In anyone's favorite tabletop sports simulation board game, the associated player ratings and game engine can make up the crux of how much one enjoys that particular game. While the game engines themselves are important, typically game designers put significant thought into a game's structural design. Moreover, most games are play tested long enough to notice lacking areas and inconsistencies in the game engine, leading to most game engines being relatively stable over time and not causing too many headaches for players. This may not be the case as often, however, when it comes to the aspect of statistical distributions of player ratings. As a player of over 20 different tabletop sports simulation games, I personally have noticed a striking reality: that some games seemingly to pay more attention to their player ratings distribution and variation between players than others, and this significantly impacts one's enjoyment of the game! ...
Welcome to the "Drop the Bullpen" blog! My name is Ryan Strauss and I have been a tabletop sports gamer since c.1999, when I started playing MLB Showdown and APBA Baseball. What at first was an enjoyable solo pastime, over the years I realized that it's more fun to game with other people. As the hobby supposedly hasn't seen its heyday since the 1980's (before video games emerged), it became tough for most gamers to find other gamers to game with over time. The advent of the internet, social media, and smart phones has made people more distant and less connected, in ways. Kind of lame when you really think about it! Though, these online communities are also making "play-by-mail" leagues, co-ops, and community projects start from afar, too. On a person level, my high school friends and I did have an APBA Baseball league with six coaches running for a season and a half (complete with a rainout in the league's World Series, game 6) in Pennsylvania at the...