Discussion: Maintaining Replay Interest
What do you do when things get
Maintaining Replay Interest
We all go through it. No matter how excited we are about our projects, we all have times in which we start to lose interest.
What do you do to maintain interest in your projects?
Here are a few ideas I’ve had:
Read books and articles about the season you’re replaying.
Dig into old newspaper and magazine archives for first hand accounts.
Listen to radio broadcasts from that year, or watch video of games from that year (depending on the year, of course).
Read accounts of completed replays written by others.
Post about your replay on message boards or a blog to solicit feedback from others.
Give yourself a brief break.
What do you guys do? Any other ideas? Comments are open to everybody on this post.
Interesting question, Daniel. You're right. Replays do seem to get stale after time. That's especially true the way I play them: I manage both teams in every game. I set the lineups, decide on tactics, and make all lineup changes for both teams. My only concessions to reduce the time it takes to complete a game is that I let the computer make baserunning decisions and play in batter rather than pitch mode. It takes the better part of a year, sometimes a bit longer, to complete a season.
The three most recent season replays that I have completed were, in order, 1920 AL, 1935 AL, and 1956 AL. I'm currently working on a replay of the 1924 AL season. One thing that does keep me going is to watch the pennant races and individual stats evolve. It's interesting to see how things comport with real life and how many players reach statistical plateaus (20 game winners, 100+ RBI, 20 HR, etc).
When even that gets a little boring, I prepare for and sometimes get a start on the next season replay. Like you, I also read about real life seasons and, to the extent possible try to find real life broadcasts for the seasons I'm currently playing and/or planning to play. Thinking further ahead, I peruse stats to help decide on future projects.