In addition to ratings, players have a human component, with ratings for personality traits like leadership and greed, and a morale (attitude) rating. These factors combine to influence both player and team performance and how the player acts in negotiations. Some players flat refuse to negotiate with you, some may want a trade, some want a new role on the club, and so forth. These ratings even impact the fan loyalty and indirectly the financial performance of the team. For example, if you cut a fan favorite, expect a little less loyalty and fewer butts in your stadium's seats!
Playing against the computer is fun; however, where OOTP really shines is in an online league with human owners. With a commissioner willing to do a little dirty work (although OOTP has excellent tools to simplify running a league, with its import/export capabilities, automatic webpage generation, and so forth), and a group of human players that stay involved, OOTP is a baseball junkie’s dream game. The human element adds significantly to the challenge, and it’s really as simple as me making the decisions for your squad, exporting via two clicks of the mouse, and then importing after the next week is simulated. Being an owner in a league couldn’t be more seamless.
On the field itself, you are in complete control of the action from a manager’s perspective, with the ability to call for hit-and-runs, stolen bases, squeeze plays, sacrifice bunts, and so forth. You can align your infield and outfield, instruct pitchers to pitch around a player, or even plunk your rival’s best hitter. You can play in one pitch mode, where the at-bat is resolved with one click of the mouse, or pitch-by-pitch mode, where you see every pitch of the at-bat. You can even simulate several innings at a time to future parts of the game, if you want to move quickly through a blowout. The computer opponent manager is solid as well. Most decisions that the computer opponent makes seem logical and well-timed, although you will run into the occasional head-scratching decision. The action is delivered via a text description, but there is a model of the field displaying the players, their positioning, and relevant ratings. You even have two views to “watch” the action. Ultimately, it just feels like baseball, as all the elements you’d expect to encounter while following the day-to-day performance of your favorite team in the real world are present in the game, and represented accurately.
Anyone who's ever dreamed of running a professional team in some capacity, or anyone who enjoys fantasy baseball, baseball board games, or similar products, will absolutely love what OOTP 2007 offers. Any criticisms of the game are merely trivial; in the end it comes down to this: This is the best “fantasy” baseball gaming package ever created.
