OOTP 15 Update #3 coming at the end of the week....

[The Wolf]

Originally Posted by scott1964

Stop charging $50 to $140 for tickets and $40 for food.

"Whatever the market will bear."

[ghostrobot]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

Hey folks,

despite us wanting to take some time off, we have been working on another patch It will be released Friday if everything works well and include plenty of bug fixes, including the issue that caused 3D to crash on Mac with sound enabled.

OK, that's the good news. However, there is other news too. MLB has asked us to remove the real team nicknames from the game. And since we are good citizens we agreed, so games created with the new patch will replace the real team nicknames with fictional ones. Of course, this does not apply to already existing saved games.

For 2015 we plan to negotiate a proper MLB licensing for both OOTP 16 and iOOTP 2015, so in the future this no longer will be an issue.

Alright, that's it for now. Back to coding the game!

Cheers,
Markus

The "no nicknames" isn't that big of a deal, as it's simple enough to just name the teams ourselves. I'm wondering though, how will this effect historical replays? Plenty of teams went by different names. Are those nicknames off limits too? If not, will a team just adopt a fictional nickname instead of changing to the current one? Example: NY Highlanders -----------> NY "Not Yankees" or New York Giants ---------> San Francisco "Large Humans"

It still won't be that big of a deal, but I'd at least like to know before starting a historical league so that I can do my research in advance and rename teams according to history.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by stangedaze23

Baseball viewership is down on TV to 8.9 and 7.6 share last two years for WS. From 1968 through 1992 it only dipped below 20 once. There were less total viewers the last three years combined than watched the WS in 1978 (48 million people in average watched that WS compared to a high of 17 million the last three years). That is a big decline.

I wasn't aware that television ratings were the be-all and end-all of how one measures decline. I'd point out that the traditional over-the-air networks have seen ratings declines across the board over the years as the broader television audience continues the trend into a more diversified landscape (e.g. Netflix, Hulu, cable networks, time-shifting). I'd note too the most recent round of network and local broadcasting contracts for MLB and its clubs were the highest values yet seen.

Originally Posted by stangedaze23

There a less kids playing baseball today in the United States than at any point in the last 50 years. The number of kids playing baseball dropped 24 percent over the last ten years despite a 10% increase in population. Twice as many kids play basketball 6 million to 3 million and over 5 million play soccer.

Folks have been talking about soccer in the U.S. for ages. All those kids playing it has not turned it into a hugely popular professional sport in America. As long as MLB is able to replenish its players with new ones of sufficient quality, it's not that much of an issue. There is also the international market to consider. (The motion picture industry is an example here. Hollywood films overall now gross more in the rest of the world than they do in the U.S. For some films it's two-thirds of a film's total box office take coming from outside the United States.)

Originally Posted by stangedaze23

The only thing baseball is doing as well on as in the past is their attendance at games.

And that, arguably, are the only statistics that really matter in regards to measuring a sport's popularity.

[24Rocks]

Originally Posted by RchW

A spectator sport's popularity cannot be waning if people are watching it on TV, online and going to the games. I go to games regularly and was initially shocked to find that wife and I are in the older 25% where we sit. My 19 year old daughter dates an amateur player, they go to games and he has friends in American Colleges on scholarship

The Cardinal broadcast on Saturday was dedicated to the various eat and drink choices available around Busch Stadium. Open bars, all you can eat buffets etc. During this extensive walk about it seemed that the majority of fans were young professionals, many many women and significant numbers of kids with Mom and Dad. I understand this is a snapshot but I see similar crowds in Pittsburgh and Arizona and maybe a little older in Milwaukee.

To add on to that I follow on twitter and know about 150+ people who have season tickets to the Blue Jays or 15-30 game packs and Most between 17-28 a few little older and I know that's not alot in the overall but that 3000+ bucks plus food beer and stuff that's about 1500 more and for kids in school and living on there own that's alot of money. Now threw twitter I have chatted with quite a few people and I have ended up meeting some of them at the games a few times now alot of people go to games for the games but also the people, I have been to games with a lot of people I talk to on twitter, that jays girl on fan cave last year April I've been to games with her before she got famous and met a good group of people, even been offered tickets when people have extra, that's what gets young people to games plus alot of People don't like Buck Martinez Or the commentators at lest for some of the Blue Jays that I talk to. This doesn't Only happen In Toronto but thats the only market i had access to and I love chatting with the people at the game in the cheap seats or sitting scoring the game. I never got a Chance to go to games this year before I moved to Nova Scotia but I can tell you In Toronto Baseball is not in Decline.

Now as for kids if you follow the NBA you can see the Canadian content coming in to the league basketball was big here from 1995-2002 which is some reason why we see this, When things are going good kids want to play sport they see there friends play or parents watch, I know when the leafs were good we watched them all the time, my grade 6 class even convinced my teachers to watch a playoff game at a overnight camp. I as a kid followed baseball but Hockey was my love and i lived and died hockey but when the lock out happened and I found this Game Baseball became life so Its all about access.

[24Rocks]

Originally Posted by scott1964

Stop charging $50 to $140 for tickets and $40 for food.

or $10.25 for beer

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by stangedaze23

Money in MLB is not indicative of health.

Arguably it is the most important measure of health. If the league if financially profitable, if individual member clubs are financially profitable, then that—seeing as they are money-making ventures after all—is the only thing that really counts.

There's a lot of romanticization that goes on with professional sports. The key word in the phrase "professional sports" is "professional". It's a business first and foremost.

Originally Posted by RchW

Have you ever looked at a baseball crowd recently? It's full of young people. The new park designs attract people for whom the game may be secondary but they spend money!

It's worth noting too that minor league baseball is also seeing large attendance. The minor leagues are definitely an example of my point above about it being a business first and foremost: the minors have figured out how to sell the game as a fun, family-friendly event.

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

TYou may be right, but I'm personally not optimistic. The NFL doesn't let Madden include PED suspensions though, which is the obvious precedent.

The NFL is a well-known no-fun curmudgeon.

And suddenly MLB become a bad guy. C'mon, boys and girls, without MLB you wouldn't be interested in OOTP.

(And if sometime later I make "Out Of The Park Chess", I think Markus won't be satisfied with this)

[Markus Heinsohn]

Originally Posted by David Watts

Still curious about how/if this will effect historical leagues. Will historical league have to use fictional nicknames too?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Cryomaniac

As I said though, the problem is that it's very possible for MLB to force OOTP to take a lot of stuff out of the game in return for a license. Drug suspensions would go with 100% certainty, and I think other suspensions would too. Negative storylines would very likely be affected too. There's also a smaller chance that historical and fictional leagues would have to go too. I would rather the game take a smaller hit by being 100% generic by default than to lose a lot of other realism in order to get a license.

No worries. Everything is up for negotiation of course. But if we had to remove important features, we'd not get a license. I guess the only thing that will have to be removed for real players are drug suspensions and certain storylines (which would still work for fictional players, the system to differentiate between these is already supported in the storyline code).

[Markus Heinsohn]

OK, before this thread turns into a bashing fest, I'll close it.