Why is there basically zero media love for OOTP 26? (Genuine question, not a rant)

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

I’ve been mulling this for a while and figured the OOTP forum is the only place where a serious answer might exist.

Why is there essentially no mainstream sports-game media coverage of OOTP 26?


Historically, outlets like Operation Sports gave OOTP at least a nod — reviews, columns, some thoughtful coverage. This year? Crickets. What caught my eye was a recent OS feature series on “what each major sports franchise needs to do to reach the next level”… and it focused exclusively on the usual AAA suspects: Madden, College Football, MLB The Show, NBA 2K, Football Manager.
No OOTP.
No Front Office Sports.
No Draft Day Sports.
No Football Coach College Dynasty.


Basically, if you don’t have flashy animations, licensing muscle, or a marketing budget that could bankroll a small nation, you don’t exist.

That raises a question I genuinely don’t know the answer to:

Has the industry quietly slid into a “pay-to-be-reviewed” reality?

Not explicitly, not maliciously — but structurally. PR access, ad relationships, early builds, sponsored content, SEO gravity. If you’re not feeding that machine, you fall off the coverage map.

What feels especially ironic is that games like OOTP arguably offer more to write about than many AAA titles:

• Deep systems
• Long-term saves
• Emergent narratives
• Community-driven experimentation
• And frankly, players who skew older, more patient, and more willing to read long-form content.

In a weird way, covering these games could actually improve a site’s credibility and broaden its audience — not hurt it. So am I being naïve here?


I’m especially curious to hear from some of the long-time OOTP players who’ve been around since the early versions and have seen the coverage ebb and flow over the years.

Is this just the natural end state of modern games media? Or is OOTP (and games like it) quietly paying the price for not fitting the content economy?


Genuinely interested in thoughts — especially from the old hands who know the history, even if you rarely post. This feels like one of those “everyone notices it, no one quite says it out loud” moments.

[kidd_05_u2]

My gosh is AI writing becoming ubiquitous.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by kidd_05_u2

My gosh is AI writing becoming ubiquitous.

I hate to reply this way, but "Heh. ".

Sorry OP, but this really does look like AI writing: the excessive em dashes, the bullet points, the no mistakes. Assuming this is correct, I'm more curious about what your prompt was to create this than the answer to your question.

My lame answer to your question would cynically be: reviews are often paid (or at least supported in some way) and if OOTP isn't being reviewed much it's probably because they're not playing the review game.

[low]

Originally Posted by kidd_05_u2

My gosh is AI writing becoming ubiquitous.

Yup. It's invading everything and I hate it.

[Carplos]

Genuinely interested in thoughts — especially from the old hands who know the history, even if you rarely post. This feels like one of those “everyone notices it, no one quite says it out loud” moments.

have you considered no one gives a ****?

[David Watts]

I feel older and dumber every single day.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

No probs. thanks all.
My using AI to help make my posts more readable is the issue.Got it.

Coolsies. I'll cease and desist

Enjoy OOTP 27 all, I'm sure it's gonna be awesome.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

No probs. thanks all.
My using AI to help make my posts more readable is the issue.Got it.

Coolsies. I'll cease and desist

Enjoy OOTP 27 all, I'm sure it's gonna be awesome.

Please understand, I don't think anyone means to bully you just because it's fun or something. It's more that a lot of people, myself included, really don't like others using AI for purposes where it's really not needed. I mean, what would have been wrong with you simply asking your question in your own words? Surely you can do that. And if you mistake or you don't come off as a great writer, so what. I edit people's work all the time and I make lots of mistakes myself. It's no big deal. It's the ideas people put forth that matter more. If you really want to get better at writing, you'll get better with practice. Using AI to make your questions is only going to help your prompt writing ability, it won't help your writing without it.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by kq76

I hate to reply this way, but "Heh. ".

Sorry OP, but this really does look like AI writing: the excessive em dashes, the bullet points, the no mistakes. Assuming this is correct, I'm more curious about what your prompt was to create this than the answer to your question.

My lame answer to your question would cynically be: reviews are often paid (or at least supported in some way) and if OOTP isn't being reviewed much it's probably because they're not playing the review game.

Apols. i didn't realise this was an issue. I write my posts longhand and then run them through AI. I have found, on balance it removes any unintended cultural barriers that can become the bigger distraction.
I have found, albeit not here, when posting on other sites my propensity to use Australian slang or cultural references sometimes gets in the way of clarity.


I must admit the fact the responses here are largely grizzles about my use of use of a communication tool to make things easier to read for all and not the topic is a bit of a head scratcher for me.


But no probs, i'm big and ugly enough to take the feedback on board.


Don't use AI on OOTP forums.


I have been genuinely surprised by the lack of media or even fan driven support for OOTP. It used to be covered, now its not... not even the flagship promoters of sports games deems it worthy to cover.


I thought that might be something other OOTP fans, especially the old timers might have some insight on. But it appears not- no problem.. I can see there are the bigger of auto-calc o re-calc discussions or whatever that was to spend our hours debating.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Apols. i didn't realise this was an issue. I write my posts longhand and then run them through AI. I have found, on balance it removes any unintended cultural barriers that can become the bigger distraction.
I have found, albeit not here, when posting on other sites my propensity to use Australian slang or cultural references sometimes gets in the way of clarity.

I've lived in Australia. I was once engaged to an Australian. You guys really don't talk all that different from us North Americans. Go ahead and talk like you do. Some will likely appreciate it, some likely won't. It's no big deal. Either way, what makes us different often makes us better, or at least more interesting. I'm proudly Canadian and I'm damn sure not giving up the way I talk or spell just to fit in anywhere.

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

I must admit the fact the responses here are largely grizzles about my use of use of a communication tool to make things easier to read for all and not the topic is a bit of a head scratcher for me.

And that's a headscratcher for me. I don't at all see AI as a "communication tool" and I'm surprised some do (your account isn't the first to use it to post with). I see it as a research tool. And I use AI a lot, maybe too much even. I'm just addicted to learning and so I use it to learn things faster than I could before. But I still realize I can't trust everything I read by it. If something's really important, I know to dig deeper for a human expert source.

Something I failed to also point out in my previous post is a lot of people are also fed up with being duped by AI. It was bad enough when it was being used sparingly in places where we'd rather see humans doing the work, like in movies, but now lots of people are playing off AI output as their own and it's incredibly disingenuous.

I was at an art fair recently and what I saw was wholly different from what I saw 20 years ago. Back then you would have seen lots of posters one would recognize as being prints of classic paintings or posters done by famous and not so famous people and today it's largely a bunch of AI slop that people are pretending to have created themselves. It was infuriating to be honest. Like what happens to the real future artists once all the art we see is AI slop? People falsely complained years ago that everything then was derivative, what happens when all we truly have is derivative? It's not a bright future. I can't draw a circle to save my life, but I admire true artists maybe more than any other profession and I hate to think what we're doing to them and the future of art in general.

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Don't use AI on OOTP forums.

Thanks?

But no, it's not so much "don't use it" on the boards, it's just "use it wisely, productively, honestly". Like I've seen some people use it to prove a point, like something that maybe they themselves couldn't have done the work to investigate, and that's great. But even when they've used it, they made it clear that they got it from AI and which AI. That way people can look at it, take it for it's worth, and maybe investigate it further or not.

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

I have been genuinely surprised by the lack of media or even fan driven support for OOTP. It used to be covered, now its not... not even the flagship promoters of sports games deems it worthy to cover.


I thought that might be something other OOTP fans, especially the old timers might have some insight on. But it appears not- no problem.. I can see there are the bigger of auto-calc o re-calc discussions or whatever that was to spend our hours debating.

I dunno. As crude as he came off, I'm kind of with Carplos on this. Does it really matter? I mean, we're on OOTP26 and most of us are probably pretty confident that there's going to be an OOTP27, and probably a 28, a 29, a 30. Who knows how many. And while the truth might be far from that (I really don't know either way so no one read anything into this), once you're in the 26th iteration of a sports game I think it's easy to take for granted that nothing really matters, there'll be another one and it'll be what it'll be.

I admit, however, that's wrong. It would be nice if OOTP was covered more, regardless of however much it is covered, not so much because it would make OOTP more money, but because it would attract more people to the community and maybe one of those extra people would be another eriqjaffe, gmo, silvam14, Will Beh, or whatever kind of contributor you greatly value.

Honestly, I'm just not overly concerned with the question and if it wasn't for your post coming off as AI I probably wouldn't have engaged any further with the thread. I don't even know if what you say is true. Maybe you're just mistaken in your perception. Maybe OOTP has numbers that show OOTP has never been covered more than it has this past year. I have no idea. And really, it's on them to seek out more coverage or not. Maybe they don't see seeking out more as being worth the effort or money. The franchise is clearly already well established. If you're at all interested in a baseball sim, you'll probably find out about OOTP without much, if any, effort. Your concern might be warranted, but it very well might not be.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by kq76

I've lived in Australia. I was once engaged to an Australian. You guys really don't talk all that different from us North Americans. Go ahead and talk like you do. Some will likely appreciate it, some likely won't. It's no big deal. Either way, what makes us different often makes us better, or at least more interesting. I'm proudly Canadian and I'm damn sure not giving up the way I talk or spell just to fit in anywhere.



And that's a headscratcher for me. I don't at all see AI as a "communication tool" and I'm surprised some do (your account isn't the first to use it to post with). I see it as a research tool. And I use AI a lot, maybe too much even. I'm just addicted to learning and so I use it to learn things faster than I could before. But I still realize I can't trust everything I read by it. If something's really important, I know to dig deeper for a human expert source.

Something I failed to also point out in my previous post is a lot of people are also fed up with being duped by AI. It was bad enough when it was being used sparingly in places where we'd rather see humans doing the work, like in movies, but now lots of people are playing off AI output as their own and it's incredibly disingenuous.

I was at an art fair recently and what I saw was wholly different from what I saw 20 years ago. Back then you would have seen lots of posters one would recognize as being prints of classic paintings or posters done by famous and not so famous people and today it's largely a bunch of AI slop that people are pretending to have created themselves. It was infuriating to be honest. Like what happens to the real future artists once all the art we see is AI slop? People falsely complained years ago that everything then was derivative, what happens when all we truly have is derivative? It's not a bright future. I can't draw a circle to save my life, but I admire true artists maybe more than any other profession and I hate to think what we're doing to them and the future of art in general.



Thanks?

But no, it's not so much "don't use it" on the boards, it's just "use it wisely, productively, honestly". Like I've seen some people use it to prove a point, like something that maybe they themselves couldn't have done the work to investigate, and that's great. But even when they've used it, they made it clear that they got it from AI and which AI. That way people can look at it, take it for it's worth, and maybe investigate it further or not.



I dunno. As crude as he came off, I'm kind of with Carplos on this. Does it really matter? I mean, we're on OOTP26 and most of us are probably pretty confident that there's going to be an OOTP27, and probably a 28, a 29, a 30. Who knows how many. And while the truth might be far from that (I really don't know either way so no one read anything into this), once you're in the 26th iteration of a sports game I think it's easy to take for granted that nothing really matters, there'll be another one and it'll be what it'll be.

I admit, however, that's wrong. It would be nice if OOTP was covered more, regardless of however much it is covered, not so much because it would make OOTP more money, but because it would attract more people to the community and maybe one of those extra people would be another eriqjaffe, gmo, silvam14, Will Beh, or whatever kind of contributor you greatly value.

Honestly, I'm just not overly concerned with the question and if it wasn't for your post coming off as AI I probably wouldn't have engaged any further with the thread. I don't even know if what you say is true. Maybe you're just mistaken in your perception. Maybe OOTP has numbers that show OOTP has never been covered more than it has this past year. I have no idea. And really, it's on them to seek out more coverage or not. Maybe they don't see seeking out more as being worth the effort or money. The franchise is clearly already well established. If you're at all interested in a baseball sim, you'll probably find out about OOTP without much, if any, effort. Your concern might be warranted, but it very well might not be.

I admit, however, that's wrong. It would be nice if OOTP was covered more, regardless of however much it is covered, not so much because it would make OOTP more money, but because it would attract more people to the community and maybe one of those extra people would be another eriqjaffe, gmo, silvam14, Will Beh, or whatever kind of contributor you greatly value

This here is the nexus for my interest in this topic.
Cheers.

[Bobfather]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

I admit, however, that's wrong. It would be nice if OOTP was covered more, regardless of however much it is covered, not so much because it would make OOTP more money, but because it would attract more people to the community and maybe one of those extra people would be another eriqjaffe, gmo, silvam14, Will Beh, or whatever kind of contributor you greatly value

This here is the nexus for my interest in this topic.
Cheers.

I say wait till 27 comes out, to judge the coverage.

[pstrickert]

Years ago, OOTPD would create a thread with links to all the reviews for a new version of the game. But that hasn't happened in quite a while, AFAIK.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by Bobfather

I say wait till 27 comes out, to judge the coverage.

Yeah and maybe the AI I ran my draft post through made my tone sound more urgent or desperate than i intended.


I was really just lamenting last night when i posted (it was night over here anyway) that i was reading about all these garbage sports games being promoted and spoken of in glowing tones ..and being a little pissed that OOTP remains on the fringes and that more equitable media coverage might otherwise enable the developers to implement many of the great ideas that get mentioned here on the back of increased demand for the game.


As i've said in other posts, whilst OOTP remains a proxy for me until/unless someone builds a comparable version of it for either Australian Rules Football or cricket, i really have fallen in love with its depth and personality- despite the extremely steep baseball learning curve for me.


So my interest in the media coverage or lack thereof of the game, even within the sporting game media is driven from a perspective that:

• I genuinely am surprised a game of this quality doesn't receive more recognition, notwithstanding its niche status, and
• more media coverage would drive game sales which i would hope selfishly would further improve iterations of the game.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by kq76

I've lived in Australia. I was once engaged to an Australian. You guys really don't talk all that different from us North Americans. Go ahead and talk like you do. Some will likely appreciate it, some likely won't. It's no big deal. Either way, what makes us different often makes us better, or at least more interesting. I'm proudly Canadian and I'm damn sure not giving up the way I talk or spell just to fit in anywhere.



And that's a headscratcher for me. I don't at all see AI as a "communication tool" and I'm surprised some do (your account isn't the first to use it to post with). I see it as a research tool. And I use AI a lot, maybe too much even. I'm just addicted to learning and so I use it to learn things faster than I could before. But I still realize I can't trust everything I read by it. If something's really important, I know to dig deeper for a human expert source.

Something I failed to also point out in my previous post is a lot of people are also fed up with being duped by AI. It was bad enough when it was being used sparingly in places where we'd rather see humans doing the work, like in movies, but now lots of people are playing off AI output as their own and it's incredibly disingenuous.

I was at an art fair recently and what I saw was wholly different from what I saw 20 years ago. Back then you would have seen lots of posters one would recognize as being prints of classic paintings or posters done by famous and not so famous people and today it's largely a bunch of AI slop that people are pretending to have created themselves. It was infuriating to be honest. Like what happens to the real future artists once all the art we see is AI slop? People falsely complained years ago that everything then was derivative, what happens when all we truly have is derivative? It's not a bright future. I can't draw a circle to save my life, but I admire true artists maybe more than any other profession and I hate to think what we're doing to them and the future of art in general.



Thanks?

But no, it's not so much "don't use it" on the boards, it's just "use it wisely, productively, honestly". Like I've seen some people use it to prove a point, like something that maybe they themselves couldn't have done the work to investigate, and that's great. But even when they've used it, they made it clear that they got it from AI and which AI. That way people can look at it, take it for it's worth, and maybe investigate it further or not.

100% take on board the lack of attribution or acknowledgement of use of AI - i usually do so

I dunno. As crude as he came off, I'm kind of with Carplos on this. Does it really matter? I mean, we're on OOTP26 and most of us are probably pretty confident that there's going to be an OOTP27, and probably a 28, a 29, a 30. Who knows how many. And while the truth might be far from that (I really don't know either way so no one read anything into this), once you're in the 26th iteration of a sports game I think it's easy to take for granted that nothing really matters, there'll be another one and it'll be what it'll be.

I admit, however, that's wrong. It would be nice if OOTP was covered more, regardless of however much it is covered, not so much because it would make OOTP more money, but because it would attract more people to the community and maybe one of those extra people would be another eriqjaffe, gmo, silvam14, Will Beh, or whatever kind of contributor you greatly value.

Honestly, I'm just not overly concerned with the question and if it wasn't for your post coming off as AI I probably wouldn't have engaged any further with the thread. I don't even know if what you say is true. Maybe you're just mistaken in your perception. Maybe OOTP has numbers that show OOTP has never been covered more than it has this past year. I have no idea. And really, it's on them to seek out more coverage or not. Maybe they don't see seeking out more as being worth the effort or money. The franchise is clearly already well established. If you're at all interested in a baseball sim, you'll probably find out about OOTP without much, if any, effort. Your concern might be warranted, but it very well might not be.

100% take on board the lack of attribution or acknowledgement of use of AI - in my post i usually do so- it was late, and i'd written a long screed
Certainly not my intent to deceive.

[Cod]

Sports games and management games are niche subsets of gaming, combined, it's a very very small market. Outside of Football Manager, games in this genre do not get much coverage at all because the coverage wouldn't generate clicks.

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by Cod

Sports games and management games are niche subsets of gaming, combined, it's a very very small market. Outside of Football Manager, games in this genre do not get much coverage at all because the coverage wouldn't generate clicks.

Yeah for sure, and I'm not naive to that, but I do think if Football Manager can become a commercial success, a game like OOTP can too.


I have played FM consistently since it was Championship Manager in the mid to late 90's and and even had the original early version on Commodore 64 back in the late 80s. Man that has come along way to become a behemoth.


I stopped playing FM once i finally 'got' OOTP with OOTP 25. I just think OOTP is so much better at its fundamentals.

As i read through user's experiences and desire for new features and changes here I can't help but wish it had FM's level of promotion to provide the push to the user base growth that would enable the necessary investment to 'lift the game'.

For me i don't much care if there are new bells and whistles on OOTP, I just want some real muscle added to what we've got, with refinements and a more robust and intuitive architecture, user interface, refined tools and stats.

But i know that requires $$, hence my lament about the lack of coverage.
It is real. I have gone out of my way to find news on OOTP and outside of official generated releases and some pick ups of media releases there is an appreciable and observable decline in coverage.


Operation Sports used to always focus OOTP. I guess Markus prioritised some investment in that aspect and the new owners do not - that's their prerogative too - i am not judging.


I just want good things to happen for OOTP; and its not altruistic- its very selfish in derivation
Apols to all for any unintended deception on my part regarding the origin origin of the opening post. But to be clear, the intent, original draft screed and most of the lame attempts at humour was all mine- not AI.
It was done and has been done with the intent of improving communication and desire to engage on a topic i do not have a great deal of expertise about with a lot of people who clearly do and have been here for ever.

I get maybe its not perceived as a communcation tool over there, but it very much is here. I work in an organisation of tens of thousands, and we're actively encouraged and tutored to use it as such.


But i will refrain here given the feedback. I ain't gonna take any grammar or spelling feedback though

[Paul Reuschel's Mustache]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

As i read through user's experiences and desire for new features and changes here I can't help but wish it had FM's level of promotion to provide the push to the user base growth that would enable the necessary investment to 'lift the game'.

For me i don't much care if there are new bells and whistles on OOTP, I just want some real muscle added to what we've got, with refinements and a more robust and intuitive architecture, user interface, refined tools and stats.

But i know that requires $$, hence my lament about the lack of coverage.

Apols to all for any unintended deception on my part regarding the origin origin of the opening post.

It was done and has been done with the intent of improving communication and desire to engage on a topic i do not have a great deal of expertise about with a lot of people who clearly do and have been here for ever.

I always enjoy reading your comments, YHF. You're enthusiastic about OOTP. There's a lot of grizzled, long-time players on this forum. Old dorks like me sitting in front of screens for far too many hours each day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. Anyway, keep posting and sharing your thoughts - I appreciate hearing from you!

[Yankee Hotel Foxtrot]

Originally Posted by Paul Reuschel's Mustache

I always enjoy reading your comments, YHF. You're enthusiastic about OOTP. There's a lot of grizzled, long-time players on this forum. Old dorks like me sitting in front of screens for far too many hours each day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. Anyway, keep posting and sharing your thoughts - I appreciate hearing from you!

Cheers, thank you. Its all good though, no real offense or harm from my point of view.
I must admit, and i get it, this is an old game, and what seems new in conversation to me, is probably just seem as some 'newbie rehashing the same new-gamer enthusiasm over conversations long completed in previous iterations of the game we have seen here before'.

I also do appreciate the views expressed in response to the original post, and the time taken to articulate why they didn't appreciate my AI refined post.

Funnily enough I agree with those views by and large - with some nuance, and somewhat ironically, my broader philosophy around AI usage and the blurred lines/negative influence and push on creative and artistic endeavours are almost identical to those who took umbrage at my post too.


As i said I'll refrain from using it here from now on; but it seemed a good usage of the tech to me at 11:30pm, whilst i was playing a game of OOTP, as a way to frame a low stakes conversation starte. It was fundamentally just an AI tidy up of a long hand error, grammar and syntax laden rant anyway.

Anyway merry Xmas to you all, hope you all enjoy the holidays with your family, and also manage to get some sneaky time away with some Xmas comfort food of choice and a few innings of OOTP

[Cod]

Originally Posted by Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Yeah for sure, and I'm not naive to that, but I do think if Football Manager can become a commercial success, a game like OOTP can too.

I wish it was that easy. Management games are popular in Europe and football is the most popular sport. OOTP is fighting an uphill battle.

Operation Sports used to always focus OOTP. I guess Markus prioritised some investment in that aspect and the new owners do not - that's their prerogative too - i am not judging.

OS has seemingly gone a different direction recently (forum change, paid newsletters, more AI slop, etc.). They still have some quality articles, but community engagement has died.

Many of us here want to see OOTP grow into Football Manager levels, but realistically, that's not going to happen unless baseball experiences a massive surge in popularity, leading to more advertisers and money being involved.