[Puckett guy]

Obviously none of us know what will become of the SI and OOTP merger, even the developers are sailing in new waters on this one. However, it's a given that Markus and the guys at SI know how to make a good sports management sim, know how to make it better, know how to listen to their customers and know how to run a succesfull business. You can bet the principals of these companies thought long and hard about this and they would not have made the deal if they didn't think they could make a better OOTP and thereby make a lot more money.

I don't think we are going to see OOTP turn into a clone of CM. Eastside Hockey will be using the CM interface and the CM3 engine, but keep in mind that EH was really in an infant development stage and needed to make that move if it was going to go from freeware to commercial. It was really at about the same stage as OOTP1 or OOTP2. Today's OOTP is much more advanced and I can't see the principals dumping the OOTP engine for a CM makeover. If you think about the basics, hockey and soccer have lots of game play similarities, baseball does not.

I think SI will provide the resources for Markus to take OOTP to a much higher level. With a few more versions of OOTP I would speculate that we will see some of these additions to the game:

1. A well thought out 2D screen that's fun to watch.
2. Much more offensive and defensive game strategy options.
3. A big increase in pbp outcomes.
4. Agents.
5. Training Staff.
6. Media Involvement.
7. International Play (e.g. Japan, Cuba, Venezuela Leagues, Olympics etc.)
8. Multiple team scouts to hire/fire and direct
9. Base coaches with their own strengths and weaknesses
10. Umpires with their individual tendencies and personalities
11. Clubhouse leaders and disruptors
12. Team rivalries and feuds.
13. Owners who may intermeddle with off-field decisions.
14. Staduim sounds.
15. Team and individual player morale.
16. Feuds and friendships between individual players.
16. And so on and so forth.

I realize that not all of these additions will be "improvements" for all peoiple. But CM has all of these or similar features already there (or coming soon) and it still satisfies a huge, demanding and knowledgeable fan/game player community. I don't see how OOTP and its community can lose on this one.