I did not want to post

stremok · 10-06-2008, 06:16 PM

a rant but here it is. I used to love OOTP. I started with one of the earlier versions, did a few local leagues with my friends. However, every version the game is more intimidating. I bough 9 when it came out. I just now installed and tried to use for the 5th time. I finally got a job and moved the date up to my first game and have no idea how to play. Im done with OOTP. A great fantastic friggin engine thrashed by the most unintuitive menu ever created. Why would the top 5 players of my opposing team for today be easier to find than whatever it is lets you enter play by play (im guessing it still has pbp). Anyway, as an IT consultant, i can honestly say if this were productivity software, i would ban it from all clients as it generates more questions than does anything. I'll just reload 6 or play BM i guess as 9 is junk. How did it go from a baseball sim to a spreadsheet designer?

Markus Heinsohn · 10-06-2008, 06:20 PM

Sorry, but the place for entering managing mode has been always in the same spot since version 1, the league schedule screen. Now you can even access it from the manager home screen. If you would just spend a few minutes checking the manual or watching the tutorials then you wouldn't have to post this.

The interface is by far the most intuitive and powerful of any baseball sim.

DrSatan · 10-06-2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stremok

a rant but here it is. I used to love OOTP. I started with one of the earlier versions, did a few local leagues with my friends. However, every version the game is more intimidating. I bough 9 when it came out. I just now installed and tried to use for the 5th time. I finally got a job and moved the date up to my first game and have no idea how to play. Im done with OOTP. A great fantastic friggin engine thrashed by the most unintuitive menu ever created. Why would the top 5 players of my opposing team for today be easier to find than whatever it is lets you enter play by play (im guessing it still has pbp). Anyway, as an IT consultant, i can honestly say if this were productivity software, i would ban it from all clients as it generates more questions than does anything. I'll just reload 6 or play BM i guess as 9 is junk. How did it go from a baseball sim to a spreadsheet designer?

Just take some time and read the manual. I am far from the smartest guy in the world, and I don't have any problems navigating, or finding things. If you can't find it in the manual, just ask a question in the forum. The community is usually quick to help anyone. It benefits the entire community to answer user questions, because that will result in a happier customer, and happier customers will tell their friends about the game, which means more sales, which means more money for the OOTP team to invest back into the product, which means a better product, which is good for everyone. So, before you give up on the game, give the community a chance to help you out.

Raidergoo · 10-06-2008, 08:08 PM

If you want to play a spreadsheet, I suggest Front Office Football.

fantom1979 · 10-06-2008, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

The interface is by far the most intuitive and powerful of any baseball sim.

It may be one of the most powerful, but it can be a pain to get around in. It you have time to kill, you can make it do just about anything. If you are looking to just play some baseball, it can be a pain.

This shouldn't be a surprise. This has been documented on this and other message boards many many times.

Sweed · 10-06-2008, 08:30 PM

Wow. Well I'm not an IT consultant. I don't have a college degree. I'm just your average schmoll putting his kids through college so they can have it better than me. And yet I picked up the first OOTP that went to this GUI and was up and playing in minutes. Go figure.

Same old menu options are still across the top of the screen. Try MLB(or whatever your league is)>scores-schedule. Pretty tough stuff for a professional like yourself

Or of course you could mouse over the icons at the bottom, they all have tool tips so you don't even have to read the manual. The tool tip if you mouse over the baseball says "play games from the league schedule". Again pretty complex

Clay is that you?

Seriously though DrSatan has given you some good advice. Look over the manual, though IMHO simply using the tool tips on screen and checking out the menus should get you to most of what you want in minutes. The best place to go would probably be the manager home page. Top menu "manager>home page" or simply click the House Icon next to manager at the bottom of the screen. This page will take you to almost everything in the game.

If you really enjoyed previous versions of OOTP you really owe it to yourself to take a half hour to look over the GUI. It is well worth the time.

cgh3rd · 10-06-2008, 08:37 PM

Download a preset Quick Start game and just start playing. As you become familiar with how the game works you can get deeper into it. There is definitely a learning curve to the new versions. This is the first version I have really gotten into since 6. I was completely lost trying to set a league up initially. Then I dl'd the NABA quick start made a couple of setting adjustments I prefer and I haven't looked back.

The Wolf · 10-06-2008, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stremok

a rant but here it is. I used to love OOTP. I started with one of the earlier versions, did a few local leagues with my friends. However, every version the game is more intimidating. I bough 9 when it came out. I just now installed and tried to use for the 5th time. I finally got a job and moved the date up to my first game and have no idea how to play. Im done with OOTP. A great fantastic friggin engine thrashed by the most unintuitive menu ever created. Why would the top 5 players of my opposing team for today be easier to find than whatever it is lets you enter play by play (im guessing it still has pbp). Anyway, as an IT consultant, i can honestly say if this were productivity software, i would ban it from all clients as it generates more questions than does anything. I'll just reload 6 or play BM i guess as 9 is junk. How did it go from a baseball sim to a spreadsheet designer?

You call that a rant?

bosunmate · 10-06-2008, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stremok

a rant but here it is. I used to love OOTP. I started with one of the earlier versions, did a few local leagues with my friends. However, every version the game is more intimidating. I bough 9 when it came out. I just now installed and tried to use for the 5th time. I finally got a job and moved the date up to my first game and have no idea how to play. Im done with OOTP. A great fantastic friggin engine thrashed by the most unintuitive menu ever created. Why would the top 5 players of my opposing team for today be easier to find than whatever it is lets you enter play by play (im guessing it still has pbp). Anyway, as an IT consultant, i can honestly say if this were productivity software, i would ban it from all clients as it generates more questions than does anything. I'll just reload 6 or play BM i guess as 9 is junk. How did it go from a baseball sim to a spreadsheet designer?

I also think you should give this verswion a longer look. There have been some HUGE changes to this game, And i agree at first look you think my god way to complex. But as the days go by before you know it's a breeze and believe me I'm a junior-senior and thought no way. Now I can't go a day without firing up my league if only to look at the stats. I think Battist did a good job on the manual. Don't throw in the towel yet...

playball335 · 10-06-2008, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Sorry, but the place for entering managing mode has been always in the same spot since version 1, the league schedule screen. Now you can even access it from the manager home screen. If you would just spend a few minutes checking the manual or watching the tutorials then you wouldn't have to post this.

The interface is by far the most intuitive and powerful of any baseball sim.

and as an IT Manager I agree!!

robc · 10-06-2008, 09:40 PM

I am new to OOTP with this version. While I did have to hunt around a bit to find things, I definitely made sense of it within the first day of playing it. After that I did read the manual to learn more of the details.

Software comes with manuals (or has online manuals) for a reason. Sometimes you need some help from the people who wrote the software to learn how to use it. If you don't want to make the effort to learn the game, that is fine. But to say its horrible because you don't want to make the effort is a little rediculous.

As a software developer I do have to agree the interfact lets you do a lot and with a little effort you can learn where things are. Is it perfect? Probably not, but I do think it is good.

PhillieFever · 10-06-2008, 10:20 PM

I was new to the entire world of "baseball sims" when I found this game and have never had any of the problems you speak of.I find the interface to be very intuitive and quite natural actually.Maybe you're just having a bad day,take a deep breath, relax and try it again when you're in a better mood

spitfire · 10-07-2008, 12:38 AM

I spent a lot of time playing version 6 and was thoroughly confused when I tried to play the demo of the next version (I wasn't alone as I recall ...), so I can understand what the OP is saying. Didn't pick up a new edition of the game till OOTP8. Once I got into it, it didn't really take long to find my way around, and learning to use the bookmarks helped a lot. My advice would be to set up a small fictional league and just play around with it for awhile, learning the interface and how to get things done. The game starts to make sense pretty quickly. Just waiting for the "final"

patch of version 9 to get a new league up and running. I always try to start fresh with a new league when a major patch comes along. Kind'a painful to abandon a league with some history, but this seems a decent way to avoid some of the trouble others report after patching.

Eugene Church · 10-07-2008, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bosunmate

I also think you should give this verswion a longer look. There have been some HUGE changes to this game, And i agree at first look you think my god way to complex. But as the days go by before you know it's a breeze and believe me I'm a junior-senior and thought no way. Now I can't go a day without firing up my league if only to look at the stats. I think Battist did a good job on the manual. Don't throw in the towel yet...

Good advice.

stremok, I felt the same as you initially and thought Markus had ruined the game.

I am pretty poor when it comes to computers and was also overwhelmed by the complexity of OOTPB 2006, but struggled through it and slowly learned how to play the game. I know someone with your computer literacy will be able to handle it.

It really is a jolt to go from OOTP6 to OOTP9, but it is well worth it.

It really is a great game and far, far superior to OOTP6.

I read the manual to learn the game. I would open the game and just follow the manual line-by-line to learn the game. Took a while, but I did it.

I often post questions about where to find this or how to do this...and the Community always comes through for me.

Hope you change your mind and give it another chance.

Lucas718 · 10-07-2008, 07:33 AM

I also found the game intimidating when we went from 6.5 to OOTP2006. I found it confusing to try to navigate around and try to remember how to find certain screens. It was frustrating and I didn't complete a single season in that version. I was a loyal OOTP customer since OOTP3 so I thought I'd give it another shot when OOTP2007 came out. Gradually over time I got used to the new interface and now I'm back to playing almost every day like I used to do in the early days. You just have to stick with it.

rasnell · 10-07-2008, 11:54 AM

The manager home page is one of the most basic, user friendly pages of all. You can do almost everything from here and Markus even enhanced it with stats and team highlights.

The ability to customize view and have bookmarks attached to your function keys F2, F3, etc. is the simplest way to set this game exactly as you want. My keys allow me to go from left to right from today's game, schedule, rotation, lineups, league home page, etc.

Where a newcomer could be extremely intimidated is at the very first time and setting up your own league. There are so many adjustments and things to tweak that you're way better off starting with skydog's fictional league or a quickstart where somebody has done all the tinkering for you.

Like some of the best war games, the learning curve seems to match the replayability and depth. Only a few years ago, I thought OOTP was about the fourth best text baseball game on the market. In the past two years, nobody comes close to OOTP. Markus even surpassed the gold standard that was Strat-O-Matic especially with career play and saving us hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in season stat disks.

RchW · 10-07-2008, 03:33 PM

I agree with Rasnell above. To the OP please don't take our responses as attacks. The interface is different but not worse and in many cases better. There are individual things that could be better but in total I find it easy to set up my leagues to my preferences.

Give OOTP 9 another chance and let us help you through the learning curve. The reward in gaming satisfaction is worth the effort.

Mattymo · 10-07-2008, 04:03 PM

this guy will never post again...he probably never even bought the product. Or he's just looking for a reaction. Or he's an idiot. Maybe all 3?

I'll preface this as saying I'm rather arrogant and I think that, if I can do it, than everyone should be able to do it. But seriously, the game is so simple to use...I owned OOTP3 and never even knew there were forums or manuals and I figured it out without a problem. I'm the type of person that, if I can't figure it out in 5 mins, then I want nothing to do with it...and I'm in love with OOTP9.

WAH!

Eugene Church · 10-07-2008, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattymo

this guy will never post again...he probably never even bought the product. Or he's just looking for a reaction. Or he's an idiot. Maybe all 3?

I'll preface this as saying I'm rather arrogant and I think that, if I can do it, than everyone should be able to do it. But seriously, the game is so simple to use...I owned OOTP3 and never even knew there were forums or manuals and I figured it out without a problem. I'm the type of person that, if I can't figure it out in 5 mins, then I want nothing to do with it...and I'm in love with OOTP9.

WAH!

One should ask three questions when they post a reply:

Is is true?

Is it kind?

Is it necessary?

If the answer to any one of these is "no", then IMHO it should not be posted.

kq76 · 10-07-2008, 05:03 PM

For those of us taken aback by the original post, we should keep in mind that posts like it were pretty prevalent not too long ago. It is curious to see it now, 3 versions into this generation, but maybe he took a break from OOTP and has just now come back. Many of us went through those same feelings so we should be able to empathize.

To the OP: If you really loved OOTP6, take some of the advice from the posters above and give OOTP9 another shot. Like many of us already went through long ago, it sounds like you just need to re-learn the game in an effective way. If you try to pick it up and just play it like you did 6, you're likely to become frustrated fast. Learn it like you would a new game (take your time, fool around awhile, get well accustomed to what all the different screens have) and you just might be able to fall in love with it all over again.

10-06-2008, 06:16 PM	#1
stremok New User Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 1	I did not want to post a rant but here it is. I used to love OOTP. I started with one of the earlier versions, did a few local leagues with my friends. However, every version the game is more intimidating. I bough 9 when it came out. I just now installed and tried to use for the 5th time. I finally got a job and moved the date up to my first game and have no idea how to play. Im done with OOTP. A great fantastic friggin engine thrashed by the most unintuitive menu ever created. Why would the top 5 players of my opposing team for today be easier to find than whatever it is lets you enter play by play (im guessing it still has pbp). Anyway, as an IT consultant, i can honestly say if this were productivity software, i would ban it from all clients as it generates more questions than does anything. I'll just reload 6 or play BM i guess as 9 is junk. How did it go from a baseball sim to a spreadsheet designer?

10-06-2008, 08:37 PM	#7
cgh3rd Minors (Single A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 83	Download a preset Quick Start game and just start playing. As you become familiar with how the game works you can get deeper into it. There is definitely a learning curve to the new versions. This is the first version I have really gotten into since 6. I was completely lost trying to set a league up initially. Then I dl'd the NABA quick start made a couple of setting adjustments I prefer and I haven't looked back. __________________ Thanks, Chuck Senior member on the board with the least amount of posts.

10-06-2008, 10:20 PM	#12
PhillieFever Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Elk Twp. NJ Posts: 6,763	I was new to the entire world of "baseball sims" when I found this game and have never had any of the problems you speak of.I find the interface to be very intuitive and quite natural actually.Maybe you're just having a bad day,take a deep breath, relax and try it again when you're in a better mood __________________ We're All Wednesday Aren't We? WAWAW Last edited by PhillieFever; 10-07-2008 at 12:41 AM.

10-07-2008, 12:38 AM	#13
spitfire All Star Reserve Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 543	I spent a lot of time playing version 6 and was thoroughly confused when I tried to play the demo of the next version (I wasn't alone as I recall ...), so I can understand what the OP is saying. Didn't pick up a new edition of the game till OOTP8. Once I got into it, it didn't really take long to find my way around, and learning to use the bookmarks helped a lot. My advice would be to set up a small fictional league and just play around with it for awhile, learning the interface and how to get things done. The game starts to make sense pretty quickly. Just waiting for the "final" patch of version 9 to get a new league up and running. I always try to start fresh with a new league when a major patch comes along. Kind'a painful to abandon a league with some history, but this seems a decent way to avoid some of the trouble others report after patching. Last edited by spitfire; 10-07-2008 at 12:39 AM. Reason: spelling error!

10-07-2008, 07:33 AM	#15
Lucas718 Major Leagues Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 401	I also found the game intimidating when we went from 6.5 to OOTP2006. I found it confusing to try to navigate around and try to remember how to find certain screens. It was frustrating and I didn't complete a single season in that version. I was a loyal OOTP customer since OOTP3 so I thought I'd give it another shot when OOTP2007 came out. Gradually over time I got used to the new interface and now I'm back to playing almost every day like I used to do in the early days. You just have to stick with it. Last edited by Lucas718; 10-07-2008 at 07:35 AM.

10-06-2008, 06:20 PM	#2
Markus Heinsohn Developer OOTP Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Germany Posts: 24,805	Sorry, but the place for entering managing mode has been always in the same spot since version 1, the league schedule screen. Now you can even access it from the manager home screen. If you would just spend a few minutes checking the manual or watching the tutorials then you wouldn't have to post this. The interface is by far the most intuitive and powerful of any baseball sim.

10-06-2008, 08:08 PM	#4
Raidergoo Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 9,005	If you want to play a spreadsheet, I suggest Front Office Football.

10-06-2008, 08:30 PM	#6
Sweed Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Iowa Posts: 6,748	Wow. Well I'm not an IT consultant. I don't have a college degree. I'm just your average schmoll putting his kids through college so they can have it better than me. And yet I picked up the first OOTP that went to this GUI and was up and playing in minutes. Go figure. Same old menu options are still across the top of the screen. Try MLB(or whatever your league is)>scores-schedule. Pretty tough stuff for a professional like yourself Or of course you could mouse over the icons at the bottom, they all have tool tips so you don't even have to read the manual. The tool tip if you mouse over the baseball says "play games from the league schedule". Again pretty complex Clay is that you? Seriously though DrSatan has given you some good advice. Look over the manual, though IMHO simply using the tool tips on screen and checking out the menus should get you to most of what you want in minutes. The best place to go would probably be the manager home page. Top menu "manager>home page" or simply click the House Icon next to manager at the bottom of the screen. This page will take you to almost everything in the game. If you really enjoyed previous versions of OOTP you really owe it to yourself to take a half hour to look over the GUI. It is well worth the time.

10-06-2008, 09:40 PM	#11
robc Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 2,095	I am new to OOTP with this version. While I did have to hunt around a bit to find things, I definitely made sense of it within the first day of playing it. After that I did read the manual to learn more of the details. Software comes with manuals (or has online manuals) for a reason. Sometimes you need some help from the people who wrote the software to learn how to use it. If you don't want to make the effort to learn the game, that is fine. But to say its horrible because you don't want to make the effort is a little rediculous. As a software developer I do have to agree the interfact lets you do a lot and with a little effort you can learn where things are. Is it perfect? Probably not, but I do think it is good.

10-07-2008, 11:54 AM	#16
rasnell Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Frankfort, Kentucky Posts: 3,746	The manager home page is one of the most basic, user friendly pages of all. You can do almost everything from here and Markus even enhanced it with stats and team highlights. The ability to customize view and have bookmarks attached to your function keys F2, F3, etc. is the simplest way to set this game exactly as you want. My keys allow me to go from left to right from today's game, schedule, rotation, lineups, league home page, etc. Where a newcomer could be extremely intimidated is at the very first time and setting up your own league. There are so many adjustments and things to tweak that you're way better off starting with skydog's fictional league or a quickstart where somebody has done all the tinkering for you. Like some of the best war games, the learning curve seems to match the replayability and depth. Only a few years ago, I thought OOTP was about the fourth best text baseball game on the market. In the past two years, nobody comes close to OOTP. Markus even surpassed the gold standard that was Strat-O-Matic especially with career play and saving us hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in season stat disks. __________________ Charlie Root won more games for the Cubs than any pitcher (201), yet was remembered for one pitch to Babe Ruth. Find out more about the 1929 World Series in my book, "Root for the Cubs: Charlie Root and the 1929 Chicago Cubs." See the web site at www.rootforthecubs.com. The book is at http://www.amazon.com/Root-Cubs-Char...t+for+the+cubs. Beta tester, OOTP 2007-2023 and iOOTP 2011-2014.

10-07-2008, 03:33 PM	#17
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Toronto ON by way of Glasgow UK Posts: 15,629	I agree with Rasnell above. To the OP please don't take our responses as attacks. The interface is different but not worse and in many cases better. There are individual things that could be better but in total I find it easy to set up my leagues to my preferences. Give OOTP 9 another chance and let us help you through the learning curve. The reward in gaming satisfaction is worth the effort. __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

10-07-2008, 04:03 PM	#18
Mattymo All Star Starter Join Date: May 2002 Location: Colchester, CT Posts: 1,448	this guy will never post again...he probably never even bought the product. Or he's just looking for a reaction. Or he's an idiot. Maybe all 3? I'll preface this as saying I'm rather arrogant and I think that, if I can do it, than everyone should be able to do it. But seriously, the game is so simple to use...I owned OOTP3 and never even knew there were forums or manuals and I figured it out without a problem. I'm the type of person that, if I can't figure it out in 5 mins, then I want nothing to do with it...and I'm in love with OOTP9. WAH!

10-07-2008, 05:03 PM	#20
kq76 Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Posts: 11,831	For those of us taken aback by the original post, we should keep in mind that posts like it were pretty prevalent not too long ago. It is curious to see it now, 3 versions into this generation, but maybe he took a break from OOTP and has just now come back. Many of us went through those same feelings so we should be able to empathize. To the OP: If you really loved OOTP6, take some of the advice from the posters above and give OOTP9 another shot. Like many of us already went through long ago, it sounds like you just need to re-learn the game in an effective way. If you try to pick it up and just play it like you did 6, you're likely to become frustrated fast. Learn it like you would a new game (take your time, fool around awhile, get well accustomed to what all the different screens have) and you just might be able to fall in love with it all over again. __________________ My OOTP Wishlist \| My FAQ List OOTP Wiki \| Your Recommended Team Nicknames, By City (A Crowdsourced Project) For Beta/Devs: Full screen (1920x1080)