Sports Gaming Digest (10-06-97)

Greetings Sports Gamers!

I was in a bookstore yesterday and found two brand new football stat reference books.  The
folks who brought you Total baseball have finally produced Total Football ($65) with pounds
of statistics, as you might expect.  Coincidentally, the good people at Macmillan publishing
has produced the Macmillan Football Encyclopedia ($55, I think) as a companion to the Mac
BB Ency.  Can you say publishing rivalry?  I only glanced through them but I would say that
both books have their merits.  The information is not identical and the format is different but
both books are dense with data.  All the usually supsects are named as contributors,
consultants, or editors, including David Neft.  

Speaking of Neft, I forgot to mention from the letter I received back from him.  He said that
the ATAS player charts were devised using the seven best consecutive years for each player,
with a formula (which he could not specify) to regularize the data for each era.  I don't know
what that means, nor how it worked.  Also, for players who lost a significant number of
seasons to injuries or military duty their best six years were used.  I can understand the
rational for factoring out a great player's worst years (due to early, late, injury, etc.) but I am
still inclined toward incorporating at least a majority of the years that each player played to
create a more legitimate career performance card.  Should a player who had seven great
seasons scattered among a 20-year career be given worse ratings than a player who had seven
great consecutive seasons and several mediocre seasons before or after?  I think not, but I
don't have a concrete option yet.  Perhaps each individual year should be included if a player
performed in a minimum number of games during the season, perhaps 80% or more of the
total played.  

My web education continues, and thanks to William Cairns for getting me over an initial
hurdle.  I expect to go public fairly soon and I am open to any suggestions you have for what
you would like included.  

Finally, for you Decathlon afficianados, I have finished compiling my analysis of the
Decathlon player charts with tables showing the breakdown by individual result for all ten
events from each of the seven player charts.  The tables are rather lengthy lists of numbers so
I don't want to burden those not interested.  I will send that material separately to those of
you had been receiving the Decathlon posts previously (there hasn't been one for a while).  If
you would like to hear more about the Decathlon project, let me know.  

Regards,
Jim Gordon
jgordon@library.berkeley.edu  

P.S.  The digest is noticeably shorter than usual this week.  Hopefully, that does not denote a
trend.  
*************************************************************
From: Gary Heidenreich 

Jim,

I am interested in the use of dice for Statis-Pro Basketball. A friend and
I play the game 3-4 times a week and have been since 1991.  We run
a 28 team league of our own making (own teams, own players, etc.).  If you
could send me the data, maybe we can help since we are very familiar
with the game.

     [It turns out that I still had most of the data and the tables that I had devised for the
earlier pre-1992 SPBK version.  After I finish formatting them for emailability they should be
available later this week.  I have all of the data collected for the newer 1992/93- version of
the game system and those tables should be ready fairly soon.  
     I am looking forward to Gary's help in developing the FAD system for SPBK, and I
welcome anyone who is interested in Statis Pro Basketball to join in.  If you are interested
but don't have the game, I do have a few SPBK sets available.--JCG]

Also on another note regarding Statis-Pro Basketball.  It seems like
we discovered a flaw(?) in using the Loose Defense.  What happens is
one team will use the Loose Defense and then press the bejezzus out 
of the other team.  The results have favored the pressing team the
majority of the time.  They create turnovers, not get any fouls and the
extra plus given by the Loose D hasn't been much of a factor.  Has anyone
else ran into that?

     [I don't have the rules in front of me but I believe they specify that when a team is using
the Loose Defense, even with only one player, they may not use the Press Defense.--JCG]

We are also planning to develop a couple of items to go along with
the Loose and Sag D's.  A tight defense and a defense that will enable a 
team to run.  I will give more details as we work things out.  If
anyone has any type of modifications they have made to Statis-Pro
Basketball, please email me direct.  

Thanks

Gary Heidenreich
gheidenreich@cpg.mcw.edu
*************************************************************
From: Terry Rooker 

> From: shine@ix.netcom.com
> 
> Within the past ten years, I have developed a great interest in motor
> racing, particularly Formula 1 and IndyCar. Naturally, this interest has
> carried over to gaming. I purchased a copy of Ludodelire's "Formula De"
> at GenCon '96 and believe it is a great game. Unfortunately, I'm having
> trouble getting my hands on additional tracks. I've also played AH's
> "Speed Circuit", and Mayfair's "Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix". Both are
> enjoyable games, but lack some of the realism and replay nature I'm
> looking for. I'm currently awaiting the arrival of Lambourne's "The
> World of Motor Racing", to quench my replay thirst. Have you played this
> game? Could you give me your opinion of it?
> 
Unforutnately, Ludodelire no longer makes FDe.  They went out of business 
and Eurogames/Decartes now makes FDe.  The good news is they consolidated 
the line into a single product.  The new version uses different dice for 
each gear rather than rolling on the table.  This speeds play.  They are 
also publishing additional tracks.  In the revised game there is still 
Monaco with half of a Dutch track.  At least one new track set is now 
available including the second half of the Dutch track and a South 
African track.  Apparently the plans for the later track sets is to have 
a new circuit printed with a reprint of an old circuit.  So if you have 
none of the old circuits you can still ge them.  For those of us with all 
the original tracks it's a harder choice.  Also the new tracks are back 
printed, i.e. there is one circuit on each side of a single mapboard.  
The new printings are identical to the originals so you can still use the 
original rules with all of the new tracks.

As for realisim in a racing game.  Speed Circuit is usually regarded as 
the most realistic of the board games.  So I'm not sure there is an 
recommendation that could help there.  There is at least one German game 
that supposedly as the best "fell" of racing, but apparently it is 
very low on simulation value.

Terry
*************************************************************
END OF DIGEST 10-06-97

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