Ode to Modders(or there is a little bit of game developer in all of us) - Knight165's Blog

Knight165's Blog

Ode to Modders(or there is a little bit of game developer in all of us)

Posted on November 22, 2008 at 10:58 PM.

(17)

As some of you know, I'm a bit of a roster fanatic.
I've often been asked...."What the heck makes you want to create all those players?".....or have been told...."You're insane!, that's a lot of time to put into something you're not getting paid for!"(that last one is usually my wife saying that as she shakes her head in disbelief that her 43 year old husband still plays games

)

I've been making rosters for baseball games(just about every one of them!)...hockey games and even some football games back in the day for nearly two decades now.

My first stab at the process was with the original Earl Weaver Baseball. Well, it was actually when the Commissioners Disk was released in 1988. It was pure mana from heaven. I'd be making the rosters up to date FOREVER, I thought!....and I was almost right. I'm still trying to keep the rosters up to date, but it's obviously moved on from Earl Weaver Baseball.

Then, some ten years later a little gem called Front Page Sports Baseball was released. In between and right along side were some other great baseball games. Tony LaRussa and Hardball, just to name two. But with Front Page came something else. The ability to customize. You could change the uniforms, the camera angles, the players. It seemed like you could change EVERYTHING! MORE MANA FROM HEAVEN!!!

It was then that something else was starting to take place, the surge of internet use. Everyone was using AOL and it was then I decided to start a league, with myself as commissioner, made up of guys who got together in chat rooms to talk baseball. It was rotisserie baseball ONLINE! National On-Line Baseball was born(the NOLB)
National On-Line Baseball was a lot of fun. In the NOLB, we had 20 teams(I controlled the teams not USER controlled), and it went on until the demise of FPS:Baseball which was around the year 2000(the 1999 version was virtually unplayable).
I had always had the urge to create my own game, and I had realized that with making rosters, creating leagues and making changes galore, I actually WAS developing the game in my own way.

Nowadays the new gem is MLB:The Show. Honestly, I've never had so much fun with a baseball title. It seems like a little bit of each of my favorite baseball games rolled into one. It wasn't always such...it has evolved that way and let's hope it keeps evolving into a more and more customizable game because with the emergence of the console as King, much of that customization has been taken away.
Case in point is two of the most customizable games around.....the High Heat series and the MVP series for PC. There were still mods being made for both of those games until this year!
The Show at first didn't even have an editor...that was thankfully put in.....then you couldn't edit rosters out of franchise....the devs heard our cries and changed that.....then in this last year they added a face editor..I was finally able to make a realistic Keith Hernandez and Tom Seaver!!!!MORE MANA I'M OVERDOSING ON IT NOW!!!!!

.....all the time adding new sliders and options for the user to control. We're still a long way from being able to change everything, but we're moving in the right direction.
As I stated, hopefully the console versions of our sports games harken back to the PC versions of the games as far as customization is concerned, because as the title says, I think there is a little developer in all of us.

So if you're a slider guy...a uniform guy....a roster guy, the guy who mods everything heck even the guy who just comes up with an idea and asks someone who does mod the game....in your own way you are developing a game......and IMO that's always a good thing!

Here's to GREAT GAMING

and thanks to all those who mod AND inspire modders.

M.K.
Knight165

Comments

# 1 mlblover15 @ Nov 23

wow, i remember every game you speak of my freiend... great stuff and even better memories... did you ever figure out the trading glitch in fps that allowed you to get any player you wanted... for near to nothing??/ i did.

controll every team, then go to the team you wanted the player from. you traded that player to your team for who ever you wanted to give up. it worked 99.9% of the time... i used to make the most killer rosters... oh mna... the div would be clinched in may lol... anyway great stuff my friend... great stuff

# 2 mlblover15 @ Nov 23

# 3 RAZRr1275 @ Jan 1

I'm addicted to the roster thing too. I spend more time editing a game than I do playing it.

# 4 Jason_19 @ Feb 12

This is an excellent write up.

# 5 Dolso003 @ Oct 11

Yea I know what you mean, I did everything I could to keep my ps2 version of MVP05 up to date and then after ur rosters and mb08 i finally found a combination that I felt was worthy of putting MVP away. Keep up the great work.

# 6 Cowboys63 @ Apr 6

M.K., I'm glad to know that I'm not the only 40 something yr old person playing these games. I remember looking at the Sporting News and seeing an ad for Micro League Baseball. I ordered it for my Commodore 64 abd thought it was the greatest thing. Games have come a long way since then, haven't they? Anyway, I appreciate the work that you and the others that help you do. Baseball is a great game and your work makes the video game version as real as possible for us want-a-be general managers and managers.

# 7 YanksLincecum @ Aug 10

My father says the point of the game is to play to to update but im addicted to updating rosters and creating caps

# 8 ped3328 @ Dec 31

I attended my first pro baseball game when I was 9 years old! It was an International League game between the Newark Bears and the Montr�al Royals in my home town of Montr�al. I was addicted right off the bat (pun intended!). I did not know at the time that years later, I would become addicted to classical music when I attended my first concert. Call it right off... the baton! I remember ''fooling around'' with fictitious stats and rosters when I was about 12. Decades later, modern tehnology brought us a video baseball game called MVP Baseball. Another addiction followed! Today, as I am patiently, or impatiently waiting for The Show 12 to come out, I go back to that famous Lou Gehrig's line: ''Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth!" I am 70 now and still a fan of this wonderful invention called BASEBALL...

# 9 NAFBUC @ Jan 22

Great read M.K. You are right about tinkering under the hood with the great linage of baseball games. That is why I love baseball and the numbers that difine our pastime.

# 10 Engine01 @ Feb 20

Knight i played all those as well. Im 42 and my GF laughs that i still play too. One of my favs was i think on Earl Weaver was building ur own stadiums where u could customize fence distance and height. I hope the show goes in that direction lets u pick a franchise and pick the stadium u want as your home field.

# 11 Engine01 @ Feb 20

I usec to also print out every boxscore from my games, not sure if it was micro league baseball or, Earl Weaver. My buddies and i had whole 3 ring binders of box scores. The good ole days!

# 12 kjtrovin @ Apr 4

Hey Knight, just discovered your rosters... Every year I spend a few hours getting my team's (Nats) rosters up to date with most of the notable prospects. I can't believe you and your "followers" are able to pull this off for the entire league. I was wondering if you'd post your paypal address so I could "buy you a beer" for all of your work. I'm sure there are plenty of other people that would gladly throw you $5-$10 for your all of your work (pales in comparison to your time investment, but if a small percentage of the people that use your rosters show some love, it'd be worth it!)

# 13 Curahee @ Jan 19

I really appreciate all the hard work that is put into these rosters year in and year out. You and your team are definitely one of a kind and greatly appreciated!

# 14 Instant C1a55ic @ Mar 25

We appreciate not only the hard work and organization skills that you have that helps us all update the show, but me personally I appreciate that you let the little guys (like myself) help out in helping you update the show! You sir are a gentleman, and a scholar!