Lack of Vision at OOTP

[swampdragon]

OOTP is primarily a solitaire game in a niche market. The baseball replay games that have gone to online play and draft leagues haven't been all that successful. I'd guess OOTP is doing better than they are. Fantasy leagues are a horrible comparison. First and foremost, they're primarily about gambling. I don't think Markus really wants to go there, and if he did he'd find the big gorillas like Draft Kings already ahead of him. That's hardly a market to bet the livelihood of a small company on.

I think most existing leagues would love a dedicated OOTP head-to-head server and an online option that would allow players to play out their games and transfer the stats to the standalone version. If Markus can find a way to do that without mandatory subscription fees or having the tail wag the dog by needing to change the standalone game too much, I believe most players would welcome the option. I emphatically do not want to switch to an entirely web-based approach with the limitations on play and the subscription fee that are inevitable byproducts of that approach.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by swampdragon

OOTP is primarily a solitaire game in a niche market. The baseball replay games that have gone to online play and draft leagues haven't been all that successful. I'd guess OOTP is doing better than they are. Fantasy leagues are a horrible comparison. First and foremost, they're primarily about gambling. I don't think Markus really wants to go there, and if he did he'd find the big gorillas like Draft Kings already ahead of him. That's hardly a market to bet the livelihood of a small company on.

I think most existing leagues would love a dedicated OOTP head-to-head server and an online option that would allow players to play out their games and transfer the stats to the standalone version. If Markus can find a way to do that without mandatory subscription fees or having the tail wag the dog by needing to change the standalone game too much, I believe most players would welcome the option. I emphatically do not want to switch to an entirely web-based approach with the limitations on play and the subscription fee that are inevitable byproducts of that approach.

I completely agree with this whole post but want to double down on the bold.

[Statsman1]

Originally Posted by RchW

I completely agree with this whole post but want to double down on the bold.

The most fun I ever had with a baseball sim was with my friends in high school, drafting teams and playing games against each other. The evolution of the computer manager was a welcome thing, but playing against other humans, especially my buddies where we'd kill a day doing a draft, then have to meet up at someone's house to get games played, manual stats compilation (until someone could afford VisiCalc)...those were the days!!

If OOTP could bring that back somehow, without changing the core game itself, I'll sign up. No question.

But if it's one or the other, and to incorporate a viable level of online play, I lose (or have to adapt to changes to) much of what I have already with OOTP...I don't support that.

[FlexD]

Originally Posted by yettyskills

i'm not sure who is in charge at ootp, i'm sure whomever they are has many fine accomplishments. Unfortunately their greatest failure, imo is the lack of vision in regards to online play.

I've been told ootp devs have actually said things along the lines of
"most players open the game and start a season with their favorite team and never move past that"

there's reasons for that, for starters

out of the park developments online manuals

this ^ here, this should be a source of embarrassment, on so many levels i don't know where to begin. 2016 and that's your offering to customers?

You know, when madden first came out i just opened the game and started a season with my favorite team. That was back in the 90's when they introduced franchise mode.

But you know what happened? Ea like pretty much every other game maker out there realized that their customer base wanted to compete & interact with other players.

There was a point when shooter games where single player story based, now they are massive cash cows because of the evolution of online play.

But instead someone at ootp either lacks the vision or guts to see the potential growth if you made the online experience actually user friendly to the masses. Is it a capital issue? Don't want to hire the devs required to fix an otherwise excellent product?

This is what i see happening, some other game maker will see the potential in marketing 30 team online leagues as well as all the other features the sims offers, and take huge chunks of your market share until someone at ootp realizes they have fought for years against making more money.

God i hope it isn't ea

+1

[psd]

Roughly 65-70% of all who play PC games play them solo. I would venture that the number of people who buy OOTP to only play online is very small. 5-10% at the most .It's an extremely niche genre of PC gaming. So how could a game company who comes along and "markets online leagues as well as all the other features the sims offer" take HUGE chunks of a SINGLE player market share? Why should Markus risk his extremely limited resources to expand the scope of online play for such a small part of his customer base? Even if all the online players switched to the compettitors product, they would lose MAYBE 10% of their sales at the MOST? I would think Markus is more than smart enough to realize this and this is why he has developed and marketed the game the way he has for so long.

Why would someone buy the other companies product they don't know over the one they have played and been familiar with for years? Because it contains a much simplified version of online play that they don't care about in the first place?

[USF]

Originally Posted by Yettyskills

I'm not sure who is in charge at OOTP, I'm sure whomever they are has many fine accomplishments. Unfortunately their greatest failure, imo is the lack of vision in regards to online play.

I've been told OOTP devs have actually said things along the lines of
"most players open the game and start a season with their favorite team and never move past that"

There's reasons for that, for starters

Out of the Park Developments Online Manuals

This ^ here, this should be a source of embarrassment, on so many levels I don't know where to begin. 2016 and that's your offering to customers?

You know, when Madden first came out I just opened the game and started a season with my favorite team. That was back in the 90's when they introduced Franchise mode.

But you know what happened? EA like pretty much every other game maker out there realized that their customer base wanted to compete & interact with other players.

There was a point when shooter games where single player story based, now they are massive cash cows because of the evolution of online play.

But instead someone at OOTP either lacks the vision or guts to see the potential growth if you made the online experience actually user friendly to the masses. Is it a capital issue? Don't want to hire the devs required to fix an otherwise excellent product?

This is what I see happening, some other game maker will see the potential in marketing 30 team online leagues as well as all the other features the sims offers, and take huge chunks of your market share until someone at OOTP realizes they have fought for years against making more money.

GOD I HOPE IT ISN'T EA

I have been playing strictly online play since 2012 and there isn't a single game that I have played during that time or the previous 2 decades that has given me and my friends the fun as OOTP. My time spent on OOTP having fun in online league play compared to the amount of money they ask each year is simply incredible.

What online leagues are you involved in? Please provide some background information to support your cause here.

This is baseball not a RTS game. Anyone that wants to learn about the rules isn't strictly limited to the OOTP game manual. You can search the WWW as you wish for your information.

Can things be better? Sure - but you can say that about any product anytime you wish. Markus and the crew from day 1 have been very friendly and helpful with me and my league helping out in prompt manner.

[Reggie]

Very kind of people to come in here and give away these free suggestions! If it were me, I would build my own baseball simulation company and fill it full of vision and rule the world.

[NoOne]

i just wanted to say i loved the Nick Burns-like "You're welcome" in the OP's post...

loved it!

Watch Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy with Billy Bob Thornton From Saturday Night Live - NBC.com