Solecimsic's next masterpiece?

[Honolulu Blue]

Not counting any patches or upgrades.

[couriers]

Well, Jim has already stated that TCY is on hold for at least another year, the new sim will not be curling and it will be a new sport. So there goes 4 out of 9 options right off the bat.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

I really hope Jim makes a major upgrade to TCY since he isn't going to be working on a new one for a couple of years...

[moriarty]

I vote for Tennis (too bad it's not an option).

Didn't Jim say he had played some competitive tennis? And he could build a nice financial engine around it (earn money in tournaments, decide how much to spend on travel to tourneys, training, etc.).

Ok, so it's a longshot, but it hasn't been done yet ... to my knowledge anyways.

[couriers]

Does anyone else think that it would be, to some extent, arrogant of Jim to jump into the main sports that are already being well covered by great developers without knowing a little about the currently available sims?

During the chat he said that he hasn't played any other sim since Baseball Mogul back in the day. It would make sense for him to check out what the popular functions and such are that are being eaten up by the text sim fans. Without knowing anything about OOTP or Puresim could Jim reasonably make a better baseball sim? The same would apply to the Basketball, Hockey and Soccer sims.

Either he isn't letting on to the whole truth about his experiences with these other sims or he is going in with only his own concepts once again. OR he is truly working on a sport that no one else has covered as of yet.

Just some thoughts.

[moriarty]

I'm not sure about 'arrogant' but naive perhaps.

I think soccer would be suicide trying to go up against CM ... unless he did a really good MLS version and even then I don't think it'd be a good idea. Same w/ Hockey now that EHM has access to the CM libraries.

Baseball has several sims that he might be able to impove on, but he's several builds behind - and I agree he would have to learn from them. I thought college basketball would have been a perfect match, but now I'm thinking he would have a hard time competing with TDCB.

Seems to me the biggest hole in the big 5 (hockey, soccer, football, basketball, baseball) sports would still be basketball though.

[Bee]

Everyone seems to think EHM is going to be CM on ice, but is that realistic? It took CM a long time to get to where it is, can EHM do it in what amounts to 1 year?

I'm sure it will be an awesome game (I thought EHM was pretty good), but is it unassailable? I think we'll have to wait and see, but it does gain a big advantage with having SIGames behind it.

[cthomer5000]

I would be willing to bet money that it's Baseball. Just look at all the factual statements he has made.

Baseball is his favorite sport.
He is not working on another football game.
He has never been that interested in making a basketball game.
He has shown a willingless/interest in working with Sigames.
Sigames is about to release a hockey game (EHM), meaning it would be suicide to go up against them.
he finally understands the advice "make the game you want to play"

to me it's a slam dunk. Or should I say "home run." We'll be playing FOF Baseball in late 2003/early 2004

[couriers]

I would venture to guess that College Basketball is out of the equation considering he wants to focus heavily on the financials. I know that there are budgets and all in every sport at every level but to make the financial aspect such a large focal point would pretty much mean to go beyond just simple budgets.

[moriarty]

Well, I agree w/ CThomer that his next game will most likely be baseball ... just not sure there is a big desire for another baseball sim unless he takes it to another level.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) he manages to do just that.

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally posted by couriers
Does anyone else think that it would be, to some extent, arrogant of Jim to jump into the main sports that are already being well covered by great developers without knowing a little about the currently available sims?

During the chat he said that he hasn't played any other sim since Baseball Mogul back in the day. It would make sense for him to check out what the popular functions and such are that are being eaten up by the text sim fans. Without knowing anything about OOTP or Puresim could Jim reasonably make a better baseball sim? The same would apply to the Basketball, Hockey and Soccer sims.

Either he isn't letting on to the whole truth about his experiences with these other sims or he is going in with only his own concepts once again. OR he is truly working on a sport that no one else has covered as of yet.

Just some thoughts.

And very good thoughts. What I interpreted his words to mean is that he hasn't "played" these sims for pleasure, but as he develops his next game, he might "play" them for research.

I agree, if his next game is baseball, he really needs to check out the latest versions of OOTP, Mogul, and Puresim at a minimum. He might also be wise to check out the non-career simulators as well (SOM & DM), as a check on statistical accuracy.

[Bonegavel]

cthomer5000 makes a very convincing argument. Nice piecing together of the clues. However, I think he will try and find a less crowded field.

[kcchief19]

Two pieces of recent evidence keep sticking in my craw.
[PrimeLord] any thought at somepoint of making like an historic fof series with 70's/80's teams/rules?

[JimG] I haven't really thought about going in that direction. That would require heavy dependence on past rosters, and I could not get away with going without real player names. Especially given my relationship with EA, I do not want to offend the NFLPA by using names without permission. And obtaining permission is not something I could remotely afford given the potential sales for a text-based simulation.

Jim has never ruled out working with EA again. Here, there is almost an implication that he has an ongoing relationship with EA. Sure, that could be construed as whatever royalties he may be receiving from their versions of FOF. He doesn't want to offend the NFLPA because that would offend EA. Why worry about offending EA unless you're working with EA?

Combine this with SkyDog's recent notice that EA has extended its ownership of frontofficebasketball.com, I think there may be some smoke there. Basketball is a much "smaller" game, which would enable Jim to get more in the financials he has discussed.

That being said, baseball is the smart choice based on the evidence homer cited above. I just don't think it's slam dunk, so to speak. :)

[Ben E Lou]

Yeah, at this point in my mind I've narrowed it down to either basketball or baseball. I've said it before, and will say it again, there is still MUCH room for improvement in the baseball market for the type of game Jim makes (and the type of game I like.) The ONLY thing that makes me even consider that he might be doing basketball is the domain name thing.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola--Shaun Sullivan is here right now. So what do you think, Shaun??? :D

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by BoneGavel
cthomer5000 makes a very convincing argument. Nice piecing together of the clues. However, I think he will try and find a less crowded field.


For my sake, I actually hope so. I really have no interest in playing a baseball game. I'm just pretty damn certain that's what it's going to be. I was right about the last project being football, so let's see if I can go 2-for-2. I hope I can't! :(

[fantastic flying froggies]

How 'bout boxing ? anything pointing that way ?

[Honolulu Blue]

Originally posted by moriarty
I vote for Tennis (too bad it's not an option).

Didn't Jim say he had played some competitive tennis? And he could build a nice financial engine around it (earn money in tournaments, decide how much to spend on travel to tourneys, training, etc.).

Ok, so it's a longshot, but it hasn't been done yet ... to my knowledge anyways.

Sorry it took me so long to reply to this.

Anyway, I only had 10 options available to me for this poll, and I had to pick the best ones.

The closest to the game you described is, I think, Tennis Elbow (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Tennis+Elbow). There you can earn money (but not spend it), decide which tournament to head to, and spend points, RPG-style, on training. It was an interesting game for awhile, as I tried to show in this dynasty (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/~fof/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=000958), but it moves pretty slowly and I eventually gave up on it.

I agree that someone should try again.

[moriarty]

Originally posted by Honolulu Blue
[The closest to the game you described is, I think, Tennis Elbow (http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Tennis+Elbow). . [/B]

I think something along these lines would be very interesting. You could have a very basic 'match engine' w/ an element of smg/rpg. The whole sports text sims combined with RPG could be used in alot of single player sports (tennis, track & field, golf, bowling ... well, maybe not bowling).

[Noop]

Jims going to sign with Sigames

:)

noop

[Qwikshot]

Curling, curling!!!

[WussGawd]

I've got this funny feeling it might be hockey...there's little competition relative to baseball, and we know that Jim's biggest passions outside of football are baseball and hockey.

[FargoFreez aka fof playa]

Apparently Jim had the voters "hook, line, and sinker". :)

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by FargoFreez aka fof playa
Apparently Jim had the voters "hook, line, and sinker". :)

Double or nothing? Baseball is up next.

[korme]

Shows how much we know.

I probably picked FOF5, because I would have had no interest in Jim making a baseball sim with OOTP out there and keeping me satisfied.

[Darkiller]

From Jim's website :

"Welcome to Solecismic Software, an entertainment software company dedicated to producing cutting-edge career football simulations"

My take is Jim's next game will be TCY2

[mckerney]

Did we ever find out what the first project he was working on was?

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Originally posted by FargoFreez aka fof playa
Apparently Jim had the voters "hook, line, and sinker". :) <p>Is this a vote for Front Office Fishing???<p>How about women's lacross?

[alterra]

College Volleyball

[tucker342]

Front Office Cheerleading!

[MrBug708]

FOF Pimping

[WussGawd]

Hoo boy, were we off the mark. I'd love to know who the two people were who got FOF5 right off the poll all those months ago.

My guess is he does TCY2 next year. The original was a very popular game, there's a lot of room for making the next version better (playcalling, more flexible scheduling, a lot of the FOF4/5 improvements could be brought over, maybe even be able to customize conferences).

[Ben E Lou]

Shows how much we know.

I probably picked FOF5, because I would have had no interest in Jim making a baseball sim with OOTP out there and keeping me satisfied.You did. The two people who got it right.....



<TABLE class=tborder cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="90%" align=center border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD class=alt1>Front Office Football 5</TD><TD class=alt1>ColtCrazy (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/member.php?do=getinfo&userid=239) Shorty3281 (http://dynamic2.gamespy.com/%7Efof/forums/member.php?do=getinfo&userid=1008) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>