FOFC Developer of the Year.

[GoldenEagle]

That’s right. GE has taken a little initiative to start a poll and give out the FOFC Developer of the Year award. Now I know its FOFC and we may be a little biased, but we have many developers who visit this board so I figure we can come up with an unbiased result. It was a good year for text sims in 2003 and hopefully 2004 will be even better. So without further delay, here are the candidates, listed in alphabetical order:

Jim Gindin - Jim is the developer of Front Office Football 2004. The product is the latest in the long line of football text sims. This year’s game offers multi-player for the first time. It also deals with the financial side of football and roster management among many other things. Front Office Football 2004 was the only product released from Solecismic Software this year.

Markus Heinsohn - Markus, now employed by OOTP Developments, is the developer of two software titles this year. First, was the always successful OOTP, which is a baseball sim which lets you take complete control of your franchise. The second title he released was Inside the Park Baseball, which is a role playing type game. Markus has split from .400 studios to form his own company in OOTP Developments.

Brian Nichols- Brian is the mastermind behind Fast Break College Basketball and the only developer of that software. FBCB is a college basketball sim that puts you in charge of your program. You can recruit, coach your team, etc. HeavyReign Software also released Season Ticket Basketball 2004, an NBA text sim. He is also responsible for add-ins to the FOF Game.

Arlie Rahn - Arlie is employed by .400 Software Studios and is one of two developers of its latest release, Total Pro Football. Total Pro Football offers a realistic football sim with lots of bells and whistles. The release just made it in time for the 2003 nomination stage. Arlie is responsible for past products such as TDCB, but don’t let that influence your decision because it was released in 2002.

Joe Stallings - Joe is also employed by .400 studios and works hand and hand with Arlie. If you want a description of his works, see Arlie above.

Marc Vaughn - Marc is the main developer for the Championship Manager Series, perhaps the most popular text sim in the world. The latest release was CM 03/04, which improved on the already quality product, CM 4. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only product that Marc did any extensive work on this year.

The voting deadline is Dec. 31st, 11:59 PM. Please feel free to add any other details about any of the developers.

[Easy Mac]

HR... I'd have to say of all the games I've played from the various companies, I think I've played his games the most this year, though I've played FOF pretty much as much.

[Raiders Army]

Shouldn't Arlie Rahn and Joe Stallings be combined?

[FargoFreez aka fof playa]

Who's Joe Stallings?

[daedalus]

By the way, it might be nice for Mac Howard to be included as well. He's been active on FOFC before. I believe a new SaaP version has been released recently as well.

[MrBug708]

Marc Vaughn. No offense to Jim, but I was playing as Div Sunderland and finished second in the 1st division. I had moderate talent and a nice tactic, but I got my ass thouroughly killed in the Premier. Outscored 31-3 thus far for 9 games

[MizzouRah]

FOF2k4 and the rebirth of TCY for me makes Jim a clear winner in my playing time this year.


Todd

[JeffNights]

I make a write-in Vote or at least a commendation for Fido, his add-on works are outstanding.

[sabotai]

I vote Brian Nichols for FBCB. I may have voted Marc, but I haven't bought CM 03/04 yet.

[Eaglesfan27]

I would definitely like to give an honorable mention to Fido as his work is very much appreciated by myself and a lot of other people. I also want to say that I appreciate all of the other 3rd party developers. As far as the poll, Jim wins in my book. FOF2004 is so good and I'm having so much fun with it. I know TPF is a first generation product, but it is too incomplete to even compete with FOF2004 at this time. As for Markus, he always makes great games but I'm more of a football guy then a baseball guy. As for Brian, I like his games and play them time to time. However, Jim gets my vote because I'm more of a football fan then a basketball fan. Marc is an excellent programmer whom I really respect, but I think the CM4 release was lacking in some areas. I haven't tried CM 03/04 yet, but I've heard good things. However, given my relative disappointment with CM4 (my first real foray into the series), Jim is the ultimate winner of my vote in this poll. If my thoughts are somewhat disjointed, I blame it all on the eggnog

[Barkeep49]

The criterion for this award seems a little fuzzy for me. Golden could you provide some more guidance about what you were asking people to vote on?

[MrBug708]

You are all fanboys!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Jim got my vote, but it was almost by default.

Granted, FOF2k4 has gotten a large chunk of hours from me & probably would have won even with stiffer competition but ...

-- Markus had one game that held zero interest for me & another that still leaves me wishing for what might be instead of what is.

-- Brian probably had a serious chance to earn my favorite of the year (based upon what I read about FBCB) ... but until it runs on WinMe, I'll never know.

-- Arlie & Joe have TPF, which seems aptly renamed by at least one wag as "PPF". 'Nuff said.

-- Marc gets a null vote because, well, to be honest I haven't been drawn to try CM03/04, much less buy it. Not his fault, I just haven't been lured right now.

So Jim gets my vote but didn't really have a lot of competition in my house either.

FWIW, although I know write-in votes don't really work in this poll format, I believe the Trunzo's et al (not sure who the lead programmer was) are a least worthy of being mentioned in this year-ender (if they'd get the $%@#$%^ demo out, I'd probably buy the blasted game) as does Adam Ryland for his work on EWR 4.0.

Matter of fact, Adam would have probably gotten my silver medal for 2003 and has my second most eagerly awaited game of 2004, right behind the new EHM.

[Buccaneer]

This is going to turn into a 'what's your favorite game' thread. Given that, OOTP is still the only text sim that I play regularly. TCY would be a distant second while all of the others don't rank.

[GoldenEagle]

Originally posted by Barkeep49
The criterion for this award seems a little fuzzy for me. Golden could you provide some more guidance about what you were asking people to vote on?

Who made the best software products for the year 2003? Ask yourself that question, then answer the poll.

[fjvieane]

I voted for Jim as well, I am biased in my opinion as I don't know who the heck the others are except Arlie/Joe, but TPF is just out so hard to judge.

I also play TCY and FOF2K4 all the time.

[tucker342]

Brian Nichols gets my vote. FBCB is hands down the best college basketball game out there. He had the best year overall, Jim is a close second.

[yabanci]

I voted for Jim Gildin, but in fairness to Marc Vaughn and Brian Nichols I haven't played their games (or Markus' ITP). The .400ss guys get an E for effort, but that's all. The Truznos get an honorable mention for their boxing sim.

[TroyF]

Jim Gindin here.

Kind of like Jon, it really has happened by default. I've been in a money crunch this year and haven't purchased as many games as I usually do. Therefore, FBCB got left out, I haven't purchased the new CM and I won't purchase TPF until it follows the rules of the sport it is trying to simulate.

I did purchase OOTP and like Jon, I always think about what could be rather than what is. It's gotten better, but it's still not there IMO.

In all fairness, it would have taken an incredible effort to top Jim this year anyway. I like pro football better than college basketball and the latest FOF is a jewell.

[The_herd]

I went with Brian Nichols. No game has been played as much from the start this year than FBCB. Its also the only game I really felt serious about joining a MP league. Jim was a close 2nd, but the near instant support you get from Brian is what made up my mind on this one.

[kcchief19]

Jim by a neck over Brian. I just can't get into soccer enough to appreciate CM in the same way others do. Markus did another solid job this year, but OOTP once again left me wanting a bit more and ITP left me wanting a lot more. FOF5 was a solid outing from top to bottom. The only strike I'd level at FBCB was Jon's aforementioned observation about the game running way too slow on older versions of Windows.

[Marmel]

I abstain since I would split my vote evenly between Jim and Brian. While the other efforts are commended, these two guys stand out way in front for me.

[sabotai]

I believe the Trunzo's et al (not sure who the lead programmer was)

I beleive that would be Andreas Raht.

[GoldenEagle]

bump

[GoldenEagle]

Get your votes in.

[SirFozzie]

hey eagle, go post on FOFC FBCB

[Kevin]

Write-in vote:

Andreas Raht, Jim Trunzo and Tom Trunzo

[miked]

OOTP gets the most run for me. There are holes, but the online play is unmatched. I love FOF2k4, but it is way off for multiplayer, online play. I'm sure Jim will eventaully get around to making it work, but right now it's turned me pretty sour, though I still play it solo.

Edit: I'm just writing the ones I have experience with...CM and FB might have awsome online play too, but just don't interest me.

[Fido]

I had to go with Markus though it was a tough call. I had to eliminate Brian and Marc from consideration because I haven't played their games. Arlie and Joe lost out because of the current issues with TPF - not the crashes (those will happen) but the missing "features" (no AI trading, no fake kicks, no 2ot conversions) after a major schedule slip. Jim has an outstanding game out this year, and if the decision were based on sim engine alone he would get it. But Markus has wrapped a very nice UI around his sime engiens, and that gives him enough of an edge to get my vote.

EaglesFan & JeffNights - thanks for bringing me up, but that's completely undeserved. I've written a couple of utilities that I am pretty happy with, but let's be real - based on what people here have seen, my programming skills don't come close to the developers on this list. Thanks for the mention though.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by yabanci
I voted for Jim Gildin, but in fairness to Marc Vaughn and Brian Nichols I haven't played their games (or Markus' ITP). The .400ss guys get an E for effort, but that's all. The Truznos get an honorable mention for their boxing sim.

I didn't see Mr Gildin on the list. What game did he develop???

FWIW, I voted for Mark Vaughn but it's mostly a lifetime achievement award kind of vote. Not that I'm not really loving the new CM but it's not as big a leap forward as Jim's game and for my first time playing an HR game, I'd say he deserves to win too as FBCB is fantastic.

I wish I could vote for all three but for me, all the other games are still trying to catch up to the pleasure I got out of CM2 really although I'm not sure if he was part of the CM team then. FOF2k4 is getting close to that goal though.

[GoldenEagle]

Bump....just a few hours left to get your votes in.

[GoldenEagle]

The poll is now closed.....Congrats to Jim Gindin for the award.

[TLK]

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
The poll is now closed.....Congrats to Jim Gindin for the award.

Was there ever any doubt?

[EagleFan]

Those results seem quite impartial though. Granted this is an FOF based forum so Jim will get more consideration than others from some, but it's not the runaway for the "home" guy that you would most likely get in other forums. That shows a very objective audience.

Brian got my vote. FBCB is very good and he his customer support is second to none.

I can easily see the arguements for Jim and Markus getting the vote. Marc, in past years I could see the arguement for but I thought that I have heard some negative things about the latest CM version (not sure though so I can't personally say for sure).

The Title Bout folks have a reason for consideration, but the lack of career play kept them from serious contention.

The .400 folks have to take a serious look at their next poject and make one huge decision. Do they want to continue to attempt to "push the envelope" with features and seemingly forget about integral parts of the sport that they are trying to sim, or maybe cut back on the extras until they get a solid sim engine under the hood.

Oh well, that's just my opinion on things.

[Darkiller]

My vote goes to Jim Gindin because this year's release was the best of the series since FOF2.
Furthermore, he astonished me by doing something I never thought he would do : adding Multiplayer capacities to FOF.
That, alone, is worth the new version.

FOF2004 is not perfect, it has some flaws, but it's a very fine game to play and some new features included (Draft Review, Draft Signing status, Multiplayer etc.) really bring something new to the experience table. It's enjoyable.

My hat's off to Jim for accomplishing that this year. That's why he's my winner.


How I split my "FOF experience" these days :

- For "regular" play (60% of my dedicated FOF time), which I look at as my ultimate enjoyable FOF solo experience : I play FOF2.

- For Multiplayer capacities and some other solo play (40% of dedicated FOF time) : I turn to FOF2004.

This is a huge progress for me since before that I barely played FOF2K1 and FOF4 because they didn't really fit me.

[Cringer]

i haven't had FOF2 in so long i can't remember much about it....

[Solecismic]

Thanks, guys.

This award means a lot to me, because I know people speak their minds here, and have no problem telling me when they think my games need more work.

I hope I can continue to justify your confidence in the Front Office project.

[sabotai]

I guess Jim is lucky we didn't do this last year when FOF4 came out.

[MizzouRah]

Originally posted by Solecismic
Thanks, guys.

This award means a lot to me, because I know people speak their minds here, and have no problem telling me when they think my games need more work.

I hope I can continue to justify your confidence in the Front Office project.

Good, now get that imposter out of tech support and find out why I have several teams with fewer than 3 QB's in my career!




Todd