THE TALK SHOW
Host: Glenn Guzzo
You can submit your question or insight on any
Strat-O-Matic game to SOMTalkShow@aol.com.
When you do, kindly include your name and town. Other gamers like to see that.
And the display format below works better that way.
Reminder: Send us your “Great Moments in Strat”
– your playing experiences that you just have
to share.
A suggestion for the Strat-O-Matic computer version:
How about a timer mechanism on the prompter for decisions made while a ball is in play? Nothing worse – or less realistic – than a Strat player who ponders 10 minutes when deciding whether to send a runner home from first on a double, throw home on a fielder’s choice, or other such decisions that must be made instantly in a real game. A toggle switch could allow players who don’t like the timer to simply turn it off, and those who want the timer could adjust the number of seconds to make these decisions. If the Strat player doesn’t click something within X number of seconds, Super Hal intelligence takes over and the decision is made for him. Just as a baserunner rounding third makes his own decision if the 3rd base coach is indecisive, a timer would unquestionably enhance realism.
Chase Goodbread,
I like this! Not only does it solve a
problem, it adds excitement and a dynamic new feature. While some gamers play
too fast (I’ve been accused of that), slow play is the more common complaint. I’m
sure that the day will arrive when, at the tender moment of decision, my
daughter will ask for help with her homework while the timer is ticking. But
otherwise, this could end frustration and hard feelings for some gamers.
Board
gamers who like to do math in the middle of innings need a timer (the default
would be no advance unless the decision is made on time) even more than
computer gamers. Nothing worse than the gamer who decides to calculate the
chances of three pinch-hitters getting an RBI-hit before deciding to send the
runner around third.
Remembering Super-Fanatical Footall
I always
enjoyed the super-fanatical version of Strat
football. I know it isn't sold anymore, but were there ever any fan
innovations that made it better or easier to play?
Bob in
In the 1990s, STRAT FAN published a few
gamer suggestions, mostly ways to organize the play-calling sequences and to
recognize the ratings adjustments that certain formations and play calls
dictated. Initially, Strat-O-Matic was excited about the visual appeal the
super-fanatical format offered, but it added so many decisions on each play
that it destroyed the football game’s play value, adding an hour or more to
most gamers’ experience.
Scoring Issues in Sabres
Replay
I have
been playing SOM board games for years including the hockey game. This
year, scoring was way down, whether I played the advanced hockey game or the basic
game. I even tweaked the rules a little bit to increase the number of
power plays.
I
replayed the Buffalo Sabres entire season and the
goals against averages for the
Thomas Vanek
13 goals, 2 pp vs 25-11 actual
Taylor Pyatt
2 goals vs 6 actual
Derek Roy 8 goals, 1 pp vs 18-5 actual
Jason Pominville,
7 goals, 2 pp vs 18-10 actual
JP Dumont, 11 goals, 4 pp vs 20-9 actual
Chris Drury 20 goals, 11 pp vs 30-16 actual
Does
anyone else see the same type of results? I recently played half a season
of the 1974-75 Sabres and had much more realistic
results. Comparing the skaters’ cards from that set to similar players in
05-06, the 1974-75 players had more scoring chances. The goalies were not
much different in both sets.
In one of
your columns, I read about someone referring to a 35-card action deck. I
e-mailed SOM asking about this and they said the action deck is still 30
cards. Was this a computer game modification? I seem to see posts
referring to this in some SOM forums.
Jerry Magoffin,
(home of
Scotty Bowman, Harry Neale, Darryl Sittler, Marcel Dionne
and countless
number of retired NHL players and coaches)
Foremost, a single replay doesn’t tell us enough about
accuracy. There are too many variables – player usage, coaching decisions and
the biggest one of all, random variation. The smaller the
sample, the greater the variation. We need many more rolls than a single
team generates to even out the dice probabilities. League-wide stats would be
the best indicator and individual stats the least reliable. For instance, the Sabre forwards named above averaged 11 to 18 minutes per
game each. Pyatt played only 41 games;
The board hockey game is more vulnerable to fluctuation
(and lower specialty-team scoring) than the computer game. The 35-card deck is
a computer feature. It creates a more realistic number of power plays and
short-handed scoring opportunities. But those five extra cards are not actual
cards from the printed deck, so board gamers cannot simply duplicate a few of
their Action Deck cards and get the same results.
Complicating matters more, new NHL rules for the 2005-06
season created more power plays. Power play goals and shorthanded goals were up
significantly. When the computer game is tested each year, many, many
full-season replays are conducted to check whether the stats are in line, but
the computer Action Deck means those tests don’t translate precisely to the
board game.
SOM (not us) Should
Do the Printing
It’s too bad Strat-O-Matic doesn’t print
complete card sets from past seasons. Rather than having to buy card stock and
ink for the printer (sometimes two or three times to do a set), this gamer
would rather pay more and get a complete card set (all teams and top 3 or 4
extras). Paying $40 to get a complete 1969-70 NHL set, or 1967 NFL season, for
example, should be an option. Allow us a month to get our orders in, then at
the end of 30 days, if Strat-O-Matic gets 100 orders for 1967 NFL, then print
100 sets of cards. After 30 days, gamers could purchase the top six teams for a
reduced price if that’s what they wish to do. I’m not a business man, but
unless the printing costs would be too high, I think Strat-O-Matic should do
it. The Strat-O-Matic cards are a lot nicer than our “home-made” printouts.
Dave K,
If a business can charge whatever it needs
to recover costs, theoretically it can profit from any print order.
Realistically, a company wants to print as many as it can sell, because it’s
much less costly to print the full volume once than to print a little bit at a
time. If “as many as it can sell” is a small number, costs are high, the price
goes higher and the sales go lower yet. Your generous spirit (in effect, you
would underwrite the costs for future customers) is a bit like the “early
adopter” customers in the electronics world. Those who have to have it first
pay much more. Later, as a mass market is established, the price comes down.
But unlike electronics technology, printing costs do not come down as years go
by. And the market for a single past season of Strat-O-Matic cards is nothing
like the size of, say, for a new digital camera with unique bells and whistles.
We (not Strat)
Could Do the Printing
Since
the most common Talk Show discussion is on past season reprints – here’s one
more suggestion. Since we live in a digital age that brings down the cost
of distributing information, including printing:
n
Offer a special card
printing program ($20)
n
Sell blank, perforated
card stock ($??)
n
Each time a customer
buys a past season on disk, it comes with one
authorization number for use with the card printing program, to
allow printing one set of the cards (preventing the customer
from printing multiple copies to sell/give away).
n
Customer buys a
color laser printer ($200)
n
Customer prints
the card set years they want.
Then, SOM
doesn't need to worry about the “too expensive, we’ll lose money” argument.
Matt Norris,
You have an entrepreneurial mind, Matt. This fascinating idea offers
new revenue for SOM and solutions for gamers. We are definitely talking about
small sales per season (fringe-demand seasons, extra costs for card stock and
ink). But to some extent all the forthcoming past seasons will be fringe-demand
seasons – for no other reason that the highest-demand seasons have already been
re-created.
Wishing for More of the All-Time Greats
I’d like to see Strat
fill in some of the gaps that currently exist between re-created seasons so
that we'll have the chance to play with players who are either not available in
any card set or who are under-represented.
Two of the largest such gaps are 1912-19 and 1921-26. Players such as Cobb, Hornsby, Wagner, and
Walter Johnson had a lot of great seasons that are not available in card
sets. Hornsby led the National League in
slugging 9 times from 1917 to 1929 but only one of those seasons has been
recreated by Strat.
Cobb led the
Of course, in addition to great
individual seasons, it's good to have competitive pennant races too, since they
are more fun to replay than seasons dominated by one team. So the seasons I'd like to see Strat consider are 1916 (Boston, led by Ruth's pitching,
narrowly beat out Chicago and Detroit, while Brooklyn faced strong competition
from the Phillies, Braves, and Giants) and 1924
(Washington narrowly beats out the Yankees and Tigers, while the Giants were
pursued to the wire by the Dodgers and Pirates).
Bill Bell,
I think SOM has chosen well with 1920 and
1911 to get most of these great players in their primes, but another few seasons
would offer a more vivid picture of this era. When SOM first announced its
“Chevy” disks for the computer, 1916 was one of the first releases, for the
reasons you state. Many of us would love to have a Ruth pitching card. The 1924
season is historic: The Senators’ only World Series victory and Hornsby’s
record .424. The 1908 season, with two great pennant races, is a perennial
favorite of Dead Ball-era fans, too.
Venturing Into the Computer Realm
I have
played the baseball board game (Super Advanced rules) for several years and am
interested in getting into the computer game. I am interested in creating a big
tournament between teams from various eras and want to play it in Super
Advanced format and be able to see all the cards as I play. Here are a few
questions in relation to the computer game.
1) For the computer game baseball seasons, it seems like there are three
general categories of years. a) Computer generated seasons without the full Strat research (e.g., 1897, 1908, 1914, 1935); b)
Seasons where the card version have never been done in Super Advanced (e.g., 1930,
1961, 1973, 1984); c) Seasons where the card version has been done in
Super Advanced, including recent re-created seasons (e.g., 1911,
1948, 1957, 1985-present). Is this a generally correct summary?
Are all these seasons in Super Advanced format for the computer? That is, if I
purchase 1908, 1973, and 2003 and play teams from these years against each
other, will it all be in full Super Advanced format? Is 1973 updated into Super
Advanced format for the computer, even though it was never in Super Advanced
for the cards?
2) As I understand it, the Card-Image Option lets you see the complete actual
card that you would normally see if you had it in hand. Lefty-righty splits, hit and run, ballpark effects, clutch
hitting symbols, etc. would all be visible. Is this true?
Also, does the Card-Image work with all seasons? For example, if I purchase the
computer game with the card image option and the 1908, 1973, and 2003 seasons,
will I be able to view all of the individual cards from all of these years in
Super Advanced format?
3) Is there a way to create a card in the computer game and then be able to
play with it? For example, could I enter in all the information from a
personalized card I have (including all Super Advanced info) and then put
myself on a team?
4) Can you create teams with various players provided you have purchased all of
the seasons? For example, could I create a team with the best Tigers from the ‘80s
(pulling cards from different years), provided that I had all of those seasons?
5) What is the Play by Play Disk offered for each season? What does it allow
you to do?
Thanks for leading this forum. Strat-O-Matic has provided many hours of great
fun. My wife also recently gave your book to me for my birthday and I truly
enjoyed it. Thanks!
Dan Simpson,
Welcome to the computer game, Dan. Good news
– you can use the computer game to fulfill your dream tournament. Specific
answers:
1.
Yes, your general summary is correct. Yes, the computer
game updates all seasons into Super Advanced format and presents them that way.
However, for seasons where SOM has not done this for the card sets, there are
some generic ratings – all pitchers have the same wild pitch and balk ratings,
for instance. Advanced format-only players like 1961 have no ballpark effects,
but their cards play fine with and against players from other seasons with ballpark
symbols.
2.
Yes, the Card Image option works with all seasons – even
the ones where there were no printed cards. And yes, it displays all the card
readings you mention. Note that some of the symbols are different on the
computer screen than on the cards, but it’s a simple adjustment to get used to.
3.
Yes, you can create players in the computer game.
4.
Yes, it’s a simple matter to create a new league with the
teams you want and to draft players from existing seasons onto your new teams.
5.
The add-on Play-by-Play disks have team-specific and
season-specific play-by-plays, enriching that experience significantly. The
play-by-play files on these disks, and the ones that come with the computer
game may be edited by you, as well.
P.S. Glad you liked the Strat-O-Matic Fanatics
book. If it was a good gift, maybe you can think of someone else who would
enjoy it!