What is your favorite.....

[Scoman]

Way to play the game?

Fictional play,historical play,or Perfect team.


For me it has always been 99% historical play.

Starting in 1901 and control Cleveland thru modern day.

[progen]

None of the above. Standard, sim 5-7 years to build up some history, then take over an expansion team, stats only. Been playing since OOTP6.

[Ataraxzy]

Purely fictional. Starting in the 1890s with no historical players, using a HS league and building it up every year with another level until I naturally get an MLB with full minors.

[progen]

Originally Posted by Ataraxzy

Purely fictional. Starting in the 1890s with no historical players, using a HS league and building it up every year with another level until I naturally get an MLB with full minors.

Like that idea. Wish the game (much like Football Manager) would do that for us in GM mode. It's always fun in FM to interview for jobs and try and move up from the lower league levels, with your sites on a club at the very top of whatever league interests you.

Here, you have to do it manually, and to be fair, only move up if it makes sense. In this game, you can start out at any level, with no experience and manage a major league club. Always wished they would concentrate more on the GM side of things, but still a great game, and one I have pre-ordered and will be playing the new version on Tuesday. Been playing since OOTP6.

[swoboda]

Fictional league made of handpicked historic teams. The greats and the near greats. I pick one team to gm and manage and play em all out.

[Syd Thrift]

I've been playing out an all-fictional league using historical teams/minor league systems/etc. for a few iterations now. I like to take it very, very slowly and kind of experience the league as if I was watching actual baseball unfold over the course of a season.

I think the experience has taught me a lot about how baseball works. Like, I don't think I can think of "replay seasons" any longer the way we did back in the day when we were like "oh man remember 1995? I'm gonna get this game so I can replay that year". I accept and enjoy the fact that every player and every team is constantly in transition and even the World Series champs were just the best team in baseball for one fleeting moment.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by swoboda

Fictional league made of handpicked historic teams. The greats and the near greats. I pick one team to gm and manage and play em all out.

How does your game move from year to year. Do you hand pick the players in each years draft?

[tonnage]

Fictional. My current league I started in 1931, simmed ahead 40 years to get some history, and I'm now in year 1982. This is my third fictional league but the one I'm happiest with so I think I'll be sticking with it.

[Mr. Marlin]

Fictional stats only with feeders and fictional international and indy leagues. I tried historical and did get into it but it's a computer game. Things happen that did not... COULD not have in real life. For some that is a big part of the appeal of historical play. But it drove me nuts LOL! Fictional is better got me because I have no preconceived notions.

[omg_pwnasaurus]

Historical, typically starting in the early 1980's, I think my '25 save is going to be starting with the Mets in 1983 or so and seeing if I can turn that great farm system into a dynasty.

[Syd Thrift]

The "no preconceived notions" thing is part of why I got into fictional play but to be honest, the more I do it, the more that it just feels more real than "historical" leagues. I think the paradigm of "historical" is essentially those old Strat-O-Matic seasons you had to pay extra money for. With this, you get done with the first one, you try to build for the next with the same roster but you're still sort of treating each season as a new set of "cards" instead of dynamic players who evolve and adapt.

Starting with the development engine one and only importing rookies does go a long way towards resolving that, although there are people out there who get mad because then the AI starts, like, using Nolan Ryan in relief in the early 70s or never takes Dennis Eckersley out of a starting role. You're back to "preconceived notions" but it's more than that: in a fictional league I can be assured that a player in July has had time to change/grow compared to what he was in March, and that more to the point a team's needs will change/grow/adapt by July compared to March. Player X was in the rotation in April; by July, maybe a guy has pitched well enough to get promoted, perhaps the player took a TCR hit, maybe we traded for a starter that pushes him out - now he's a relief pitcher. That's interesting to me, I have to say, way more interesting than the "fix it and forget it" method of old-school SOM style gameplay.

[fredbeene]

Originally Posted by Scoman

Way to play the game?

Fictional play,historical play,or Perfect team.


For me it has always been 99% historical play.

Starting in 1901 and control Cleveland thru modern day.

Historical and setting up what if scenarios.
Like to eventually control every team for at least a season.
I have so much fun getting know all the teams and players I never knew.
Once AI pbp is introduced, i will play out more games.

[Curve Ball Dave]

Each year I start with the current MLB, add and rename selected historical teams to make a 40 team league (4 divisions of 5 teams in each league), edit the structures of the minors to account for the additional teams' affiliates for which I made logos and uniforms, import a list of select historical players, then do a draft.

Then I see if I can build a winner over the seasons through drafting, trading, signing etc.

[zappa1]

Historical all the way except for 2 fictional. I have no fun playing today's baseball.

[manooly]

Purely fictional! My current MLB league started in 2001 with all fictional players. I'm currently in year 2041 of that league. I have invested a crazy amount of hours in it...and love it!

[Bluenoser]

MLB expanded to 36 teams. Fictional players. 3 divisions of 6 teams, no interleague play.

Schedule favours divisional play. 18 games vs div teams, 6 games vs teams in other 2 div's.

3 div winners plus 1 WC per league. Top 2 seeds get 5 home games in first round of play-offs 2H, 2A, 3H.

Rest of playoffs 2H - 3A - 2H.

I have some settings that may not necessarily be realistic, such as levelling the financial field and market sizes a bit, making sure owners are in it to win and not just profit. But then that's the beauty of OOTP, you can do things that aren't realistic and still enjoy the game of baseball very much.

Create your world and live in it

[crusadecat]

only Fictional, I'm sure the current and historical modes are just as great , but I enjoy not having pre conceived notions on performance.

[uruguru]

OOTP is a great way for me to reconnect with my childhood, so I like experimenting with historical leagues. It can be fun with some imagination.

For example, my dad threw a mediocre knuckleball. One thing I like to generate a fictional player for him, throw him on the 1962 expansion team and let my uncle (who was a diehard fan) manage the team.

[OzzieFan]

I currently only play MLB type setups with current rosters.

I have tried historical so many times, but I just can't get the settings right to make it feel fun.

[sofla97]

Current MLB, Korean and Fall development lg and play out most every game with the hardest settings the game has.