MLB should embrace OOTP

[abefrohman]

I've been a baseball fan my whole life. It is my favorite sport. And I have been a fan of baseball board games and computer games since I was a kid playing Strat-O-Matic and Earl Weaver Baseball.

I watched the game grow throughout the 1980s and look back with fond memories of sleeping in on Saturday mornings as an adolescent and watching the NBC "Game Of The Week" during the afternoon. Incidentally, I hope that I'm still allowed to refer to it as "Game Of The Week" and not required to use a fictional title. Be that as it may, I feel very fortunate to have grown up during that era, in spite of the fact that with the hindsight and retrospect that I have now as a forty-year old man that the game was not immune to scandals (drugs, collusion, two work stoppages) and a steroid issue which would later snowball into an epidemic during the next decade.

Major League Baseball took a huge hit in terms of popularity with its fans during the mid-1990s with a strike that ended what would have been one of the greatest and historical of all-time. We missed out on the chance to see Matt Williams break Roger Maris's record, Tony Gwynn hitting over .400 and the Montreal Expos winning the World Series, saving baseball in that city and getting a much-needed new stadium. Of course, there were not-so-great moments: the aforementioned steroid epidemic, an increasing number of players sporting goatees and mullets and the increasingly incompetent leadership coming from the Commissioner's Office.

Since that time, whether on purpose, accidental or simply incompetence, MLB has successfully alienated many of its fans with some asinine decisions over the years. Just to mention but a few: 1) The long-awaited release of the "This Week In Baseball" TV show (Season 1) on DVD in 2012. No promotion for it whatsoever. Never mind the fact that this program was and is a beloved show in the hearts and minds of many baseball fans who grew up watching it, none of that mattered to the powers that be at MLB who have yet to follow its release with the rest of the seasons. On a related note, MLB made the decision to cancel TWIB on FOX in 2012 with no press release or announcement. I guess that it wasn't as important as announcing that Spider-Man would be depicted on each base on the field or something. Regardless, it was ridiculous, even though the quality of the TWIB show had declined considerably since the passing of Mel Allen in 1996. 2) The equally ridiculous MLB "blackout" rules for TV networks. 3) The overdone "This Time It Counts" All-Star promotion/tagline. We get it. It counts. 4) The most recent decision to insist that OOTP Baseball change all real-life team nicknames to fictional ones. I would love to see a future licensing deal between MLB and OOTP as I would have loved to have seen one in the past. However, I must admit that I am cautiously pessimistic about the future of OOTP and I really don't feel comfortable with what appears to be an ominous tone emanating from the powers that be at MLB.

Major League Baseball has done a very good job at promoting the game abroad, but it would be nice if they remembered those of us back home in the USA and Canada. I'm not suggesting that baseball drop everything for us and kow-tow to our whims, but loyalty should be rewarded, not punished. Those of us who love the game love it sincerely and genuinely from the bottom of our hearts.. It would be nice if the game loved us back especially people like Markus who have worked above and beyond at providing us with a game that is more than just a game for most of us here. It is in fact, a way of life, and a connection between families, friends and strangers on the Internet whom have become families and friends to many.

It has connected real-life Major League Baseball players such as Curt Schilling and Pat Neshek to their fans. To paraphrase James Earl Jones from the movie Field Of Dreams, it reminds us of what once was great and what can be great again. It bonds generations and teaches us about history in a way that couldn't be taught in a classroom environment. It has demonstrated the talents and brilliance of writers like Orcin and Hendu who, laugh if you want, I believe could work for a Major League Baseball front office. If those people at Baseball Prospectus can find jobs, why not people like Orcin and Hendu who are equally as intelligent and knowledgeable of the game?

There are so many things that Major League Baseball should be focused on, but instead they continue to prove how out of touch they are by focusing on issues that continue to hurt the game such as instant replay and the new home plate collision rule. We've seen how instant replay has worked out over the past two months and I'm starting to refer to it now as "instant delay" because I think that's a more apt description of it. I don't recall NASA having Space Shuttle launches getting delayed as much as this. It's ridiculous and obviously wasn't very well thought-out by MLB which doesn't seem surprising considering their track record in recent years. And as for the home plate collision rule, let's just call it what it is-the "Buster Posey Rule". This was all about money. Plain and simple. Young catchers like Posey are rare gems in today's game and MLB knows that they help bring fans to the ballpark. I get that and appreciate it. However, why must we drastically have to change the rules for colliding into a catcher because one guy suffered an unfortunate injury, which BTW wasn't a cheap shot? I don't like to see anybody get hurt during a game, but home plate collisions have been a part of the game for years. And while we're on the subject, what about collisions at other bases? Don't infielders count as much as catchers? It's ridiculous and if MLB would spend as much time focusing on PEDs as they do with petty issues such as this, we would all be a lot better off.

And yet, despite all of this, we still love the game. We may not always love Major League Baseball, but we love the game of baseball. And that is why we love OOTP because it allows us the chance to step into the shoes of a manager, GM or even Commissioner. I'm willing to bet that many of us who have been in "Commissioner Mode" could do a better job than Bud Selig. Not that it would take much, but I would put my faith in many people here to be Commissioner a heck of a lot more than I do with Selig. IMHO Selig is one of the worst commissioners in Major League Baseball history and after he's gone I wouldn't doubt that we'll find out a lot of dirty stuff happened behind the scenes on his watch. I don't wish anything bad on him and I sincerely hopes he leaves a long time. I just look forward to the day when he's no longer Commissioner. Not that he's the only one to blame because Major League Baseball as a collective has failed big time with alienating its fans. We deserve better, MLB. And, speaking as a fan of OOTP, I think it is absolutely shameful how you are treating Markus over this copyright stuff. I understand that there are laws and rules as far as copyrights, name and likeness, etc. go, but this is beyond petty. As far as I'm concerned, you whiffed big on this one.

[jaysdailydose]

I think you are making a mountain out of a molehill.

They are an American business enterprise, first and foremost -- and also the only one that is allowed to act as an unquestioned monopoly.

They are going to protect their trademarks, it is really as simple as that.

We had a really good discussion going about it, but that was more speculation that anything. Wait until someone from the development team actually tells you the sky is falling before you make a bigger deal out of this than it is at this point.

[24Rocks]

Yes agreed but Like jaysdailydose we got the wagons going but its all talk Markus said in his last comment that

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

No worries. Everything is up for negotiation of course. But if we had to remove important features, we'd not get a license

I remember a time in OOTP7 or OOTP 8 we were complaining about no real nick names and I remember starting up a new game and having to change the all the GD nick names I was annoying but if my memory severs me well there were no nick names in 5,6,6.5 ( those are the versions I played) so its may be annoying but Its our game well Markus game and not the MLBs we will live with what we get.

[jaysdailydose]

Yeah, I'm not concerned at all.

If anything, based on the tenor of Markus's replies, we might get more options from a deal he'd work out.

[Fyrestorm3]

Yeah. While I agree that Major League Baseball is usually over-the-top and occasionally out of touch with its fanbase, I think this whole situation is getting blown seriously out of proportion. They're enforcing their trademark, which they have every right to do - that's the entire point of a trademark. In fact, it should be surprising that OOTP used the MLB trademarks for this long without issue.

From what Markus said, he's optimistic that they'll work out a licensing deal for OOTP16, but he also said that if worse comes to worst, and they make serious feature removal demands, he just won't license. End of story. The two outcomes for OOTP16 that I see as plausible are 1) MLB licenses OOTP and we get proper team names with a very minimal feature reduction (steroid storylines and the like might be cut for MLB leagues only, for example), or 2) MLB doesn't license OOTP, and within a day of release, someone will have an MLB Quickstart ready to go.

Let's not lose sight of the big picture here - the MLB is aware of OOTP. That means that OOTP is getting some serious recognition, which should be some of the best news ever. There's no reason to automatically assume that MLB is going to hack and slash OOTP to bits in licensing negotiations, and that OOTPD will let it happen. Will they try? Probably. Will they succeed? Markus has already decided that they will not.

[24Rocks]

I think He did get some sort of agreement with them because I remember the version it came out it was a big deal.

[Rockfan616]

I'm not too worried about it, I have a feeling like it was said above even if it's not licensed someone will come up with an MLB quickstart anyway within a day or two.....we'll make do with it that's all until then. It'll be a pain in the butt to change all the team names into the MLB team names and then import all the logos into it but we'll make do with it I'm sure, at least until there is a licensing agreement in place.

[MrDov]

On an unrelated but still somewhat related note, has anyone ever contacted the OOTP people about using the real names and likenesses of high school and college players? Like the first couple draft pools will usually have the top real guys in. I know that's a big-time no-no for the college guys and I'm sure there is something protecting the high school guys too.

And I want to be clear I am in no way complaining, this is just something I've been curious about for a while now.

[BusterKing]

Like I said, I don't want no stinking license if it means losing ONE of our present features. And this includes drug suspensions. It's in the real game, I want it in there.

I'll change the names of the teams myself, done it years ago. No big deal.

[ezpkns34]

Originally Posted by abefrohman

I've been a baseball fan my whole life. It is my favorite sport. And I have been a fan of baseball board games and computer games since I was a kid playing Strat-O-Matic and Earl Weaver Baseball.

I watched the game grow throughout the 1980s and look back with fond memories of sleeping in on Saturday mornings as an adolescent and watching the NBC "Game Of The Week" during the afternoon. Incidentally, I hope that I'm still allowed to refer to it as "Game Of The Week" and not required to use a fictional title. Be that as it may, I feel very fortunate to have grown up during that era, in spite of the fact that with the hindsight and retrospect that I have now as a forty-year old man that the game was not immune to scandals (drugs, collusion, two work stoppages) and a steroid issue which would later snowball into an epidemic during the next decade.

Major League Baseball took a huge hit in terms of popularity with its fans during the mid-1990s with a strike that ended what would have been one of the greatest and historical of all-time. We missed out on the chance to see Matt Williams break Roger Maris's record, Tony Gwynn hitting over .400 and the Montreal Expos winning the World Series, saving baseball in that city and getting a much-needed new stadium. Of course, there were not-so-great moments: the aforementioned steroid epidemic, an increasing number of players sporting goatees and mullets and the increasingly incompetent leadership coming from the Commissioner's Office.

Since that time, whether on purpose, accidental or simply incompetence, MLB has successfully alienated many of its fans with some asinine decisions over the years. Just to mention but a few: 1) The long-awaited release of the "This Week In Baseball" TV show (Season 1) on DVD in 2012. No promotion for it whatsoever. Never mind the fact that this program was and is a beloved show in the hearts and minds of many baseball fans who grew up watching it, none of that mattered to the powers that be at MLB who have yet to follow its release with the rest of the seasons. On a related note, MLB made the decision to cancel TWIB on FOX in 2012 with no press release or announcement. I guess that it wasn't as important as announcing that Spider-Man would be depicted on each base on the field or something. Regardless, it was ridiculous, even though the quality of the TWIB show had declined considerably since the passing of Mel Allen in 1996. 2) The equally ridiculous MLB "blackout" rules for TV networks. 3) The overdone "This Time It Counts" All-Star promotion/tagline. We get it. It counts. 4) The most recent decision to insist that OOTP Baseball change all real-life team nicknames to fictional ones. I would love to see a future licensing deal between MLB and OOTP as I would have loved to have seen one in the past. However, I must admit that I am cautiously pessimistic about the future of OOTP and I really don't feel comfortable with what appears to be an ominous tone emanating from the powers that be at MLB.

Major League Baseball has done a very good job at promoting the game abroad, but it would be nice if they remembered those of us back home in the USA and Canada. I'm not suggesting that baseball drop everything for us and kow-tow to our whims, but loyalty should be rewarded, not punished. Those of us who love the game love it sincerely and genuinely from the bottom of our hearts.. It would be nice if the game loved us back especially people like Markus who have worked above and beyond at providing us with a game that is more than just a game for most of us here. It is in fact, a way of life, and a connection between families, friends and strangers on the Internet whom have become families and friends to many.

It has connected real-life Major League Baseball players such as Curt Schilling and Pat Neshek to their fans. To paraphrase James Earl Jones from the movie Field Of Dreams, it reminds us of what once was great and what can be great again. It bonds generations and teaches us about history in a way that couldn't be taught in a classroom environment. It has demonstrated the talents and brilliance of writers like Orcin and Hendu who, laugh if you want, I believe could work for a Major League Baseball front office. If those people at Baseball Prospectus can find jobs, why not people like Orcin and Hendu who are equally as intelligent and knowledgeable of the game?

There are so many things that Major League Baseball should be focused on, but instead they continue to prove how out of touch they are by focusing on issues that continue to hurt the game such as instant replay and the new home plate collision rule. We've seen how instant replay has worked out over the past two months and I'm starting to refer to it now as "instant delay" because I think that's a more apt description of it. I don't recall NASA having Space Shuttle launches getting delayed as much as this. It's ridiculous and obviously wasn't very well thought-out by MLB which doesn't seem surprising considering their track record in recent years. And as for the home plate collision rule, let's just call it what it is-the "Buster Posey Rule". This was all about money. Plain and simple. Young catchers like Posey are rare gems in today's game and MLB knows that they help bring fans to the ballpark. I get that and appreciate it. However, why must we drastically have to change the rules for colliding into a catcher because one guy suffered an unfortunate injury, which BTW wasn't a cheap shot? I don't like to see anybody get hurt during a game, but home plate collisions have been a part of the game for years. And while we're on the subject, what about collisions at other bases? Don't infielders count as much as catchers? It's ridiculous and if MLB would spend as much time focusing on PEDs as they do with petty issues such as this, we would all be a lot better off.

And yet, despite all of this, we still love the game. We may not always love Major League Baseball, but we love the game of baseball. And that is why we love OOTP because it allows us the chance to step into the shoes of a manager, GM or even Commissioner. I'm willing to bet that many of us who have been in "Commissioner Mode" could do a better job than Bud Selig. Not that it would take much, but I would put my faith in many people here to be Commissioner a heck of a lot more than I do with Selig. IMHO Selig is one of the worst commissioners in Major League Baseball history and after he's gone I wouldn't doubt that we'll find out a lot of dirty stuff happened behind the scenes on his watch. I don't wish anything bad on him and I sincerely hopes he leaves a long time. I just look forward to the day when he's no longer Commissioner. Not that he's the only one to blame because Major League Baseball as a collective has failed big time with alienating its fans. We deserve better, MLB. And, speaking as a fan of OOTP, I think it is absolutely shameful how you are treating Markus over this copyright stuff. I understand that there are laws and rules as far as copyrights, name and likeness, etc. go, but this is beyond petty. As far as I'm concerned, you whiffed big on this one.

[StyxNCa]

I'm just curious. Did SOM or any of the tabletop games ever need a license from MLB or the player union to use team and player names?

[StyxNCa]

Said it before. I have no problem adding the real team names myself. I do a lot more than that when I create a league anyway.

[sandman2575]

I understand MLB's right to enforce trademarks, etc., but just have to say -- this has single-handedly ruined the way I like to play OOTP.

Just installed patch 3. Not fully realizing the implications of the 'new team logos/names embargo' (need more coffee, I guess), I went to set up a new league, which I've been holding off on doing in ootp15 til a few patches came out.

My preferred way to play is with the real-life MLB team structure with fictional players. Now, in order to do that, I not only have to manually change all the MLB team names, logos, stadiums etc. to real life, but all the minor league teams as well?? No way.

This truly sucks.

EDIT -- WOW, this not only applies to the way I play, but *also* to the standard 2014 MLB game? This completely defeats the point of the All-In-One mod. Am I missing something??

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by sandman2575

I understand MLB's right to enforce trademarks, etc., but just have to say -- this has single-handedly ruined the way I like to play OOTP.

Just installed patch 3. Not fully realizing the implications of the 'new team logos/names embargo' (need more coffee, I guess), I went to set up a new league, which I've been holding off on doing in ootp15 til a few patches came out.

My preferred way to play is with the real-life MLB team structure with fictional players. Now, in order to do that, I not only have to manually change all the MLB team names, logos, stadiums etc. to real life, but all the minor league teams as well?? No way.

This truly sucks.

Not trying to be a jerk, but Markus said right in the patch announcement thread (as well as saying it earlier this week) that team nicknames were removed, so that should not have been a surprise.

However, if the all-in-one mod is no longer available with logos (or maybe the lack of nicknames keeps the game from properly installing the all-in-one mod), that is a much bigger pain in the butt.

[Cryomaniac]

Originally Posted by Fyrestorm3

There's no reason to automatically assume that MLB is going to hack and slash OOTP to bits in licensing negotiations, and that OOTPD will let it happen. Will they try? Probably. Will they succeed? Markus has already decided that they will not.

The problem is that without MLB team names the recognition means nothing, or at least it means less than it would with them.

[sandman2575]

Originally Posted by BIG17EASY

Not trying to be a jerk, but Markus said right in the patch announcement thread (as well as saying it earlier this week) that team nicknames were removed, so that should not have been a surprise.

However, if the all-in-one mod is no longer available with logos (or maybe the lack of nicknames keeps the game from properly installing the all-in-one mod), that is a much bigger pain in the butt.

Yes, you're right Markus announced it. But the implications are just sinking in for me.

For me, this is a WAY bigger deal than the game shipping without 3D stadiums. I'm going to have to stick with OOTP14. There is no way I have time to manually change all the team names and logos for the entire MLB and MiLB.

I'm sorry to be 'that guy,' but I am seriously regretting buying 15 at this point. I know Markus and co. had no control over MLB's actions, but the bottom line is, I can't play 15 the way I want to play OOTP. It's a serious bummer.

[BIG17EASY]

Originally Posted by sandman2575

Yes, you're right Markus announced it. But the implications are just sinking in for me.

For me, this is a WAY bigger deal than the game shipping without 3D stadiums. I'm going to have to stick with OOTP14. There is no way I have time to manually change all the team names and logos for the entire MLB and MiLB.

I'm sorry to be 'that guy,' but I am seriously regretting buying 15 at this point. I know Markus and co. had no control over MLB's actions, but the bottom line is, I can't play 15 the way I want to play OOTP. It's a serious bummer.

You can always roll back to the previous build of 15 if there's a link somewhere. Personally, I'm not installing this patch until I get a sense of just how much is changed and how it affects the mods in Add-Ons Central. Worst case scenario for me is that I finish creating all games I might want to play at this point, then install the patch.

[Airdrop01]

Hey, since I am not installing the new patch, are the real players, etc. still there? I haven't ever seen an MLBPA or MiLBPA license stamp or notation on the software.....

[The Wolf]

I'm not installing this patch. Why should I? There's too much loss for very little gain.

[megamanmatt]

Originally Posted by sandman2575

Yes, you're right Markus announced it. But the implications are just sinking in for me.

For me, this is a WAY bigger deal than the game shipping without 3D stadiums. I'm going to have to stick with OOTP14. There is no way I have time to manually change all the team names and logos for the entire MLB and MiLB.

I'm sorry to be 'that guy,' but I am seriously regretting buying 15 at this point. I know Markus and co. had no control over MLB's actions, but the bottom line is, I can't play 15 the way I want to play OOTP. It's a serious bummer.

Yes you can, you just have to do more work for it. You not wanting to do that is different than "can't."