OOTP Announces 2012 Season Sim Results

[MMChrisS]

Each year, the highly regarded baseball text-simulation Out of the Park Baseball simulates the season several times and the results are tabulated by the OOTP team. With a simulation engine that's tough to beat, these sim results are pretty solid in terms of what you might be looking for as to how the season will play out through the rest of this summer and into the fall.

Some highlights:

The Braves were the team to beat overall, winning the World Series five times. The Rays were second with four championships. The Royals popped up as a surprise team in some sims, with five division titles and a wild card berth, although they never won the Series.

Carlos Gonzalez had some pop in his bat, securing the most home runs and highest batting average more times than any other NL player. He even won a Triple Crown in one sim. Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum were dominant on the pitching side.

In the AL, Jose Bautista was the home run leader while Eric Hosmer and Miguel Cabrera tied for batting average champs. Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander were tops in ERA, but CC Sabathia was far and away the leader when it came to having the most wins more than any other player.

You can view the entire press release (and full results) here. (80 KB PDF)

[ThatRadioGuy]

..

Chris ..

I urge you to tackle a mid-season review of OOTP. A "second look" of some nature to revise the review that OS originally posted as it has now become very, very .. well, let me put this in the best light I can .. "questionable" on the integrity of that review.

This game is flat broken in so many different ways. Because it is a text sim and so deep, it takes a couple months of long, long playing to see where it is and how very broken the product was at release and is still broken several months later. It's so bad, Chris, that you cannot finish a season properly. There's lots of posts on the OOTP forums .. but I am not an OOTP forum freak .. I only came to it because I went searching for it.

I mean, there are DOZENS of just flat broken concepts and features. In addition, there are some real, real problems with the engine. This game is .. I don't like to be real negative but .. my goodness, after reading your review and seeing what I am seeing .. the only thing I could think was, "Steve & Matt got their pockets lined for that review. Because it's just flat WRONG".

Now, I'm somebody who was reviewing OOTP when it was version 2 and 3 and 4. I love Markus and I root for him to succeed. But, ya gotta call a spade a spade.

The most glaring of these problems, in a nutshell, is the incapability to finish a season! The playoff rosters are broken in the game .. and evidently, according to the OOTP forum postings that I found .. it's HARD CODED in the game .. as in .. no patch can fix it. So, you just "disable" playoff rosters to get around the problem except .. there's a glitch there too! The option to disable playoff rosters disappears from the program! You have to go on with 21 guys or something on your roster for the playoffs.

And there's no way to patch it. And there is no workaround because of the glitch in the programming.

And that's just *ONE* thing. As somebody who has reviewed at least 1,000 games (for a weekly salary) since 1997 .. I'm looking at this and thinking "WOW. WOW. How did the reviewer here miss this avalanche of malfunctions?". I mean, a text sim where you can't review the graphics or the audio or the online gameplay or .. and you can't finish a season right? Holy smokes.

I got out of the game reviewing business when I took over The GA Sports Network as General Manager for eUniverse. So, I've been in your position, Chris, where you have to take a look at somebody and say, "Dude .. seriously? How could you miss this stuff?" And, sadly, on more than one occasion I found out about a game company that got to my reviewer and I had to dismiss him, and spread the word about him if somebody ask when he referenced us trying to get a job at another site. Just for the journalistic integrity of the situation.

If I had to throw some ideas I'd say, "OOTP at The All Star Break" or something.

When playing this game, I just sit there and say, "Man, if I wrote this thing it would be dead honest and, unfortunately, brutal." But I've spent enough time with it now that I could make quite a list to discuss in that review!

Send me a private message if you need to. I have always been a big OOTP fan and a Markus friend. Heck, check the manual in OOTP 3 .. I have a designer credit for the OOTP Online portion of the game. Because I was really trying to help Markus and be a friend. And my history at Operation Sports is from Day One of its existence so I'm not some jackass trying to blow your skirt up.

This is some serious stuff and take it from a professional game reviewer and a gaming network executive .. your boy there flat blew it.

Hardcore.

..

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by ThatRadioGuy

.. Chris .. I urge you to tackle a mid-season review of OOTP. A "second look" of some nature to revise the review that OS originally posted as it has now become very, very .. well, let me put this in the best light I can .. "questionable" on the integrity of that review. This game is flat broken in so many different ways. Because it is a text sim and so deep, it takes a couple months of long, long playing to see where it is and how very broken the product was at release and is still broken several months later. It's so bad, Chris, that you cannot finish a season properly. There's lots of posts on the OOTP forums .. but I am not an OOTP forum freak .. I only came to it because I went searching for it. I mean, there are DOZENS of just flat broken concepts and features. In addition, there are some real, real problems with the engine. This game is .. I don't like to be real negative but .. my goodness, after reading your review and seeing what I am seeing .. the only thing I could think was, "Steve & Matt got their pockets lined for that review. Because it's just flat WRONG". Now, I'm somebody who was reviewing OOTP when it was version 2 and 3 and 4. I love Markus and I root for him to succeed. But, ya gotta call a spade a spade. The most glaring of these problems, in a nutshell, is the incapability to finish a season! The playoff rosters are broken in the game .. and evidently, according to the OOTP forum postings that I found .. it's HARD CODED in the game .. as in .. no patch can fix it. So, you just "disable" playoff rosters to get around the problem except .. there's a glitch there too! The option to disable playoff rosters disappears from the program! You have to go on with 21 guys or something on your roster for the playoffs. And there's no way to patch it. And there is no workaround because of the glitch in the programming. And that's just *ONE* thing. As somebody who has reviewed at least 1,000 games (for a weekly salary) since 1997 .. I'm looking at this and thinking "WOW. WOW. How did the reviewer here miss this avalanche of malfunctions?". I mean, a text sim where you can't review the graphics or the audio or the online gameplay or .. and you can't finish a season right? Holy smokes. I got out of the game reviewing business when I took over The GA Sports Network as General Manager for eUniverse. So, I've been in your position, Chris, where you have to take a look at somebody and say, "Dude .. seriously? How could you miss this stuff?" And, sadly, on more than one occasion I found out about a game company that got to my reviewer and I had to dismiss him, and spread the word about him if somebody ask when he referenced us trying to get a job at another site. Just for the journalistic integrity of the situation. If I had to throw some ideas I'd say, "OOTP at The All Star Break" or something. When playing this game, I just sit there and say, "Man, if I wrote this thing it would be dead honest and, unfortunately, brutal." But I've spent enough time with it now that I could make quite a list to discuss in that review! Send me a private message if you need to. I have always been a big OOTP fan and a Markus friend. Heck, check the manual in OOTP 3 .. I have a designer credit for the OOTP Online portion of the game. Because I was really trying to help Markus and be a friend. And my history at Operation Sports is from Day One of its existence so I'm not some jackass trying to blow your skirt up. This is some serious stuff and take it from a professional game reviewer and a gaming network executive .. your boy there flat blew it. Hardcore. ..

Apparently someone has multiple axes to grind.

[ThatRadioGuy]

Ha!

Nope. No axes to grind. Could truly careless one way or the other.

I don't ever post.

This was just so glaring, had to say something.

[bkrich83]

Quote: Originally Posted by ThatRadioGuy

Ha! Could truly careless one way or the other. .

That's obviously not true.

[jmount78]

I can't argue that there aren't some bugs, but look at every other game listed in the OS forums and you will nothing is perfect. I can honestly say that I haven't run into the many of the problems that you have.

I am not saying that they aren't there, but I haven't run into them yet. Also, I really haven't heard of a "second review" for a game. Now a review to see what a current or future patch attempts to fix or improve I would understand.