A request to the developers: Add Females

[BaseballMan]

I don't see a problem with it in fictional leagues. You can't do it in strictly historical league for the obvious reason a woman hasn't played and therefore no stats to get ratings from. But if someone wants a females in a historical/fictional league I don't see why not.
But I'm not sure what benefit it is. To be honest I never thought about it. But that may be because it's been men only in mlb.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by Walsh06

Theres no such thing as the Cork County Baseball Championship either and yet I just won it four years in a row. Can you explain that one?

You're just imagining the league as part of an elaborate second life?

[Coltrane]

Originally Posted by Funnyhaha

Has anyone in this forum thought about it before?

Believe it or not, I spent a whole night removing facial hair from the facegens in the all women’s league I created last year. I agree that adding female players would be a plus. I developed Serena Williams into an insane HR machine at 3rd base

[kq76]

I really hope we see it one day. Not only would a "what if a female broke into the major leagues one day" be incredibly interesting, but I think it could only help attract more females to OOTP. Just think, while MLB fans are largely male, around 30% are female. What would you say the breakdown is around here? While I'm sure there are several who don't announce it, I can only name 2 OOTP users, and only 1 current, who are female. Now yeah, that 30% are fans of MLB so they obviously don't need females to be in the game to like it, but it'd probably be something that would get some people, female and male, tweaked into trying out the game when they wouldn't consider it otherwise.

I seem to remember we were told years ago that the hardest part would be re-doing the pbp as it is all hard-coded to men only, but it seems to me that that's something that once some code is written that the text changes could be out-sourced to community volunteers. I realize there's more to it for the developers than that, but how hard can it be for us to do a bunch of find and replace commands on the text?

RchW brings up a good point that the player generation system (and probably the development system too) would have to be tweaked for them, but maybe one day Matt or somebody will just want to do it and we'll get it seemingly out of nowhere. That's the great thing about having more than one developer: what one person might have no interest in working on, another person might have a lot of interest in.

And to those who say it'll never happen in MLB, people decades ago probably would have said we'd never see a switch-pitcher and look at Pat Venditte now. Nah, we'll see a female MLBer, probably up the middle somewhere, but we'll see one, some day. I just hope we'll be avante-garde about it rather then dig our heels in the mud and only relent once that day comes.

[Walsh06]

Originally Posted by DustinthePOWERHOUSE

You're just imagining the league as part of an elaborate second life?

At this point Im so invested Im pretty sure this is my imaginary life and the baseball is real

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

Originally Posted by Walsh06

At this point Im so invested Im pretty sure this is my imaginary life and the baseball is real

Whoa that's a scary level of immersion OOTP 17 is reaching then.

Immersion, it's not just for real life.

[Bluenoser]

One of the many reasons Markus has said it's not a priority is the massive amount of text editing that would be required, especially in the built in code. Think about it for a second - every time the words "he" or "him" or "his" comes up, you need "she" "her" "hers" also. Then you need to code it to come up at the right time.

You can't just code it so female gender shows for female league and male for male, because you can bet your bottom dollar people will want to play mixed leagues. That's another can of grammar worms to mess with.

There's a lot more to it then adding names and facegens.

[TwinsGuy11]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

One of the many reasons Markus has said it's not a priority is the massive amount of text editing that would be required, especially in the built in code. Think about it for a second - every time the words "he" or "him" or "his" comes up, you need "she" "her" "hers" also. Then you need to code it to come up at the right time.

You can't just code it so female gender shows for female league and male for male, because you can bet your bottom dollar people will want to play mixed leagues. That's another can of grammar worms to mess with.

There's a lot more to it then adding names and facegens.

So just change everything to "it"?

[BBGiovanni]

Originally Posted by Coltrane

Believe it or not, I spent a whole night removing facial hair from the facegens in the all women’s league I created last year. I agree that adding female players would be a plus. I developed Serena Williams into an insane HR machine at 3rd base

See, that's the whole idea with alternate reality baseball leagues. They're a different reality! I'd love to have a universe where Mr. Spalding never crammed softball down the world's throat.

I'm not sure where all the people supportive of this idea were in previous flamewars on the same subject

All that said, I understand the work required to implement this, and grant that all (most?) other sports games don't bother to try either. But I add my name to the list of people that would like to see this added to the "someday" queue of ideas.

[The Wolf]

This is one of those weird ideas that would require an extreme amount of resources and effort, and it would only ever be used by a tiny, militant fraction of users. Fictional players are a minority, and the percentage of even the fictional players who would ever play a female league is a tiny, tiny minority. It just doesn't make any economic sense; the resources and effort required would be far better spent making the entire game better for all users.

[rpriske]

Originally Posted by Pirates

This is suppose to be a true, accurate baseball game, not an arcade game.
In the history of baseball not one female has ever played in an actual official game.

Completely and utterly untrue.

You mean not one has ever played in an MLB game, but considering that you can use this game to play in many different settings than MLB (I am playing a Can-Am game just now), there are many 'actual official' games that are not MLB.

There has been a professional 'girls' baseball league, or did you forget?

I would love to see this in the game... but I admit it falls behind incorporating the Negro Leagues and the WBC on a priority list for me.

[Mr. Marlin]

When female players manage to hang on in the minors or even reach the Show we'll see this happen I'm sure. I remember Eri Yoshida was playing in the Golden League for a few seasons but her slash line was not impressive.

[Charley575]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

This is one of those weird ideas that would require an extreme amount of resources and effort, and it would only ever be used by a tiny, militant fraction of users. Fictional players are a minority, and the percentage of even the fictional players who would ever play a female league is a tiny, tiny minority. It just doesn't make any economic sense; the resources and effort required would be far better spent making the entire game better for all users.

OK. I saw that thread too. You can count me amongst the users who get the game, fire up the MLB Quickstart, play around with it for maybe a half hour, then say "Nah", and go back to their fictional league. Remember that this game up until very recently did not have an accurate major-league QuickStart. Yet it survived all those years, probably because of fictional players. I think there are a few people who would use such a feature although admittedly I cannot quantify it. I dare say the most militant person on these boards seems to be you against fictional players, honey badger.

[Charley575]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marlin

When female players manage to hang on in the minors or even reach the Show we'll see this happen I'm sure. I remember Eri Yoshida was playing in the Golden League for a few seasons but her slash line was not impressive.

You know, there's really no reason why women cannot play professional baseball. The problem is they are discouraged from doing so. High school, college, they force them into softball. Softball is not a serious game. It's a game for children, and out of shape 45 year olds. There's no reason why there should not be girls baseball teams in high school and college. If there were, I think we would be seeing a lot more women in professional baseball. Baseball is not a game that you have to be 6 foot five and 280 pounds to play. It is a game of quickness, agility, coordination, and intelligence. Just my

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by Coltrane

Believe it or not, I spent a whole night removing facial hair from the facegens in the all women’s league I created last year. I agree that adding female players would be a plus. I developed Serena Williams into an insane HR machine at 3rd base

You know that there's a setting in Team Settings that you can check to prevent facial hair for that team. That would be the easiest way to prevent facial hair.

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by Charley575

I dare say the most militant person on these boards seems to be you against fictional players, honey badger.

I'm not militant against fictional players per se; I'm just very, very tired of the fictional tail trying to wag the OOTP dog.

[Let'sGoBraves]

Originally Posted by Pirates

I'm not sure what this discussion is even about.
This is suppose to be a true, accurate baseball game, not an arcade game.
In the history of baseball not one female has ever played in an actual official game.
The day when one plays then they will add females.
Period, end of discussion, next question please.

Note: The day they add female players is the day I find a new game.

16-year-old female French shortstop on MLB's international registration list | FOX Sports

It's going to happen one day. Bound to. I don't see how it would harm the game if she can play. That Phil Niekro and the SIlver Bullets novelty team in several years back wasn't the end of the world as some called it at the time. If a woman can play the game and deserves a place in pro ball then it will happen. Who knows if it will but the French girl has talent.

[David Watts]

Originally Posted by Charley575

You know, there's really no reason why women cannot play professional baseball. The problem is they are discouraged from doing so. High school, college, they force them into softball. Softball is not a serious game. It's a game for children, and out of shape 45 year olds. There's no reason why there should not be girls baseball teams in high school and college. If there were, I think we would be seeing a lot more women in professional baseball. Baseball is not a game that you have to be 6 foot five and 280 pounds to play. It is a game of quickness, agility, coordination, and intelligence. Just my

As someone that grew up around men's fastpitch softball, I can't tell you how silly your softball comments are. It may be a dying sport due to a lack of people playing it these days, but at the highest level fastpitch softball is a fricken incredible game. I count myself blessed that I got to see guys like Ty Stofflet, Kevin Herlihy, Owen The Fog Walford, and Peter Finn pitch back in the day. My best friend growing up is now the pitching coach for the softball team at the University of Missouri. He made fastpitch his career and age 51, he's still at it. Not a silly sport at all.

[RchW]

Originally Posted by Charley575

You know, there's really no reason why women cannot play professional baseball. The problem is they are discouraged from doing so. High school, college, they force them into softball. Softball is not a serious game. It's a game for children, and out of shape 45 year olds. There's no reason why there should not be girls baseball teams in high school and college. If there were, I think we would be seeing a lot more women in professional baseball. Baseball is not a game that you have to be 6 foot five and 280 pounds to play. It is a game of quickness, agility, coordination, and intelligence. Just my

I agree that women should not be forced out of playing baseball through HS and college. It is a better game.

The size issue is real. You overstate the case at 6' 5" and 280lb but in reality as with every sport baseball has become a big mans game. The Blue Jays by eye don't strike me as a "big" team in any way yet average 6 feet 1.5 inches and 206lb. I watched the Reds play a ST game some years ago with an average weight of 235lb on the field!

The most obvious difference in baseball is the growth in size and weight of middle infielders over the last 2 decades. Unfortunately for women the likeliest chance they have at competing in professional baseball would be at SS/2B. A large athletic woman even at 6 feet is likely to weigh 160-190lb. Competing with just an average male baseball player with similar skill and greater strength and mass would be an extreme challenge. Not saying it is impossible but the 1% of males that make it all the way would be 0.1% or lower for females.

Another point; teams lie (MLB too) about player size. I stood next to Matt Kemp a few year ago. He is listed at 6-4 210lb. That's a crock. I weighed 215lb at the time and he was easily 240lb IMO. The man was huge and muscled compared to my fat ass.

[Charley575]

Originally Posted by The Wolf

I'm not militant against fictional players per se; I'm just very, very tired of the fictional tail trying to wag the OOTP dog.

I have bad news...

It's all fictional. I think that's why I can't get into "real" MLB. It's not real. I see MLB Quickstart players on these boards constantly foaming at the mouth about how something about the quickstart isn't "realistic". You save yourself a lot of aggravation playing fictional. After a season or two, your fictional players are just as "real" as the ones in the MLB Quickstart.