Rand
08-17-2004, 04:02 PM
Or the leagues you've considered joining, but didn't.
No web site other than a message board? (half the ones I've looked at, I can't even find the rules)
So called "league credits" where owners get an advantage from doing things that have nothing to do with playing BBM?
High market teams that can run away with the league due to the monetary advantage?
"Old" owners having a large advantage over new ones due to vacant teams not being properly tended?
Having to try getting rid of five seasons worth of previous owner, overseer, or AI mistakes with only one or two free releases when you take over a team?
Always starting at the bottom because veteran owners get first shot at the "good" teams that go vacant, and leave their old, ruined, teams for you to take over?
Rules that get changed on a whim with little or no involvement of the owners?
Owners who don't seem to care about anything, let alone replying to your trade offer?
Talent that's either been allowed to go so high that "A" ratings and high predictions don't mean anything anymore, or players that have been hit so hard by the rookie.ini file that most of them are C-, D and F rated losers?
No recognizable player names? Or worse, players you do know but who don't even come close to performing as well as their real life counterparts?
Too much time between sims? Too little time?
Owners allowed to register with the league using free email accounts, like yahoo or hotmail, opening the way to one person controlling multiple teams that get used like his own personal farm system?
Something else?
I'm strongly considering forming a new league, but from what I see here every BBM owner age ten or above seems to be doing the same thing.
So, how do I make a league different enough to distinguish it from all the others that never really make it, while at the same time keeping enough of real BBM, and MLB, play to give people a solid fantasy league experience?
Here are some thoughts I've had for the "Real Competition Mogul League":
*Begin with an old style league setup. Two leagues, two divisions per league, four or five teams per division. This would be to allow the resulting sixteen to twenty teams to get real owners faster and, if things go well, leaves room for future expansion.
*Equalize cities and shuffle players.
No owner should ever be able to dominate a league because he started with a good RL team in a high market. That's fine for playing the computer AI, but not when real people own the teams.
With equalized cities, no luxury tax (payroll tax) should ever be needed. Nor conventional revenue sharing.
With shuffled players, no team gets an immediate talent advantage to build into an unstoppable dynasty. Smart owners can build teams that eventually get talent and market advantages, but that would be something they earn, not inherit.
*Eliminate "fan base" and set starting fan loyalty to "A" for all teams. Hey, this is a fantasy game played for fun. We want real life frustrations, we can work overtime or do more studying.
*No in game rewards, just bragging rights, for out of game activities.
League jobs tend to go to trusted veteran owners, which is fine. But those veterans already have the league playing time to have set up their teams, so why do they need even more advantages?
Writing articles or press releases could reward everyone, but in the end this really just leaves people with less time or less comfort and ability in creative writing at a disadvantage.
*Built in player contract demand reduction.
No loyalty signings, release and re-sign as a free agent, or other silliness. Just the flat out admission that at every level BBM 2k4 salaries are stupid and should be both reduced and capped so owners can have the same players from year to year until they want to get rid of them, not get rid of them because they can't pay the 20M contract.
*Use a rookie.ini file to keep rookie talent from running wild, but don't set it so low that most new rookies are just garbage that you can't get rid of fast enough.
*League voting to approve trades involving draft picks and non peaked prospects. If you've played in a league before, then you've seen the same thing I have: Some very earnest but not very good owners trading their future away over and over for players that are no good or that they can't afford in the first place.
Good owners should be able to trade DPs, but inexperienced or just plain bad owners should be prevented from destroying a team by trading top picks and prospects to already dominant teams, thereby making their teams even weaker and the dominant teams into unbeatable dynasties.
*Expansion teams based on real life baseball practices. When we expand, we don't just create a new team with BBM generated players on it, we have an expansion draft where players from other teams get picked to fill in that new team.
All teams would have a certain number of protected players, at least enough to protect their entire lineup and pitching rotation, but after that all other players could be drafted away from them.
This provides an ongoing balance to the league. Do you protect your top three bench hitters, or do you protect your top three prospects? Different owners will make different choices, so the new teams will have a good mix of playable talent and prospects right from day one, while old teams lose some depth advantage at the same time.
*Play in sim mode. It's not perfect, but it limits BBM's whimsical ability to downgrade players even while they're having a great season, and helps rookies to become something close to what they were supposed to be in the first place.
*Adjust every non-old timer/past peak player with a health rating below "B" up to "B". I mean, come on. I know this is baseball, not the Olympics, but 21 year old players rated "D" in health? New prospects with a C-? At catcher even? If these guys are that sickly already, why did they even make it to triple A ball, and what idiot scout even suggested that they should play on the big team?
If you've read this far, then may the gods bless your patience!
So what about this do you like? What do you hate? What would you add or take away?
Most importantly, what will get you to leave that old league you're tired of playing in anyway, join a second or third league, or finally go ahead join a play by email league like you've been wanting to?
Either reply in this thread or PM me on this board.
Your opinion matters, and matters even more if you express it because you'd like to join a league that tries to get it right not only from day one, but all the way through to the year 2103.
No web site other than a message board? (half the ones I've looked at, I can't even find the rules)
So called "league credits" where owners get an advantage from doing things that have nothing to do with playing BBM?
High market teams that can run away with the league due to the monetary advantage?
"Old" owners having a large advantage over new ones due to vacant teams not being properly tended?
Having to try getting rid of five seasons worth of previous owner, overseer, or AI mistakes with only one or two free releases when you take over a team?
Always starting at the bottom because veteran owners get first shot at the "good" teams that go vacant, and leave their old, ruined, teams for you to take over?
Rules that get changed on a whim with little or no involvement of the owners?
Owners who don't seem to care about anything, let alone replying to your trade offer?
Talent that's either been allowed to go so high that "A" ratings and high predictions don't mean anything anymore, or players that have been hit so hard by the rookie.ini file that most of them are C-, D and F rated losers?
No recognizable player names? Or worse, players you do know but who don't even come close to performing as well as their real life counterparts?
Too much time between sims? Too little time?
Owners allowed to register with the league using free email accounts, like yahoo or hotmail, opening the way to one person controlling multiple teams that get used like his own personal farm system?
Something else?
I'm strongly considering forming a new league, but from what I see here every BBM owner age ten or above seems to be doing the same thing.
So, how do I make a league different enough to distinguish it from all the others that never really make it, while at the same time keeping enough of real BBM, and MLB, play to give people a solid fantasy league experience?
Here are some thoughts I've had for the "Real Competition Mogul League":
*Begin with an old style league setup. Two leagues, two divisions per league, four or five teams per division. This would be to allow the resulting sixteen to twenty teams to get real owners faster and, if things go well, leaves room for future expansion.
*Equalize cities and shuffle players.
No owner should ever be able to dominate a league because he started with a good RL team in a high market. That's fine for playing the computer AI, but not when real people own the teams.
With equalized cities, no luxury tax (payroll tax) should ever be needed. Nor conventional revenue sharing.
With shuffled players, no team gets an immediate talent advantage to build into an unstoppable dynasty. Smart owners can build teams that eventually get talent and market advantages, but that would be something they earn, not inherit.
*Eliminate "fan base" and set starting fan loyalty to "A" for all teams. Hey, this is a fantasy game played for fun. We want real life frustrations, we can work overtime or do more studying.
*No in game rewards, just bragging rights, for out of game activities.
League jobs tend to go to trusted veteran owners, which is fine. But those veterans already have the league playing time to have set up their teams, so why do they need even more advantages?
Writing articles or press releases could reward everyone, but in the end this really just leaves people with less time or less comfort and ability in creative writing at a disadvantage.
*Built in player contract demand reduction.
No loyalty signings, release and re-sign as a free agent, or other silliness. Just the flat out admission that at every level BBM 2k4 salaries are stupid and should be both reduced and capped so owners can have the same players from year to year until they want to get rid of them, not get rid of them because they can't pay the 20M contract.
*Use a rookie.ini file to keep rookie talent from running wild, but don't set it so low that most new rookies are just garbage that you can't get rid of fast enough.
*League voting to approve trades involving draft picks and non peaked prospects. If you've played in a league before, then you've seen the same thing I have: Some very earnest but not very good owners trading their future away over and over for players that are no good or that they can't afford in the first place.
Good owners should be able to trade DPs, but inexperienced or just plain bad owners should be prevented from destroying a team by trading top picks and prospects to already dominant teams, thereby making their teams even weaker and the dominant teams into unbeatable dynasties.
*Expansion teams based on real life baseball practices. When we expand, we don't just create a new team with BBM generated players on it, we have an expansion draft where players from other teams get picked to fill in that new team.
All teams would have a certain number of protected players, at least enough to protect their entire lineup and pitching rotation, but after that all other players could be drafted away from them.
This provides an ongoing balance to the league. Do you protect your top three bench hitters, or do you protect your top three prospects? Different owners will make different choices, so the new teams will have a good mix of playable talent and prospects right from day one, while old teams lose some depth advantage at the same time.
*Play in sim mode. It's not perfect, but it limits BBM's whimsical ability to downgrade players even while they're having a great season, and helps rookies to become something close to what they were supposed to be in the first place.
*Adjust every non-old timer/past peak player with a health rating below "B" up to "B". I mean, come on. I know this is baseball, not the Olympics, but 21 year old players rated "D" in health? New prospects with a C-? At catcher even? If these guys are that sickly already, why did they even make it to triple A ball, and what idiot scout even suggested that they should play on the big team?
If you've read this far, then may the gods bless your patience!
So what about this do you like? What do you hate? What would you add or take away?
Most importantly, what will get you to leave that old league you're tired of playing in anyway, join a second or third league, or finally go ahead join a play by email league like you've been wanting to?
Either reply in this thread or PM me on this board.
Your opinion matters, and matters even more if you express it because you'd like to join a league that tries to get it right not only from day one, but all the way through to the year 2103.