Take A Look

[nevdully's]

Think you have a good team here, and you're pretty deep into the season so that should be somewhat representative of the type of team you have...But that's before some 2-14 stretch.


I see it in most leagues both good and bad.
Normalization? Momentum feature?..[b:1bbeef5261].This game is
much more "black box" than you can
imagine[/b:1bbeef5261]..Look and see how often
you're 20 games better than a particular team and
they sweep you....look and see how often you're on
pace to win 100+ and you lose 9 of your last 11
series...happens regularly.

The religion of this game is realism.. Hal Richmond's legacy is at stake...There are over a dozen of situations off the card and unwritten here that are designed to keep the game in line...It's not whether it's good or bad, helpful or hindering, it's unknown and not as advertised. [b:1bbeef5261]You don't get what you're paying for. [/b:1bbeef5261] Maybe you feel or maybe you are getting *more* than what you're paying for...maybe not...But I bring up terms like normalization or momentum and a pretty big group here jump down my throat. "conspiracy theorist" "prove it" etc...ok maybe...BUT.. Consider this...If someone here said "I think there's something in the game to simulate the type of pressure Roger Maris must have felt chasing Ruth's HR record" you'd say I'm crazy....except that was Hal Richmond actually saying it.

Think of the features that we have the option to put on (some of course are on) Fatigue, weather conditions effect gameplay, hr normalization, batter clutch and unseen pitcher clutch, *pitch around* feature I could go on and on...but my favorite two features are so obscure and seemingly unnecessary it leads me to believe[b:1bbeef5261] everything is in this black box including the kitchen sink[/b:1bbeef5261]

1. a logic uncovered during the bp upgrade limiting losing pitchers from pitching complete games...a couple points on this a. Bernie didn't even know or understood why it was in there. b. it wasn't working properly because it also forced removal of winning pitchers from completing games (ever wonder why a pitching change was made with two outs in the 9th and the score 10-1)

2. my all time favorite is out redistribution i.e changing line outs to ground outs etc just to keep things realistic...

If they go to these extreme lengths all in the name of realism why is considering such a known factor in real life sports (momentum) such a hard pill for some here to swallow?

[LMBombers]

Whatever.......The best teams still wind up in the playoffs. If it all was a crap shoot then most every manager would have almost exactly a .500 record and would make the playoffs exactly 33% of the time.

Whatever it is that you are talking about is the same for all so it is a non-factor.

[nevdully's]

Completely wrong! Well that's if we understood each other lol...[b:d2eb1df370]It's because of this normalization that teams all do gravitate towards .500 not away from it.[/b:d2eb1df370]..instead of ATG geniuses like DonFESQ and Petro (I mean that sincerely) routinely winning 95-100+...The best of the very best manage only about .540+ winning pct or the equivalent of an 86-76 season, just a 5 game swing away from .500

[bkeat23]

So my .517 % doesn't suck, or does it? :lol:
:wink:

[nevdully's]

Well it probably should be 10 points higher...or lower ;)

[apolivka]

The other side of this coin is that "normalization" might be an actual factor that does occur over the course of a baseball season. Good team might actually tend to play to the level of their competition. Teams with 15 game leads often fade towards the end. Teams that really stink early on do tend to win more later.

On a micro level, this seems to happen too. How many times have we seen a guy hitting around .400 at the ASB, only to regress towards the mean the rest of the way?

So, over the course of, literally, millions of SOM replays, they built code that results in more realistic replay results over the course of a long season. I'm sure these effects are probably very well tested and proved out in the CD ROM game. I'm not sure at all that this turn the entire system into a "Black Box".

So, you (or I) might not want these effect in this somewhat different environment of SOM online. But LMBombers is correct in that they do effect everyone. The best just have to be that much better. :)

[FUDU]

I can totally see the rationale in this, and I am open to the possibility. I still consider myself unexperienced at this, yet I have been in a few leagues where the consensus is my teams are either meh or decent yet not got my *** handed to me by some managers with either very high ratings or very good reps who did in fact have very nice teams.

I've also seen a few team simply run away with things for about 90-100 games and suddenly end up as the 3rd or 4th seed in the post season with tons of questionable moves by HAL along the way in their decline.

Like many things in life I probably won't fully buy into it until I think it happens to me.

[nevdully's]

[quote:5fe7743e6d]So, over the course of, literally, millions of SOM replays, they built code that results in more realistic replay results over the course of a long season. I'm sure these effects are probably very well tested and proved out in the CD ROM game. I'm not sure at all that this turn the entire system into a "Black Box".
[/quote:5fe7743e6d]

Yes...I'm sure it's probably well tested (if it exists)...and it might very well make the game better (maybe not)...but if the ad says fresh coffee with cream and I give you my $$$ for a cup I don't want the clerk to substitute skim milk because he thinks it's healthier.

It would be nice to get a meaningful dialogue on this.

I can understand, although I disagree with, the people like lmbombers who say "whatever".....and I understand your opinion (maybe but it's well tested and makes the game better) as well.....The people that puzzle the hell out of me are the people that refuse to even consider it a possibility.

[voovits]

I don't know if it's the case or not, but I can certainly understand the reasoning behind the thinking.
I've had more than one team that has been very good have unexplained lengthy slumps, especially toward the end of the season when it's pretty much clinched.

[The Last Druid]

Sounds just like our government, black box...