That was a very informative chat session! Thanks to the DMB folks that participated.

After reading through the transcript, the fundamental bottleneck for further enhancements is "key man" syndrome, where one person owns code for a long time that then has to be opened up to other developers. As those of you in the field know, it is often easier to just start over and re-write the software than to transfer all that knowledge (in addition to the old code). Fortunately DMB is ultra-stable, so its time horizon is a little longer than many software projects.

I still think that, if the community were given the tools to do so, we could develop many of the features that have been requested. Even a simple interface to the DMB databases that allows read/write of the roster and injury tables, as well as read access of the player table is all we would need to develop a reasonable computer general manager. The API wouldn't have to be a part of a standard install, just something developers could register for and download.

This wouldn't adversely affect the core strengths of DMB (the statistics for the season disks and engine) at all. It also gets around the fundamental "key man" problem at Imagine Sports. They should trust their community to add value that they don't have the resources to add themselves at this point in time. There isn't a cheaper way to develop new products than to let obsessed gamers do the work for you.