Is Strat Online Dying???

At least Strat has never had Two wild card teams in the World Series!

At least Strat has never had Two wild card teams in the World Series!

Don't give them any ideas ...

As stated earlier, Strat online has changed. In the old ATG days, there was only the 80m Public AutoLeague. We were ALL talking about the same cards in pretty much the same CONTEXT. Questions like "Is this guy a value?" or "How has Yount performed in the past?" or "Can anyone get Felipe Alou in the Autodraft?" peppered the boards.

The addition of multiple cap options, a huge player pool, and tons of franchise and theme leagues have had an effect on both the chatter on the boards and the filling of public leagues. I'm running 5 Alternate History Franchise Leagues, a 1947-1966 Franchise League, 2 1967-1992 Franchise Leagues, and an 8m Postwar Franchise League. There are probably 40 different managers in these leagues.
I'll leave out guys if I mention other leagues, but I'm in 2 of 2cityfan's franchise creations right now, a couple of long-running leagues, and just joined jimjal's 24-team franchise league where I saw 15 or so managers who I was not familiar with. So guys are definitely playing Strat online.

So, if you mean the board chattering, small player pool, 80m Public AutoLeague Frenzies of ATG2, then, YES, that is "dead". The word I would use is changed. ATG is different with 4000 cards and multiple league creation options, but I certainly don't believe it is dying at all.

I die a little each night with the results.

I'll spit out what are probably some minority opinions... I don't get the "transparency" argument. I really don't. They now give us the dice rolls, which reveals TONS about the game. They give us damn near full bullpen control with a wiki and several blog posts on how it works. To compare ATG8 to ATG1 and say it isn't transparent is almost laughable. Bottom line is this is a simulated game and at some point a computer has to make some decisions. SOM has done a fair job of taking as many decisions of out HAL's hands as possible.

I agree with Andy's post. SOM has given us more options than ever (that we demanded) and it's diluted the game somewhat. The ATG community now consists of two types of players.

The first type is the $200M player, who enjoys dealing with a scarcity of talent. This type of player enjoyed ATG1 where success hinged in no small part to who you fared in an autodraft. This type of player can look at a trade in black and white terms (no way would I trade player X for player Y), and sees a fairly static value of each player card.

The second type is the $60-$80M player, who enjoys building the best team with the limited funds on hand. Card value is relative and changes from league to league based on stadium array. Trading and autodrafting have much less importance (maybe none). If you miss out on a player, there's a very good chance a similar replacement is available. It's more about building a team to fit your park and/or division.

Some people definitely fall into both types, but I'm definitely in the second type. What makes that relevant to the discussion is if I start a thread called "Thoughts on '70 Yaz?", I'll get completely different responses based on what kind of player you are. Neither type really cares what the other has to say. The decline in board activity is in part because people don't talk about cards anymore and the only thing left is to complain about SOM/HAL. To my point, when was the last time you saw a thread called something like "Jimmie Foxx rocks!!!" And if so, how many replies did it get?

$100M players are just lost souls and don't count

Wow! I'll have to retract my previous post since I don't play in $200 mil leagues and seldom, if ever, play in those under $8.5 mil. Guess I don't count. So maybe the online game is dying after all!

I still think it's cheap entertainment and I love the game. I find myself actually reading a lot about baseball history when I see some player I am unfamiliar with. So for me I don't play many teams at a time because the themes we used to have are not used much anymore but I still enjoy playing. What gets me the most about the game is a lot of theme leagues with player commitments and then during drafting you have to wait for them. So you join a public league and they don't fill for a week or so. Your anxious to get started and it's like a traffic jam ( no movement).

"At least Strat has never had Two wild card teams in the World Series! "

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/le ... res/427325

i would be surprised if the player population is not a mean age of about 55 and even more surprised if there is more than a handful (say <5% of the players) less than age 30.

so, alas, I think it probably is.

i hear the universe is dying too.

so, as long as I am not the last guy, with an unplayable 5-pack, oh well.

Been sitting in the ONLY non-DH league out there since Saturday morning, still only has 5 teams in it ...

Maybe it's just $80 Mill Auto Draft leagues that are dying???