Fan Interest

[MisterTidster]

I’ve had a really difficult time with boosting fan interest. Playing as a GM & simming all games. Not sure what I’m missing. I’m enjoying the challenge of having a tightwad owner, but signing a Fan Fav seems to only give a one time boost and losing those Fan Favs to free agency tanks fan interest way more than the boost of signing or trading for one.

Winning the World Series is an awesome boost for fan interest, but you can do all the right things and still lose. I literally had 8 consecutive seasons of 95+ wins, but the fan interest didn’t move much, since my team kept choking in the playoffs.

My league evolved to extend the number of arbitration years, so most available free agents are “Wrecked” or well into the veteran decline and not worth signing for a fan interest boost when I have a guy in the minors that I can call up and expect to be the more productive option (both short and long term, especially relative to their salary).

So is there something I’m missing that I might not be doing to improve increasing fan interest, because simply winning a lot of games doesn’t seem to do the trick?

Also, it seems like promoting a top prospect to the roster ought to provide a fan interest boost in OOTP. From personal experience, I was able to make it out to the ballpark IRL for Jacob Misiorowski‘s pro debut, and there was certainly a little extra buzz in Milwaukee when he got called up.

[Winnipeg59]

While Fan Favorite is good as a personality trait, I tend toward the National and Local popularity to boost FI.

Extremely Popular
Very Popular
Popular
Well Known

Are all good ones in that order.
Of course you have to balance that with guys who can actually play.

[kq76]

This is an aspect of the game that I wish was tweaked. I think fan interest is far too affected by signing or losing players. Sure, it should be affected some by those, but I think it should be affected far more by recent team success.

And honestly, I don't think it should be affected at all by players who are popular, but who aren't also good players. The idea that fans come to games for guys who almost never leave the dugout bench is absurd. Sure, signing a superstar, popular or not, should help generate at least some fan interest, but not someone who is barely still in the show.

One tricky aspect of fan interest that I think exists IRL is as teams are getting better fan interest probably rises at a pretty good rate, but once they're good for a while I think it's only natural for fan interest to wane, à la the 1990s Braves. I'm not sure OOTP really captures that quick rise and slow decline.

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

...

Also, it seems like promoting a top prospect to the roster ought to provide a fan interest boost in OOTP. From personal experience, I was able to make it out to the ballpark IRL for Jacob Misiorowski‘s pro debut, and there was certainly a little extra buzz in Milwaukee when he got called up.

This is a really good idea! It should be in the game. (If it isn't already. I don't recall seeing it for a top prospect, but I also don't usually have a lot of really noteworthy top prospects). I do think people would get excited about a highly touted prospect finally making it to the majors.

[MisterTidster]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg59

While Fan Favorite is good as a personality trait, I tend toward the National and Local popularity to boost FI.

Extremely Popular
Very Popular
Popular
Well Known

Are all good ones in that order.
Of course you have to balance that with guys who can actually play.

I get that… I guess my struggle is that I can promote someone who is a fan Fav from the minors and only get a modest boost at best to my fan interest over his career, but when he gets old, injury prone, and a shadow of his former self, and he’s asking for a four year $25m a year deal, the fan interest will completely tank if I don’t resign him.

… although having grown up in Ohio, I remember when Cleveland’s IRL fan interest crashed after the Bartolo Colon trade to the Expos (although they got three guys that would eventually be productive big leaguers out of that deal, one of which went on to win a Cy Young, and one of my personal all time favorites in Grady Sizemore).

[Bobbyraz49]

[QUOTE=MisterTidster;5197015]I get that… I guess my struggle is that I can promote someone who is a fan Fav from the minors and only get a modest boost at best to my fan interest over his career, but when he gets old, injury prone, and a shadow of his former self, and he’s asking for a four year $25m a year deal, the fan interest will completely tank if I don’t resign him.

… although having grown up in Ohio, I remember when Cleveland’s IRL fan interest crashed after the Bartolo Colon trade to the Expos (although they got three guys that would eventually be productive big leaguers out of that deal, one of which went on to win a Cy Young, and one of my personal all time favorites in Grady Sizemore).[very /QUOTE]

I saw Grady play many times for the Buffalo Bisons. Was a fan favorite here in Buffalo/

[Winnipeg59]

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

I get that… I guess my struggle is that I can promote someone who is a fan Fav from the minors and only get a modest boost at best to my fan interest over his career, but when he gets old, injury prone, and a shadow of his former self, and he’s asking for a four year $25m a year deal, the fan interest will completely tank if I don’t resign him.

As this thread suggests, this whole area of the game could be improved.

I tend to find that the signing/releasing stage is when you have the impact, not necessarily the promotion of someone already in your organization (in fact, cannot recall that having much, if any, effect) unless the player has a VERY negative trait and you remove him from the roster.

If you ever receive a message about something boosting (or dropping) FI, make a note to yourself and then replicate the good stuff!

Personally I always find it odd when players in the minors (whether veteran, or just have a good trait) affect my FI through some kind of move.

FI does have a "modifier" in addition to the team rating, which I assume is to replicate a temporary boost or drop when a high profile player is involved. No idea what the attack and release might be on that. Or at what point a level (or sustained level) triggers a move in the base FI number. That's all "under the hood" stuff I suspect.

[omg_pwnasaurus]

I had someone in 1986 chase and then break Maris' HR record and fan interest actually decreased because even though I was 20 games over, I was 10 games out of first. The fact that the HR record chase didn't increase fan interest/attendance (and in fact decreased it) was odd to me so I manually increased it lol, but yeah I don't think it is working all that well tbh. The game certainly knows a legendary HR record chase was ongoing as it kept reminding me where the player sat in the record books in game after every HR.

[MisterTidster]

You know, as I think about it more, tracking players’ “social media followers” and making that a factor might make for a great addition to future versions of the game. It’s a part of sports that is changing how players interact with fans. Fan Favorites in real life are often what the game classifies as “outspoken”, but that openness is often what fans connect with. Adding Social Media followers to the game could lead to some new events that affect fan interest positively and negatively scaling of the number of followers… perhaps an outspoken pitcher could complain to their social media followers about getting pulled for a reliever that blew the deciding playoff game and get the fans to call for firing the GM or a coach, or perhaps he just tells a funny behind the scenes story that gets fans more excited about the team (high risk, high reward).

[chrismeglan]

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

I get that… I guess my struggle is that I can promote someone who is a fan Fav from the minors and only get a modest boost at best to my fan interest over his career, but when he gets old, injury prone, and a shadow of his former self, and he’s asking for a four year $25m a year deal, the fan interest will completely tank if I don’t resign him.

… although having grown up in Ohio, I remember when Cleveland’s IRL fan interest crashed after the Bartolo Colon trade to the Expos (although they got three guys that would eventually be productive big leaguers out of that deal, one of which went on to win a Cy Young, and one of my personal all time favorites in Grady Sizemore).

Fan interest had already crashed when Manny left in free agency in 2000 lol everything after that was just salt in the wound. Once it finally sunk in with Indians fans that the Dolans (new at the time) were never gonna pay anyone to keep that core in tact, that's what ended the sell -out streak

[chrismeglan]

Originally Posted by MisterTidster

I literally had 8 consecutive seasons of 95+ wins, but the fan interest didnÂ’t move much, since my team kept choking in the playoffs.

Fan Interest is another game mechanic that's never worked properly imo. It's too static for too long. There are so many things IRL that can help or hurt it that happen over the course of just one season. And in the situation you're describing, it absolutely should have gone up significantly after the first few seasons when expectations were exceeded, then plateaued, then maybe dipped a little bit once fan expectations weren't being met i.e., stop choking in October

But there are so many things you should be able to do improve Fan Interest, such as enhancing the ballpark experience, or retiring a HOF number. Anybody on your team about to get 3000 hits? You should see a boost in attendance. Fans should be in the park for that. Rivalries? Fans show up for those too. And calling up prospects should have an impact as well as you stated, There should be a "Promotions and Giveaways" mechanic as well where an AI team employee fills it out with the dollar dog days, but you strategically pick a few dates on the calendar to go all out and bring fans though the gate

Also, you have season ticket holders in OOTP represented by a simple number, but who are these people? Who is the core of my fanbase? What do they want? Questions we should all be asking

[MisterTidster]

Originally Posted by chrismeglan

There should be a "Promotions and Giveaways" mechanic as well where an AI team employee fills it out with the dollar dog days, but you strategically pick a few dates on the calendar to go all out and bring fans though the gate.

This was actually a feature in earlier versions of OOTP! Miss it.

[oldfatbaldguy]

I think these are fun ideas. The Tyler Holton bobblehead on the shelf above my computer agrees.