ESPN Baseball MMORPG In Open Beta *updated w/ impressions*

Hell yes.

The download link is borked right now, but I'm hoping to get some play time in before I have to head back to class. This has the potential to be friggin' sweet.

My player's name is Sanjuro, if any of you manage to get in.

That does sound pretty exciting, and the link worked when I tried it. That MMORPG golfing that Penny Arcade mentioned seemed pretty interesting as well. I'm not sure I'm willing to take the time to investigate it myself, but I sure would be interested to hear what other people think of it.

Hey man. Anything that takes the potential of Shot-Online (the MMORPG golfing Poppinfresh is talking about) and removes all the korenglish is alright in my book.

Hopefully I can sign up now and then download when I get home. First base, here I come!

I'm registered, but haven't downloaded yet. So, who wants to make a GWJ team?

Ooh, me. What power hungry person is going to be our manager?

BTW, I'm downloading it now, and hope to give it a bit of play soon. I'll throw up some impressions ASAP.

Ohhhhhh baby. We definately need a GWJ team.

Did someone say manager?

"Rookie LHP era 4.12 with 9 CG /LFG"

Server Population:

Pitchers 65% Shortstops 19% Catchers 13% Centerfield 2.3% Others combined less than 1%

WTS black 34" louisville slugger w/ +5 cork enchant PST, serious offers only

I'm in. I'll D/L tonight.

I'd like to play first or catch, or be a closer. Can we pick positions?

I wondered what happened to this game. I am so down with playing. I'll DL it when I get home. Any team name with a combination of the words squirrel, monkey, semprini will get my vote. I call 3rd base!

Okay, just played a couple of 3 inning games.

* Potentially, this is a f*cking fantastic game. In its current state, it is really REALLY primitive.

* Character creation is very simplistic at this point. There's only one player model and 3 "stances", which don't appear to change his batting stance, just make his posture a little worse when he's upright. Typical beta stuff. Selecting his position assigns him a set of statistics. I made my guy a 3rd baseman, and when I tried out pitching, I found that my power meter was pretty weak. Stats are not tweakable at this point. Maybe I can mess with them once I level up.

* Hypothetically: Six of us hop online and make a room in the lobby. We split up three to a team, picking whichever positions we like and the game fills in the rest of the positions as AI players. Now if Swampy is the catcher and he decides to quit or his connection craps out, the game won't replace him with an AI mid-game. This was happening quite a bit in the two games I played just now. We'd start with 7 to a side, after one inning of play we'd be down to 3 to a side, with no one on the left side of the infield and no catcher. Every pitch had to be shagged by the pitcher or the 1st baseman. Not cool.

*Controls are fairly simple. Throwing is a matter of hitting 1,2,3, or 4 to throw to a base (4 being home) or aiming manually and holding down the left mouse button. Catching is a simple matter of clicking the left mouse button. If you're chasing down a grounder and click the LMB at a certain distance from the ball, your player automatically dives. This is handy for worm burners, but it's frustrating when you click a split-second too early and your guy dives after a broken bat roller.

For batting, you get a cursor with a targeting reticule on it; just like MLB 2k5, if you guess approximately where the pitch is going to go you get rewarded with an icon indicating its exact spot. Holding the right mouse button lets you put more oomph behind your swing; it's a sliding scale and not the explicitly delineated 'power swing/contact swing' that is the usual baseball video game convention. Nice idea, but I only saw one hit leave the infield in the air in two games (and it was a bloop single to shallow right) so I fear that the batting physics are going to need some serious work.

* The stadium graphics are quite good, but there appears to be only one stadium at this point.

Those are my thoughts so far. I'll definitely load this game up from time to time and start perusing the forums. The potential is great, but it's going to need a while in the oven before it's done. I'm actually pretty surprised that they're calling this a beta already.

Once I can detach myself from FM 2005, i'll sign up.

Prederick wrote:

Once I can detach myself from FM 2005, i'll sign up.

sh*t, we'll never see you, then. If you want, Pred, I can FedEx you my 12-step pamphlet from FM-Anon. Praise Jesus.

This is the direction that I hoped sports games would head. I would absolutely *love* a basketball game that was developed in this vein. However, it does not surprise me that there are a lot of difficulties in pulling it off. I hope to get on and try this one out in the next couple days and see how far along it is.

The batting system, if I understand you description correctly, actually sounds pretty cool. When you are really playing baseball you have to coil and prepare for a pitch ahead of time in order generate power. That sounds like what they were going for. It forces you to guess if it is going to be a fastball or off-speed pitch. I am sure it needs tweaking, but I think that once people get more practice and improve their timing, you will start to see bigger hits.

I was in the beta for this game a loooong time ago. I played a few times but it was so riddled with problems I quit (yeah, I know, some beta tester I am).

I'll have to give it another go...

Second Base. I call second base.

I have downloaded it, but haven;t had a chance to play it yet. Player name is MacLeod.

Sanjuro wrote:
Prederick wrote:

Once I can detach myself from FM 2005, i'll sign up.

sh*t, we'll never see you, then. If you want, Pred, I can FedEx you my 12-step pamphlet from FM-Anon. Praise Jesus.

I just hit the Premiership with Wrexham. Overnight it, please.

"My name is Prederick and I have a problem..."

Signed up as Duttyrid, look for me if you log on

Looks interesting. Don't know if I would pay to play it in that state. Maybe it's just because I was playing with chumps. Do we want to try a game?

I dunno. From Sanjuro's description... sounds eh.

Ooh, I pick first base, and if someone REALLY wants first, I'll make a speedy little shortstop.

Warlock wrote:

Ooh, I pick first base, and if someone REALLY wants first, I'll make a speedy little shortstop.

You can be my... oh well, you know.

I'd love to get to Third Base if I could...

Wait... what're we talking about... a new game? Oh kewl... can I play third as well as get there?

must... avoid... "getting to first/second/third base" jokes....

To call this game a "Beta test" is a major overstatement. Alpha test at best. I played it for a little while last night, and it's pretty lame for the reasons Sanj detailed above. It has potential, but there's still a *lot* of work to be done. I can't see paying a lot for this game once it releases.

Yeah, I gotta agree with this game being *very* far from complete. The network code is abysmal and it is bugged to no end. However, it does have potential.

Also, I don't think that the hitting is as big of a problem as you said Sanj. I was able to rip a line drive over the first baseman's head that rolled all the way to the wall and resulted in a double last night with my level 0 player. But, this game is slow. It takes forever between batters. They are going to have to pick up the pace before release.

To call this game a "Beta test" is a major overstatement. Alpha test at best.

Really? I tested this game as well last year, or maybe even the year before that in its 'beta' stage.

If it STILL isnt ready, I would not hold out much hope. I mean, it is not like they have to create enviroments or mobs or etc.

[quote=karmajay]

I mean, it is not like they have to create enviroments or mobs or etc.

That would be sweet if there was mobs. You could play the AI Yankees, and if you beat them they could drop the ultra-rare 'George Steinbrenner's checkbook' artifact.

That would be sweet if there was mobs. You could play the AI Yankees, and if you beat them they could drop the ultra-rare 'George Steinbrenner's checkbook' artifact.

Or even better, while playing the Yankees, between innings, you could rush up to the stands and beatthe fans up. That would be s...w...e...e..t!

That said, I'll probably be playing when I get home (in a half hour, around 4:45 EST). Anyone gonna be around to play a game or two?

I'm down.

Cool. I'll look for you on xFire. Do you... have... xFire?