[mtopham]

I had been playing OOTP for a couple of years, combing the threads for ideas and knowledge and one day decided it was time to try I had never done with any game (I'll point out I'm not a gamer at all) and join an on-line league. The first one I joined seemed cool - great concept and all, but after awhile people began dropping out and the league struggled. In the meantime I was enjoying the concept of competing with others and writing for the leagues home page, so I looked for another league to join and had my eyes caught by one of John's excellent advertisements for the PEBA. He was having a writing contest and, well, I was having so much fun writing articles for my other league and, thus, gave it a whirl... and with that I became the owner of the Aurora Borealis.

I don't want to toot the horn of the PEBA, but it turned out to be a wonderful deal! When my other league folded, I didn't care (ok, I did, but I had more than enough on my plate with the PEBA). I found a community that cared, that participated, and communicated with one another. That's what I want to push to others. The sense of community that on-line leagues can bring.

Be patient with a league. Talk it up with the others. Be active. Draw others into the experience though your efforts and build something special. I'm no 'geek' by any stretch of the imagination - unlike some of my self-proclaimed brethren in the PEBA. I never in a hundred years expected to have been drawn into this game and world that John created as I have. That can be you! OOTP provides an amazing array of possibilities, but it takes you - the players, to make it what it can be: immersive, imaginative, fulfilling.

I don't know in the end what kills a league - be it time, a desire to manage only a winning team, or simply life gets in the way, but if one sticks it out and if a group can commit, then you have the potential to create something really special - something as Jason (of the Sovereign League Champion Omaha Cyclones) points out above, goes beyond baseball. I think that's what makes an on-line league special. Give it a shot. Stick with it! The potential reward is great!!