Online Leagues - Fictional vs Historical

tarmer · 09-14-2007, 07:55 AM

In looking at online leagues, There are many choices. Historical (starting many different eras), Fictional (starting many different eras), Historical with fictional players - Fictional with historic players and finally a combination of both.

As I see it, using historical players (in either historic or fictional teams) brings name recognition to your league BUT after the current year (2007, 2008) you no longer have historic players to bring in from the database so the league has to import fictional draft players (for the most part)

With fictional players this is never an issue - But no one has any clue who Don Erstad is (as he is fictional) - This may make the league morew challenging as the players are unknown commodities

And the option of using both fictional and historical together or gives you both of the options above - But you will still run out of "real" players at some point as leagues surpass the DB time line

Now knowing that most leagues struggle to make it past a year (some do) but most new start-up's just do not retain the managers for the long run - In this case it becomes a non-issue as you will never pass the current DB year

But my question to all you league runners as well as potiental managers - What do you guys see as the "ultimate league" - What does it have to offer (mods, rosters, etc) that would make you think about the league long term ?

I am just curious to see what the community thinks - Thanks in advance

jahm · 09-14-2007, 09:16 AM

Fictional all the way much more challenging as you dont have a predetermined idea about a player like you do with historical or modern real life players.

f.montoya · 09-14-2007, 10:23 AM

"Ultimate" depends on the person. It's all a matter of taste, in my opinion. Some like the realistic challenge that fictional leagues offer, where amateur drafts are nameless and where you have a chance to watch a "Don Erstad" blossom into a superstar. Following a fictional player's career is almost as fun as watching the careers of real Major League stars. Best of all, fictional leagues allow for creativity and imagination and many find creating and customizing their fictional online league(or universe) as half the fun.

I'm particularly partial to Historical leagues. Memory lane, a chance to give history a left turn, the feeling of being in a time machine, watching your childhood heroes come back to life, opportunities to kill old curses, righting the mistakes your favorite team's GM's of the past have made. Online is still a challenge with historical leagues because everyone in the league has access to baseball-reference.com. Drafts are fun because we do know the names. But OOTP still messes with your big names' career paths so, in that sense, surprises abound.

09-14-2007, 07:55 AM	#1
tarmer All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2005 Location: Out in Leftfield Posts: 620	Online Leagues - Fictional vs Historical In looking at online leagues, There are many choices. Historical (starting many different eras), Fictional (starting many different eras), Historical with fictional players - Fictional with historic players and finally a combination of both. As I see it, using historical players (in either historic or fictional teams) brings name recognition to your league BUT after the current year (2007, 2008) you no longer have historic players to bring in from the database so the league has to import fictional draft players (for the most part) With fictional players this is never an issue - But no one has any clue who Don Erstad is (as he is fictional) - This may make the league morew challenging as the players are unknown commodities And the option of using both fictional and historical together or gives you both of the options above - But you will still run out of "real" players at some point as leagues surpass the DB time line Now knowing that most leagues struggle to make it past a year (some do) but most new start-up's just do not retain the managers for the long run - In this case it becomes a non-issue as you will never pass the current DB year But my question to all you league runners as well as potiental managers - What do you guys see as the "ultimate league" - What does it have to offer (mods, rosters, etc) that would make you think about the league long term ? I am just curious to see what the community thinks - Thanks in advance Last edited by tarmer; 09-14-2007 at 05:52 PM.

09-14-2007, 10:23 AM	#3
f.montoya Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 6,077	"Ultimate" depends on the person. It's all a matter of taste, in my opinion. Some like the realistic challenge that fictional leagues offer, where amateur drafts are nameless and where you have a chance to watch a "Don Erstad" blossom into a superstar. Following a fictional player's career is almost as fun as watching the careers of real Major League stars. Best of all, fictional leagues allow for creativity and imagination and many find creating and customizing their fictional online league(or universe) as half the fun. I'm particularly partial to Historical leagues. Memory lane, a chance to give history a left turn, the feeling of being in a time machine, watching your childhood heroes come back to life, opportunities to kill old curses, righting the mistakes your favorite team's GM's of the past have made. Online is still a challenge with historical leagues because everyone in the league has access to baseball-reference.com. Drafts are fun because we do know the names. But OOTP still messes with your big names' career paths so, in that sense, surprises abound. __________________ Fidel Montoya Asahi2 Baseball League ex-Commissioner(Historical League Since 2004) Ex-Web Host Current Mod Maker??

09-14-2007, 09:16 AM	#2
jahm Minors (Single A) Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 55	Fictional all the way much more challenging as you dont have a predetermined idea about a player like you do with historical or modern real life players.