Baseball Mogul
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| Baseball Mogul 2008 | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Sports Mogul |
| Publisher(s) | Enlight Software |
| Designer(s) | Clay Dreslough |
| Platform(s) | Windows |
| Release date | March 20 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Sports Management |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Everyone) |
| Media | CD-ROM |
| System requirements | 600 MHz+ Pentium or Pentium-compatible processor, 128 MB RAM (512 MB recommended), 500 MB hard drive space, 1024 x 768 screen resolution |
Baseball Mogul is a series of career baseball management computer games first published in 1997. The tenth and latest installment, Baseball Mogul 2009, was released March 2008. A proprietary database, included with the game, permits play in any season of historical baseball from 1901 to the present.
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[edit] Versions
The Baseball Mogul series has incorporated many features over the years. Examples include sortable statistics in more than 30 categories, more realistic aging curves, and detailed scouting reports.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2009
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (April 2008) |
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2008
Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Enlight Software.
Features:
- Baseball Mogul Encyclopedia - Outputs interlinked HTML pages. Historical leaders tracked for over 70 stats, by team and season; hitting, pitching and fielding stats at every level; annual financial records.
- Database Engine - Records every stat for every player, even after they're dead. Also automatically loads every historical player to easily compare promising rookies to the best players of all time.
- Financial Model - Automatically adjusts revenue levels and salaries to the correct level for each era.
- Player Development Engine - More realistic aging and scouting algorithms. Draft day is now more unpredictable, with the ability to adjust these settings.
- Physics-Based Simulation - Follow the path of the ball on-screen, with correct underlying physics.
- Expanded Scouting Report - More room for more stats like OPS, GDP, Intentional Walks, Ground Ball Percent, and DICE.
- 2007 Rosters - Off-season moves, free agent signings, and trades. Detailed career stats, ratings, contracts and projections as of Opening Day. Plus new hand-edited data for over 2,500 minor leaguers.
- Updated Player Database - Includes more than 18,000 players from 1901 to 2007.
- Updated Pitcher Database - Season-by-season pitch data for over 1,200 pitchers. Includes individually researched ratings for every pitch in each pitcher's arsenal, going back to 1901.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2007
Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Enlight Software.[1] Released 4 April 2007.[2]
Features:
- Animated play-by-play for all games.
- In-game Manager Mode to call plays and make substitutions.
- Pitch-by-pitch mode for complete control of the game, with graphical batting and pitching interface to pinpoint each pitch.
- Individually researched ratings for each pitcher's arsenal, going back to 1901. Platoon statistics (lefties batting against righties, and vice versa) are accounted for.
- A Minor League simulation engine simulates every pitch from AAA to high school for the entire league.
- 11-point personality profiles for every player and every team, affecting contract negotiations, on-field performance, and team chemistry.
The game now has MLBPA licensing, while early versions required players to input their own team names and used fake player names. (i.e.: Bill Mueller is Bert Mack and Barry Bonds is Bert Brundage. Players had the same initials as their major league counterparts but different first and last names)
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2006
Developed by Sports Mogul.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2005
Developed by Sports Mogul.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2004
Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Hip Interactive.[3]
The amateur draft was not included in early versions of the game, as instead the computer randomly generated new players and put them in the minor leagues at the start of each new season. It was not until Baseball Mogul 2004 that the amateur draft was created.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2003
Developed by Sports Mogul. Published by Monkeystone Games.[4]
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2002
Developed and published by Sports Mogul.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 2000
Developed and published by Infinite Monkey Systems.
[edit] Baseball Mogul 99
Developed by Infinite Monkey Systems. Published by WizardWorks Software.
[edit] Baseball Mogul
Developed and published by Infinite Monkey Systems.
[edit] Gameplay
Prior to Baseball Mogul 2007, all games were simulated, with the player assuming the combined role of general manager/manager/owner. Players oversee an entire baseball franchise, and possess the ability to set batting lineups, make trades, and set ticket and concession prices. Baseball Mogul 2007 added a play-by-play option to control every pitch of a game.
Baseball Mogul relies primarily on text-based menus. Its accurate simulation and expansive option set are popular among baseball fans of the genre.
[edit] Configuration
When starting a new game, the player must first choose the year from which to start, which teams comprise the leagues, and level of difficulty (Fan, Coach, Manager, or Mogul). The opposing AI strengthens and the player's initial operating budget shrinks with each increment in difficulty. The following options further determine the nature of the game's simulation:
- Equalize Cities generates cities and regions with identical population bases. This offers an advantage to real-world teams from smaller markets, such as the Tampa Bay Rays or the Cincinnati Reds.
- Shuffle All Teams reassigns every roster, so each team has a random set of players.
- Fictional Players generates a new set of players with randomly generated statistics.
- Fictional Teams renames all teams, complete with nicknames (i.e. the San Francisco Giants become the California Cowboys). It does not create teams or cities new to Major League Baseball.
- Fictional Rookies supplies randomly generated rookies to the Amateur Draft. This option may be combined with Historical Rookies, but it will automatically be on if Historical Rookies is turned off.
- Historical Rookies supplies historical players (and associated data) as rookies to the Amateur Draft. Only players with Major League experience qualify, and the depth of the player pool depends on the game year. Lack of data may produce player shortages if Fictional Rookies is disabled. Games set in the present cannot enable Historical Rookies.
- Simulation Mode smooths fluctuations in player performance, allowing more accurate prediction of game outcomes.
[edit] Player ratings
A variety of player attributes are rated numerically on a 100-point scale, though none are likely to score lower than 40 or 50. Ratings vary over time with player development, aging, and injuries suffered. All players possess an "Overall" rating, a combination of all other measures weighted by position, a "Peak" projection of overall performance at the height of his career, and an indication of "Health", the likelihood of succumbing to personal injury, which declines with age and major injuries.
Position players are rated for a variety of measures of batting, baserunning, and fielding prowess. "Contact" and "Power" ratings correlate to a batter's ability to connect with pitches and do so solidly, influencing batting average and extra base hits. Swing determination relates to the "Eye" rating, with highly-rated players properly identifying good pitches from bad. Laying down bunts and running the bases are also measured, by "Bunt" and "Speed" ratings. Defensive talent is broken into "Range", "Arm", and "Fielding" ratings, measuring aptitudes to reach and quickly dispose of batted balls with skill and consistency.
Pitchers are rated for a variety of measures of pitching skills. "Power" measures pitch velocity and strikeout rate. Accuracy in pitch placement and walk rate relates to a pitcher's "Control" rating. "Movement" indicates the action, or movement, on pitches thrown, with highly rated pitchers inducing more ground balls or popups from opposing batters. "Endurance" roughly indicates the pitch count that can be thrown before fatigue sets in, adversely affecting velocity, control, or movement.
Batting and fielding skills for pitchers are conflated into "Hitting" and "Defense" ratings, respectively, with values comparable only to other pitchers. For example, a Hitting score of 90 would not qualify a pitcher to start as a position player.
[edit] Online play
Baseball Mogul Online permits play against other humans via a web interface. Each player controls one team in user-created divisions. Different subscription plans allow players to control additional teams. It is possible to play in "Free Leagues" without paying a monthly charge, but such leagues are not as popular. This online version is not as advanced as Baseball Mogul. Some features are not implemented, and scouting reports are not as detailed.
Alternatively, many players choose to run leagues using full versions of Baseball Mogul, where each player downloads a single saved game and posts team adjustments on a public forum or by email to a commissioner who runs these shared simulations.
[edit] Deprecated features (in previous versions)
- For a couple of versions, Baseball Mogul used a "point" system instead of dollars for assessing values for contracts.
- Players used to be graded by letter grades, and are now graded numerically. This allows for more variation in statistics. For example, both an 80 and an 83 would be a B-, but one is better than the other and the numerical scale covers that difference.
- Telling the computer how much of different types of players you wanted to be put in your system each year. This has been eliminated due to the implementation of the amateur draft.
[edit] Criticism
- Free agents able to perform well as starters may decide to retire early, even though they could have played for several more years at their current skill levels.
- Player performance can exceed real-world limits when a large amount of money is put into player development.
- Injuries can seem unrealistic when compared to effects on player performance.
- The game expands to a 40-person roster by September, but does not inform players. In the 2008 edition players are properly notified, but the lineup screen and bench size remains unaltered, obscuring those players called up.
- Some help files are outdated and may confuse players new to the series.
- After several centuries of play, teams will no longer draw attendance. As a result, batting performance skyrockets against teams only able to afford rookie pitchers. Construction of a new stadium every few decades offsets this decline.
[edit] Reception
Baseball Mogul 2007 was the best-selling PC baseball game of 2006, selling over 100,000 units according to NPD data.[5] Baseball Mogul 2008 was the best-selling PC baseball of 2007, selling over 115,000 units.
[edit] References
- ^ "Enlight Software Announces Partnership with Sports Mogul Inc. to Deliver Baseball Mogul 2007" (Enlight Software)
- ^ "Play Ball! Enlight Ships Baseball Mogul 2007" (Enlight Software)
- ^ "Hip Interactive to Publish Baseball Mogul 2004"
- ^ "Monkeystone Games to Publish Baseball Mogul 2003 for the PC with Sports Mogul, Inc."
- ^ "Baseball Mogul is the #1 PC Baseball Game" (GameSpot)
[edit] External links
- Baseball Mogul 2008
- Baseball Mogul.net - fan site
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