OOTP vs Strat-O-Matic

David Myers · 12-11-2001, 12:04 PM

Hello, everyone. I need your advice.

Strat-O-Matic announced earlier today that it was dropping its Mac product line. Moreover, it said that its Windows version would not operate under Connectix Corp.'s Virtual PC.

As a Mac user and the commissioner of a play-by-email Strat league, I find myself suddenly in desperate straits. I am trying to decide whether to move my league to a Windows machine. (It would cost me over $200 to replace the Mac disks that I've bought over the years from SOM.) Or whether to ask my league's GMs to invest in a new game--OOTP, for example.

I am wondering if there is anyone out there who has played both OOTP and Strat-O-Matic--with some regularity, I mean--and can give me an unbiased comparison of the two games. Especially for league play. Has anyone played OOTP under Virtual PC?

I've only played around with the demo version of OOTP. Although I like what I've seen, I don't know it anywhere near as well as Strat, which I have been playing, on the computer, since 1994.

Anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Steve Kuffrey · 12-11-2001, 12:19 PM

Dave thanks for your interest. One major difference is that SOM is a "replay" game and OOTP has that ability, but the game is not sold with "real" MLB players. They can be imported via the Lahman database or you can use one of the user created roster sets.

Some of the strengths of OOTP are:
-VERY flexible: you can play it just about any way you want with certain things not used or used.
-Career play: very good at this style of play, while not perfect I have yet to find any "game-breaking" flaws. Most things can be "worked around".
-Historical play: no other game offers the unique style of play that OOTP does. Where player career's can change and vary with each person's own game. Not the style of play where you pretty much "know" how well a player is going to do from year to year.
-Online league: has some great features for this, including total HTML league output with one mouse click.

Hope this helps, please feel free to email me with any other questions.

Steve

David Myers · 12-11-2001, 12:34 PM

Followup question.

My PBEM league has finished three seasons (1946-48). Strat-O-Matic can generate and export CSV (comma-delimited) files.

Can these files--these past-season stats--be imported into OOTP to keep an encyclopedia up to date?

Does that make any sense?

landru · 12-11-2001, 12:41 PM

I have a lot of experience with Strat and OOTP and the one thing that Strat has over OOTP is the output of data for a season. Strat allows you to do it very easily, OOTP does not natively allow to do a stat dump into an export file of all your leagues player stats. There is a buggy third party tool (CSV Reporter) that gets you some of the way there, but it is not as easy as strat.

But even with this problem (and the endless mouse clicking in OOTP compared to Strat...), I really enjoy the whole experience of OOTP much better than Strat. I feel I have more control over the dynamics of the game, but I also get more enjoyment over not knowing what the players will do. In Strat, if you know the player's card or stats, you know exactly what they will do in the game - you don't have that in OOTP, there is some leeway depending on your scout and how the player is developing. And this adds a very enjoyable dimension.

McSweeny · 12-11-2001, 01:06 PM

I have a mac, and i have found that ootp will run on VPC... or at least version 2 did. I was just testing this out as i play on my pc... but all indications pointed towards it working on VPC. Personally i think it's BS that strat won't work on VPC... pretty much any software that runs under windows will run on VPC. I don't see how they could be certain that it won't run on VPC... unless they're saying that they won't support it under VPC...

-McSweeny

Kevin · 12-12-2001, 04:54 AM

Having played both games, my comment would be that Strat became very boring because results were too predictable due to its goal of reproducing real life stats. However you are overcoming that by being in a league. If you want predictability and don't like using finances, stick with Strat. If you prefer variability and want to incorporate finances and don't want to buy season disks, go with OOTP.

Mad Dan · 12-20-2001, 06:57 PM

The one thing I like about Strato is that you usually play one season at a time, as the next year is going on, so you can make trades based on how guys are doing the next year and how you think they'll do from what you've read, rather than a few rankings and "scouts". I much prefer using my own knowledge of a player to predict how they'll than what a few computer rankings tell me.

I love OOTP but it will never come close to Strat for me. I've been in a league for 7 years and it's a great obsession.

However, if you want to play a game where you can go through a couple of years in a year or a week and work on the financial side, OOTP is probably the way to go.

Giants44 · 12-20-2001, 08:41 PM

I never got much into the Strat computer game but played thousands on the board game.

As far as computer games go, as far as text based games go - I don't think anything on the market comes close to OOTP - best game I have ever played.

[ December 21, 2001: Message edited by: Giants44 ]</p>

rwd59 · 12-21-2001, 04:29 AM

I like them both for different reasons. The unpredictability of OOTP is great depending on what mood I am in. I have and still usually prefer statistical accuracy where strat is much better. I bought OOTP mainly for the ability to import any season with the lahman database. After only a couple of seasons, I put OOTP away because you could not get it to use the players it should when "replaying" a season. For example, Tony Cloninger for the 66 Braves actually got 39 starts but OOTP would only use him as a September call-up because his ERA rating was lower than 5 other people the game could start. Many batters were the same way. I wish the game could change the way it picks lineups and players based on whether you were playing a "replay" or "career" season but it does not. So if you want that type of accuracy then OOTP is not for you. That being said, I later tryed the game again in the "career" mode and began to get hooked on that side of the game. If you want to be a "GM" then OOTP is the game for you. I still play both but really wish that the roster and lineup selection area for "replay" seasons could be changed. I am not sure why they even offer a "replay" option as it is. If this area could be changed I would then throw my strat over to e-bay or out the window.

sporr · 12-21-2001, 05:35 AM

Yes rwd,
I wouldn't use OOTP for a strict replay of a particular season. OOTP is more of a "what-if" game. Much of this is due to the nature of the sim engine. Other games such as Strat are stat-based while OOTP is ratings-based.

Big Johnston · 12-21-2001, 12:51 PM

I played both the crad and compiter versions of SOM. Once I got to play OOTP, I gave up on SOM and have never looked back.

It really is that much better and more flexible.

12-11-2001, 12:04 PM	#1
David Myers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Houston Posts: 693	OOTP vs Strat-O-Matic Hello, everyone. I need your advice. Strat-O-Matic announced earlier today that it was dropping its Mac product line. Moreover, it said that its Windows version would not operate under Connectix Corp.'s Virtual PC. As a Mac user and the commissioner of a play-by-email Strat league, I find myself suddenly in desperate straits. I am trying to decide whether to move my league to a Windows machine. (It would cost me over $200 to replace the Mac disks that I've bought over the years from SOM.) Or whether to ask my league's GMs to invest in a new game--OOTP, for example. I am wondering if there is anyone out there who has played both OOTP and Strat-O-Matic--with some regularity, I mean--and can give me an unbiased comparison of the two games. Especially for league play. Has anyone played OOTP under Virtual PC? I've only played around with the demo version of OOTP. Although I like what I've seen, I don't know it anywhere near as well as Strat, which I have been playing, on the computer, since 1994. Anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! __________________ David Myers Houston, Texas

12-11-2001, 12:19 PM	#2
Steve Kuffrey Administrator Join Date: Jul 1999 Location: S.E. TN - Georgia born and raised Posts: 17,036	Dave thanks for your interest. One major difference is that SOM is a "replay" game and OOTP has that ability, but the game is not sold with "real" MLB players. They can be imported via the Lahman database or you can use one of the user created roster sets. Some of the strengths of OOTP are: -VERY flexible: you can play it just about any way you want with certain things not used or used. -Career play: very good at this style of play, while not perfect I have yet to find any "game-breaking" flaws. Most things can be "worked around". -Historical play: no other game offers the unique style of play that OOTP does. Where player career's can change and vary with each person's own game. Not the style of play where you pretty much "know" how well a player is going to do from year to year. -Online league: has some great features for this, including total HTML league output with one mouse click. Hope this helps, please feel free to email me with any other questions. Steve __________________ Steve Kuffrey DABS Atlanta Braves - 2008 Eastern Division Champ *DBLC Atlanta Braves - 2011, 2014 East Division Champ, 2012, 2013 NL Wildcard Baseball Maelstrom-Montreal Expos-2013 Tourney winner, 2014 WC Team Sparky's League - Tampa Bay D'Rays Epicenter Baseball League - Astros 2014 The CBL Rewind - Phillies '95

12-11-2001, 12:34 PM	#3
David Myers All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Houston Posts: 693	Followup question. My PBEM league has finished three seasons (1946-48). Strat-O-Matic can generate and export CSV (comma-delimited) files. Can these files--these past-season stats--be imported into OOTP to keep an encyclopedia up to date? Does that make any sense? __________________ David Myers Houston, Texas

12-12-2001, 04:54 AM	#6
Kevin All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 503	Having played both games, my comment would be that Strat became very boring because results were too predictable due to its goal of reproducing real life stats. However you are overcoming that by being in a league. If you want predictability and don't like using finances, stick with Strat. If you prefer variability and want to incorporate finances and don't want to buy season disks, go with OOTP. __________________ It seems more like today than it did all day yesterday.

12-20-2001, 08:41 PM	#8
Giants44 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: San Francisco Bay Area Posts: 2,408	I never got much into the Strat computer game but played thousands on the board game. As far as computer games go, as far as text based games go - I don't think anything on the market comes close to OOTP - best game I have ever played. [ December 21, 2001: Message edited by: Giants44 ]</p> __________________ "In a text sim - Immersion is everything" -Me "Judge a man not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" -Martin Luther King "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -Einstein "The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life." -Muhammad Ali "Baseball statistics are like a girl in a bikini. They show a lot, but not everything." -Toby Harrah

12-11-2001, 12:41 PM	#4
landru Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 101	I have a lot of experience with Strat and OOTP and the one thing that Strat has over OOTP is the output of data for a season. Strat allows you to do it very easily, OOTP does not natively allow to do a stat dump into an export file of all your leagues player stats. There is a buggy third party tool (CSV Reporter) that gets you some of the way there, but it is not as easy as strat. But even with this problem (and the endless mouse clicking in OOTP compared to Strat...), I really enjoy the whole experience of OOTP much better than Strat. I feel I have more control over the dynamics of the game, but I also get more enjoyment over not knowing what the players will do. In Strat, if you know the player's card or stats, you know exactly what they will do in the game - you don't have that in OOTP, there is some leeway depending on your scout and how the player is developing. And this adds a very enjoyable dimension.

12-11-2001, 01:06 PM	#5
McSweeny Minors (Single A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Boston, MA Posts: 53	I have a mac, and i have found that ootp will run on VPC... or at least version 2 did. I was just testing this out as i play on my pc... but all indications pointed towards it working on VPC. Personally i think it's BS that strat won't work on VPC... pretty much any software that runs under windows will run on VPC. I don't see how they could be certain that it won't run on VPC... unless they're saying that they won't support it under VPC... -McSweeny

12-20-2001, 06:57 PM	#7
Mad Dan Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 2	The one thing I like about Strato is that you usually play one season at a time, as the next year is going on, so you can make trades based on how guys are doing the next year and how you think they'll do from what you've read, rather than a few rankings and "scouts". I much prefer using my own knowledge of a player to predict how they'll than what a few computer rankings tell me. I love OOTP but it will never come close to Strat for me. I've been in a league for 7 years and it's a great obsession. However, if you want to play a game where you can go through a couple of years in a year or a week and work on the financial side, OOTP is probably the way to go.

12-21-2001, 04:29 AM	#9
rwd59 All Star Reserve Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: LA (Lower Alabama) Posts: 977	I like them both for different reasons. The unpredictability of OOTP is great depending on what mood I am in. I have and still usually prefer statistical accuracy where strat is much better. I bought OOTP mainly for the ability to import any season with the lahman database. After only a couple of seasons, I put OOTP away because you could not get it to use the players it should when "replaying" a season. For example, Tony Cloninger for the 66 Braves actually got 39 starts but OOTP would only use him as a September call-up because his ERA rating was lower than 5 other people the game could start. Many batters were the same way. I wish the game could change the way it picks lineups and players based on whether you were playing a "replay" or "career" season but it does not. So if you want that type of accuracy then OOTP is not for you. That being said, I later tryed the game again in the "career" mode and began to get hooked on that side of the game. If you want to be a "GM" then OOTP is the game for you. I still play both but really wish that the roster and lineup selection area for "replay" seasons could be changed. I am not sure why they even offer a "replay" option as it is. If this area could be changed I would then throw my strat over to e-bay or out the window.

12-21-2001, 05:35 AM	#10
sporr Global Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Muscatine, IA Posts: 8,277	Yes rwd, I wouldn't use OOTP for a strict replay of a particular season. OOTP is more of a "what-if" game. Much of this is due to the nature of the sim engine. Other games such as Strat are stat-based while OOTP is ratings-based.

12-21-2001, 12:51 PM	#11
Big Johnston Minors (Single A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 50	I played both the crad and compiter versions of SOM. Once I got to play OOTP, I gave up on SOM and have never looked back. It really is that much better and more flexible.