Hi Strikerz. This is Coach, creator of UFL Scout.
I’m writing this with deep concern for the community, which I care about greatly and have been proud to support since the beginning. After careful consideration, I felt compelled to speak up on behalf of many community members who have shown tremendous dedication and support through challenging times. I believe we have reached a crucial moment that requires open, honest dialogue about several important issues affecting our community. I hope this letter will be a way to address these concerns and strengthen UFL’s foundation for the future.
1. Retention
There’s a concerning misalignment between community communication priorities. While marketing future content is understandable from a business perspective, the focus on distant updates overshadows critical current issues affecting player retention. The lack of engagement regarding present challenges creates a disconnect between development messaging and community needs. This approach risks diminishing the impact of future updates if current player attrition continues unchecked.
Furthermore, when addressing existing issues, the communication lacks necessary depth and context. Patch notes often present oversimplified statements about fixes without providing essential details about the changes implemented or their intended impact. This level of documentation falls short of true transparency. The community needs comprehensive information about specific changes and how they directly address reported issues. Without this context, it becomes impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of solutions or understand the development team’s problem-solving approach.
2. Transparency
- Our community’s understanding of game mechanics and features remains limited. The recent situation with skins illustrates this communication gap and its potential consequences.
- Currently, key information about features is scattered across multiple platforms – from your CEO Eugene’s social media hints to various replies on Discord and X, with occasional website blog posts. This fragmented communication makes it challenging to build a complete understanding of game systems. While we appreciate any information shared, having it centralized and coming through official channels would be more effective (and is to be expected as well).
- While content creators are highly visible in the community, they’ve inadvertently become perceived as the face of the game – despite lacking official capacity or direct insight into development. This creates a disconnect where the community looks to creators for answers they can’t possibly have, while direct communication from the development team remains limited. Beyond your CEO, there isn’t a consistent company presence engaging with the community.
- Additionally, there seems to be a lack of clarity about your community management structure. Despite having multiple community managers, their roles and responsibilities aren’t clear to us. We’re unsure who manages which communication channels – whether it’s the same person handling Discord, X, and Reddit, or if these responsibilities are divided among different team members.
3. Feedback
While you’ve built a strong reputation for listening to your players – something we’ve always appreciated – we’re seeing concerning signs that this commitment may be slipping. The recent pattern of emergency patches, each tested for what feels like less than a week, has turned every update into a brand new game. We have to ask: Is the supertest feedback being properly considered? Are there internal discussions about how these patches will impact the game before they go live? Because right now, the rapid-fire changes suggest otherwise.
The handling of the RP system changes demonstrates our concerns about communication and transparency. When the community expressed issues with RP deductions, rather than engaging in dialogue about potential improvements, the system was abruptly removed without prior notice or explanation. This has left RP as a currency with limited functionality, primarily serving a purpose only in the early game stages.
If there are plans to revitalize or rework the RP system into something more meaningful, sharing this roadmap would help the community understand its future role. Without such context, the current state of RP appears to lack any real purpose, which can impact player engagement and progression satisfaction. Clear communication about the reasoning behind these changes and future plans would help maintain community trust during such system adjustments.
4. your community wants to help you
For this point I’m speaking on behalf of myself and fellow content creators who are driven purely by our passion for this project. We create content and promote the game because we genuinely believe in it – not for financial gain. Our continued dedication demonstrates this commitment. However, to maintain this level of community engagement, we need better communication channels.
We’re seeking structured, regular communication with select community voices and content creators to help make the game the best it can be. For example, NaNNiK, one of your prominent content creators, was informed he would need to step in as the podcast host – replacing the developers – just one day before the broadcast. This kind of last-minute change without proper communication doesn’t reflect well on the relationship with your content creators. Furthermore, the lack of follow-up on topics discussed in the podcast has led to widespread speculation. While we understand comprehensive responses take time, even a brief update through official channels (rather than isolated Reddit replies) would help maintain transparency and trust.
Regarding UFL Scout and its potential for enhancing game content: Our volunteer scouts have dedicated a significant amount of their time to manually gather game assets, when a direct collaboration could benefit both parties. While individual team members from you have been responsive and helpful, getting actionable decisions about accessing game assets has been challenging due to what I’m guessing is departmental routing. We’re proposing a single, direct meeting with the appropriate decision-makers to discuss asset access and collaboration. This would streamline the process and allow the users experience around your game to be much more involved. Rather than continuing this cycle of interdepartmental referrals, could we establish a clear path forward with those who have the authority to make these decisions?
You did help us sponsor the rewards for the Scout Strikerz tournament and retweeted it – for that, we are forever grateful.
5. Content
Let’s address content frequency – and to be clear, we’re not solely focused on major feature releases. There appears to be a misconception that ‘new content’ must mean substantial updates like new arenas. However, player retention relies heavily on regular, smaller-scale additions: creative challenges, meaningful showdown rewards, and visible in-game community events that drive daily engagement.
These aren’t resource-intensive suggestions – they’re fundamental elements that keep online games active and communities engaged between major updates. The current approach of focusing primarily on large features overlooks these crucial day-to-day aspects of maintaining an active player base. While we appreciate the effort put into major updates, the absence of these smaller, regular content additions is notably impacting daily player engagement.
6. communication
Let’s examine several recent instances that highlight communication concerns:
- The Portuguese Community Challenge
The announcement of this community event was inconsistently communicated across platforms – present on X and Reddit but absent from Discord. More critically, there’s no in-game visibility or progress tracking system. While we anticipate a tracker will be added, launching community events without complete implementation or clear communication creates uncertainty about participation and progress tracking. - The Ronaldo Season Pass (or Part 2)
The transition to the Ronaldo Season Pass demonstrated a missed opportunity for community engagement. Despite high community anticipation and an active countdown timer, official channels remained notably quiet during this period. The community relied primarily on unofficial leaks for information, until details were eventually revealed through a third-party Xbox Hub article rather than through official channels. This approach undermined what could have been an exciting community moment. - What would happen if I already had Ronaldo?
The handling of the questions regarding already owning Ronaldo exemplifies our concerns about proactive communication. This predictable community concern wasn’t addressed until it was raised during the live podcast – not through official channels. The delayed clarification led to unnecessary community frustration and refund requests that could have been prevented with timely communication.
To be clear, Strikerz – we’re writing this because we care about UFL’s future. It is not out of spite or hate, but out of passion. You’ve built something with real potential, but that foundation is being wasted right now. Our patience is running thin, and we need to see real change. This game deserves better, and so does its community. Don’t let UFL become just another ‘what could have been’ – you still have time to turn this around, but that window won’t stay open forever. You’re probably doing your best, and this is what we’d want from you.
With the best intentions,
Coach, for the community