With a Fictional League, What do YOU look for?

[coljesep]

I get the appeal of a real player league, but to me personally with all of the abilities of OOTP 11, and hopefully 12... I like the idea of fictional leagues, creating personalities and stories for franchises.

So I'm curious with a fictional online league... what are must have features for you to show interest in joining?

[ukhotstove]

More fictional the better, I prefer towns and cities that are fictional that way you can open up your story and mind rather than be confined to reality. However I do want some reality ie I don't want to be GM of a team on Mars in 2058 with weird creatures roaming around.

[coljesep]

Agreed, I was thinking more about financials, sim schedule etc. What are deal breakers for you when deciding to join a league or not?

[John C]

Realistic team names and good rivalries. A good core of writers helps with immersion, though that's always tough to put together.

If you can make it interesting from the beginning, with either colorful characters, a solid backstory, or some simmed history, you're on the right track. When I ran my ABL, we kept the league small (old 16-team format), simmed out 100 years before we began, and there was a *ton* of writing for that league. The fact that I simmed two game days every day made that easier, since teams could micromanage more and find the stories more easily. There was better flow, I guess.

Dealbreakers for me, and I am likely in the fictional minority here, are crazy team names and a sim schedule that moves too quickly (like, a season in a month). I'm more interested in being an active part of the league's history, rather than being in a league to sim quickly. Just not my thing.

[ukhotstove]

I agree with John C on sim schedule, I don't see how you can get a rich and deep history in a league when your simming a season say every month as imo it doesn't give people time to write about things. Also the max I'd go with per sim is 7 days.

[coljesep]

I agree with both of you. 5-7 would be my max. I turn away the second I see a league that sims like a month at a time. That defeats the purpose to me.

What about ratings scales? Do 1-20 or 1-100 matter to you?

What about the feature to hide ratings and rely on scouts and your own ability versus revealing all ratings?

Do those matters?

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by John C

...Dealbreakers for me, and I am likely in the fictional minority here, are crazy team names and a sim schedule that moves too quickly (like, a season in a month)...

Same for me, although I have not been in an online league for a couple of years. Goofy team names are a real turn-off.

Also, if I were in an online league, my preferred sim schedule would be 2 times a week, not 3 times a week. I just don't have a whole lot of time to devote to it, and being obligated to be at the computer and attending to my team by a certain hour several times a week is too much.

Live drafts are also deal breakers for me. So is any requirement to have instant messaging.

[ukhotstove]

Originally Posted by coljesep

I agree with both of you. 5-7 would be my max. I turn away the second I see a league that sims like a month at a time. That defeats the purpose to me.

What about ratings scales? Do 1-20 or 1-100 matter to you?

What about the feature to hide ratings and rely on scouts and your own ability versus revealing all ratings?

Do those matters?

Stats only, I was in a stats only league a bit back but sad to say it folded. So the ratings don't really bother me anymore as I take notice more of the stats than ratings, also like to add that imo a small league is better than a large league something like 12 - 16 teams is plenty as you get to know each other better than getting to know say 32 GM's. For me a perfect league set up would be 2 leagues of 6 teams (8 at most) in each with no inter league play, you'd get to know each other and there would be a big rivalry between leagues.

[bailey]

Here are a few items in my wish list for the ideal online league:

1. Commish who doesn't play a specific team. However, must fill in for vacancies to prevent AI mayhem.
2. Fictional players.
3. Fictional cities in a fictional country, but with sensible names (see Dog Days league).
4. Realistic player names, Questdog's name set is ideal.
5. Devotion to history. Commish keeps and/or offers each season as almanac so history is never lost.
6. Commish who keeps adequate backups so league cannot crash permanently. Or if it does crash permanently makes password available so league can continue as solo league if desired by player.
7. Single 12 team league with top 4 making playoffs. Top 6 when top 2 are able to get 1st round bye.
8. Fast pace--1 season per real time 4-6 weeks.
9. Financials off.
10. Reserve clause OR optionally free agency done manually (PM me for details).
11. Minimal off season downtime.
12. No minor leagues-- reserve roster of 5-10 players, instead.
13. No coaching or scouting
14. Ratings 1-10
15. No draft pick trading.
16. 4 round draft.
17. Foreign player limit of 2. Foreign players selected from international league via lottery picks.
18. Don't like pre-simmed history, I'd prefer to let the GMs make the history.
19. Starts in 1901. Modern baseball always, so year is irrelevant, but is easy to see how many seasons played! 2001 would also work, but playing in 'future' years seems strange.
20. DH league! AI manages pitching staff better regardless of how you feel about it in real life.