Baseball Mogul is boring me!!!

[drew]

Who thinks Baseball Mogul Online needs to be spiced up? Many members have lost interest in this product and I am starting to too. Who thinks BBMO needs to be spiced up? If you vote yes, please tell us your opinion on how to make it better

Here is mine:

1)Players should retire earlier, between the age of 38-41, not 45

2)Players should refuse contract extensions because they are played out of position, playing on a losing team, etc.

[hamricb]

I think part of the problem is the time of year. In real life, all my sports energies are focused on the NFL playoffs and the Mavs. I enjoy playing a sports game a lot more when that sport is "in-season." So perhaps April will bring renewed interest from me and others. I don't know if I'll stick around that long, though.

I'm sure the folks at BBMO already anticipate that their subscription customers are likely to do a lot of "on again, off again" playing to their game.

[jacoby]

I am intrigued by the concept of a player refusing a contract extension because of mitigating circumstances such as :

Playing out of position

team is consistently losing year after year

not sure how this option could occur in the game and it makes it may make it more difficult for struggling teams to sign quality playres, but I'm up for exploring the idea!

[exep]

Currently, I can enter a league 10 years after it was started, with a team that has a record of 4th place, change it around, and who would know but me (and a few astute others). We compete because we like to see who won. If we play in more than one league, we can't.

Set up some sort of scoring system for GMs, we are the one's competing, not teams. The better the system, the less boredom.

[steven0560]

I like the idea of players refusing contract extensions because they are played out of position, playing on a losing team and so forth, but they should also be more eager to sign if the team is doing well.
I also think too many players play too long, but there should be some that hang in there. Just not as many.
It would also be fun if you have a player retire, and you could "make an offer he can't refuse" to stick around one more year.
You should be able to "train" players to play new positions while in the minors. Otherwise you can't have players not sign extensions for being out of position. It currently is the only chance you have to "teach" a new position. Realistically, players are taught new positions all the time in the minor leagues. Some position players even become pitchers and visa-versa.
Overall, it's still fun. :D

[nysteinbrenner]

I have the feeling that once Football Mogul Online finally hits the web, this problem will be alleviated - with Clay & Co. possibly allowing users to pay for X number of teams, dividing some between each game.

Those of us "Goldies" could have 4 - 5 BBMO teams, and an equal number of FBMO clubs - keeping things semi-manageable, while at the same time keeping things a little fresh. Players could migrate from one game to the other as season's changed. Needless to say I think it'd be pretty neat.

Until that though, there will be a downturn in interest between November and mid-March. It's natural. We'll all just have to ride it out together. :)

[sunzfan]

But as drew said, if players retire at age 38 all excitement will be thrown back into this boring game. Early retirement--a rush if i might say so my self :D

[Clay Dreslough]

Hi Guys!

Thanks for your thoughts. No official announcements yet but we are in the process of doing a few things to spice up Mogul:

1) Launch a new database around opening day with updated players and stats. Giambi in New York. Damon in Boston. Bonds with 73 homers last year. You get the idea...

2) Launch improvements to the game, mostly notably a new Scouting Report that shows stats for each year (and each team) that a player played for, including playoff stats, minor leagues etc. Trading and roster management should be much more fun when you have 10 years of major and minor league stats to look at for a player.

As for the other comments in this thread:

- When Football Mogul Online is launched, we do indeed plan to allow one membership to buy teams in both games.

- I've thought about more interesting AI for contract signing, but much of it comes down to "a player should be more willing to sign with a winning team". Since its tough enough to pull a loser out of the second division, I don't think adding this type of feature would make the game more fun. But I am open to suggestions.

- Regarding retirements, do you want players deteriorating more quickly (e.g. Mark McGwire and Albert Belle retired in real life for health reasons) or do just want to change the AI so that players retire while they are still good, instead of sitting in AAA until they are 45?

- I'm thinking right now about improvements to the scoring system, and will probably post a new thread and poll to get your thoughts on this subject.

[Seiryuu]

Hi Clay... regarding your post about free agent signings and players retiring because of health reasons:

Regarding the former, take a look at my recent post in the question's forum. I think one of the problems we have is that large market teams "load" up their minors with older double digit salary players. Realistically, they should be forced to release these players at a cost, as in MLB most players would not allow themselves to optioned to the minors, ala D. Bell. This would free up more players for the smaller teams and at the same time add financial responsibility onto the larger markets.

Regarding the later, I think the issue is that in MLB, once a player hits about 35 today (up until the 1970s I would have said 30) the game starts taking a toll on their bodies. Minor injuries become major as their muscles do not have a lot of elasticity and do not regenerate very fast. This is especially true of the skill positions, P, C, SS, 3B and CF. (Three durable players come to mind, Garvey, Edgar and Cal, as they have aged, nagging injuries increase in frequency and duration.) One option could be to reduce the health ratings of players as they get older. With that any long-term injuries should effect their performance levels, especially speed and fielding. One of my favorite quotes was from Sam Rice(I think?), he knew it was time to retire when he no longer could beat out grounders in the hole.

I hope this was of use... thanks... out

[Clay Dreslough]

Seiryuu,

Thanks for the comments. We are thinking about ways to incorporate something similar to the MLB waivers and contracts rules without making things too complicated. Perhaps these features could be an option for private leagues.

And I'll keep trying to make the aging engine more realistic.

Clay

[Seiryuu]

Hi Clay... another recent thought that puts the smaller market teams in a hole is that players without any significant playing time in the majors often become free agents and then ask for outlandish sums of cash...

for example... on my PHI in Japherwaki... I had both L. Rivera and J. Rollins asking for 50 points a year even though they both had only a year and half worth of experience.

In MLB they would have been eligible for arbitration not free agency. The large market teams can afford to pony up to their demands in BBMO... the smaller are forced to trade their best prospects after only a year or two of service...

thanks for all your help and great improvements!

[John]

I've seen changes to the age engine and they are more accurate. Players are losing it earlier then they used too. It absolutly ruined my Minnesota team in Baseball Mogul Fever but it's all for the best. :)