Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

Disclaimer:
Married, with 3 kids

Every since I found this site a few years back, I've been hooked ever since. Hooked so much that I've actually dedicated any free time I had and created my own stats collection in Microsoft Access. I pretty much play MLB, NFL and NHL related sports games. I've just recently acquired the last edition of NCAA Football and threw that into the mix.

I pretty much buy each game on a yearly basis. I know, I know its a waste just for updated rosters, etc but I can't help myself, ha! :grin:

I'd love to be able to fit in a season each year for MLB, NCAA, NFL, NHL and NBA. NCAA and NFL are pretty easy to fit in on a regular basis, sometimes I can squeeze in 2 seasons each year.

The issue is MLB, NHL and NBA seasons. They are soon long, especially MLB. I know with the last couple of versions of The Show, you can play a game quicker than before, which I use but still fall behind and hardly finished half a season. Like I said before, I built my own stats collection in Access and pretty much keep all game stats, seasons stats, awards, postseason, etc for each sport.

I need to find a good ratio of sim vs play games in the longer season sports. I know my stats wouldn't be legit (I'd rather play each and every game) but in order to fit in all other games, I need to sacrifice something. I normally have free time at night once the kids go to bed and on weekends.

Any suggestions are welcome. I hope I wouldn't be the only guy in this situation but who knows.

Re: Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

Not sure if you listen to the Press Row podcast at all or are familiar with Rich Grisham from Hit the Pass, but he has created a really great way to get through the MLB season by utilizing the sim engine through the first 6/7 innings with player lock, then entering the game full-on after that. I'm not a big NHL player, so I don't have any suggestions for that. However for NBA I've been simming the first three quarters of games, then jumping in after that.

It seems like you are a stat junkie like me (I have countless Word, Excel, and Google Pages set up), so lowering the games played per season may not suit your need like some of the guys have done in the Basketball Forums.

Not sure if I was able to help at all, but best of luck! I am married with one young one and hopefully more to come, so it's nice to see the gaming never ends! :cheers:

Re: Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

Any and all suggestions are welcome! Thank you.

Definitely a stat junkie!

Don't get me wrong, gaming has seriously took a hit. I was big into FPS games, those are no more but sports games I'm hanging onto as long as I can!

Re: Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

I myself have a 3.5 year old and a 9 month old, and like you, I play at night after they and the wife go to sleep, and early mornings on the weekends. It's hard. I am gearing up to putting dynasties on here for NCAA, Madden, and WWE Universe stuff, HOPEFULLY. It's so difficult that when I got the MLB2K game I have, I took one look at the intricacy of the Dynasty (GM, whatever) mode and went for RTTS instead just because I KNEW I wouldn't have time. The only difference with me is that I just don't get the newest games anymore (kinda sucks, I know) and that allows me to have a BIT more relaxation about playing the seasons out. Still, I'll be following to see if anyone has any suggestions. It'll be interesting to see, because, like I said, I'd like to document everything here in the forums/dynasties...but MLB would take me SO long.
Congrats on the family, btw, to all! It's a difficult but very amazing thing!

Re: Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

Finally, a thread for us dad's that love multiple games, stats, and stories but are struggling with time constraints! I have a 14 month old daughter and like you guys I squeeze in game time during the week after the family is in bed. I enjoy playing all the major sports and I too have dozens of excel sheets full of stats/history. I no longer keep up with the latest games either (basically since there aren't new NCAA Football games). I am in the same boat of not knowing how best to manage long seasons. I have thought about strictly doing My Player type modes for each game but I also enjoy the coaching/managing of an entire team.

I've been toying with an idea for a storyline surrounding one amazingly talented main character (or possibly two) that is a multi-sport athlete. I'm thinking maybe I would have this character change sports over the course of his career to keep me interested.

Another wild, much less realistic idea would have him play for a city with teams in all 4 sports leagues and he would play all the seasons at a time but something like 1 game a day. This would allow me to play all the sports I love, have an interest in all the leagues, but not control all the games for each of the teams. Also, the overall stats would stay normal in a given season (just not my player's stats since he wouldn't play every game).

Anyways, kind of insane ideas but just really struggling for something good.

Re: Sim vs Play - A Good Mixture
 

So as the end of August approaches, Madden will be released soon, then NHL and NBA shortly into the Fall season. I ended up skipping The Show this year, will wait until 2018 for the next one, too much time involved with buying a new house, etc.

I'm still debating exactly how to go about sim vs play but here's what I've come up with so far. I'd rather have legit stats (no sim games) however I recognize life gets in the way and have come to the conclusion simming games is a must, but will be limited though.

NFL - short season, no sim, play entire season, plus playoffs

NHL and NBA - (82 regular season games) - long season, sim 25%, play 75%, no sim playoffs, ends up to being 22 sim and 60 play games

My initial thinking is sim more first half of season than the second half, in case there are playoff implications (16 sim first half, 6 sim second half)

MLB - (162 regular season games) - very long season, sim 25%, play 75%, will use quick pitch or whatever its called on The Show to help speed up the games that are played.

Again, more up front simming in the first half of the season vs the second half (30 sim first half, 10 sim second half). I haven't really determined how the sim will work on this yet, i.e sim every other X games.