How do you be more immersive?

[ForeverRoyalKC]

I'll be honest...I am going thru a lot in my life right now and I am having trouble "feeling" my OOTP. I know that sounds strange, but I am having trouble concentrating and almost losing track of what I am doing. It's not overall mental, just something isn't firing right and I know why. What do you guys do to make your experience more immersive? Wear your teams cap or jersey? Make charts? How do you immersive yourselves during a game (I play classic 2d and watch entire game with PBP). How do you feel enveloped within the moment?
Any help is appreciated.

[Bluenoser]

Sometimes when playing out games, I like to pretend I'm on the radio calling the game, and that's what I do.

I'll act like the broadcaster and call the entire game. I like to use baseball terms too, like "can o corn", or "he hit that on a rope".

Another thing I do, not too often but on occasion, I'll fill out a score sheet for the game.

I guess what it boils down to, is I like to pretend I'm actually there at the park taking part in the game.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoyalKC

I'll be honest...I am going thru a lot in my life right now and I am having trouble "feeling" my OOTP. I know that sounds strange, but I am having trouble concentrating and almost losing track of what I am doing. It's not overall mental, just something isn't firing right and I know why. What do you guys do to make your experience more immersive? Wear your teams cap or jersey? Make charts? How do you immersive yourselves during a game (I play classic 2d and watch entire game with PBP). How do you feel enveloped within the moment?
Any help is appreciated.

I think what you are experiencing is pretty normal. Many might be hard core players for a few years but they get burnt out or the thrill subsides over time. Playing becomes more of a habit than enjoyment. Once the thrill starts going I'm not sure you can ever get it back unless you get a friend involved in the game. Some of their thrill will transfer to you.
Read the forum from 3 or 4 years ago and a lot of the guys that seemed to be hard core aren't around anymore. I use to be a hard core college sports fan and wanted to watch every game possible my school was involved in and got very excited if they won. Now I just watch a big game and if they win I am more like "that's nice" and if they lose, it doesn't affect my day.

[Sweed]

I play out every game in 3d. After the game my post game ritual is..

1. Review the score page of the day. Take in the scores, who hit HR, got the win, loss, save, player of the game etc. If a game peaks my interest I may open the box score. And of course check out the Players of the day at the top of the screen.

2. Read any mail I receive in my box. Cursor over any player links to see their popup box. If something peaks my interest I open that player's page. Think, player that seems to be on a roll. Maybe a new name P that is putting up some good stats. Who is he? When was he drafted/discovered? Is he really that good? etc.

3. Review standings. Doing this in detail on a daily basis can give a good feel for how the season is flowing.

4. Look at the "all transactions" report. Here I look at quite a few player popup boxes, and like above interesting ones I open their page.
4a. From the reports page I can click on the newspaper tab where I can see the headlines. Many of these stories were already mentioned in my email box so can be redundant.

5. Look over the waiver wire page. For this I have specific pitcher and batter views so I get a quick glance at skills, stats, and their current contract.

6. Look at my scout's page and review the recently scouted tab. Here I have a filter so I can look at only players from my organization and then clear the filter to see the whole list of who was scouted.

7. Look at the "top prospects" page. Sometimes I sort to just my team, but usually it's a cursory glance.

8. Go to my GM page that has a custome setup for the things I want to see daily.

9. Last.. Go to my team page. I review the main page that is custom built. After that I look at the schedule, batter, and pitcher pages with views letting me see what I need to see. All other tabs, front office, organization, IL, etc. etc. are looked at from time to time.

All of these pages are bookmarked (except the score page a bookmark here doesn't go to "today" but rather whatever day you last bookmarked it on) to make these steps quick and easy to do on a daily basis. And yes, I do this even on the days when I don't have a game scheduled. This can add 5 to 10 minutes to each day I play, but the immersion I get out of it is worth the time. Without doing it I would probably only really know what my team and players were doing. There would be no connection to the league or context when looking at my team and what they are doing.

[Bobbyraz49]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Sometimes when playing out games, I like to pretend I'm on the radio calling the game, and that's what I do.

I'll act like the broadcaster and call the entire game. I like to use baseball terms too, like "can o corn", or "he hit that on a rope".

Another thing I do, not too often but on occasion, I'll fill out a score sheet for the game.

I guess what it boils down to, is I like to pretend I'm actually there at the park taking part in the game.

I find myself doing play by play in my head. I just can't stop myself. And I'm really good at it.

[SidHickenbottom]

I've been through this and the main thing I tried was to play differently.



I used to sim pretty quickly and never play out games in real MLB, but now I play them out using short seasons in a highly customized fictional league. I've always played rebuilds and expansions but am dabbling in win now/plug and play saves. I've experimented with stats only or feeder leagues. You name it.



I definitely "call the game." I don't know if you folks know Northwoods Baseball Sleep Radio, but lately I've kinda been using that announcers vibe.

[dawg1isclear]

Pretty cool site...https://www.sleepbaseball.com/home

[ForeverRoyalKC]

Thanks for your replies!
That sleep baseball is wild. Truly unique!

[dawg1isclear]

Yeah, and effective, put me out after the 3rd inning!!!

[madcowsmind]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Sometimes when playing out games, I like to pretend I'm on the radio calling the game, and that's what I do.

I'll act like the broadcaster and call the entire game. I like to use baseball terms too, like "can o corn", or "he hit that on a rope".

Another thing I do, not too often but on occasion, I'll fill out a score sheet for the game.

I guess what it boils down to, is I like to pretend I'm actually there at the park taking part in the game.

I appreciate this! Before video games were huge, I played a baseball board game like Statis Pro and imagination was a necessity. And as I checked results on charts, I was narrating the game and doing crowd noises

[Syd Thrift]

I do think that at the very least, playing out your games is key. If you don’t want to go through 9 innings of baseball, sim until the 7th - from there each game is like 5-10 minutes long and you still get to make almost all key decisions if you’re into that (or watch your manager make them if you’re not).

[redranger]

I play out every game in 3d every pitch. I like to think from the mindset of being the manager and after every game I play it back in my head as if I’m in a press conference speaking to reporters about the game, season, players hot or cold, injuries, etc


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[dlefe]

I've always played 1-pitch mode since v6.5, but based on other comments, finally decided to play a full game in pitch-by-pitch. Although taking way-way-way longer, I have to admit, that it was really immersive. Might be my new way of playing.

[Hrycaj]

You asked about immersion during the game. For me, total immersion comes through writing about your game, team, league or all of the above. There are several ways of going about it. Several years back when I still played historical games a bit I did a 1984 replay as the Detroit Tigers. I became Sparky Anderson where as the game was going I was logging the on field action in narrative form, but would also write what I was thinking on the managerial side in real time and explaining my decision making. Then post game I would write a recap from the managerial perspective (like I was speaking to reporters or my bench coach) about what worked and what didn't. I would also do scouting reports for an upcoming series, talk about roster and lineup construction, all sorts of stuff. It works the same in a fictional league as well. I have done it from the perspective of a GM, a league reporter where I cover the whole league in broader strokes, there are a ton of options. Sometimes I make it a dynasty report, others times it is just to scratch my writing itch and I never post. In the end, for me, writing leads to the the most immersive experience. Good luck.

[Jasper70]

Originally Posted by madcowsmind

I appreciate this! Before video games were huge, I played a baseball board game like Statis Pro and imagination was a necessity. And as I checked results on charts, I was narrating the game and doing crowd noises

I do pretty much the same thing. However, I'm old enough to have in my minds eye as I do play by play Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese doing the game of the week. "You know partner........"
Oh if only I could do Harry and Richie!

[cheo25]

I use:

• Retro PA introductions instead of walk-up music for players
• Retro uniforms and ballparks
• "Broadcast" an NBC game of the week on Saturdays and a Sunday afternoon Astros radio broadcast, and sometimes I do the voices for the broadcasts.
• Retro schedules
• Keep yearly totals of head-to-head season series results for NL teams

[LloydLungs]

For certain games, I will copy/paste the boxscore into Chat GPT, tell it a few things to emphasize/focus on, and tell it to write a full game article like it's the beat reporter.

The stuff it churns out is pretty immersive. I try and keep one chat going for as long as I can, and it tends to remember little things about the league/teams as you go along and writes accordingly.

One time I gave it a boxscore but told it, don't write a standard game article, write like you're writing a chapter of a behind-the-scenes book, and use the game as a part of the day's narrative, and just give me a day in the life of a particular team. It churned out a bunch of mini-human interest stories about the players as they went about their game preparation, etc.

[Bobbyraz49]

This is a great topic.

[ForeverRoyalKC]

Thanks everyone for keeping this going!

I dont know how to explain it, but I could feel "gameday." All I do is GM and let the manager I hire manage all the games and I watch every pitch in classic 2D. I get excited to GM with free agency, international signings, seeing what breaks and what I'm offered in the winter meetings, etc.
I looked forward to each game day, as I always wanted to see how my team does and how my free agents perform.
But....life has really put pressure on me lately. A lot. My interest fades in and out. I know, for sure, it isn't that I'm burning out on OOTP. My mind is clouded and sometimes the "umph" isnt there. Sometimes, I will start a game and once it goes a couple of innings, I start to settle in and feel that game day feeling. But sometimes, I cant even get a game started.
I dont mean to dump on you guys about my personal life. I'm just looking for more ways to help respark my passion. It's there. It's just somewhat buried.

[blink]

Maybe it's time to switch your thinking from a team aspect to a player aspect.

Create a fictional player or yourself and follow their career through the minor league and MLB. Take it game by game and immerse yourself in your career.

Use your imagination. Have some house rules that would apply. For example, if you want a few games off, suspend yourself. Maybe you instigated a bench clearing brawl which resulted in a 6 game suspension. Maybe you were late to a team meeting or practice resulting in you sitting out a game.

Fed up with an organization? Demand a trade.
Sign with a different organization in the offseason. Put it in commish mode and have several teams offer you contracts and really court your attention.

There are many ways to play this game, doesn't have to be team aspect at all.....

My interest comes and goes as well but I ultimately end up coming back....