Free MMO baseball game..........

[lordscarlet]

If I have to spend 4 hours every day training, that's a problem.

[bbor]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBGood

OK. I am not seeing Wade Moore on the team. Lordscarlet - I am sorry, all these Moore's are confusing me. Offer sent! We have 9 pitchers right now. We only need 11. I had to revoke bbor's offer for Ty Trykster because wade moore and lordscarlet asked to join first. With that said, bbor, I'd love to take on your next player. I tried adding your catcher but can't send offers to players on other teams. If you want to ask your team owner to release you, I'll definitely sign your catcher as we need another one badly. Or if you want to create a CF, or SS let me know and I'll save your spot.

5 spots left

P - wade moore (pending)
P - lordscarlet (pending)
C
CF
SS

I will create a CF....what kind of CF do you need?

[bbor]

Hrm...seems i don't have enough points

[rjolley]

I have a CF that's going to be developed as a speed guy, but I don't want to take a spot from another FOFCer.

They really need a queue for training. It's a PITA to check in every 30-90 minutes to do training.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by rjolley

I have a CF that's going to be developed as a speed guy, but I don't want to take a spot from another FOFCer.

They really need a queue for training. It's a PITA to check in every 30-90 minutes to do training.

yes, yes, yes. If you only play once per day, who cares how long training takes?

[hawk4669]

I still have two players (Pitcher Hawk Brewster and 3B Hawk Needlenose) who're on CPU teams, but would love a human controlled team of any level.

I'm active and training like crazy.

Cheers!

[lordscarlet]

Um. WTF? I can't see our roster? We are the Seattle Storms, right?

And you said there was a game today, but I don't see one listed?

FWIW, I tried to create my P as a closer, but I don't actually know what the proper attributes are.

I went high on Arm Strength, Accuracy and Confidence. I didn't bother with much Stamina or batting stuff.

[lordscarlet]

Oh, sorry, you said we get paid at 3, not there's a game at 3. I didn't join in time.

[SirFozzie]

Two Players:

Alex Dpnovan- P (misspelling made :P)
Kayden Lee - RF

[MrDNA]

Calico Jenks, SS. Going for a speedy, surehanded contact hitter.

[hawk4669]

Guess I should say a bit more about my guys too:

P Hawk Brewster: Power starting pitcher with strong arm and good accuracy. Good stamina too.
3B Hawk Needlenose: Power hitting third baseman

Cheers!

[JohnnyBGood]

Hey everybody.

I really wish the team had more spots for everyone. Right now we are full unless we get to add a 25th player.

I'll let you know if anything changes on that front.

Hawk, I saw your post much earlier. Unfortunately you can not send contracts to players on other teams, even if they are CPU owned.

[wade moore]

Johnny - looks like we need to have the lineup set by 4pm Eastern or it is a forfeit.


I have NO idea how our opponent got his SP ratings so high. Makes me wary about the game already.

[BrianD]

Those SP ratings are quite high. Oh well, I'll be cheering you guys on from the bench.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by wade moore

Johnny - looks like we need to have the lineup set by 4pm Eastern or it is a forfeit.

I have NO idea how our opponent got his SP ratings so high. Makes me wary about the game already.

I'm on a wait and see standpoint right now. They've made a few changes to how you can 'buy' ratings over the past few days, including booting some people who paid substantial money to gain a huge advantage. I just think that the extreme sample size of the beta is providing a lot of new scenarios that they hadn't completely thought through initially and they're having to readjust the balance as we go along.

I think salaries and how they are paid will be the next situation to address, which is what is causing some of the imbalance. Players are getting paid a lot up front to give them money to upgrade early and gain an advantage. That is being discussed in the forums and will likely have to be addressed.

[wade moore]

They booted people that spent a lot of money?

Um, interesting.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by wade moore

They booted people that spent a lot of money?

Um, interesting.

They wouldn't give the exact reason, but the guy who tossed a ton of money into the game to exploit was booted. Granted, he was given his money back. On the other side, if it's a beta, I'm not sure you want to boot the people showing you where your game can be exploited.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by JohnnyBGood

Hey everybody.

I really wish the team had more spots for everyone. Right now we are full unless we get to add a 25th player.

I'll let you know if anything changes on that front.

Hawk, I saw your post much earlier. Unfortunately you can not send contracts to players on other teams, even if they are CPU owned.

I assume I wasn't offered a contract then?

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

They wouldn't give the exact reason, but the guy who tossed a ton of money into the game to exploit was booted. Granted, he was given his money back. On the other side, if it's a beta, I'm not sure you want to boot the people showing you where your game can be exploited.

Yup.

Yes, it sucks. But close the loopholes and keep the guy in, just change the rules on him. Otherwise this is just going to get exposed when/if the game leaves beta.

[JohnnyBGood]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I have NO idea how our opponent got his SP ratings so high. Makes me wary about the game already.

Wait till you see our pitching staff, and starting lineup. We have to be the favorites to win it all this season. Our 1-5 starters are pretty much just as good as that guy.

As for the banning of Dpride. The guy spent all this money and thought he could subsequently try to strong arm ryan_c and frederik by telling them how to run their game and how they are screwed because they wouldn't cater to his demands. He was a headache from day 1. Dpride was pretty much daring him to ban him, and he did, which shows an encouraging level of control, given how much money the guy threw at him. I think it is a great sign, as it shows ryan's decisions won't be ruled by just trying to just make a quick buck. He is trying to build something here, and has the fore-sight to see that he'll be better off keeping everyone happy than just one or two people.

[wade moore]

Do you plan to use me in relief long-term?

It's not a problem, I'll just stop focusing on Stamina if so.



As for DPride. We'll have to agree to disagree. You can not bow to his demands without removing him from the game.

[lordscarlet]

Or an encouraging amount of stupidity in his business plans, as have been demonstrated so far.

I mean, yes, it's nice that he's willing to do that -- but without money there is no game.

[JohnnyBGood]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

Or an encouraging amount of stupidity in his business plans, as have been demonstrated so far.

I mean, yes, it's nice that he's willing to do that -- but without money there is no game.

This coming from the one who was complaining about how money was going to rule in this game? According to you it is stupid if he allows it and stupid if he doesn't.

The point is, he is getting plenty of money (just in lower sums) from a lot of people. He is better off doing that over a long-term than by catering to the high-spenders who'll knock everyone else out of the game. Dpride wasn't banned because he spent money, he was banned because he was being offensive and personally attacking the higher-ups.

[lordscarlet]

I don't believe I said that, but OK, if I did.

Someone paying a ton of money should not rule the game. You just ignore the guy. There's no reason to have to kick him out. If he's stupid enough to pay money in to the beta, let him. If he keeps kicking out people that want to spend a lot of money he'll find himself unable to pay for the servers. It will turn off other big spenders.. shrugh.. hopefully, for his sake and the game's sake, it was the right decision. I definitely don't know all of the details. But the game he has created, no matter what, is going to be prone to that type of player. It's the only reason to create this game with this pricing model.

ryan_c can claim all of the good intentions he wants, but if he didn't want the game to be ruled by money it would not be setup in such a way that people that spend more money get the upper hand. Therefore, he shouldn't scare off the people willing to spend a lot of money. He could merely charge per player and per team and this wouldn't be an issue.

[lordscarlet]

Let me clarify: I don't believe I was complaining about money ruling the game, necessarily. I'm splitting hairs here, but the fact is that it will and I may have stated that it will. I also believe that others were making a big stink out of it, not me. Again, the model he has setup necessitates that money will rule the game because those that spend more money are given an advantage.

[Arles]

Originally Posted by BrianD

Those SP ratings are quite high. Oh well, I'll be cheering you guys on from the bench.

Sitting right with you . It will be interesting to see what works. At this point, everything looks pretty random.

[SirFozzie]

I still need teams for both my guys :P

[lordscarlet]

The "Live Game" thing is terrible. It shows nothing, and it doesn't let you watch from the beginning. Only "Live".

[BrianD]

I think there are a few bugs to clear out yet. The main page shows Seattle losing to Alaska by a score of 4-3. The last game played box on the team page shows the same score. The league standings show Seattle as 1-0 with Alaska 0-1. The team info page shows Seattle as 1-1. The team calendar shows for Friday the 8th a 0-7 win for Seattle.

[lordscarlet]

I think there are a few things that might work, rather than "there are a few bugs to clear out yet."

[wade moore]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I think there are a few bugs to clear out yet. The main page shows Seattle losing to Alaska by a score of 4-3. The last game played box on the team page shows the same score. The league standings show Seattle as 1-0 with Alaska 0-1. The team info page shows Seattle as 1-1. The team calendar shows for Friday the 8th a 0-7 win for Seattle.

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I think there are a few things that might work, rather than "there are a few bugs to clear out yet."

Appears that way thus far. These are some pretty basic things that I'm surprised didn't get ironed out in the closed beta.

Haven't checked their forums yet, but I'm curious to see if it's the normal complete silence from the guys running the game.

[hawk4669]

Where the heck can I see box scores of the games my guys have played in? It is probably very obvious and I'm missing it....but can't find a button for the box's.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

[JohnnyBGood]

Checking in. Seattle won (legitimately) yesterday. Arles Cruiser led us with a big 2 run double and was 2-3 with 3 RBI's. Wade Moore got a clutch double play ball to get us out of a jam and close the last 3 innings for us. Our pitchers combined for a 3 hit shutout.

Ryan C gave everyone 300 points for putting up with the game being so buggy and being in its infant stages. Nice gesture and attempt to get people to stay with the game... there definitely is reason for frustration.

I may be able to add a 25th player (getting conflicting reports on this if you can add a 25th, but it's worth a try). Is someone has, or wants to make a Catcher with the extra 300 points... post here and I'll try to send you a contract.

[Arles]

Was going to train today but I can't access the site. I'll try again later tonight or tomorrow.

[ntndeacon]

dont bother. it is going to open up again in a week.

[BrianD]

Anybody still going to be around at that point?

[Doug5984]

meh, i might stick around- if i remember in a week, but I'm at least glad they realize there is a huge problem with how it was going. Still a lot of bugs needed to be worked out.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I'll still give it a try. I actually enjoyed working on my player. I was promoted to starter just before they cut it off. As the guy said earlier in the thread, they just let it loose a bit too soon. It needed a couple weeks of work at a minimum. They've got a pretty big laundry list of things to fix. If they take the whole week and address many of the concerns, they should have a much better situation on their hands.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

they should have a much better situation on their hands.

Yeah, the reduced traffic ought to help.

At this point I'm just watching the thread for the mild amusement factor of a "how-not-to" exhibition. Who knew there'd be a Maxmium Baseblal Online?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yeah, the reduced traffic ought to help.

I know you're wisecracking, but it honestly should. The guy released too early, spent the first week doing nothing but fixing server issues, only to find his game wasn't ready for prime time. That was a week he should have spend continuing to refine the game.

As for the Maximum crack, these guys have been pretty open to input, something I don't think was seen at all in regards to Maximum. It still may not work, but the comparison is lacking.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

As for the Maximum crack, these guys have been pretty open to input, something I don't think was seen at all in regards to Maximum. It still may not work, but the comparison is lacking.

The underlined part is what matters. Whether they get there on their own or by taking every bit of input in the world, if they get there then it's usually all good. But they haven't exactly set the woods on fire on that whole "getting there" thing. That's why this thread has been a lot like watching a train wreck.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by hawk4669

Where the heck can I see box scores of the games my guys have played in? It is probably very obvious and I'm missing it....but can't find a button for the box's.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers!

From what I could tell, there was no way to do it.

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I'll still give it a try. I actually enjoyed working on my player. I was promoted to starter just before they cut it off. As the guy said earlier in the thread, they just let it loose a bit too soon. It needed a couple weeks of work at a minimum. They've got a pretty big laundry list of things to fix. If they take the whole week and address many of the concerns, they should have a much better situation on their hands.

I don't see how in a week they can write a whole game. That's pretty much what they're looking at. There's virtually nothing that works correctly.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Yeah, the reduced traffic ought to help.

At this point I'm just watching the thread for the mild amusement factor of a "how-not-to" exhibition.

I am also trying it so that I can see first-hand, but that's basically where I'm at as well. How could they have gotten nothing right?

a) Put the game on a server that can even come close to handling the expected traffic? no.
b) Make the UI even close to understandable? no.
c) Have the sim engine properly calculate a winner/loser? no.
d) Have the sim engine anywhere close to realistic? no.
e) have the "training" work flawlessly? no.

There really seemed to be nothing that really even came close to working.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

I don't see how in a week they can write a whole game. That's pretty much what they're looking at. There's virtually nothing that works correctly.

I do agree with this part. They shouldn't have put up a specific time period. They should have just put up an 'under construction' post and brought it back when it was good and ready, whether it is a week or two months or whatever. They may be setting themselves up for a second failure by putting a constraint on it that may not be workable. I hope they're still reading this thread and consider that possibility. If it's heavily flawed when they bring it back again, they're screwed. Very few if any will be accepting of a second bad release.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by lordscarlet

How could they have gotten nothing right?

a) Put the game on a server that can even come close to handling the expected traffic? no.
b) Make the UI even close to understandable? no.
c) Have the sim engine properly calculate a winner/loser? no.
d) Have the sim engine anywhere close to realistic? no.
e) have the "training" work flawlessly? no.

There really seemed to be nothing that really even came close to working.

I know I disagreed with you on point A at the beginning of this whole mess, but I'm less forgiving of it now after having gone through the rest of the messed up points. When a game goes public, you expect most things to generally work with some adjustments to be made. I don't know if there was any part of this that I thought DID generally work. I don't believe they even tested the sim engine. If they had tested it, they couldn't have missed that the score was reported different on every page and that the standings didn't work.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by Mizzou B-ball fan

I do agree with this part. They shouldn't have put up a specific time period. They should have just put up an 'under construction' post and brought it back when it was good and ready, whether it is a week or two months or whatever. They may be setting themselves up for a second failure by putting a constraint on it that may not be workable. I hope they're still reading this thread and consider that possibility. If it's heavily flawed when they bring it back again, they're screwed. Very few if any will be accepting of a second bad release.

Again, the business decisions have been very poor thus far. Even if they have the best intentions, poor execution will kill them.

[Arles]

The biggest issue to me was not being able to see a freakin box score. You'd think people would like to actually see how their players did without having to subtract their stats earlier in the morning from their stats now

I couldn't even begin to see how the engine worked as there were 2-3 different scores shown for the same game (one in the record, one on the team page and another in the standings) and no way to view a box score. Our first game showed 7-0 on the main screen and I was like "nice, we won". Then I check the team forum and JohnnyBGood was complaining about a pitching issue causing us to lose 4-3.

[wade moore]

I definitely point to those questioning whether this game was tested at all. I got the impression that there was a closed beta of some kind, but maybe I was wrong?

The idea that this guy took money for this product is completely unethical to me.

[PackerFanatic]

Originally Posted by wade moore

I definitely point to those questioning whether this game was tested at all. I got the impression that there was a closed beta of some kind, but maybe I was wrong?

The idea that this guy took money for this product is completely unethical to me.

Seeing how it has done so far, there is no way this was seen by anyone but the developer before he released it. And I totally agree on the money piece.

[BrianD]

I wouldn't say the money piece is unethical...assuming they don't just take what they got and run. I think it was more naive. Probably some guys who realized that anything even loosely defined as a "web game" can bring in a bunch of money and rushed to join in...only to realize that it isn't as easy as it looks.

[Fidatelo]

Some thoughts:

- Taking money was a massive mistake. Massive.
- That said, I think it's pretty dumb to start paying for a complete unknown when there is a way to try it out for free.
- Overall this thing is an absolute debacle, but this thread is a lot of fun to watch so on the whole I'm glad it happened.