cant get into a fictional

[Elektranaut]

The longer you play a fictional league the more real it becomes

[Peregrine]

I have to agree - I love a fictional universe, and the more history you get the more real it seems. I love looking over the records and remembering all the great players of the past.

[Antonin]

Originally Posted by ThatSeventiesGuy

Yeah, I agree with starting small. No more than eight big-league teams, at most one minor league team at each level for each team. I often don't even use all the minor-league levels in fictionals. AAA and AA, maybe A. Pace it out, add expansion teams as wanted/needed. Especially if you use mods, this is the way to go, IMO.

This is a great way to begin an interesting fictional uni. Questdog also mentioned having good team names.

Another thing you might want to try: go to the mods forum and look at some of the incredibly great fictional uniforms people have created over the years. You might find yourself itching to start a new fictional league just to include some of those uniforms.

[conception]

I get very involved in creating my fictional leagues in real places and try to pick logos and stadiums (Teflon, Blueturf) that really reflect the character of the locale. For me, each team has a real identity based on its city, and when I play in that city, watching the games play out really makes me imagine being there. Also, it helps when some places are extreme pitchers park's and some are hitters parks. In one of my leagues I took over a team for a year that had massive dimensions so HR's were more than halved. I decided to base my entire team on OBP (I know, not rare in this day and age) and did not even consider guys who didn't have incredible patience. I knew hoping for average and HR's was hopeless and I won the championship. On other teams, maybe HR hitters are gonna do real well, or a park is very left favored so I try and stack the lineup with lefties.

There's endless ways to be connected to your league, but I do agree with lots of others here that small is important to start with so you can remember each team. That way, when you add more to expansion, you identify those teams differently and feel like its something special when they make it from expansion to championship. Also, in smaller leagues there are less notable players, so a star SS can really be definitive for that position and be much more prominent.

[Lafayette53]

Here's some of the team names I'm using if anybody wants some inspiration:

[ra7c7er]

I was thinking about this a bit ago and something that pulls me out of my fictional world is adding a league after the world has been created. I don't know why but it puts me off. Which really sucks because randomly I'll get inspiration for a new league or find something that would make a great league and I feel like I have to start all over. Which I inevitably do and am doing right now, ugh.

[smiller]

Another thing that can really keep your interest in a fictional league is when players achieve milestones. In the 23rd season of my league (I simmed the first 15 years to establish a history), I had a player on another team who was closing in to become the first to have 3,000 career hits. The whole season I not only played out my team's games, but closely followed his until he hit the 3,000 mark. I couldn't have been prouder than if he was one of my own draft choices. This year (24th), I had a day when one player became the fourth to reach 400 career home runs and a pitcher who became only the third to reach 250 victories (I'm now hoping he'll be the first to get to 300). These are moments that make your league really come alive.

[conception]

Originally Posted by smiller

Another thing that can really keep your interest in a fictional league is when players achieve milestones. In the 23rd season of my league (I simmed the first 15 years to establish a history), I had a player on another team who was closing in to become the first to have 3,000 career hits. The whole season I not only played out my team's games, but closely followed his until he hit the 3,000 mark. I couldn't have been prouder than if he was one of my own draft choices. This year (24th), I had a day when one player became the fourth to reach 400 career home runs and a pitcher who became only the third to reach 250 victories (I'm now hoping he'll be the first to get to 300). These are moments that make your league really come alive.

I agree with the milestone thing, but for me its more involving to have actively played a role in every season. I don't do the longsim thing because I want to remember the season when the HR record was set. I want to remember seeing a legendary pitcher rack up his wins. In my fictional leagues, records that I wasn't there for are just a number. Records that I watched happen are tangible.

I typically do a sim after I start a league, but I erase all the history and stats. I only do it to have a mature player distribution.

[DustinthePOWERHOUSE]

I used to be like that couldn't figure out why anyone would want to have made up players in a made up league...but once I discovered how fun it is to completely mess around with the functions and formation of the league in terms of expansion/rule changes/roster changes and etc. it's become extremely exciting for me.

One thing that got me really into it is creating a league from the very start with only a few teams and creating other leagues, merging leagues and teams and creating just a whole universe that was planned out or sometimes not.

It's not really a fault though some like it hot some like it cold. It's your game play it your way!

[ra7c7er]

Originally Posted by smiller

Another thing that can really keep your interest in a fictional league is when players achieve milestones. In the 23rd season of my league (I simmed the first 15 years to establish a history), I had a player on another team who was closing in to become the first to have 3,000 career hits. The whole season I not only played out my team's games, but closely followed his until he hit the 3,000 mark. I couldn't have been prouder than if he was one of my own draft choices. This year (24th), I had a day when one player became the fourth to reach 400 career home runs and a pitcher who became only the third to reach 250 victories (I'm now hoping he'll be the first to get to 300). These are moments that make your league really come alive.

I agree with this 100%. It's all about creating that "worlds" history. Personally I find custom worlds more fulfilling because I have no preconceived notions about players.

[David Watts]

I've had a hard time getting into fictional myself. That being said, my random debut leagues are just fictional league using real players. I hardly ever use real MLB teams. I hardly ever use the actual MLB setup. One thing I like about using real players vs fictional ones is the fact that real players aren't ranked at 5+ positions. For example, if Mark Belanger imports into my league, he is a shortstop. He isn't rated at 2B,3B, 1B, LF and RF.

[HerbD]

Manually pick your own all-stars and award winners every season.

[CameronB]

Originally Posted by HerbD

Manually pick your own all-stars and award winners every season.

This is a great idea! I think I will start incorporating this into my next Fictional league.


One of the concerns I've found is my obsession over the "macro" data, has led to me ignoring the beauty of each individual season.


Using this idea would force me to keep a closer eye on each team and slow down my simulations.

[Nez477]

I have absolutely LOVED doing my first ever fictional league. I simmed four years and then finally took control of a team with a fired GM. But here's what I did to get involved.

1. Spend TONS of time building the league.

I love random, hence I randomly chose cities and nicknames. I setup a US/Canada only league, ended up with two Canadian teams (Ottawa and Winnipeg). But after that, I went to work. Made sure each team had custom uniforms to match either the city or their nickname. That takes quite a while and gets you excited to see how the league turns out.

2. Pick a year model that suits you

I chose to start my league in 1993. I wanted offense, and offense I have. This is more important than you may realize.

3. Sim one week at a time

Be sure to read who the player of the week is each week. The benefits of doing this:

- You notice when a player or a team gets hot. You then click on that team to see who is contributing to the success
- Reading player of the weeks is an easy way to get acquainted with the league and its best players

4. Read and analyze every trade

For how much people complain about trades in OOTP, I feel like 90% of those complaints are from people playing MLB leagues. I find that the AI is completely smart in fictional leagues. In year two of my fictional league, Columbus had an awful year for the second year in a row, so in mid-July, they traded their 29 YO ace pitcher to Seattle for a 5 prospect deal, including two top 50 prospects. Seattle went on to make the World Series, but then two years later, due to that trade, Seattle is now the worst team in the league and Columbus is on the rise. That trade really stuck in my head and I was sure to track how those prospects were see if Columbus made a good move or not. If I wasn't paying attention to the trades, this important event would've gone unnoticed.

5. Manually pick the all-stars

I pick two players at each position and ten pitchers. So not only am I choosing 26 players for the all-star game, I am seeing who is close too.

6. Watch all playoff games

This is what takes awhile, but man, its huge to getting immersed. I setup the screen to ensure I can see each players season and career stats so I can see how good a player is. Watching games this way, I was able to see that the San Diego Black Sox called up a 19 year old rookie right before the playoffs, and he would be hitting leadoff in the entire postseason. Would that gamble payoff??

I also had the experience of this career AAA guy who hadn't homered in 221 ML at bats hit a walk-off 3-run home run to win a series. He wouldn't have even been in the series if not for an injury to an all-star. What a fun narrative!

7. DO THIS FOR AT LEAST THREE YEARS

I took over a team in year five. I'm now absolutely immersed in my fictional league and loving how much I care about the history of each team, and when I'm playing my games out I often recognize 6-7 of the players from my opponents lineup. If I see a rookie that I don't recognize, I'm thrilled to see how patient the team was in bringing him up, or I think "that's a gamble!"

By the way, I'm playing at a 5% ratings, 60% current year, 25% prior year, 10% two years ago, with scouting accuracy very low, all ratings 2-8. Its working perfectly for me, I love the fog that the very low scouting gives, and adds a little bit more immersion for me than stats only.

In short, this game rocks, but its important to note that IT TAKES TIME TO GET IMMERSED. Sometimes that time can seem redundant if you aren't careful. You may not think reading about Jon Smith winning player of the week in May of 1993 matters, but trust me.... it does.

[Phatman]

Doesn't every league end up being fictional after a while? I can't get into MLB leagues because of all the moving around of players. All I do is judge other teams saying to myself "The real team would never do that!" then I lose interest in my league.

[RchW]

Here's another reason to love fictional. Doug Vanderzee will probably end up as my league's all time hit leader (currently 3834). He shows no sign of dropping off the table at 38. He has a chance to get 4000 hits with 2 more years of good production. On a bittersweet note he has never won a WS and incredibly only won 1 MVP award. FWIW he is up to 3602 hits since these screenshots were taken.

I'm into my 75th season in this league (over many versions of OOTP) and the history of great players makes it as real as real baseball.

[BMD]

Here is how I do it when I do a fictional league. To save typing it again I will quote myself from a post I made discussing it a couple years back. See #2 in bold below.

Originally Posted by BMD

There are 4 types of leagues I have been running the last couple years occasionally switching between them to keep it fresh.

1. Start with a modern MLB league then run an inaugural draft. The twist? Years ago I created an Excel spreadsheet (I have posted it in the past) to script who I take in each of the first 50 rounds by position and age range. For example, I just opened it up and if I were to use this one, the first pick has to be a 2b between the ages of 23 and 25. The 2nd pick would be a closer between 34 and 36. Next, a right handed starter between 18 and 22. This lets me use the inaugural draft to put some of my favorite players on the my team, but makes it more challenging by guaranteeing I have the least talented roster.

2. Start a fictional league around 1980 then sim until the early to mid 90's. I then create myself as a draft eligible player fresh out of high school or college depending on the year. I then continue to sim a year at a time, stopping to watch how the league develops as well as how I develop as a player. Once my playing career is over, I sim another couple years before taking a front office job. I select my team depending on my playing career. Once when I did this, I played my entire career with one team so my decision was easy. Another time, I was a journeyman pitcher that played for a lot of teams. I happened to notice though that early in my career at one stop my local popularity rose above insignificant. That is the team I went back to.

The first front office job I take is as special assistant to the GM in charge of the amateur draft. I will stay in commisioner mode only and for 2 or three years I will only draft for my team. After that, I take the GM job and turn off commisioner mode. Doing it this way, takes a while to set up the league, but I have a fictional league that has a lengthy history - that includes me! When I take over as GM I am very familiar with the organization having watched it for a couple years plus the minors already have some of "my guys." I find this a great way to be immersed in a fictional league from the start of my GM career.

3. Modern MLB expansion team

4. The Pirates

[jaysdailydose]

Originally Posted by Phatman

Doesn't every league end up being fictional after a while? I can't get into MLB leagues because of all the moving around of players. All I do is judge other teams saying to myself "The real team would never do that!" then I lose interest in my league.

Don't feel bad, I have a very hard time getting immersed in MLB leagues as well.

I'm in the process of setting up the last league I'm going to be setting up for a long time. It will definitely be a fictional. Even my main game is essentially fictional because I use the OOTP development engine and never play with recalc, but you still have a pretty good idea of who your best guys will be...

You have to divorce yourself from real world MLB to effectively manage in the MLB game, and a ton of people have a tough time doing it. That is the main reason if I see someone say they are "jaded" with the game, I recommend fictional play. You go in with no preconceptions as to how things "should" be, and you just focus on playing and the new narrative.

[Phatman]

Originally Posted by jaysdailydose

Don't feel bad, I have a very hard time getting immersed in MLB leagues as well.

I'm in the process of setting up the last league I'm going to be setting up for a long time. It will definitely be a fictional. Even my main game is essentially fictional because I use the OOTP development engine and never play with recalc, but you still have a pretty good idea of who your best guys will be...

You have to divorce yourself from real world MLB to effectively manage in the MLB game, and a ton of people have a tough time doing it. That is the main reason if I see someone say they are "jaded" with the game, I recommend fictional play. You go in with no preconceptions as to how things "should" be, and you just focus on playing and the new narrative.

All I play is fictional leagues. I have been playing the same league since OOTP 12, and no matter how many times I say this is the last year I am playing this league I always come back to it. I'm just waiting until OOTP's next patch before I move it over.

[cavebutter]

Originally Posted by BMD

Here is how I do it when I do a fictional league. To save typing it again I will quote myself from a post I made discussing it a couple years back. See #2 in bold below.

This is a fantastic idea!!! I borked my current favorite universe earlier this week (be VERY careful when you mess with name files!) and was planning on restarting this weekend. I am definitely doing this!