Muzamba Returns

[Muzamba]

Wow, a lot's happened in the last 9 months!

As my life is FINALLY starting to settle down again, and with spring training just around the corner, my thoughts wondered to my old friend OOTP. And lo and behold, it looks like OOTP 2007 is right on schedule. I'm very happy to see the game moving back in the (imho) right direction.

Last spring, I was invited to join the beta team. I was honored to be recommended and looked forward to the experience. Unfortunately, there was a death in my immediate family right after I signed on. I tried to familiarize myself with the intracacies of the game so I could give appropriate feedback, but... as they say... real life intervened. By the time everything "settled down", OOTP 2006 had been released. Alas, I still had virtually no time to devote to learning the ins and outs of this complex new game, much less playing it. (I confess that I've yet to even play out a full season of OOTP '06, having only had the time to play a few games here and there when time allowed.) And of course, when it rains it pours. The real-life distractions continued through the end of the year, preventing me from getting involved in the development of the '07 version.

Even before I first saw the beta version from last year, I had resigned myself to the fact that I probably wouldn't be playing OOTP '06 very much. I pre-ordered the game in January, ordering it just like I have for every version since 2000. Still, I knew it would be lacking a few key features that would keep me from debuting my long-anticipated fictional league. So why did I bother to order it? The way I see it, my $35 (or whatever the pre-order discount is) represents a contribution to the furtherment of the franchise. With every new version I purchase, that's money to bankroll Markus' vision of the perfect baseball text sim. And every year, I believe we get a little closer to Baseball Text Management Nirvana.

Based on much of what I read on the forums as I've been catching up for the past couple days, many regarded OOTP '06 as a disappointment. I see their point, although... again... I fully expected that a total re-write would be rather awkward and unsatisfactory to OOTP veterans like myself. Yet I remember saying, perhaps in an old post somewhere on this forum, that my focus was on '07, as I was confident that it would take us back on track.

Sure enough, that would appear to be the case.

My only regret now is that I didn't get involved in the game's development this go-round. I can't help thinking there may be a few of my pet features that might not make it which could have had I been in on the process. Ah well, c'est la vie... and there's always next year. Besides, from what I've been reading, I'm predicting my few remaining requests should all be do-able by '08.

Of course, there's no way I can just leave it at that.

Over the next few days, I will be making a few last-minute requests and asking some pesky questions, as well as hopefully putting a few thoughts in your head for OOTP '08.

Anyway, it's great to be back... hopefully for good this time!

[battists]

wb!