MLB Off-Topic

[Speedy]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I did a podcast a couple years ago with some Red Sox guys (one of them was Steve Perreault or something?) after they found out I was a "real person". Feel free to ask me Triple Play/MVP questions if you want.

What did you work on with the game, Doc?

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

What did you work on with the game, Doc?

The fun stuff, mostly.

My main responsibility was the player database:
- player rosters (lineups, bench, rotation, bullpen)
- player ratings (Contact, Power, Speed, translating splits into hot/cold zones, etc.)
- pitcher repertoires (pitch type, velocity, break, etc.)
- player "attributes" (jersey number, batting stance, bat/glove colour, skin tone, etc.)

Basically anything to do with players that was editable, the default came from my database (a couple dozen sheets in a gigantic excel file). This includes all the fake players on the minor leagues, the 1000+ placeholder guys with generated names (Ichiro Sheffield, etc.) and the custom fake players who were the Baseball America Top 100 prospects. A lot of the top prospects were named after dev team members or friends/relatives of mine. For example, the Smallenberg triplets (Chris, Mark, Dick) were named after one of my high school friends, his brother, and his dad, all of whom were/are huge Yankees fans.

I was also the one who got to choose which star players received non-generic faces, which batters and pitchers warranted signature stance/windup animations, which alternate and retro uniforms for each team got included, stuff like that. Verifying that all the logos and uniforms had been updated to the current style guide (our actual artists tended to know little or nothing about baseball, and the style guide itself often contained errors) and tediously recording or screenshotting stuff like this for MLB to sign off on.

Lots of dynasty minutiae. I created 6 custom MLB schedules (including a 30-team ASG rotation), 1 schedule for each of the minor leagues, made sure all the minor league playoff formats were true to life, etc. I worked on logic tables for CPU players - pitch selection/location, when to bunt, steal, issue intentional walks, etc. Trade logic, free agent logic, draft/development logic. I'm not a programmer, mind you - I worked with a database SE (software engineer, who was thankfully also a baseball fan) on a lot of this. I wrote up the bios for all the Cooperstown players and did their player ratings as well. A lot of formatting, a lot of data entry.

This is in addition to playing the game constantly, testing gameplay features, verifying bugs (the downside to making a baseball game in western Canada: very few of our testers were baseball-savvy, so producers like myself would have to go through the thousands of entered bugs to make sure they were legit: if so, we passed them off to the appropriate programmers/animators, etc.)

I had other tasks on earlier titles (like the pbp scriptwriting I mentioned earlier), but pretty much just the above for MVP 2005 because I was worked double duty on NHL 2005 at the time for a few months (a much less memorable game, LOL, but it was fun as a hockey fan!)

[l3ulvl]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I did a podcast a couple years ago with some Red Sox guys (one of them was Steve Perreault or something?) after they found out I was a "real person". Feel free to ask me Triple Play/MVP questions if you want.

What did you work on with the game, Doc?

Spoiler

The fun stuff, mostly.

My main responsibility was the player database:
- player rosters (lineups, bench, rotation, bullpen)
- player ratings (Contact, Power, Speed, translating splits into hot/cold zones, etc.)
- pitcher repertoires (pitch type, velocity, break, etc.)
- player "attributes" (jersey number, batting stance, bat/glove colour, skin tone, etc.)

Basically anything to do with players that was editable, the default came from my database (a couple dozen sheets in a gigantic excel file). This includes all the fake players on the minor leagues, the 1000+ placeholder guys with generated names (Ichiro Sheffield, etc.) and the custom fake players who were the Baseball America Top 100 prospects. A lot of the top prospects were named after dev team members or friends/relatives of mine. For example, the Smallenberg triplets (Chris, Mark, Dick) were named after one of my high school friends, his brother, and his dad, all of whom were/are huge Yankees fans.

I was also the one who got to choose which star players received non-generic faces, which batters and pitchers warranted signature stance/windup animations, which alternate and retro uniforms for each team got included, stuff like that. Verifying that all the logos and uniforms had been updated to the current style guide (our actual artists tended to know little or nothing about baseball, and the style guide itself often contained errors) and tediously recording or screenshotting stuff like this for MLB to sign off on.

Lots of dynasty minutiae. I created 6 custom MLB schedules (including a 30-team ASG rotation), 1 schedule for each of the minor leagues, made sure all the minor league playoff formats were true to life, etc. I worked on logic tables for CPU players - pitch selection/location, when to bunt, steal, issue intentional walks, etc. Trade logic, free agent logic, draft/development logic. I'm not a programmer, mind you - I worked with a database SE (software engineer, who was thankfully also a baseball fan) on a lot of this. I wrote up the bios for all the Cooperstown players and did their player ratings as well. A lot of formatting, a lot of data entry.

This is in addition to playing the game constantly, testing gameplay features, verifying bugs (the downside to making a baseball game in western Canada: very few of our testers were baseball-savvy, so producers like myself would have to go through the thousands of entered bugs to make sure they were legit: if so, we passed them off to the appropriate programmers/animators, etc.)

I had other tasks on earlier titles (like the pbp scriptwriting I mentioned earlier), but pretty much just the above for MVP 2005 because I was worked double duty on NHL 2005 at the time for a few months (a much less memorable game, LOL, but it was fun as a hockey fan!)

you were dying for someone to ask lol

[Blzer]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

The fun stuff, mostly.

Spoiler

My main responsibility was the player database:
- player rosters (lineups, bench, rotation, bullpen)
- player ratings (Contact, Power, Speed, translating splits into hot/cold zones, etc.)
- pitcher repertoires (pitch type, velocity, break, etc.)
- player "attributes" (jersey number, batting stance, bat/glove colour, skin tone, etc.)

Basically anything to do with players that was editable, the default came from my database (a couple dozen sheets in a gigantic excel file). This includes all the fake players on the minor leagues, the 1000+ placeholder guys with generated names (Ichiro Sheffield, etc.) and the custom fake players who were the Baseball America Top 100 prospects. A lot of the top prospects were named after dev team members or friends/relatives of mine. For example, the Smallenberg triplets (Chris, Mark, Dick) were named after one of my high school friends, his brother, and his dad, all of whom were/are huge Yankees fans.

I was also the one who got to choose which star players received non-generic faces, which batters and pitchers warranted signature stance/windup animations, which alternate and retro uniforms for each team got included, stuff like that. Verifying that all the logos and uniforms had been updated to the current style guide (our actual artists tended to know little or nothing about baseball, and the style guide itself often contained errors) and tediously recording or screenshotting stuff like this for MLB to sign off on.

Lots of dynasty minutiae. I created 6 custom MLB schedules (including a 30-team ASG rotation), 1 schedule for each of the minor leagues, made sure all the minor league playoff formats were true to life, etc. I worked on logic tables for CPU players - pitch selection/location, when to bunt, steal, issue intentional walks, etc. Trade logic, free agent logic, draft/development logic. I'm not a programmer, mind you - I worked with a database SE (software engineer, who was thankfully also a baseball fan) on a lot of this. I wrote up the bios for all the Cooperstown players and did their player ratings as well. A lot of formatting, a lot of data entry.

This is in addition to playing the game constantly, testing gameplay features, verifying bugs (the downside to making a baseball game in western Canada: very few of our testers were baseball-savvy, so producers like myself would have to go through the thousands of entered bugs to make sure they were legit: if so, we passed them off to the appropriate programmers/animators, etc.)

I had other tasks on earlier titles (like the pbp scriptwriting I mentioned earlier), but pretty much just the above for MVP 2005 because I was worked double duty on NHL 2005 at the time for a few months (a much less memorable game, LOL, but it was fun as a hockey fan!)

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

you were dying for someone to ask lol

Sure. I like talking about this era. This being a sports gaming site, I thought some would find it interesting. Most of the games I made were either junk or ethically dubious, so I enjoy reminiscing about the one game I worked on that's remembered fondly.

Beats me complaining about what the Blue Jays and Canucks are doing.

[l3ulvl]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Sure. I like talking about this era. This being a sports gaming site, I thought some would find it interesting. Most of the games I made were either junk or ethically dubious, so I enjoy reminiscing about the one game I worked on that's remembered fondly.

Beats me complaining about what the Blue Jays and Canucks are doing.

What games did you make were ethically dubious?

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

What games did you make were ethically dubious?

FIFA Mobile (basically FUT on your phone, a separate team from FIFA/EAFC on console). I hate microtransactions and buying packs. It's all about gambling and profiting off addiction, no matter what gaming companies say publicly. I was in charge of their player database and made custom program cards (TOTS, etc.) for about 5 years. I tried to do right by the consumer as much as I could, but I often felt dirty at the end of the day - until, that is, the day two years ago that EA laid me off (and 95% of our team) and sent our jobs to China to save money (and make the game even more gambling-oriented). I'm only speaking of the mobile game - EAFC on console/PC is still made in Vancouver.

[l3ulvl]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Oh! I was thinking totally different , like a game of killing hookers to regain health and resources lol

[DrJones]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Oh! I was thinking totally different , like a game of killing hookers to regain health and resources lol

I would've loved to work on GTA Vice City back in the day - though more for the song selection than the hooker killing, LOL.

[Picci]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Beats me complaining about what the Blue Jays and Canucks are doing.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

..Beats me complaining about what the Blue Jays and Canucks are doing.

But... they aren't doing anything!

[Majingir]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

I read a report saying the opposite (or inverse?) of the original report of MLB ending their ESPN deal because they don't like the coverage of MLB outside of the actual games (as in Sportscenter and all other things)

Apparently it could be the other way around. ESPN is cutting ties on their MLB deal. Perhaps ESPN feels like outside of the actual games, they don't see any value in covering the MLB, so why pay for the rights on games when it won't impact anything else on their network?

[Cubfan]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

It can be both. That broadcast has gone downhill, and things like Baseball Tonight just don't have the cache they once did either -- that's the fault of both ESPN and just the nature of TV these days.

It's probably the right call for MLB though, at least try to find a market that will push you because it's all they got to some extent. This isn't an NHL situation where leaving ESPN ruined them along with the lockout.

Baseball just doesn;t market its stars like football does. And not all the rule changes have worked. Speeding the game up just for the sake of peoples attention spans.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

Baseball just doesn;t market its stars like football does.

This is so true. It use to amaze me how many people have no idea who Mike Trout is. I have heard guesses from a fisherman to a team mascot.

[steelerfan]

Re: MLB Off-Topic

team mascot

This is so awesome! [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

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