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Old 04-24-2013, 09:38 AM   #28
Nemesis
H.S. Freshman Team
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by MalcPow View Post
It's really fascinating to hear you discuss things this way, because I would say that the vast majority of what we are doing while playing the game is scouting. We are constantly looking at combines and player ratings and the progression of those ratings or the mix of those ratings. Some of the things we are looking for are the proxy activities that Quik describes where pattern recognition based on long experience with the game reality is offering advantages to veteran FOFers. Some of the things we are looking for are based on general football concepts that are appropriately modeled by the game. But we are constantly scouting. The tools are actually fixating us even further on scouting. We are spending more time looking at players and trying to identify undervalued or overvalued guys than we would be with less information.

And, honestly, access to information about ratings progression has not diminished my sense of mystery around who many of these guys are. I'll speak for myself, but I think most of the community also believes that there are guys who never get unmasked, and guys who unmask in counter-intuitive ways, and every permutation of possibility to one degree or another. There are some clear signals at times, but just as often, we're left wondering just what we have in a sport that doesn't give clear statistical feedback on the contributions of many positions and players.

The ratings information isn't seen as an answer key but another layer to be weighed, measured, and considered. It helps to have some "memory" of what you thought about a player and how that is changing over time. It helps even moreso when it would otherwise be impossible to recall anything but the most basic impressions. We're scouting and evaluating more because we have more little nooks and crannies to go digging into. And it's a good thing. It's working. We're all wary and wondering, comforted when a guy moves in a certain way but not wholly convicted that we know who they are and just how much they're contributing.

I think this may be a case where it's impossible for a developer to turn off what they know and see game information with uncertain eyes. This just isn't the reveal for us that it is for you. We're still the right mix of unsure but not completely lost. So I wouldn't worry too much about thinking through ways to reveal less, just let us keep feasting on all our quirky theories and half-truths and not so penetrating insights. It's great.

And even now, with all the utilities and tools, and the digging, nobody gets it 100% right, which is a good thing. I lean heavily on the draft here.
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