BP 2005, other fun stuff
Okay, so I know I quit BP, but there’s a whole slew of stuff coming out worth mentioning that I contributed to before, and in the case of the Sox book, today.
Baseball Prospectus 2005 ships this week, if you haven’t already pre-ordered your copy. I’ve got two chapters (Mariners and Expos) (added by Dave: The Brewers player comments were written by a good looking guy from North Carolina, as well) and an essay in the back of the book, and I really think all three are good work. $12, 21 cents. I mean even if you only read the Mariners chapter, that’s pretty cheap.
There’s also the Red Sox book Prospectus book, which doesn’t have a listing on Amazon yet, but was edited by Steve Goldman, who is awesome, and I wrote a huge chunk of that. Further updates as we get a release date, a listing, etc.
And then — teaser alert — there’s another huge thing I’m working on. So my fingers hurt, and as much as I love my nice LCD, I’m tired of looking at a monitor and doing reserach.
All of which would be bad enough if Blizzard hadn’t released World of Warcraft, which as a life-long gamer I am obligated to play but which, I must also point out, is enormously time-consuming. Especially with all the ganking (stupid Alliance).
Comments
35 Responses to “BP 2005, other fun stuff”
Derek, what server do you play on?
You planning to join him or attack him? (Visions of orcs wearing M’s jerseys wielding wooden “Gar’s Bat of Belting”…)
Does it ship on the 21st for real?
Well I play Horde too…maybe invite him to my guild. I am shaman on Burning Blade.
Cry more, Horde scum. Horde are totally the Yankees of Warcraft. Jose Canseco? Yeah, actually he’s an orc. Roger Clemens? Undead. Felix Rodriguez? Night elf.
I am proud to be totally perplexed by this whole conversation.
just think what the comment spammers think
Hah…Alliance is easy mode. Well, they were until recent destruction of all things paladin anyway.
Night Elf=Sissy=WFB
Wow….maybe I’ve gone too far?
Re: #6
Amen.
I’m on Gorgonnash.
As for the Horde being the Yankees — WTF? The closest census estimate I’ve ever read on our server is that we’re outnumbered 1.4:1, and that makes for a massive difference in the difficulty of play. I could write a really detailed breakdown, but the increase in difficulty isn’t proportionate to the disparity in numbers, it’s far worse than that.
It’s difficult to even start to convey how much harder and more frustrating it is to be a Horde member on a PvP server. If you haven’t played a Horde character to a reasonable level on a PvP server, you don’t understand how bad it is.
In a baseball sense, playing the Horde is like being the Twins.
Yes, BP05 should ship on the 21st, for real
Christmas comes early this year…
Jeesh, gamers….
I did hit level 40 this weekend. w00t!
So I have a question for all the WoW fans out there. Why exactly is it that you’re willing to pay $40 for the game itself, and then $12 a month– in other words, $144 a /year/– in addition to the purchase price? Is the experience really so much better than a single-player game that you’re willing to spend many, many times more money on it?
It’s not a matter of being so much better than single-player games as being longer. Take Half-Life 2 (subtitute a favored single player game of your choice if it pleases you). I liked HL2 rather a lot and played in. And then it ended and I’m not nearly so driven to play through it a second time. Games such as, say, Knights of the Old Republic have even less replay value, as much of the gameplay value is bound up in going through the storyline. On the other hand, a game like World of Warcraft has a lot more content and ‘replay’ value (at least, it does for some people). You don’t reach the end so quickly and there’s a lot of things to do and see. It’s not a matter of paying $100 or $200 dollars for ‘one game’ (I’ve probably paid well over $500 dollars in the last six years for EverQuest subscriptions, and that’s not counting buying expansions). It’s a matter of paying $12 to play the game for another 40 or 50 hours or however much time you spend on it in a month. It’s actually a pretty good value compared to $40 or $50 for a new single-player game, or $20 or $30 if you buy older games. Additionally, single-player games are, in my experience, very hit-or-miss in holding my interest for the full however-many-hours-of-gameplay; I know that I’ll be interested in playing WoW as much as any other game over the course of a given month, and $15 is a lot cheaper than most alternatives.
That’s a very good explanation. Thanks.
Derek, are you ever going to give us more info on your BP departure? Not that it’s really any of our business, but it’d be interesting enough, what with you having been writing for BP for a long time, and with the way it’s changing. I’m interested to have been following the BP/world of baseball dynamic over the years (bought BP 99 as my first I think), and you’ve been part of that dynamic for quite some time.
What I’m saying (not very eloquently) is that I think you’ve been an important part of an important website, and as such I’d like to hear about your thoughts on the subject now. As I’m sure would many here.
Thanks for everything anyway, you should be proud of your work over there. It didn’t always hit the mark, but of all the BP writers you were always the most likely to come up with an original thought, and consistently put together interesting and well-written articles. Thanks again.
Rich
geeks
Will it be in bookstores next week too?
According to Barnes & Noble they won’t be shipping BP ’05 until Feb 28
and Amazon still has it as a pre-order item…
Holy crap, am I stuck in highschool listening to Dungeon & Dragons vs. Magic the Gathering talk..NNNNNnnnnnnnnoooooo.
Baseball vs. World of WarCraft….did I go to the right site today?
Here in Ontario, Canada the local Chapters book storestill has it to pre-order until it arrives in two weeks. Look forward to it!
When will BP actually be in stores?
Derek, are you ever going to give us more info on your BP departure?
I’ve been contemplating this since it happened, and I haven’t figured out whether I will or not. I’m not sure there’s much to be said that would be helpful without getting into dirty laundry, and I don’t want to do that.
On the book release date
As late as Friday, I heard it was shipped to distributors and would go out to customers in the middle of this week. However, I should also mention that thaaaat date was a week later than it was supposed to be, so if it turned out the trucks never left the printing plant I wouldn’t be surprised.
On people being geeks
You’re on a independent website that covers the Mariners almost to the point of dementia. This should come as no surprise.
I had assumed you left BP because of your new gig over at the PI but your response speaks volumes. Huckaby just posted his farewell and claimed it was to spend more time with his family.
Artistic differences?, Personality Conficts? State department putting pressure on your monopoly on baseball intellect?
My subsciption expires this year should I re-up or is there something new in the works?
If Derek and Huckaby were working on a new site that would be amazing.
I think Derek is plotting infiltration into the BBWAA.
Incidentally, I knew there was a reason I liked Derek. He’s a gamer – that explains a lot.
I, happily, have avoided WoW. Though, I am just about to begin KotOR2. For single-player goodness, find a developer you like, and play their games. BioWare never lets me down. Troika was a disappointment, but now I’m giving another Black Isle offshoot (Obsidian) a chance.
Oh cool. Someone who actually knows what a “ganker” is besides me and my guild. Even when playing the game, I have to explain it to 90% of players… on pvp servers.
I play both sides on PVP, and its been my observation that the real assholes (gankers) play horde more often. Thats why I like alliance, I’m too nice to gank people, but I love surprising would be gankers.
Well anyway, I got the geek out of my system now. I’m kind of surprised you guys are pimpin’ BP. I thought you guys thought BP was dumb (in regards to Reed anyway).
I play both sides on PVP, and its been my observation that the real assholes (gankers) play horde more often. Thats why I like alliance, I’m too nice to gank people, but I love surprising would be gankers.
I have two responses to this:
First, even if proportionally more Horde players were jerks, that would still mean that the jerk balance tilted precariously towards the Alliance side.
Second, an effect of disproportionate populations is that it makes Alliance gankers far more effective than Horde ones.
I really should just write this up as a longer post.
I’m kind of surprised you guys are pimpin’ BP. I thought you guys thought BP was dumb (in regards to Reed anyway).
Disagreement with the final ranking of one prospect doesn’t make BP dumb, and since Dave and I both contributed good stuff to this year’s book, why not point that out?
In the larger sense, I think both of us have said that we don’t think prospects are BP’s strength, but that’s a whole other discussion as well.
Gee Whilakers. That explains why when I was in Boise I couldn’t find BP… Now I’ll have to wait another month before I can get it, minimum. Gosh darnit. (And no I can’t get it in McCall, and no, I will not make a special trip to Boise to buy BP, and no, I wouldn’t have any other excuse to go to Boise in a week to do anything other than buy BP).
Also, FYI, found while Googling the other day:
GEEK – (1) A formerly derogatory term given to the outcast elite, usually lacking in social graces. The term has been used so liberally by the masses of people that computer gurus have taken it to heart as not being derogatory, but rather the name given to scientifically savvy folk. (2) A carnival performer who performs grotesque acts, such as biting the heads off of live chickens.
And I Am Proud To Be An Obsessed Geek.
I like chicken.
Re: gankers
Both sides do it. I did it occasionally when I was playing on Illidan as an orc rogue. The environment almost demands that you do it. You simply cannot trust the other side and if you plan to remain in an area for PvE reasons, it is almost always extremely unwise to allow the other team to operate in the area as well. Letting live don’t often mean that you get left alone in turn. The deeply Hobbesian nature of PvP servers is one of the things I’m not a huge fan of (though WoW is really good about it compared to other games, in that you have the rest of your team on your side. In EQ, on the other hand, if you’re unguilded, it’s you vs. the world. Ick.).
OK, not only do I not know what a “ganker” is — fair enough, I know enough to know I don’t want to know more — but I also don’t know what a “Red Sox book Prospectus book” is, either. Is this really a separate book about the Red Sox, written by BP folks? About their title run, presumably? Do tell.
Yeah, this is the first I’m hearing of the Red Sox book. I can find no other mention of it anywhere else online. Any chance you weren’t supposed to tell us?
Hobbesian PvP? I might have to check this out.
Red Sox book’s been mentioned elsewhere. Like Steve Goldman’s excellent Pinstriped Bible, which I highly highly recommend to everyone.
Here, for instance:
http://yesnetwork.com/yankees/pinstripedblog.asp
So I don’t think I’m in any trouble for mentioning it. Goldman, though a Yankees writer, should be on everyone’s reading list.
DMZ, I see, it wasn’t my imagination then. I’ve played on 3 servers (two of them a LOT) and on each server I found that Alliance heavily outnumbered horde.
From a psychological perspective though, alliace players in contested areas tend to be more fearful of horde and seem more intimidated by them, which is funny because Alliance (especially pre-pally “Seal of the Crusader” nerf patch) has a huge advantage in PVP servers.
As far as “Hobbesian PVP” is concerned (in another post by a different person), if you attack something that may or may not threaten you because your afraid of it, all you’re doing is GUARANTEEING that the player wants you dead. After all, they can just revive a few minutes later with little adverse affect. And of course that assumes you win, because among good players getting the first attack often means little. Maybe he/she runs scared, but expert players will plot revenge and make your life miserable (gotta love that Cosmos notepad) until you are forced to log, and/or they call in friends, which even marginal players can do.
Anyway, attacks motivated by fear have always been turned away, and I never mind them.
As far as Horde v.s. Alliance, I have to admit that come time for Battlegrounds, Horde will probably get to see more action (shorter lines to get into battleground areas). Also playing Horde would be a bit more challenging (which I like) for a lot of reasons (things like, much weaker AH, night elf rogues are best rogues (troll rogues were alright before they fixed berserking), pally’s are (still) games best class (I despise them in PVP/Duels, really every other class feels manageable) and also because the alliance is bigger and has more upper tier pvp’ers as a result of that size.
I actually like the Horde gameplay experience a lot more, but all my friends that play W.O.W. (about 6 people) play Alliance.
DMZ, congrats on getting that 40. Not that anyone asked, but I have a 40, 38, 34, 33, 25, 24, 23, 22, 16 and 14 over my 3 servers. And I know from experience how extremely long it takes to get just one char to lvl 40 (the “alts” tend to lvl quickly though, which helps). Obviously, I have spent way too much time playing the game (I’m an unemployed college student), and I temporarily stopped playing it 2 weeks ago. Thank goodness for this website and other sports forums for helping me “break free” a bit during that period. The game can take over a person’s life.