Quote:
Originally Posted by vcrinaldi95
Hello All,
I am leaning on getting the 2015 Version of OOTP baseball but I was wondering if anyone could share their personal experiences in regards to the game. I have a few questions, and if anyone can share there experiences I would greatly appreciate it.
1.) How has OOTP baseball impacted knowledge acquisition of Sabermetric Data?
2.) How do you find online leagues; what is the average time commitment and do they normally last?
3.) If I buy the 2015 Version, will there be updates for following seasons or do I purchase the 2016 version?
4.) Do you prefer single or multi player?
Any information is greatly appreciated.
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1) I was already a huge stat geek before hand, so OOTP didn't teach me any new stats. There are still plenty I wish the game had, though it looks like many will be added in ootp15. However, the game has taught me a lot about implementing those stats. Example: my first iteration: "this SP is terrible because he had a high ERA!" Second iteration: "This SP is underrated because his FIP is actually 1.5 lower than his ERA!" Third iteration: "But his HR/9 were half what they normally are, and HR/9 fluctuates like crazy. He's going to regress." Fourth iteration: "Balls. I guess I'll just make educated guesses and run with them."
2) Already answered by others.
3) Likewise
4) I prefer online. The solo game is fun, but it can be really easy once you get good at it. You can do things to make it harder on yourself, but there are simply certain things the AI doesn't do well that you can take advantage of. When I say 'really easy' I don't mean WS victories 3 of every four years, I just mean that it's not too hard to craft extended streaks of dominance. And because I can do things the AI doesn't think of, I have what feels like an unfair advantage.
Online takes all of those problems away. If you have a weak team with a low budget, and a league with strong GMs, expect to get your butt kicked for a while. You really have to earn everything in an online league, and I love that.
Look. If you like sports sims, if you like baseball, and you don't mind text-based, this is the best game in the world. Ever. The only one that is comparable is football manager, and I prefer this hugely (though I prefer baseball too, so take that for what it's worth.) This game has so much replay ability it's unreal. I think back to how I managed my teams in OOTP 9 and cringe. I've evolved so much since then. My abilities have only improved by 10-15%, but my understanding has improved much more.
Take over whatever team you want and start playing. If you get too good, take over the worst team in the league with the worst budget. If you get too good at that, take over an expansion team. And so on. Managing low budget teams teaches you a lot about making the most out of your money. Once you're killing the computer on every level, that's when you want to look into online leagues. Because in every league there are 2-5 GMs that are way better than you, and you need to bust your butt to keep up.
It's a great game man. I endorse its use in every way.