TBCB: Boxing or "A Night at the Fights"?

[Cap]

There seems to be at least two equally legitimate schools of thought where TBCB is concerned.

1- TBCB tries to simulate the "event entertainment" aspect of a major Pay-per-View fight a la De Le Hoya vs. Mosley or Lewis vs. Klitschko. It allows you to make matches you'd like to see such as Roy Jones vs. Lewis or Hopkins vs. James Toney. It can also be used to predict outcomes of actually proposed matches.

2. TBCB is a boxing simulation so it should reflect aspects of the world-wide sport with international fighters and venues, world and regional rankings, widely-recognized champions and inter-related bouts. It should simulate fight cards happening at arenas all over the world. Remember the old Ring Magazine and the pages at the back with reports on fights from just about every corner of the globe? A boxing sim would also cancel scheduled fight cards due to injured fighters and those injuries would carry-over putting a guy on the disabled list. These things are essential elements of the sport of boxing, and should be present in a game that calls itself a boxing simulation. There are likely one or two others.

Think of a baseball sim that only let you play one unrelated game at a time. No disabled list. No divisional rankings. No championship games.

Keeping in mind that the role-playing version is coming out later, what aspects of the Sweet Science should be in a boxing simulation right now?

Cap

[Mr Big]

Personally, I like the opportunity TBCB gives boxing fans to somewhat satisfactorily answer the"what if?" questions. "What if" Dempsey and Louis had faced each other in their primes? How about Robinson and Hagler at middleweight. Would Roy Jones Jr. have dominated Archie Moore the way he bullied the light heavies of his generation?

The best way to answer these questions with TBCB is to simulate 1000 or so bouts with both participants in top condition and in their "primes," then determining the most common, or "average" result. Simply viewing one or two fights really doesn't give an accurate portrayal of a "normal" outcome. Anything can happen in the short run. One has to conduct numerous simulations in order to achieve accurate results.

Another aspect I enjoy about the game is the ability to predict upcoming bouts. I have found that the results can be surprisingly authentic. The correctness of the simulations, however, are directly related to the accuracy of the ratings. Therein lies the challenge and, consequently, part of the fun.

The last part of the product that I really enjoy is simulating bouts between champions in different divisions. When faced against the likes of Lennox Lewis, smaller kings like Bernard Hopkins and Kostya Tszyu aren't nearly as dominate. Kind of keeps things in perspective. When you are the Heavyweight Champion, you are THE champion. Just some thoughts.

[swampdragon]

I'll give Cap's question a try. Obviously, TBCB started out as a night at the fights, but has gone a ways beyond that. Other than regional rankings and titles, TBCB can simulate virtually your entire boxing universe, provided that you provide the fighters and schedule the fights yourself. Things like disabled lists and cancelled fights are roleplaying game material. I think the primary limitation of TBCB in its present form is that we can't and shouldn't expect TBCB to emulate promoters. We are the promoters and the governing bodies for our own worlds. Anything else is fair game. I do think the present game could add several things to improve without trying to do that:
1. Regional rankings and titles. You would need subgroups in order to have the same fighters show up in both world and regional rankings.
2. Random "0" rated fighter generation, to provide the necessary cannon fodder with as little muss and fuss as possible.
3. Random assignment of judges and referees if desired.

I have full confidence that the team can do a great roleplaying game, because many of the concepts they need are already present in OOTP and have undergone some trial and error in the baseball simulation. I'm willing to wait for that game before I will expect the game to create its own universe rather than running mine.

[PittPanther]

This is when I feel bad for the Trunzos. They just can't make the game everything to everybody.


Does this kind of reasoning sound familiar?


I would absolutely love something similar to Cap's suggestion about global results and such.

Alas, I'm certain we will have to wait until the next incarnation of this game.

[Cap]

I didn't intend the question to cause the Trunzos acute heartburn. Just thought I'd throw it out there for general discussion. I kinda lean more toward the simulation of the sport like you see in most baseball sims as opposed to baseball arcade games.

Cap

[PittPanther]

Agreed, and that's what this game to evolve into if handled properly.

I don't want to speak for the Trunzos, but obviously they are selling enough units to warrant a role playing release.

Hopefully, this will allow the game to much more engrossing than it is in its current state.

Not that it isn't enjoyable right now, but I really think you hit the nail on the head when you say that it does a nice job of capturing the flavor/feel of a PPV event but does little in the way of incorporating all those other aspects of boxing the way other sports simulations do. To be honest, this is the same point I was trying to make earlier.