[dickysty]

Interesting Read I would Say.

Well, gather round boys and girls and I'll tell ya a little story about the way things went down and why they are the way they are. Believe it, don't believe, don't matter to me. This is for the historical record. I'll post here once, I will not post again.

BACK BEFORE DOGS WERE INVENTED ..

There was a game called FPSBBPRO98. Shaun wrote killer utilities for it. Fabulous utilities. This was the end all game, basically, for the mainstream crowd of sim baseball.

So, Shaun decided, in his spare time, from the Southeastern portion of the US (and we'll leave that obscure) .. that he would .. try. Try to make a game.

Now, about this time, along comes TWO fellas .. one from Tennessee .. Steve .. and one from GERMANY, Markus.

I was in the position to know all of this because I was The General Manager of a Sports Network of sites that numbered about 250 for the sixth largest Internet company in the world. So, both these individuals were supported by me, giving them a lot of press. *I*, personally, took an interest in both these games. In an interview, back before Columbus landed in The Bahamas, I actually got Shaun to commit to a date of release. It was merely rumours before then and betas. This was the first time he actually mentioned a release of a full version.

The same time, Markus (which changes from 'k' to 'c' on occassion, can't figure out why) .. was after me to take a look at his game. So, I did.

I told him: Here's the deal ..

You're gonna make your money off of MULTIPLAYER. Leagues that can play the game. You'll get 30 buys a pop. So, he says "How do I do this?" and we go in to this 3 month .. thing .. of me sending ideas and him sending me a build and I say "No .. no ..no ..like this." The reason I was so well versed in this was that I ran a legendary league on the web that involved the Lead Designer of FPSBBPRO98 and many members of Sierra's team and also the Sports Editor of PC Gamer, TONS of gaming press members, The Ultimate Big Stakes Ego League .. The King of All Leagues of All Time. It was unreal, the competition. Simply unreal. OOTP's Multiplayer was derived DIRECTLY FROM THIS LEAGUE. Every league that uses OOTP uses this league as their prototype because THAT'S what it was designed around. All we were ALL trying to do, the Sierra guys, the guys from other companies that played there, the gaming press guys, EVERYBODY ... all we were trying to do was make a better baseball game to play our league with. And we got this schmuck in Germany to code it for us so we didn't have to do it.

This legendary league was known simply as: "Sundown".

We were also the very first to use Brian's basketball engine, FastBreak, for an online league and was instrumental in his programming. That's another story.

So, if you look closely at the manual to OOTP3, you'll see that I was credited with the design of the on-line portion of OOTP. Not entirely true. I advised with all the other people, some which were part of the design team of FPSBBPRO98 (and other games). It was a lot of time involved.

Meanwhile, and I still have the e-mail, Shaun, I told Shaun the same thing and Shaun said, quote: "I could never foresee the day that PureSim is an on-line experience". I still liked PureSim more and I believe it to be a FAR, FAR superior simulation of baseball.

Why?

Because I was on the INSIDE when both these games were being birthed.

Why is OOTP all screwed up and ALWAYS WILL BE? Because it's not soccer.

Think what you want of Markus, and I love the guy myself, but .. I saw it time and again .. you can't grow up in a place where there is no baseball and then make a game that simulates it.

Shaun played baseball. Shaun is an American. What do you want me to tell you? You want me to lie and tell you the politically correct thing? Sorry, it's not the facts. OOTP will never be "right". There will always be something intristically "wrong" with it and it is very hard to put your finger on it. When these games were first being made .. I saw it. Markus just never "got" it. And there's no way to rewind his life and put him in a Little League uniform and understand what a squeeze play is. You can't read it and learn it. The subtelty that is baseball has to lived, day in and day out, watching 140 Braves games a year (sorry, Shaun) for 35 years. That subtelty soaks through and that's what you see in "PureSim".

Now, why is OOTP so much bigger and more active? MULTIPLAYER. Markus got the leagues when they were changing from FPSBBPRO98 and all the people who thought all the people running those leagues were idiots and they could do it better and it grew. TIMES 30. TIMES 30 again. AND .. don't discount that Steve was a VERY SMART COOKIE. He played the press well and was a great "face" stateside for OOTP. Shaun had.... his kids (who have to be close to graduating now). It was just Shaun.

When I was in a position to, I helped both these games with extensive press coverage .. and got Smoke to do it to in print .. we both did.

One went one way.

The other took the long way home.

.. and I wouldn't buy OOTP ON A BET ..

It ain't even close.

And it never will be.

This ain't soccer.

Sorry if that's politically incorrect.

It's just the way it is.

End of storytime.

Have a nice life.