For what sport would you most like to see a new/improved text sim?

[Ben E Lou]

What sport are you not getting your fix for with the current crop that's out there? That may mean, "FOF/OOTP isn't quite there, and all I really care about is pro football/pro baseball. I want FOF7/OOTP2K8 to be the Holy Grail." or, it may mean, "There's not a college baseball text sim, and I REALLY want one. Somebody PLEASE make one."

Thread closed while poll is being created.

[Joe]

high school cheerleading

[CraigSca]

College football, without a doubt.

[Ksyrup]

In the short term, college football. Long-term, I hope someone steps up to the challenge of taking on OOTP and providing a legit alternative.

[Richard Weed]

I'd like to see a really good Pro Football text-sim.

[RedKingGold]

Although I was always in the "improve FOF" camp over other options, I'm comfortable and happy enough with MP that I'd be interested in other options.

With all apologies to BBCF (which I just could not get into), I'd really like to see Jim update TCY (I know he said this was in his potential immediate plans) to include MP.

A world where we can incorporate our college players from an MP league into IHOF or GEFL? Drool.

[Coder]

Since I've been writing a hockeysim in my head for the past 10 years, hockey for sure :).

I ran a hockeyleague for 5 years using the FHL-software which is very outdated and I know there's a HUGE market for a good MP-hockey game..

[EagleFan]

Cricket

[Logan]

Hockey, absolutely.

The freeware EHM was fantastic, in my opinion. I still play it every now and then. The SI version was just too much for me, I couldn't even get into the demo. If I had FM experience, that probably would've helped.

Honestly, give me the freeware EHM and fix the simulation speed and I'd pay a ton for it.

[Honolulu Blue]

I'd rank 'em:

1) Auto racing
2) College baseball
3) Horse racing
4) Total football universe (HS through NFL, and every stop in between)
5) Old-school minor league baseball (where players can be discovered or bought from lower levels, and sold to higher levels)

#1 and #3 have been talked about in the past, and the results may or may not be in the archives.

#4 has been talked about too, though I don't see it happening unless Jim or Arlie sell their soul to SI.

#2 and #5 are actually doable by the current version of OOTP, sort of, though a more specialized game would likely do either one better.

[spleen1015]

NASCAR

[MIJB#19]

volleyball

[RendeR]

for a new game, NASCAR above all others, I'd pay out the ass for a high quality NASCAR text sim that incorporated everything from local short tracks on saturday nights all the way up to the Cup series.

beyond that I think a college game that is much more user friendly would be up there with a quality Hockey sim. I'm not a fan of the FM style of EHM and the older EHM while nice was, as stated above, rediculously slow.

[cmp]

I'd love a NASCAR text sim.

[Young Drachma]

I'd love a soccer sim that gives options like OOTP does to create various universes and custom leagues, etc.

A college/pro football combined sim would be 2nd.

[Pumpy Tudors]

For me, the "big four" sports are covered. As far as college sports go, I'm only interested in basketball and football, and those are covered well enough that I'm not itching for another game yet.

I think I'm gonna have to go with horse racing on this one. I put many, many hours into Omni-Play Horse Racing (also known as Sport of Kings) when I was a kid. Before that, I spent time on Intellivision Horse Racing, and I was only about 5 or 6 years old when I played that. Those were good times. To be honest, even though those games weren't text sims, they're among the most fun I've ever had with sports games in my life. I've tried one or two horse racing text sims, and they just didn't provide that kind of fun, but the right game would be able to do that. It just hasn't been created yet.

Another option would be auto racing. I know that the SI treatment of EHM and OOTP has turned some people off, but if SI could properly do an auto racing game, that would be great, too. For me, auto racing is the kind of thing that works great in a "universe" setting. Different circuits, different cars, different courses, drivers moving from one style to another, etc. I think there'd be some potential there.

[Calis]

I put other.

I really want to see an MMA sim. There's the No Holds Barred sim out there which I think is actually pretty good, but I want a career mode on top of it.

I don't think the one that Adam Ryland is doing will be what I'm looking for either. If they could mesh the two together that might work out pretty well.

If not I'd settle for a boxing sim with a good career mode also. If that ever elusive Title Bout career portion comes out I'd be excited.

[gstelmack]

I want to see FOF keep improving. It's really, really good, but there is also a lot of room for improvement without altering the basic gameplay (improved game viewer, better options for exporting data, expanded contract options like restricted player qualifying offers, compensatory draft picks for FAs, expanded city listings including non-US cities, etc). It's my favorite sport and the only one I keep finding text sims for over and over since the Front Office days or the old Head Coach on my Amiga.

Side note: my first text sim utilities were a draft pool creation utility and a player aging utility for Head Coach on the Amiga back in like '89 or '90.

[AlexB]

Cricket or boxing for me.

[gstelmack]

I'll also pitch in that the reason I'm not into the college sims is that I like getting attached to my players, and they just don't hang around enough in college.

Now, if you had a combined universe sim where I could watch the player go on to an NFL career, I have more of an interest in the college side.

[BucDawg40]

College football, without a doubt.

[Maple Leafs]

There is no good fast-sim hockey game out there that I'm aware of... would love to see one.

[Kodos]

Cricket or boxing for me.

I don't necessarily think we should box you for wanting a cricket text sim. That's not to say we shouldn't think about it. ;)

[Young Drachma]

There is no good fast-sim hockey game out there that I'm aware of... would love to see one.

Maximum Hockey Mogul should be the name.

[Arles]

I usually don't vote on these but I would love to see a good career horse racing game. I played the heck out of Hooves of Thunder and would love a more recent effort on that genre.

[dawgfan]

In the short term, college football. Long-term, I hope someone steps up to the challenge of taking on OOTP and providing a legit alternative.
Ditto. I have an immediate craving for an improved TCY, but longer-term I'd really like to see Jim (or maybe Craig if he's up for it again) take a crack at a baseball sim.

[moriarty]

I went other.

Horse Racing is a big one.
I'd like a better Golf game (Gary had a good start, but it just didnt' do it for me)
I'd like to see a solid MMA game (or even a better boxing one) maybe taking the role of a trainer/manager and having to build a team of fighters to compete.

[JediKooter]

Love FOF, could use a few 'tweaks' here and there, but, other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with it. I think a hockey sim would be pretty interesting, even though I don't know much about hockey.

[Travis]

New: MMA
Needing Update: College Football
Will Need Soon: Hockey

Though on the last one, even if roster updates are maintained, I could see the final version of EHM satisfying my craving for that. Be nice if there was some way to advance the start date once next season rolls around or even have some actual SI updates to the game to keep it current, but it's surpassed TCY as the most enjoyable sim I've played. Just happy they made such a good product to go out on that even if nobody else steps up in the field that it'll still satisfy the craving, hopefully.

But more on topic, I'm happy to hear there is a MMA sim or two in the works and would buy TCY2 in a heartbeat.

[PineTar]

horse racing

[st.cronin]

I'm at a point where the game is important, what the game is based on is not. Soccer is not one of my favorite sports, but FM is one of my favorite games. College Basketball is not one of my favorite sports, but FBCB is one of my favorite games. Pro football is one of my favorite sports, but I've never really been able to enjoy FOF (although I loved TCY).

In other words, just make it a good game.

[Izulde]

Immediate: TCY Update
Longer-term: Horse Racing
Far out: A combination high school/college/pro game like what Division Rivals originally planned to be, where I could track a player from high school to college to pro.

Even if it was something like Front Office High School Football to TCY2 to latest FOF iteration, exporting and importing from version to version, that would totally rock.

[chrisj]

I'm unusual - so I'll say Lacrosse. :)

[LloydLungs]

I've always longed for an exhaustively detailed college baseball game. It amazes me that one was actually done (EA?), but I seriously doubt there will ever be enough of a text-sim market to justify creating one. I would play the holy hell out of it, though.

[weegeebored]

I put many, many hours into Omni-Play Horse Racing (also known as Sport of Kings) when I was a kid. Before that, I spent time on Intellivision Horse Racing, and I was only about 5 or 6 years old when I played that. Those were good times. To be honest, even though those games weren't text sims, they're among the most fun I've ever had with sports games in my life. I've tried one or two horse racing text sims, and they just didn't provide that kind of fun, but the right game would be able to do that. It just hasn't been created yet.I played both of those games as well. I loved Omni-Play Horse Racing on the Amiga. I used to host horse racing parties where people put would five or ten dollars into a pool and whoever had won the most simulated money after 10 races would take the pool. I always wanted to program a good horse racing game using Omni-Play as my model but add improvements/modifications that made it more closely resemble actual horse racing. But alas, I'm not that good of a coder. (And from my KY Derby picks not much of a handicapper either. :))

And I have to be honest -- I am surprised at the number of people who put a horse racing text sim on their list. I figured that I would be the only one.

[larrymcg421]

I'd love to see a high school football sim. I think it would be fun to have a roster of players with certain attributes and you have to pick the position they play based on those attributes.

[path12]

A good horse racing sim would be an instant buy for me. NASCAR text sim would be second.

[SnDvls]

I'd really like to see a sim that incorporates you as the owner or GM of several pro teams. You'd have to get arena deals, sign players, see if you have a superstar 2-sport athlete, game plan for you opponents, get additional investors, purchase additional franchises or relocate a franchise from one city to another. So I can have Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey all in one sim so to speak.

[TredWel]

We've needed a TCY2 for several years now.

[Emiliano]

Although I'll likely buy any new football or basketball text-sim out there, the choice for me is one: boxing. Think about what you can do with the boxing universe. 17 different weight categories, the whole world to play with. Huge. Now, I don't know if it'll be better to do a GM-type of game, or a first-person sim (like ITP or WreSpi), but I think there's a lot to realize a good, career boxing game. Yeah, I've tried TBCB, and it has a good engine, but with no real career mode, it's not interesting for me.

[Doug5984]

Hockey, absolutely.

The freeware EHM was fantastic, in my opinion. I still play it every now and then. The SI version was just too much for me, I couldn't even get into the demo. If I had FM experience, that probably would've helped.

Honestly, give me the freeware EHM and fix the simulation speed and I'd pay a ton for it.

ditto.

Although I voted for College Football, I could be just as happy with the old EHM. That game was the best.

[WVUFAN]

Boxing sim with a career mode (and maybe multiplayer), or a wrestling sim where you don't decide the outcome (yeah, I know it's fixed in real life, but I want my suspension of disbelief, damnit)

[Young Drachma]

I'd really like to see a sim that incorporates you as the owner or GM of several pro teams. You'd have to get arena deals, sign players, see if you have a superstar 2-sport athlete, game plan for you opponents, get additional investors, purchase additional franchises or relocate a franchise from one city to another. So I can have Baseball, Basketball, Football, Hockey all in one sim so to speak.

I like this, too.

[MizzouRah]

A Jim Gindin baseball or hockey game.

[MJ4H]

A college football (I'd take pro, too) game with a 2d match representation like in FM. The 2d display should be the next move for all games. It is huge to me.

[Honolulu Blue]

I would love to see a good career horse racing game. I played the heck out of Hooves of Thunder and would love a more recent effort on that genre.

Well, QuarterPole Plus (http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?name=Quarterpole+Plus) is the most recent sequel to HOT, but I wouldn't say it was better. The sim engine took a step back and the presentation failed to move forward.

Sigh. I agree, someone should try again.

[Groundhog]

I'd like to see a High School Basketball game. Obviously there are way too many schools to do a nation wide one, but if you could pick a state, then a school within that state, and work your way towards the state finals, with school prestige improving both with your success in the season as well as with the amount of kids you send to college on scholarships. Limited recruiting too for the 'basketball academy' type schools.

Dreams of a game like this one is just one of the many things that keep me awake at night.

[Grammaticus]

I'd like to see a Track & Field sim and a good career boxing sim.

[Atocep]

I'd have a difficult time choosing one. There are some excellent text sims out there, but each one has several areas in which it could improve.

For football (both college and pro), I've yet to see a game handle the coaching aspect of the game even remotely well. I probably won't be buying another FOF game unless it has much more realistic coaching (as in a complete overhaul) and improved gameplanning (less micromanagement).

The only basketball text sim I've enjoyed was FBCB. I'd love to see an improved version of this and I'm interested to see how the new game HR is working on turns out. The new NBA age limit could add yet another layer of strategy to recruiting.

OOTP does just about everything I could ask for out of baseball game, it just needs to focus on improving on the things it can do.

I'm not a big NASCAR fan or much of an autoracing fan in general, but I'd have some interest if SI or someone else were to release one. The one thing that would bother me is I don't know which area a game like this should focus on. Take NASCAR, for instance. If you play as the driver, there really isn't a lot you're going to be doing. If you play as the crew chief, then its probably going to be too technical for most. If you play as the owner, it may put the player too far away from the actual racing.

In the end, I'd probably rank them something like this:

1.) College football - realistic polls, variation in offenses and defenses, non-tedius recruitement.

2.) College Basketball - same as above

3.) Pro Football - Gameplanning deteremined by offensive scheme which is directly related to the coaches you hire. IMO gameplanning should almost entirely be in the hands of the coaches.

4.) NASCAR - its something new

[Groundhog]

Another one I'd like to see would be a fantasy sport... something like Speedball, Rollerball or Bloodbowl or something, but a purely managerial GM game rather than graphic. Deal with deaths, injuries, and the like.

[Pyser]

A Jim Gindin baseball or hockey game.

qft

though id take hockey over baseball, by a mile.

[WVUFAN]

Another one I'd like to see would be a fantasy sport... something like Speedball, Rollerball or Bloodbowl or something, but a purely managerial GM game rather than graphic. Deal with deaths, injuries, and the like.

A Blood Bowl style sim would be great.

[Mac Howard]

I've always felt a good Formula One text sim would be interesting.

[Gary Gorski]

I'd like a better Golf game (Gary had a good start, but it just didnt' do it for me)



Just in case you haven't been to our site recently we have announced that Total Pro Golf 2 is on the way - we're going to announce the feature list shortly but I really tried to focus on the couple of main factors that prevented some people from getting into it. I don't want to presume that the things that didn't do it for you are what the major couple of responses to that question were so please take a moment to PM or email me with what you would like to see changed. Granted we're not going to change the 2D course world to a 3D one but we are making changes to the gameplay to offer more interaction and a better feel of control.

[Anthony]

the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight got me interested in a new and improved boxing sim. i used to play one about 6 or 7 years ago but i forgot the name of it.

[spleen1015]

the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight got me interested in a new and improved boxing sim. i used to play one about 6 or 7 years ago but i forgot the name of it.

Title Bout?

[Emiliano]

I've always felt a good Formula One text sim would be interesting.
Yeah, that would be my 2nd choice behind boxing. I used to play the hell out of Grand Prix World, too bad it didn't have a sequel.

[Anthony]

Title Bout?

that sounds familiar. it coulda been even 10 years ago, to be honest. it was a semi-decent game, i forgot why i stopped playing it.

[DaddyTorgo]

not a text sim, and i've only played the demo at 3am last night, but i found a new horsey game...


http://www.frankiedettoriracing.com/


World famous jockey and superstar Frankie Dettori.

Official licenses including access to the Royal Ascot Race Course,

the Emirates Melbourne Cup, Flemington Race Course, Classic Caulfield, The Caulfield Cup, and more.

Multiplayer online play for all platforms, allowing competitive and friendly play over the Internet.

Multiple game modes including Career Mode, Jockey Challenge and Betting Party.

In depth Career Mode including auctions, horse breeding, training, and stable management.

Highly detailed graphics including realistic horses and jockeys, weather effects, and accurately modelled international race courses.

Lifelike horse and jockey animation, motion captured by Weta Digital, the VFX wizards behind The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.


I guess key to how good it will be is how good the career mode is. the racing seemed fun enough, if a bit easy (but the difficulty level of the demo is stuck on easy FWIW).

[DaddyTorgo]

aaaah. looks like it hasn't been released in the US so that might make it more difficult to find. found one review...

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/thegear/story/0,,1990905,00.html

disclaimer...i have no idea if this game is total junk...just throwing it out there...looks like some mixed reactions, so don't anyone go ordering it from the UK on my say-so.

[Klinglerware]

I voted for College Football. But, a sim where you take the role of the head of a country's national olympic committee might also be interesting. Or maybe a "sim-city" type game where you organize/design a city's olympic host bid and see it through to the close of the games...

[Fidatelo]

Hockey, as many others have said, for most of the same reasons. SI's EHM just doesn't do it for me (yet the original game was awesome!). I bet a Jim Gindin hockey game could be pretty wild.

[Crapshoot]

I've always felt a good Formula One text sim would be interesting.

You know, I remember Marc Vaughan linking a game here a couple of years ago that was still in development at the point - damned if I can recall it though.

[DaddyTorgo]

You know, I remember Marc Vaughan linking a game here a couple of years ago that was still in development at the point - damned if I can recall it though.

i remember this too.

but other than that i'm no help. shameless post-whoring, that's all

[gkb]

Nascar followed by horse racing.

[sabotai]

You know, I remember Marc Vaughan linking a game here a couple of years ago that was still in development at the point - damned if I can recall it though.

It's still in development (I think they recently changed the name from F1 Racing Manager to Grand Prix Racing Manager)

http://www.gprm.co.uk/

[Bad-example]

I can't see any college sport sim being interesting enough for me to buy.

[Malificent]

I admit that I would love a good GM non-soccer game (I just can't get interested in soccer, even at a meta level) where you could build the roster, run finances, etc etc, but you didn't have any direct control over the players or coaches. You're forced to work from a big picture perspective. Every game has some of that, but all of them also include a coaching section that slows things down.

[General Mike]

a comprehensive auto racing sim. Not just NASCAR Nextel Cup, but Busch series, Craftsma truck, , but throw in Formula 1, IRL, Champ Car, everything.

[Big Fo]

My dream game is a football game with the NFL and Division I-A, an FM-esque 2D display, and OOTP-like custom/historical/fictional options.

[Buccaneer]

Thoroughbred Racing, as in a much improved version of Hooves of Thunder or Quarterpole Plus.

[Easy Mac]

Can't believe I'm the only college soccer person. A pox.

[st.cronin]

My dream game is a football game with the NFL and Division I-A, an FM-esque 2D display, and OOTP-like custom/historical/fictional options.

I hope SI does an American Football game at some point.

[Capital]

Hockey would be first for me (EHM was too much like FM for me) and Horse Racing would be second. Although, I would love to see Jim's version of a pro baseball game (also away from SI style of text sim games).

[MizzouRah]

Hockey would be first for me (EHM was too much like FM for me) and Horse Racing would be second. Although, I would love to see Jim's version of a pro baseball game (also away from SI style of text sim games).

My twin! :)

[Sweed]

I'd like to see fof continue to improve. Mostly with a 2d view and some visual game-planing screens.

When I play FM or EHM I learn so much about my team by just watching the players in action. An FM like 2d game view would increase my enjoyment and hours of FOF played to the point the wife would probably leave. And with that 2d view it's entirely possible I wouldn't notice.:D With Jim as a one man show 2d might be a pipe dream but it would sure be sweet.

The visual game-planing screen, to me, would give me the ability to show my formation vs the opponent's along with the players names and key attributes for their positions. Then to be able to click on say the LT and RDE to go to a compare players screen and see their attributes side by side.

[WVUFAN]

I'd love to have a pro-football game with a soccer-style league play, ie different divisions, and you move from divisions to division depending on performance.