original FOF on a now-defunct online site. I saw the article and ordered the game the next day.

I'm not sure, but it may have been the original Doug Hogrefe review for Front Office Football for Operation Sports.

[General Mike]

I think I heard about it on the OOTP message boards. Either that or a Front Page Baseball league I was in.

[Antmeister]

I used to play Baseball Mogul and remembered looking for a similar game for football back in 1999 or 2000 (I can't remember which year). I found out about Front Office Football after doing a search and then discovered the board at the web address, but I hardly ever posted. Since then I had forgotten my old password for my original name, Antmeister and came up with Antmeister71 a few years ago. I still don't post all that often, but more so now then back then.

[Barkeep49]

I read a review of FOF in PC Gamer. I decided to make it my Hanukah present but it had already been sold out. When FOF2 came around I bought it on the day of release.

[John Galt]

Same here... All I remember is that I started with Baseball Mogul than somehow found my way to FOF

I can't remember how I found Baseball Mogul either. I know I played the Wizard Games soccer and various other sports sim type games (FPS, Tony LaRussa, etc.), but I have no real idea how I made it from one to the others. I think in the pre-WWW days, I would find games on various BBS sites and others in stores. I know I played Soccer by Wizard well before the WWW which may have been my first pure text sim game.

[3ric]

Not sure... maybe I found the Sideline forum first through an Altavista search.

Edit:
after thinking about this, I'm now leaning towards that I first found EA's sport line of games through the search, bought FOF2, and then got onto the Sideline forum...

[HomerJSimpson]

I heard about FOF on a Madden board.


Me, too. Or a FPS site. One or the other (it has been many years).

[Buzzbee]

i coincidentally read a PC Gaming magazine, i think it was Computer Gaming Monthly, and they had an awards article, best action game, best RPG, etc. i got up to best sports and this game called Front Office Football had received like 4.5 or 5 stars. i remember being in the computer lab the day i printed out the Solecismic website to read on my way home.My experience is similar to HA's. I read the awards section of a Gaming magazine (not sure if it was CGM, but probably so) and remembered the name. A year or so later when College football was about to crank up I was jonesin' a college football game (since fukken EA quit making NCAA for the PC). I did an internet search which led me to Darkiller's site, which led me to Solecismic, which led me here.

I landed at FOFC right after TCY had been released, but people were waiting for a patch. I distinctly remember devaneyfan and others (Old Giants? SkyDog? Godzilla Blitz?) testing the shit out of the game since they couldn't start their dynasties until after the patch.

[yabanci]

I voted solecismic.com, but I'm not positive. I do know that it was after baseball mogul came out and I liked the concept so much I was hoping to find a similar football game. A search engine led me either to solecismic.com or to the FOFC frontpage.

[Emiliano]

I was a huge FM (Championship Manager at the time) player. I was always thinking: "...if someone would do a management simulations for American Football, that would be a dream..."
I googled a lot of times "football manager" or something like that, I don't even remember. I don't know how, I ended up on EA Sports' site and discovered FOF 2002. I bought it, but I didn't like it at first. I think it was 2002. Then, I discovered this place and bought TCY and FOF2004.

[duckman]

I found it after a search on Google about Football Mogul.

[Huckleberry]

Other

Like others, I ran an internet search for a college football simulation game after purchasing other sports simulations. My first sports text sim was Diamond Mind Baseball. After enjoying that game, I naturally searched for something similar for my other favorite sport, college football.

[wade moore]

Wow... sounds like We need more options based on the other choices ;)...

[BrianD]

I had a couple of friends that told me I absolutely had to try this game. Before I got a chance to try it, my wife bought me the previous release for Christmas and then bought me the current release the following Christmas.

[Draft Dodger]

heard about it on either a High Heat board or the OOTP boards.

did a google search, and found front office football central. and I was very afraid.

[ice4277]

OOTP messageboards.
same

[Young Drachma]

Honestly, I have NO idea. I think I played baseball mogul and found it through someone on the boards over there. That would make sense, since I was really active on those boards first and then I started coming here a little bit and didn't really start posting often until about two years ago.

[Eaglesfan27]

Like Dacman, I saw a link to Front Office Football on EA's website. (FOF2)

[DanGarion]

I found out from the OOTP message boards. Should have given the option "From another online gaming community", or something.

[stevew]

I remember buying Football Mogul in a store, and being fascinated with it. I searched online for anything I could get my hands on and came across FOF, not sure if it was through your website Jim, or via FOFC Sidelines.
Pretty much the same way i did. I had bought mogul at the store, and somehow your game came up when i searched for similar games to it.

[Schmidty]

I think I read a review about FOF back in 2000 in something like PC Gamer.

[kingnebwsu]

OTHER

My first text-sim ever was Baseball Mogul 99 and I think somehow I found a link to FOFC or solecismic. After some giddy laughter, I DL'ed FOF 2 and I've been supporting Jim ever since.

TCY 2 in SEPTEMBER!!! ;)

[Northwood_DK]

article in PCGamer

[Professor58]

OOTP Boards

[Ryche]

I was in a store, looking at the football games when someone mentioned FOF. Went home looked at the website and bought it instantly. I believe that was FOF1, maybe 2.

[Simms]

"Other"

A friend of mine from Golfcom (LinksLS community) mentioned the original game to me in IM one day in November, 1998. I honestly have no idea how he heard about it, but he pointed me to the Solecismic website. I looked around for a while, then e-mailed my family the link and said, "If you get me nothing else for Christmas this year, get me this."

It arrived in the mail 3 weeks later. Still have the original CD, case, and manual. :)

[OldGiants]

The William Abner review in Computer Games Magazine. Even though I consider Abner the second-worst game reviewer in the known (and unknown) universe, I had to try out the demo and got hooked.

[dawgfan]

Other.

I had played Baseball Mogul and Football Mogul (this was around '99 or '00) which made me take notice of the text-sim market. I don't specifically recall if I found out about FOF from doing a web-search related to Football Mogul or if I'd come across it on the EA website.

[Raven Hawk]

Other -

After bitching about Madden for awhile, Aylmar suggested that I try this football game where I could be GM, instead of the joystick master. I bought FOF2 and I've been hooked ever since.

I think that "Word of Mouth" is very effective for FOF, because I know that I've brought a couple other people to the game who have in turn brought other people in. Especially amongst existing fantasy football leagues, you can find new customers.

[Castlerock]

I googled "football game" or something like that. I think I may have ended up at FOFC or a newsgroup. Not sure.

[amdaily]

Must have been Altavista for me to. I found it right after or near the release of the first version.

[McSweeny]

i'm pretty sure i discovered FOF through a yahoo as FPS Football '99 was crashing and burning. I came onto the scene just as the first version had sold out if i recall correctly. It was a long wait for the second version...

[TazFTW]

A review in Computer Gaming World.

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Eddie Murphy told me about it after licking my toes.

[panerd]

I saw a post on the Georgia Tech message board about TCY and landed here.

Similar to me. I saw a post about TCY on a Mizzou message board and came here and bought the game. I bought FOF4 due to how much I loved TCY, but still like TCY a lot more of the two.

[Darkiller]

Way back in 1998, found FOF1, played the demo but for some reasons didn't buy it. Then, a few months later, reading the posts & everything from "The Sideline" I decided to give it a go and -by the time- FOF2 had been released.

As of today I still play FOF2, TCY and FOF2004 every single week.
These are my favourites games of all time.

[digamma]

I can't remember how I found Baseball Mogul either. I know I played the Wizard Games soccer and various other sports sim type games (FPS, Tony LaRussa, etc.), but I have no real idea how I made it from one to the others. I think in the pre-WWW days, I would find games on various BBS sites and others in stores. I know I played Soccer by Wizard well before the WWW which may have been my first pure text sim game.
I saw Baseball Mogul at Wal-Mart, of all places, the summer after my first year in law school. That game was a staple of my law school career after that. I'm lucky the building wasn't equipped with the wireless network it has today, as now profs are known to occasionally flip the class display to individual student's computers at random.

[fantastic flying froggies]

Baseball Mogul forum.

[st.cronin]

I have no idea! I know TCY was the first one I bought, although I played the demo for the original. (Didn't have a home PC at the time - was still in the service.)

[Flasch186]

dont remember

[cody8200]

I think it was a high heat messageboard.

[timmynausea]

I periodically googled "football sim" or "college football sim." I had tried the demo for FOF and thought it was pretty good, but I had no money as I was in college. I bought TCY a while after it came out, and I've bought all the releases since.

[henry296]

It was a High Heat message board that Tony ran that discussed Front Office Football which was my first introduction to the game... I think I then starting coming to the original FOFC and bought FOF2.

I also remember Jim posting on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games usenet group as well, just not sure which came first.

[illinifan999]

I really can't remember how I first heard about it. But damn the first time I read the feature list for TCY, and played the demo it was love at first sight.

[MJ4H]

comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.sports if i recall correctly.

[jetpunk2000]

I don't remember for sure, but it was none of the above. I think I had just played the original Baseball Mogul and was looking for a football sim and somehow stumbled across the original FOF.

[Solecismic]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?

[Capital]

I used to download add-ons to the EA NHL hockey game and stumbled across a post that mentioned this message board. After reading some of the posts, I made the purchase and have enjoyed the series ever since.

[jetpunk2000]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?

Can't say that I ever did. Was it for earlier versions(late 90's), or the newer ones? Pretty incredible that I would miss them considering I always had the college football mags.

[digamma]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?
I remember you posting about doing the ads. Can't say that I recollect seeing them. For what it's worth, I don't read Pro Football Weekly, but I generally read at least two or three college football previews.

[HomerJSimpson]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?


I did, but I already knew about the game. I also saw the banner ads at Rivals.com

[kcchief19]

On the Sierra message boards (I was a regular on their FPS:Football Pro section). It got a lot of attention there. I chose Usenet because I started to think that the alt.sports.textsims or whatever was where I found it, but I think that is where I found corroborative support that endorsed my future purchase, then I found the Old Sideline. But I believe the Sierra message board is where I found my first reference to FOF as we all tried to figure out how to put our lives back together following the butchering of the FPS series.

[Eaglesfan27]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?
I read Pro Football Weekly, but don't recall ever seeing any ads for FOF.

[AlexB]

Add me to another one looking for an NFL equivalent of ChampMan, and Google led me to FOF. And since I've bought FOF, I've played it way more than CM/FM, and even bought TCY depsite knowing next to nothing about college football (having said I'm only now giving TCY a proper go, after about 6 months!)

[DaddyTorgo]

google google google

[Buccaneer]

I think it was a sidebar in Computer Gaming World.

[The Afoci]

I remember buying Football Mogul in a store, and being fascinated with it. I searched online for anything I could get my hands on and came across FOF, not sure if it was through your website Jim, or via FOFC Sidelines.

Same way.

[SegRat]

IGN.com did a small review on FOF1. Game sounded awsome, so I bought it. I have been hooked and bout every version since.

[nol]

just googled

[timmynausea]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?

Not me.

[pbot]

Internet search...I had seen Baseball Mogul in a store and wondered if there was a football equivalent. Stumbled across a link to FOF at that time.

[Pyser]

i voted other. i found out through some madden forums.

[Groundhog]

It was through here, actually. On the forums for a basketball sim (can't recall which... perhaps FBB or maybe even the old Coaching a Dynasty boards) someone posted a link to a discussion on these boards, and that's where I started reading about FOF. I bought the game shortly after.

[Joe]

I heard about it from Duane Gates (seriously)

[corbes]

Spent a good part of my freshman year of college playing Baseball Mogul, and then somehow internet-searched for other sims and found FOF. Most likely I found solecismic.com, or saw some reference while looking up info on either Sierra:FPS or BM.

[Mo.Raider]

I remember searching for something football related and a link to the FOFC Sideline popped up. I didn't know anything like this existed. I downloaded the demo, and remember actually saying "Whoa" out loud as I simmed through an exhibition season. I have always been a football nut, and preferred simming Madden to playing it many years. I bought FOF2 and FOF2001 and play 2001 still.

This game really hooked me from the get go. I used to even watch the USFL in the summer and imagine what it would be like to start a team from scratch and build a winner. I would create whole leagues as a kid, and flip pennies to decide the outcome. Suffice to say this game was a considerable upgrade from flipping pennies :).

[JimboJ]

Not sure exactly. Probably a web search or on another forum.

[miami_fan]

I saw a link to "Front Office Football" on EA's website (FOF2).

Same here

[aran]

I heard about FOF through TPF's website, believe it or not.

[Dutch]

I can't remember. I know I went from Baseball Mogul to FOF, but I don't know what led me to that transition. I'm guessing it was a websearch as I was often looking for patches or user utilities for games like FPS Football. So, I'm guessing web search, but I really don't know.

Ditto.

[Vince]

I was searching for reviews of football games on GameSpy, and saw a link to TCY as one of the most popular purchases or something. I clicked on it, ended up finding this board, and downloaded the demo for TCY. After spending hours on the one year demo, I purchased the game, and loved the full version.

[nfg22]

I think I downloaded the demo randomly from zdnet

[Craptacular]

I thought I read a little blurb about TCY in a sports magazine (like ESPN the Mag) sometime around 9/11. I just seem to remember a little one or two paragraph sidebar, but not in a gamers' magazine or anything like that. The only mag I subscribed to at that time was ESPN, and I generally didn't buy or read many other mags.
....

Ah-hah! I see Jim has a link to an article from Darren Rovell on ESPN.com from August of 2001. I'm guessing the same article was in ESPN the Mag.

[Buccaneer]

Like Marm, I played FM first and loved it (never experienced text sims before that). This was around Christmas 1999 and I think saw something about FOF around that time but had forgotten about it until the following summer.

[MizzouRah]

Somewhere on the ootp forum back when I believe ootp2 was just released. I had a dynasty going when I met Ardent and started checking out FOFC and what FOF was all about. I bought FOF2 and from there I was hooked. I didn't join the community until later because I wasn't a FOF junky yet. :)

[MrBug708]

Download.com

[JeeberD]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?

'fraid not...

[Runtheball]

I don't recall exactly where it was, but I was reading something regarding the demise of the FBPRO series, and the writer was saying that perhaps FOF would inherit the throne of that awesome series. (And it did!)
:)

[maximus]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?


Wow, so far no votes. I bet you spent a pretty penny on that. :eek:

[RoastDuck]

Yahoo search for something like "pro football" + "management".

The search struck gold as the first FOF had just been released and I was directed to the original Tony Weiss FOF forum.

[andy m]

i read a review for baseball mogul and wondered if anyone had done an NFL sim. i searched around and learned that FOF2 was shortly due for release. huzzah!

[Alf]

I voted other : don't remember exactly how it happened, but I found the website of The Village Challenge Browns (VC2) by Darkiller, TRO, Subby and WebEwbank which is exactly what I had always been looking for. A multiplayer gaming experience on a football game. So I followed a few links to Darkiller's site (Brock Sherrif and al). And then followed links to FOFC.

It was a few days before my FOFC signing day (which you can find next to my post)

[Alf]

http://www.villagechallenge2.fr.st/

[condors]

it was something like rec.games.pc.sports or something, best investment i ever did was buy that game

[Icy]

I voted Other as i heard from FOF at SIGames forums 3 years ago when looking for other sport managers.

[gottimd]

I have never seen any ad's in any newspapers or magazines. I've seen/heard from others on the board about interviews in gaming magazines, but I have never seen any ads.

[JeeberD]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?

You know, though, this is obviously a web savy group we have here...just because we all found the game through the internet doesn't mean that the ads didn't bring in customers.

[cthomer5000]

You know, though, this is obviously a web savy group we have here...just because we all found the game through the internet doesn't mean that the ads didn't bring in customers.
Yeah, it's tough to tell. Jim would know for certain, but we (FOFC) are probably a pretty small % of his sales.

[gottimd]

Yeah, it's tough to tell. Jim would know for certain, but we (FOFC) are probably a pretty small % of his sales.
We maybe a small percentage of his actual sales, but it seems like we do a damn fine job of marketing by word of mouth.

[primelord]

I don't recall the site now, but I remember regularly checking a sports sim site that Bill Abner wrote for to get updates on Football Pro 99. As that turned into an obvious disaster Bill mention FOF. I called and bought it that day.

[albionmoonlight]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?
Nope. Of course, I don't really read those magazines, so that probably explains it.

[cuervo72]

Same here... All I remember is that I started with Baseball Mogul than somehow found my way to FOF

I'll add another to this list. From Baseball Mogul I went to check out Football Mogul, stumbled across a Rovell article that mentioned TCY (I think) and found FOF from there.

[gi]

I don't recall the site now, but I remember regularly checking a sports sim site that Bill Abner wrote for to get updates on Football Pro 99. As that turned into an obvious disaster Bill mention FOF. I called and bought it that day.
This was it...I did the same thing.

[OldGiants]

So, did anyone here even see the ads I ran in Pro Football Weekly and in college football preview magazines?
No. I don't read PFW, and I usually only look at/buy the gambling magazines because, while I don't bet on games, they have the best array of stats. The college football preview magazines are mostly pictures and useless write-ups of how each and every team will be in the top 25.

[Elvis]

I believe I found the old sideline board doing a yahoo search. First version I bought was FOF2.

[Passacaglia]

After playing the crap out of NCAA Football 99 and its dynasty mode, I searched the EA site for games that had just a dynasty mode, and found FOF.

[LoneStarGirl]

OTHER- Goldeneagle is always here, and was always telling me these funny stories, so i wanted a piece of the action.

[StanGunner]

Pre google days, used dogpile.

[Maple Leafs]

Other -- googled something like "football management simulation"

[Scarecrow]

I think I did a search (AltaVista is what I used back then, I think) for "Pro football simulation" or something similar and wound up on EA's site. This was during the FOF2 days.. the Sideline's site.


Doing some research on the best way to market the new game, Jim? :)

Sorry...I tried to resist. :(
edited for me.

[timmae]

On the Sierra message boards (I was a regular on their FPS:Football Pro section). It got a lot of attention there.

here, here... I kinda miss those real time human-human games which you called all of the plays and then it unfolded right before your eyes...

[dolfin]

Was searching for sports, text sims back in Google's early days and came across FOF2

[cthomer5000]

Other -- googled something like "football management simulation"
The more i think about it the more im confident that it was google that i used as well.

[PraetorianX]

I stumbled onto FOF2 at EA Sports' website.

[ageofquarrel]

There was a demo on the cd a pc gaming magazine bought. I didnt buy it but later on when i was searching for info on ncaa football i stumbled here.

[Fidatelo]

I read about Baseball Mogul in a gaming magazine, then searched for sports simulations or something and eventually surfed my way to EA's site, where I bought FOF2k1 I believe.

[Rich1033]

It was a High Heat message board that Tony ran that discussed Front Office Football which was my first introduction to the game... I think I then starting coming to the original FOFC and bought FOF2.
Same for me

[Dutch]

I'm guessing paying for ad space is out for the next installment. :)

[CamEdwards]

Wow. I'm the only guy who bought a game from a magazine?

I was perusing a college football preview back in 2001 (or whatever the year TCY came out) and saw the ad. Since my birthday was coming up, I told my wife I wanted the game for my birthday.

She got it, and I was hooked. There's your magazine action at work. :D

[Swaggs]

The Sideline for me.

[Riggins44]

I believe I saw a message you had posted on a newsgroup. I use to stalk the ibm.pc.sports (or whatever it was back then) group. Now I just stalk the neighbors daughter.

We had an office FBpro league going at the time. We were fairly crushed when we discovered no multiplayer action. I remember talking to you on the phone due to some mixup with the company taking the orders.

[Honolulu Blue]

I heard about it from Usenet (rec.games.pc.sports or something like that), back when it was actually sort of relevant.

[JasonC23]

Usenet led me to purchase the first game (my God, was it that long ago????). Bill Abner's raving also helped convince me.

[StanGunner]

Solecismic:

How about some feedback from you on which versions sold the best and where you plan on going in the future?

[pisanoc]

I searched on football sims and wound up at the old FOFC site; decided to give the game a shot and have loved it ever since. I also have lurked these sites for years seeking equal parts gaming advice and entertainment.

[Cowerpwr]

I have bought every version since first version. I remember I just did a internet search on text sim football games when the first one came out.

Will always buy the football games that Jim puts out, if another sport I will not purchase as I am a football fan.

I was only disappointed with the EA sport version, 1st one and 2004 the best of the bunch.

[ScottVib]

After Finding and Enjoying Baseball Mogul I did a search for similar type football games and found FOF, just before the FOF 2001 (EA Sports) release.

[Sweed]

It's been awhile but I believe I first read of FOF on EA's board while looking at pics for the first PS2 Madden, so around 2001? At the time on pc I was playing Lance Haffner's games (baseball and football). Thought it looked interesting but
being busy with other games I was playing I never gave it a try.

Moved on to HH baseball and from there to ootp. On ootp boards kept hearing of FOF and started coming here to read more on the game anded up getting
the latest version.

[Hoya1]

OTHER:
A few friends were sitting around simming Madden games, each "managing" their own teams. We all went home and I got a call from one of the guys about a different type of Madden called FOF. Told me to check it out on the EAsports website. I've been addicted ever since. I played FOF2k1 the longest I've ever played any single game. I've since upgraded to 2k4 and anxiously awaiting 2k6

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I heard about FOF on the NCAA 98 WBFC.COM Website, there was a link and the rest is histoire. To that person who posted that lik 6 years ago....thank you.

[Ben E Lou]

Bump. Un-stick.

[Buccaneer]

You know, to this day I still don't recall FOF2 being an EA release. Apparently it was but I thought I had bought it through Solecismic/DR.

[JeeberD]

You had to download it through DR, Bucc, but you had to pay EA...

[randal7]

Other: I had developed an urge to play rotisserie baseball again, then decided I just didn't have the time to keep up with that for the whole season. I was searching out baseball management sims and accidentally found an online review of the EA sports edition of FOF.