The MacPhaillies - 2015 Show Phillies (and reflection) - philliesfan136's Dynasty

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The MacPhaillies - 2015 Show Phillies (and reflection)

Posted on June 30, 2015 at 01:05 AM.

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Baseball gaming
Part 2

Games had always been a part of that early growing fandom. I loved MLB 2k8 for some reason, maybe the thrill of changing fake names and top 100 prospects, a deep franchise mode I guess. I was never too great at the gameplay, starting from that game.. I always felt like homers came far too many in 2k8 and the pitching system was complicated. But my love for the deep aspects of managing a team - trading, signing, drafting - likely stemmed from the 2K games from a baseball standpoint. (I can speak for the football side with Madden but that's not the point of this post.)

I'm nostalgic about 2k8 and its great soundtrack especially. That got me started on roster updating which I pursued from 2K10 on, actually making a complete one (in my mind) for October in MLB 2k11. That year I released a full fake name conversion list, and made a thread here about changing stances/deliveries along with duhitsrandy which I thought were helpful. Randy claimed those changes were implemented into official roster updates but I don't remember checking to be sure. mkharsh or Mike of the 2K roster section deserves a lot of praise for keeping the games alive by being devoted to his work, despite having a family to attend to.

I remember creating a Phillies dynasty here at the height of their success, the 2011 summer. They were a fun team to try out, with the stars being mostly veterans and having to figure out what to do in the coming seasons. Drafting was funny due to the generated faces coming from the existing players, and sometimes seeing the same ones over and over. And then the random names that usually wouldn't match the faces, ha. I recall drafting a third baseman to take over for Polanco who looked like Mike Fontenot (initials G.G. I think) and he did really well. Strangely enough, Fontenot ended up playing for the Phillies the year after that in real life.

What I've learned from trying to do dynasty posts here and on Simulation Sports is that they usually don't last unless you're willing to put a lot of time in. You have to love what you're doing in the game and commit to making it interesting, aesthetically appealing, an entertaining read, and unique in your own way. Also, they're usually more fun to follow then to try yourself, unless you have the urge to present something you're enjoying a lot and you can express that thoroughly with time depending.

The PS3 was always alluring to me mainly because of the Show. My brother and I are sports fans and have manly kept to those games, with the exception of FPS like COD/Halo in the past. It was the selling point of the Vita for me, taking that next step from 2K (which was fun but it had many flaws) into the best baseball gaming has to offer. We had XBOX (XBOX --> 360), Nintendo (Gamecube --> Wii), and PS2, but not PS3. The idea of switching over to Playstation would only be for the Show really because all the sports games are multi-platform anyway. In retrospect I was jaded in that idea to buy a whole new console for just that game because having it on the Vita was enough. It turned out to be as great an experience as I expected - a very enthralling combo of smooth gameplay, excellent visuals, and an awesome franchise mode. It had everything advertised. Particularly from the GM side of the spectrum you had Rule 5 picks, scouting, 40-man rosters, DFA, waivers: everything you would want to control from Spring Training to offseason.

And that's where I'll leave off my baseball gaming section, to be edited later.