Archive of SportingNews.com's old SOM Baseball forum

I don't think Strat-O-Matic can be beaten. Why? Very simple answer:

THE CARDS

I haven't played Diamond Mind or APBA. I'm sure they can be fun. But you cannot beat the information you get on the cards.

Other reasons:

SOM uses scouting reports for defense ratings.

SOM balances stats against history, knowing for example that pitching gets diluted in expansion years etc...

Diamond Mind argues against the cards, stating you are trying to get a computer to mimick a parlour game. I say that is exactly the point in SOMs favor. To be able to stare at a card that sums up everything about a player is like looking at an accurate one page assessment of that player.

The bottom line is that this game has the right amount of statistics and strategy. Certainly not too little.

You won't find me disagreeing with you there. True that we don't have as much control of our teams as we'd like to have but this game is still aces in my book.

I have to wonder what we would have to evaluate players in another sim?? Just their straight up stats? Where's the fun in that? The fun part is finding that diamond in the rough hitter that ends up being a perfect fit for your park or finding that downtrodden pitcher who turns out to be Cy Young cause his card is a great fit for your ballyard.

These are things that I don't think you get out of other sims.

JMHO,
Ty

That's like saying, "Pineapple is a great flavor. I haven't tasted any other flavors, but I can't imagine how anything could beat pineapple."

How could you possibly know if you haven't tried it?

8)

I've never said I wouldn't TRY another product...I'm just not getting my hopes up. When you get into the simming game you have to realize that programming is often gimmicked to make it LOOK accurate.

You just gotta be careful with your money.

[quote:30991c5fec="bkoron"]That's like saying, "Pineapple is a great flavor. I haven't tasted any other flavors, but I can't imagine how anything could beat pineapple."

How could you possibly know if you haven't tried it?

8)[/quote:30991c5fec]

If a Baseball SIM company convinced me that they could responsibly handle subjective scouting reports such as outfield arms strength, along with Saber numbers such as FB/GB ratios, XBHs etc... I might try it. Head to head would be a selling point.

I'm not saying THIS version of SIM is the best it could be, but I am saying that SOMs ratings are the best because of they way they match the game strategy. One move has a counter move etc...

For ease of game playing, it is more useful to rate a player's bunting ability as a "B", then to provide some number. It is complicated just enough. Not too much, not too little.

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. Go to this link, scroll to the bottom, and read the part about choosing your park:

[url]http://legends.stats.com/rules/rules_draft.asp[/url]

They talk about ballpark size affecting flyballs, but not about how the ball carries (i.e. Safeco, see Coors, see Wrigey and so on).

Now maybe they DO factor that in, but I'm not willing to spend money to find out if a company that is GREAT at crunching numbers (STATS), is great at game development.

If I recall correctly, SOM uses info from STATS to develop the player cards.

Can't beat the player cards. They have just the right amount of complexity. Same with ballpark ratings etc...

Yes, I could agree wholeheartedly with the Strat-O-Matic game being unequealed, as I have tried others. But TSN SOM Online is a separate enterprise and I don't think it has nearly enough interaction and way too much AI. SOM game co and TSN SOMO are 2 different things. TSN just has exclusive rights to run an online adaptation of the SOM computer version of the game.