Just my opinions here, feel free to add your own.

There is more control with simulation sports. Although its run by a computer you are able to manage a whole bunch of the game and even play live games. Fantasy you are unable to manage any of the game and you never know what player(s) had a rough night or a rough week and can underperform. Daily fantasy is even more if a crap shoot.

Although I have not played Out of the Park baseball it seems like there are not many leagues with real people although I could be wrong. I do know WIS is awesome because every league you play against real people from around the world. As St.Thomas Aquinas says that its better to do leisure activities with others.

Playing sports video games could put you in even more control of the game but for me atleast most sports video games get me anxious slamming on the buttons.

Finally, playing in a real league such as a mens baseball league is a blast but can be expensive.
Conclusion: In my opinion, What If Sports simulation games are the best and most enjoyable games on the market.

I don't know. I have a lot of Blake Lively fantasies and I control everything that happens.

Gary Gygax reports from the Great Beyond; "Dungeons and Dragons."

I'd like to try out a vs. human league on OOTP as it seems more in depth than HBD based on playing around with the sim on solo mode. But it seems hard to find good organized leagues as they are all run independently of the game developers. I've also heard each owner is responsible for submitting weekly data dumps and lineups are set for an entire week or something like that. At least WiS has all their leagues in one place and everything is done automatically.

I used to love playing fantasy baseball and fantasy football but I hate it now and no longer play at all. The more popular it got, the more I resented it. Weird. It was more of a niche thing in the mid-90s when I started it and I loved it back then.

I used to also love playing sports video games on my PC, Sega, and Playstation for many years, but now I don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of that either. There are a couple reasons. First, I mostly really only liked to play the role of coach/GM/owner. Actually sitting there and controlling your QB or your pitcher and batter isn't nearly as fun. I always just simmed the games anyway, and did the offseason stuff along with trades! As video games progressed into the online realm, I found that when I played games like Madden or NBA2k online, the games are so unrealistic and I wanted them to be realistic. Like, I hated it when my opponent would run the same play on offense 12 times in a row, or go throw a hail mary on 4th and 18 from their own 25 yard line in the first quarter. Now, on the other hand, when the video game is intentionally unrealistic, as in arcade action, like NBA Jam or NFL Blitz, then I love to play those online. My favorite one to play actually was NHL Arcade which was 3vs3 hockey on Playstation 3. If that came out on PS4 I'd pick that up in a heartbeat. As much as I love baseball, football, and hockey, I can't see myself spending $60 to buy Madden, The Show, or NHL Live no matter what they do. I'd rather play HBD for sure!!!

Neat story. Yes sports video games can get unrealistic, guys learn the cheats, alot of games are blowouts. For me playing even a game like The Show I feel myself slam on the buttons and get all tense. Im looking for more thinking and strategy. Back in the day on the Nintendo(Bases Loaded) and Super Nintendo, before they kept the stats, I used to play seasons in the sports games and take all my own stats and averages. I would also play my own fake basebal game by throwing a ball against the stairs or play my Jordan Jammer baskeball net and keep all sorts of stats. I recently threw notebook after notebook away of all the stats I used to keep.

Are there any good basketball simulations that feel similar to HBD in terms of being owner/GM? I don't like the college hoops dynasty or the sim with players from all eras that are on this site.

Hey chisox, I played a game called Football Pro 96 and the sequel Football Pro 98 in the mid to late 90s. The game kept track of in-season stats but once the season ended you had no historical stats. I printed all the stats out from each season so I could look back at them. i also played the role of sports writer and wrote team recaps which I saved. I kept track of some stats that the game didn't track. It had no Hall of Fame so I made up my own. The college players being drafted didn't have a college listed for their names, so I made up a college for all the draft picks and wrote them down and saved them. I saved and still have all my stats and hand written bios and recaps from all those years I played that game as a teenager.

Posted by chisox378 on 6/19/2017 7:10:00 PM (view original):
Neat story. Yes sports video games can get unrealistic, guys learn the cheats, alot of games are blowouts. For me playing even a game like The Show I feel myself slam on the buttons and get all tense. Im looking for more thinking and strategy. Back in the day on the Nintendo(Bases Loaded) and Super Nintendo, before they kept the stats, I used to play seasons in the sports games and take all my own stats and averages. I would also play my own fake basebal game by throwing a ball against the stairs or play my Jordan Jammer baskeball net and keep all sorts of stats. I recently threw notebook after notebook away of all the stats I used to keep.

I thought I was the only person to play (and keep stats from) games involving throwing balls against the stairs. I once did an entire season... kind of a sad childhood, but I too had notebooks of stats

More interesting neat stories, where you guys only children too?

Only child. I played all kinds of "one person" games created in my head. That included throwing balls at stairs, wall, anything that would bounce it back to my one man defense. I didn't keep stats because that make you .............

I played Strat-O-Matic baseball tournaments with my Dad and 2 of my brothers growing up. We would each draft 8 teams from our collection of teams and play out a full 32 team playoff over the course of a year. I've still got binders of the scoresheets for those games somewhere, but a few of the most dominant teams we played with off the top of my head: 1929 Cubs, 1941 Yankees, 1946 Indians, 1953 and 1965 Dodgers, 1975 Reds, 1994 Expos, and 1999 Yankees. I'm pretty sure interest in historical baseball teams is what got us interested in WIS to begin with.

OK, you made me go full-on nerd. I knew I played some sort of Strat-o-matic type game. It was this one:



I've moved several times since I had it(1980 season) and thought to throw it out every time. But didn't for whatever reason. So I just dug thru a handful of storage boxes in the garage. I found it. Might just play a game for the first time in 37 years.

Posted by jimmystick on 6/19/2017 5:03:00 PM (view original):
I used to love playing fantasy baseball and fantasy football but I hate it now and no longer play at all. The more popular it got, the more I resented it. Weird. It was more of a niche thing in the mid-90s when I started it and I loved it back then.

I used to also love playing sports video games on my PC, Sega, and Playstation for many years, but now I don't get nearly as much enjoyment out of that either. There are a couple reasons. First, I mostly really only liked to play the role of coach/GM/owner. Actually sitting there and controlling your QB or your pitcher and batter isn't nearly as fun. I always just simmed the games anyway, and did the offseason stuff along with trades! As video games progressed into the online realm, I found that when I played games like Madden or NBA2k online, the games are so unrealistic and I wanted them to be realistic. Like, I hated it when my opponent would run the same play on offense 12 times in a row, or go throw a hail mary on 4th and 18 from their own 25 yard line in the first quarter. Now, on the other hand, when the video game is intentionally unrealistic, as in arcade action, like NBA Jam or NFL Blitz, then I love to play those online. My favorite one to play actually was NHL Arcade which was 3vs3 hockey on Playstation 3. If that came out on PS4 I'd pick that up in a heartbeat. As much as I love baseball, football, and hockey, I can't see myself spending $60 to buy Madden, The Show, or NHL Live no matter what they do. I'd rather play HBD for sure!!!

I'm the same exact way. I love playing MLB the show 17 on ps4. I usually just manage my team. When playing the game, I'll usually just set the controller in the middle and watch CPU VS CPU or play the "manager mode" which is very cool in my opinion. When actually playing the game it gets to the point where you have to set th level and I pretty much win all the games and go undefeated. (Gets unrealistic at that point)

Posted by MikeT23 on 6/21/2017 6:55:00 PM (view original):
OK, you made me go full-on nerd. I knew I played some sort of Strat-o-matic type game. It was this one:



I've moved several times since I had it(1980 season) and thought to throw it out every time. But didn't for whatever reason. So I just dug thru a handful of storage boxes in the garage. I found it. Might just play a game for the first time in 37 years.

So I didn't play a game but I did open the box. Found that I had 1982 cards as well. Unopened. So I thought back to what I was doing in 1981 and 1983.

I was going to college and working full-time in the summer of '81. I had virtually no free time. I lived in a ratty trailer by myself. Since no one wants to hang out for 30-40 minutes at a time, especially in a ratty trailer in a bad part of town, I assume I was seeking a 30 minute time-occupier.
I was working 3 jobs and taking college classes in '83. Again no free time. I must have stumbled across this game when I moved from ratty trailer to no-so-terrible apartment and decided to try it again. Didn't happen.

Game is in mint condition so I don't think I played very much at all. But I remembered it nonetheless.