OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Ruben "Streak" Souffront and the Denver Brewers

BirdWatcher · 11-22-2018, 12:08 PM

Stepping back from the fictional reality (is that an oxymoron?) for a moment to discuss a few things regarding this thread and the save it reports on.

First of all, as I've alluded to in the past, some of my favorite threads here are shared by OOTP'ers who take great precautions not to stray outside of the reality of the universe they are reporting on, to keep the thread clean, as they might say. And I respect that greatly.
For myself I am still trying to find the right balance in this regard. Mostly I do try to remain firmly in the W.P. Kinsella League universe when I report here. But I also find myself wanting to step outside of that fictional world to comment a bit about my thought processes while playing the game and some of the methods/tools I have created around the game to add to my personal sense of immersion in the WPK.

Sometimes I make these comments- when they are brief, not detailed- in parenthetical comments within posts that are otherwise rooted in the reality of the WPK.
Other times, like this, I will share a post that lives pretty much completely outside of the reality of the WPK. I generally try to make it clear at the beginning of such a post (though probably not always very directly) that this is the case.
Now for many of you this might all seem like nonsense but I know that some of you do give these things great thought, so for that small number of you I wanted to clarify a bit.

As I am now in the middle of the WPK off-season, this is a time when I focus more on some of the supplemental processes I've built around this universe, and when I think about other elements I might want to add to the experience.

A few examples:
1) On January 1st of the WPK calendar I identify, using a process I described a bit here earlier, whether any former WPK players will pass away during this calendar year. (This includes the date of their death and the cause of their death.) Given that the WPK is still relatively new and the oldest former player is just 45 years old, and that the process is built so that players are arranged in age range categories and the likelihood of death becomes much greater as they enter the higher end age categories, thus far no deaths have been identified. So, spoiler alert, with January 1st of 1969 having passed already, no deaths for this calendar year were identified.
2) On February 1st I create any new players that have been identified through the Relative Players Creation process for the upcoming new player draft. Again, as described here previously, this is a process by which it is identified which current WPK players will have relatives (brothers, cousins, sons, grandsons) who will also become professional baseball players in the WPK universe. Of course, many of the players identified this way won't enter the WPK universe until far in the future, but with some contemporary relatives of WPK players having been identified, two such new players will enter the draft during this WPK calendar year. Likely I will report more about these players in the near future.
3) In the past few days I have gone through the lists I keep of retired WPK players to identify good candidates to become coaches/managers, etc. Although I realize that the game is already going to do this to some extent, I like to make sure that players I wish to keep active in the WPK universe, and who have the sorts of personalities (high leadership, high intelligence, in particular) to make them potentially very good coaches/managers/GM's, are added to the mix. I don't do this primarily with the goal of hiring any of these players for my own organization, but I won't deny myself the occasional pleasure of doing so, particularly any former Brewers players who it might make sense- in the reality of the WPK universe- to bring back in a management role.
4) I am also beginning to keep a list of minor league players who likely might never make it to the WPK but could make good coaches/managers, etc. after their minor league careers are over.

There are probably some processes I am forgetting about right now, but this gives you some idea of supplemental approaches I take to add an immersive quality to this project and to expand the fictional reality of the WPK.

11-22-2018, 12:08 PM	#490
BirdWatcher Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2018 Location: Denver, Colorado Posts: 4,263	Stepping back from the fictional reality (is that an oxymoron?) for a moment to discuss a few things regarding this thread and the save it reports on. First of all, as I've alluded to in the past, some of my favorite threads here are shared by OOTP'ers who take great precautions not to stray outside of the reality of the universe they are reporting on, to keep the thread clean, as they might say. And I respect that greatly. For myself I am still trying to find the right balance in this regard. Mostly I do try to remain firmly in the W.P. Kinsella League universe when I report here. But I also find myself wanting to step outside of that fictional world to comment a bit about my thought processes while playing the game and some of the methods/tools I have created around the game to add to my personal sense of immersion in the WPK. Sometimes I make these comments- when they are brief, not detailed- in parenthetical comments within posts that are otherwise rooted in the reality of the WPK. Other times, like this, I will share a post that lives pretty much completely outside of the reality of the WPK. I generally try to make it clear at the beginning of such a post (though probably not always very directly) that this is the case. Now for many of you this might all seem like nonsense but I know that some of you do give these things great thought, so for that small number of you I wanted to clarify a bit. As I am now in the middle of the WPK off-season, this is a time when I focus more on some of the supplemental processes I've built around this universe, and when I think about other elements I might want to add to the experience. A few examples: 1) On January 1st of the WPK calendar I identify, using a process I described a bit here earlier, whether any former WPK players will pass away during this calendar year. (This includes the date of their death and the cause of their death.) Given that the WPK is still relatively new and the oldest former player is just 45 years old, and that the process is built so that players are arranged in age range categories and the likelihood of death becomes much greater as they enter the higher end age categories, thus far no deaths have been identified. So, spoiler alert, with January 1st of 1969 having passed already, no deaths for this calendar year were identified. 2) On February 1st I create any new players that have been identified through the Relative Players Creation process for the upcoming new player draft. Again, as described here previously, this is a process by which it is identified which current WPK players will have relatives (brothers, cousins, sons, grandsons) who will also become professional baseball players in the WPK universe. Of course, many of the players identified this way won't enter the WPK universe until far in the future, but with some contemporary relatives of WPK players having been identified, two such new players will enter the draft during this WPK calendar year. Likely I will report more about these players in the near future. 3) In the past few days I have gone through the lists I keep of retired WPK players to identify good candidates to become coaches/managers, etc. Although I realize that the game is already going to do this to some extent, I like to make sure that players I wish to keep active in the WPK universe, and who have the sorts of personalities (high leadership, high intelligence, in particular) to make them potentially very good coaches/managers/GM's, are added to the mix. I don't do this primarily with the goal of hiring any of these players for my own organization, but I won't deny myself the occasional pleasure of doing so, particularly any former Brewers players who it might make sense- in the reality of the WPK universe- to bring back in a management role. 4) I am also beginning to keep a list of minor league players who likely might never make it to the WPK but could make good coaches/managers, etc. after their minor league careers are over. There are probably some processes I am forgetting about right now, but this gives you some idea of supplemental approaches I take to add an immersive quality to this project and to expand the fictional reality of the WPK.