Good news: Playoffs will resume on MONDAY (10/20) at the usual time, 8:00 PM EDT [UTC-04].
Less good news: I’ve decided this will be the last season for the OBWL.
I think it has been a great run over the last 15 or so years and I never imagined it would last this long. But I feel like it is the right time to close up shop. Since my heart surgery I just don’t have the motivation or the mindset to continue running the league and doing all the daily tasks that go into making a quality online sim league.
And although my health is slowly getting better, that is not the only reason for this decision. Basically everything is chaotic and uncertain right now and I’m worried about things like employment, healthcare, insurance, inflation, etc. In light of these real world issues I don’t have the time or energy to spare anymore.
Also, I am 52 years old now. I never thought I’d still be doing this into my fifties!
Once the playoffs are over I will make the updated league file available for download as usual. I’m willing to provide the commissioner password to any GM who wants it. That way if someone wants to keep running their team at home against the CPU they can. Or if you want to play against a few friends you could go bare bones and just e-mail the html, team orders, and the league file to your group every sim. Or you could use the password to peek under the hood and see how the sausage gets made just out of curiosity.
If someone wants to pick up the torch and run a full league with the file I’m cool with that. I can’t provide any of the bells and whistles though — I’m happy to answer questions but you would be on your own in terms of web hosting, building a site, running drafts, etc.
Honestly if anyone is looking to run a full league I recommend starting over from scratch and using a different software like Draft Day Sports or something. There aren’t many other text-based basketball sims out there other than DDS. I bought a copy and it has some nice features but I couldn’t really wrap my head around the work flow you’d need for an online league. That said I didn’t spend much time with it and I know there are online leagues out there you could model after.
FBB3 is old and no longer supported by developer. While DDS Basketball isn’t perfect they develop it and release a new version everything year with improvements. You would at least have technical support and generally speaking Wolverine Studios’ games get better over time as they refine them year to year.
Thank you for the good times and for supporting the OBWL for all these years!
Ben