Playing Head-to-Head Games Online?

[KG Erwin]

Has this not been brought up before? More importantly, is anyone interested in the concept? To do this, you'd have to belong to the same association and set individual games to H2H play.

A certain format would have to be established. The players know who's batting or pitching, but the play calls would be hidden from the opponent. The offense would make their play call first (unknown to the opposing player, except when a pinch-hitter or pinch-runner is assigned.) The defense would then make lineup adjustments/make play calls.

At that point, the offensive player would click the die roll and let the play commence.

Is this a viable idea? Is the game technology available?

[jeremy7227]

There are a number of technical and logistical headaches for the players that can be tough to overcome. Individual players/owner firewalls have to be configured to allow the traffic through if the game is hosted on a PC. Or you can host the game at an online gaming site with dedicated servers but then there is a lot of cost and technical overhead to make it work. Then you have the trouble of setting an actual time for two guys to meet for a scheduled game. Unlike in the Playstation world you wouldn't just be looking to get some H2H arcade action - you'd be attempting to follow a schedule over a number of seasons. It is a nice feature once you get past the configuration quirks and have a group of reliable "owners" together in a league it is a blast. This is very much how SOM baseball works. I would LOVE H2H PureSim but it is a big undertaking.

[dneely]

Guys:

Online play is becoming more and more available in the gaming community. All of the PC Action games have it, DMB, SOM and now Second & Ten the football game has it. I helped out in the beta testing as did PadresFan for SAT and it worked pretty much from the beginning with few problems etc. As Jeremy said the main problem is having your firewall allow the connection to occur. This would be a HUGE improvement for PureSim and would likely double the number of customers because of the way online leagues seem to grow when a solid game offers this feature. While I know nothing of what would be required to program this I have seen a ton of examples where the game sales go up dramatically.

I hope Shaun will seriously consider this option in 2008!!

[KG Erwin]

If this idea were to become reality, then multi-player leagues would undoubtedly flourish. While PS is indeed a great solo-play experience, it would be even better to play games against human opponents.

Even IF it took yearly league fees, I'd love to do it. Nationwide leagues would be impractical due to time-zones, but regional leagues would be conceivably easy to set up, especially in the Eastern USA zone.

Having league news connected within the Ning community is already set up.

How do these other games' leagues actually do this?

[dneely]

KG:

Its really pretty simple. I have played in online leagues for PC Action football and baseball, DMB and now SAT. The ability to contact an opponent is part of the game. You give them your IP address, you setup as the host and they connect with you and play. Most leagues have guys all of the country and even outside the USA. I am in a league with a guy who lives currently somewhere in Asia and a couple of guys who live in England. Obviously different time zones can be a problem but it does not stop guys from playing in a league. Everyone has issues from time to time due to Firewall and a Router if you have a personal network setup and I know a few guys who cannot host but they can connect if you host. The host is most often the home team.

How long it take to play a game depends on a number of factors such as the importance of the particular game,the speed of the connection, time of day, the experience of the player and now wacky they are....

Given the right situation and the quality of the management of the league it is by far the best way to enjoy sports gaming!! But it is a commitment of time and a willingness to work with others schedules.

Hope that helps?