[SandmanRivera]

I would have sent this privately to the company but I see no “Contact Us” option.

I realize this query should undoubtedly go somewhere else but I have no time or patience for figuring out where I should go.

OOTP 21 is a great concept and in a number of ways it has been well executed. However, it does still have numerous flaws and bugs, as hte bug reports forum demonstrates. Because of these flaws and bugs I have inquired about a Do Over/Save As function that would allow me to work around the flaws and bugs that occur during Play-By-Play, the software’s flaws and errors as well as my own. I have been told that there have been requests for an Undo function to correct for flaws/errors/mistakes, but that these requests have been roundly rejected by the company. That's right, the company does not want to enable its customers with a workaround for its own bugs, such as runs disappearing. And it wants to control the customer's desire to correct his own mistakes, such as neglecting to install a PH for a RP through a momentary lapse of tracking who was up to bat. The latest example I experienced was when the game removed a star player for a pinch runner in the SECOND inning, with NO SCORE. I would want to do that over every time. But the company insists that I should live with the flaws/errors/mistakes like this because they don't want me to have any control over the results of the game. (Even if the results are egregiously flawed, bug-induced or for any other reason undesirable to me.)

So much for giving the customer what he wants. And for the dumbest reason imaginable. What should the company care if the customer wants to undo an AB, inning, game, day, week or whatever? Why wouldn't the company give the customer a mechanism to work around the flaws and errors of its own software? What should the company care how the customer plays the game? Not to provide an easily implementable, simple mechanism for the customer to create and manage their own files is simply crazy.

I have developed my own work-around that goes as follows:

1) Exit the Play-by-Play (which is saved even when I don't want it to be)
2) Exit OOTP (because the play by play was saved so I can’t just re-load the active file at the beginning of the inning or whenever I, not the program, saved the file)
3) Open Windows Explorer
4) Select Documents
5) Select OOTP Developments
6) Select OOTP Baseball 21
7) Select Saved Games
8) Delete the active file just exited
9) Select the last backup/game I saved
10) Make a copy of the last backup/game saved
11) Rename that copy as the new active file
(10 & 11 so I don't use the backup and have a file to go forward with)
12) Go back and re-enter OOTP
13) Load the new active file
14) Go to the Schedule
15) Select to re-enter the game
16) Re-enter all the Options, which are NOT saved
17) Re-enter the game
18) Repeat each half inning

With this mechanism and a few different manipulations of the files, I can maintain copies of several half-innings if not the entire game, so I can back out as far as I like when something goes wrong (because something WILL eventually go wrong). At the end of the game I delete all the individual half-inning files except the last one, which contains the whole official game that I have approved. I do this for every game of the day and then at the end of the day I delete all of the individual game files except the last one of the day. I do the same at the end of the week, delete all the individual day files except the one at the end of the week. I would have done the same at the end of the month but I tired of the whole process. Managing the files the way OOTP forces me to do it destroys the flow and ultimately the enjoyment of the game. In this mode, the game isn't worth the effort. It’s a chore. I used this mechanism to back-up the action in the Play-by-Play multiple times each game “day” and was glad I had the option. Given the nature of the game, I wouldn't play the it without the ability to essentially “Undo.” But it's too much work. And it’s so unnecessary. It’s a shame.

What would allow me to avoid all this tedious nonsense?

1) A Save As function (ALL software programs have Open, Save, Save As and Close file options for obvious reasons; but not OOTP) so that the customer, not the company, can control the files they create as they choose. There would be no need for 1) the cumbersome and somewhat inscrutable Backup/Restore/Name a Directory mechanism. There would be no need for 2) Quickstart. There would be no reason for 3) exiting OOTP, drilling down through directory structures, and manipulating files at that level just to create the necessary backups and active files to play the game relatively free of errors. With Save As the user could easily create all those files in a completely flexible, self-determined manner, all without leaving OOTP, because the company would have been wise enough to provide the basic file management facilities you'd find in ANY other software. One has to ask: of what use is file control to the company? I mean, wtf?

2) The second option to get around the tedious 18 step nonsense to manage OOTP files for error-free play would be to allow a user to Save or Not Save upon exiting Play-By-Play. The software randomly gives ONE of these two options upon exiting Play-By-Play: a) Save and Exit, OR b) Exit. Interestingly, the game is saved EITHER WAY (a or b). Bwahahaha. (Is that a bug or is it just another way the company wrests control of the file from the user, forcing them to accept the results of the Play-By-Play whether they want it or not? Why does it even suggest that you can Exit without Saving when you can't? Good lord.) What should happen is the player should be given BOTH options upon exiting Play-By-Play: to a) Save and Exit OR b) Exit (without saving). And, of course, both options should actually work. But Noooo.... By exiting without saving the user could simply Load the game where it was the last time it was saved BY THE USER, OR, if there were a Save As function, load whichever previously saved version the user chooses. All without having to leave OOTP and dive into Windows Explorer. Like a normal, grown-up piece of software. A Save (and no exit) option should also exist within Play-By-Play. You shouldn't have to Exit Play-By-Play just to Save, if you want to (just as you shouldn’t have to Save if you don’t want to). You should be able to Save when you have accomplished something you don’t want to lose if you subsequently need to back up the action. And I hope to god OOTP isn't saving the game routinely throughout Play-By-Play, whether or not the customer wants it. I chose the option to Save Daily and yet the game is saved every time I exit Play-By-Play and every time I leave the OOTP program, whether or not I wanted it. Instead, I should be asked if I want to Save and given the option to save or not to save. Basic software design principle: when in doubt, give the option/control to the User.

Again, why wouldn't the company want to provide these BASIC file management tools to the customer? What does the company care what goes on in the customer's own game on his own computer? They wonderfully provide a million options/settings for the customer to customize the game, including the ability to edit Player ability to freakish levels and otherwise create outlandish hypothetical game results; why wouldn't they give the customer the option to manage his own game files? Why wouldn't they want to give/allow what the customer wants? The answer's not a good one. Control. That's all. They'll allow you to create ridiculous players, teams, games and seasons, but they won't allow you to control the subtraction of bad ABs, innings or games. Inscrutable control. They've been withholding these capabilities for YEARS. And this is not rocket science. This is not something you mistakenly overlook. This is by choice. Bad choice.

When I posted my request for a Do Over/Save function one user said something to the effect of “this is baseball not golf. There are no mulligans.” That would be fine if the game was perfect. But it’s far from it. Mulligans are exactly what it needs to justify all the time and energy it takes to Play-by-Play every game or anything close to it. Exactly. Moreover, why should that user, the company, or anyone, care or have control over whether or not I want or get a mulligan, regardless of the reason?

I could also ask for a refund on the grounds that this software is fraught with more bugs than any game/software I have used over the past 35 YEARS that I’ve had computers (except perhaps Baseball Mogul). From these forums it is clear that it will never be anywhere near bug-free. Because I really want a game like OOTP and am not interested in MLB The Show (I don't want to be a major league player; I want to be a GM/Manager). I might try to work around these problems with a Save As function and the ability to Save or Not Save upon exiting Play-By-Play, but...well, that's not an option, is it?

Look, if the company is unwilling to meet these simple requests which I and others have made, if for no other reason than to allow us to overcome the flaws and errors of its own software and make it palatable, then I have no interest in playing the game. Period. I have figured out how to work around it but it’s too odious. I wrote this post a week ago and waited to see if I would change my mind, because I really do want a game like OOTP. But I haven’t been tempted to play again with that 18 step obstacle course every half-inning. Without these changes, it's back to Baseball Mogul. It has flaws and bugs, too. But at least it's forgiving. It has Save As and it doesn’t save when you exit play-by-play. The user, not the developer, controls the file.

I want a refund. How do I get one?