Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations)

[Rain Man]

I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free.

cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below.

If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3.

Here's the overview:

Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football

Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end.

Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league.


This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter.

In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week).

Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh.

The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games.

The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this:
• Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs.
• Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft.
• Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league.
• Rinse and repeat.

Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved.

We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors.

Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like.

So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft!

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by bevischief

Only 11 people have signed up this?????

You're in the 2nd league with the uncool kids.

[Trevo_410]

sooo can i make a pick now? for the veteran draft?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Zach gave me his team in the first league.

Could Cdcox or Rain Man delete my team from the 2nd league so I can transfer over my email address? Also if you could change my username that would be awesome.

Yeah, give me a half hour or so.

[Trevo_410]

ohhhhh wait my bad, nvm didn't read

[bevischief]

Originally Posted by Red 5

You're in the 2nd league with the uncool kids.

Sounds better for me.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Trevo_410

sooo can i make a pick now? for the veteran draft?

As soon as you pick I'm ready to roll. I have my draft board up and running as the Duluth Pillagers.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by kstater

Are there safeguards should a player lose interest and stop playing? IE trades must be approved by everyone.

Initially, if you feel a trade is blatently unfair, report to the admins. If we agree we'll reverse it. Eventually we will probably automate this to make sure trades aren't too unfair.

When someone drops out, we could sell their team at a discount as Rain Man suggests. Another idea I have is to disband it, throw all the players on those teams into the free agency pool, and have an expansion draft. Maybe let remaining people protect 15 players (or more) then allow the n00bs to draft from the FA pool and unprotected rosters (no more that 2 players scabbed from any give roster). Something like that. Just throwing that out as an idea to handle abandonments.

[Trevo_410]

if i may, i'd like to make a suggestion.

when(hypothetically speaking) this website succeeds in the future and when ever time is allowed... I think it'd be awesome if there was a viewable database attached to the website with the ratings you use for the simulations. So we know exactly the value of who we draft.

Also i got a question... is there contracts? if not could it be possible to put them in there as well?

[Trevo_410]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

As soon as you pick I'm ready to roll. I have my draft board up and running as the Duluth Pillagers.

lol yeh, just seen the draft starts 2morrow.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

So if each club has 60 minutes to make a pick...does that mean some picks are going to have to be made between midnight and sunrise? The draft starts at 10pm?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Zach gave me his team in the first league.

Could Cdcox or Rain Man delete my team from the 2nd league so I can transfer over my email address? Also if you could change my username that would be awesome.

Can you get Zach to PM me here to confirm? Then I'll make the switch.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Trevo_410

lol yeh, just seen the draft starts 2morrow.

Set your local time in Account functions. I need to make that the next thing you do after you pick your team.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Trevo_410

if i may, i'd like to make a suggestion.

when(hypothetically speaking) this website succeeds in the future and when ever time is allowed... I think it'd be awesome if there was a viewable database attached to the website with the ratings you use for the simulations. So we know exactly the value of who we draft.

Also i got a question... is there contracts? if not could it be possible to put them in there as well?

I'll yield to cdcox on the first question. I think it's more complex than merely having a value assigned to a player, though. The combinations of players into a team are what determines wins and losses.

On the second question, no contracts right now. That could potentially be a long term addition, but I think it's way over the horizon right now.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

So if each club has 60 minutes to make a pick...does that mean some picks are going to have to be made between midnight and sunrise? The draft starts at 10pm?

Yes, picks go through the night with this compressed schedule. I might change that in the future, but for now, Draft board FTW!

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by cdcox

Can you get Zach to PM me here to confirm? Then I'll make the switch.

It is legit. Sorry for the hassle. PM me if you need any other details.