Bah

[jmm8356]

Originally Posted by Dud_Selig
As I told Skip in my last post, the day Markus disappears from these boards (or we’re all forced to move to the SI boards for good) and he’s replaced by some talking head or other from SI is the day OOTP might be kaput

[Listening skeptically to German propaganda coming over a loudspeaker]
Captain John Miller: "The Statue of Liberty is kaput" ... that's disconcerting.
--Saving Private Ryan

[sporr]

I've also been here since the beginning, but I'm more inclined to take a wait and see approach to the merger. The next product isn't due out for over a year, so it's much too early to talk about the death of OOTP.

[renn]

Haven't stopped playing this game since I bought it. This a great baseball management game and is getting closer to real life baseball with each version.

[Henry]

Originally Posted by sporr

I've also been here since the beginning, but I'm more inclined to take a wait and see approach to the merger. The next product isn't due out for over a year, so it's much too early to talk about the death of OOTP.

"The presumed death of OOTP has been greatly exaggerated."

I always wanted to say that

[Carlton]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

Not necessarily true. See first person shooter games such as the Unreal Tournament franchise for evidence of that.

The original UT, UT2003, and now UT2004, have all received a number of post-release patches which, while addressing bugs, did also offer new material and game improvements. The developer also offered "bonus" patches which did nothing but add new content.

I can also point to the IL-2 Sturmovik combat flight simulator franchise as well. Several patches for the original IL-2 and the follow-up IL-2: Forgotten Battles have also had patches which added new content.

Now, why would these companies expend this additional effort in making new content for these games if it was not generating something worthwhile for the company?

The addition of new material keeps established fans of the game interested and enthusiastic about the title, and undoubtedly someone still interested and enthusiastic about a game is going to tell their friends about it and perhaps generate some additional sales as a result. Let's remember, the biggest thing that's going to sell games is positive word-of-mouth (the same is very much true for movie ticket sales).

Of course, there's probably also a pride and company reputation element involved in adding new content to a released game. But certainly there must be some sort of financial benefit to it (even if it's an indirect one), otherwise it would not be done to the extent it has been done for the aforementioned game titles.

I really get the feeling sometimes that many of the folks here have little experience with gaming outside of the OOTP series...

As someone who has been around since version 2, I do the same....I sit back and lurk 2 months after release and see what bugs are there....what is getting good feedback...what Tiger Fan is seeing in historical replays...and then decide...I just bought version 6 two weeks ago...and what put a bigger red flag up in my opinion is the 24.95 pre order....that is the biggest PR ploy in the business for a rushed product. I KNEW there were gonna be many more bugs in this version and that with the new engine, that it was harder to code and beta test.

And with Version 7 I will wait two months again after release...and many others will buy it before or right after its released...it is inevitable.

Skipaway had his most profound post ever...he's right, some of the worst complainers are the older consumers who forgot how great this game was when they found it...and what they did before they found it. Instead we think about the "one" thing we have our heart set on making the new version and it doesn't happen for one reason or another.

I want financial co-efficent, but I can live without it...and I was satisfied when Markus said he tried and couldn't do it correctly. What I really would like, however, is some sort of screening for the Beta Testers. Some of the better programmers/mathmaticians and/or vets of the OOTP series are not beta testers...which makes me wonder who is? and why? and why are the same type of bugs always creeping by?

[Spanky]

Markus, I know your very busy fixing and tweeking a bunch of stuff but I can't resist the urge to ask if you are going to make the AI's FREE AGENT signings optional or not? Even when I have turned ALL the trading options and financials "off" the computer still makes dozens of trades every week. This plays havoc with our HISTORICAL LEAGUES. Please, please make this an option that can be turned off or on AND, if the option is turned "on," it would be nice to have a choice in the frequency of transactions, ie., low, med, high.

For now, I'm frozen into using ver 6.0 only because of all the unwanted transactions.

Thanks
Spanky

[David Gray]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

I count myself into the 0.5% group, so I obviously did not mean to be disrespectful towards the people who want H2H and are sad/disappointed that it's not in the game yet. But what I really do not understand at all, is to call the game 'incomplete' because of it... heck there are so many new things in OOTP 6, and almost all do work the way I wanted them to work... and the rest (salary report, some rare AI quirks etc.) will be solid soon.

If someone were to refer to it as incomplete it would be because the feature was advertised as being part of the version 6 release originally and then was supposed to follow the release in a few weeks. So it isn't really an irrational use of the word.

dave

[Falcon52]

What was the point of bumping a thread that's half a month old?

[Ragnar]

Since this has been brought back I will say what i wanted to say about H2H before it is locked. First of all I do not believe a H2H thread should be locked as long as it's kept to one. I for one would like to discuss it's possibilities without berating the developers. I don't see why that should be locked.

First off, we need to stop bugging them about H2H. If the feature is released early and is buggy it will be a total wash. There will be no "Just live with it" comments. It will either work or it won't. So allow them as much time as need be.

As far as H2H exhibition vs League play. In order to play this game H2H both sides have to see the same thing. That means both sides need exactly the same game files. You cannot simply start a H2H game and have your opponents team magically appear on your screen. This is the reason they have stated it would be used for "League" purposes. Both players would have the same league files. To use the H2H feature in exhibition mode is more difficult and probably more time consuming to implement so that is why exhibition H2H will most likely not come before league H2H.

EXAMPLE.....I want to play using the 27 yankees against my opponent using the 55 dodgers. At some point during setup we would have to transfer our league's to one another before the game started or else the game would not be possible.

Two ways to do this, and both ways all depends on how H2H is built into the game.

1. Either they make it so before the game the files transfer automatically.
2. Or they require you to have matching league files before you start.

So lets not forget how big some of these league's can get. So what they would have to do is figure out a way to just transfer vital files for the game in order to do OPTION#1.

OPTION#2 would still need them to do some extra work in order to allow exhibition.

Overall, do not be surprised if H2H is just league play. It makes sense.

I realize i have assumed alot in my post. If I overstepped my bounds feel free to kill me. Oh yeah and I apologize. But I think i was on the right track, and I hope I'v educated the masses on H2H.

[Henry]

Just a couple points...

1. Why does anyone think we'd lock the thread ? I certainly won't unless the board rules are broken, and talking about H2H doesn't break the rules. Insulting someone, or the developer does.

2. As far as how it works (will work?) there's only two ways in my mind... (a) both players have to have the same files, or (b) the game is played on one machine and the 2nd player simply has a remote control agent active on his machine. I don't know which way Markus has chosen to do this, but those are really the only two options.

[Ragnar]

Hopefully he chooses (a) . It would be nice if someone started a H2H thread to talk about a few things.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by Carlton

As someone who has been around since version 2, I do the same....I sit back and lurk 2 months after release and see what bugs are there....what is getting good feedback...what Tiger Fan is seeing in historical replays...and then decide...I just bought version 6 two weeks ago...and what put a bigger red flag up in my opinion is the 24.95 pre order....that is the biggest PR ploy in the business for a rushed product. I KNEW there were gonna be many more bugs in this version and that with the new engine, that it was harder to code and beta test.

And with Version 7 I will wait two months again after release...and many others will buy it before or right after its released...it is inevitable.

I usually buy games well after the initial release, just like you. I've always bought OOTP a year after it's released.

This year I bought it early so I could play H2H with my buddies and bitch slap them around with my baseball genius. Oops.

So since v7 won't be ready until the 2006 baseball season, I won't be buying it until 2007. Unless they say that Videocam-Enabled H2H will be included.