The future of DMB... update!

Here's the latest from Diamond Mind Baseball. Of particular interest to us is the "2010 Season" section. Version 10 might be nice, but it isn't necessary for DMBL to survive next year.

Diamond Mind Baseball News

DMB is going all electronic. Starting June 1st, DMB will open its new integrated website and online store. From then on, orders will only be taken via the new online store and will no longer be accepted via phone, fax, email, or postal mail. Products will be available by download only; we will no longer provide “hard” (cd) copies. All technical and customer support will be via email to dmb_support@imaginesports.com.

Version 10 Release

DMB version 10 is complete and ready to go, although we did hit a few snags along the way. It's been in final beta for two months with virtually no problems discovered. In the meantime we've been reworking some of the help pages and tweaking and making minor revisions to the greatly expanded play-by-play library. We expect this new release to be up to our standards for quality and reliability, but rest assured that if any bugs are discovered that were missed during testing, we'll try to get a patch up ASAP. As usual, if you're in the middle of a league, v10 will be able to convert it so you'll be able to continue it with the new version. It's also possible to keep both version 9 and version 10 on your system, as they will not interfere with each other.

Unfortunately, David Pyke, who had been providing outstanding tech support, resigned recently due to personal reasons. David, you will be missed and we hope you'll be able to rejoin us in the future!

David’s resignation has complicated the release of version 10. In addition to handling the current technical support calls, he also was going to cover the inevitable increase in volume that arises with a new release. He had been setting up the online store for DMB as well. Although Luke handled tech support before we hired David, he is unable to cover the current load, let alone pick up the increased load of a new release. We have temporarily suspended technical and customer support until a replacement is recruited. Please be patient for now.

As a result, we are looking for a new, experienced tech/customer support person who can hit the ground running. Given that Luke does not have time to provide extensive training, the new tech support person really needs to be someone who already knows the game well, especially NetPlay (port forwarding) and Stats Transfer. The candidate should also be competent in Windows XP, Vista, and 7 and their security settings. When we last posted for this position a few years ago, we had a number of fine applicants and are hoping someone from the community can take this on (or maybe a combination of time from two or three people). If you’re interested, think you’re qualified, and are certain you can commit the time, please send your resume and qualifications to Luke (lkraemer@diamond-mind.com).

On April 30th, we also had to say goodbye to Pat Morgan, the DMB office manager who's been answering your calls and email and processing your orders over the years. Pat began another part-time job last year, which she loves. She was asked to go to full-time, which she was eager to do, and already stayed on temporarily to continue processing orders the old, manually intensive way. Because she could no longer do so, we had to suspend all DMB sales until the new store is up and running.

2010 Season

Some of you have raised concerns that the delays in version 10 foreshadow that DMB will no longer be producing new seasons. These concerns are unfounded we plan to produce the 2010 season this year just like every year. Though Luke has been working part-time for the Red Sox and will continue to do so during the MLB regular season, he'll dive into the 2010 season work once the season is over, and we expect it to be released in December as usual.

We also have some new specialty sets that will be coming out as well.

Thanks!

We realize the delays in version 10 have been frustrating, and we apologize for making you wait. We hope the new playing time limit capability, additional play-by-play, and other features are worth the wait. In appreciation for your patience, we will be charging only $14.95 for version 10. However, this special price will be available only for 90 days. The new online store will not have the ability to distinguish those who have purchased DMB in the past, so there will be no special upgrade pricing once this 90-day period expires. Version 9 owners who have not purchased version 10 during this period will need to pay the full price thereafter, which will then be $29.95.