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!

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by lostcause

Is all player performance based upon their season statistics or is it projections?

i.e. If I want to run a spread offense with Chase Daniels at QB, will I get a rating for Chase? Or if he has 0 snaps, does he have a 0 rating?

They'll be based on the previous season, but I'm not sure what happens if a player never sees the field. Perhaps cdcox can elaborate.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Hmm, I had no problems and I put roughly 60 people on my board. What browser are you using?

(I have no idea how to fix it, but whenever I hear people who know what they're doing, they ask what browser you have. Maybe it'll help cdcox fix it.)

I don't know of an easy fix for this one. I might bring our consultant in on this one.

[lostcause]

With little to no statistics, how are oline measured?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

They'll be based on the previous season, but I'm not sure what happens if a player never sees the field. Perhaps cdcox can elaborate.

We'll treat players that don't have snaps similarly to players who do get snaps and who are near the bottom of the league at their position. Barring the ability to see into the future, that is about the best we can do.

So you want to be relatively sure that most of your starters will get some snaps. But with a roster of 53, you should be able to keep plenty of developmental players.

We'll also have a correction for players that only get a few snaps where their statistical ability clearly would not extrapolate to a full season.

[kstater]

Originally Posted by cdcox

We'll treat players that don't have snaps similarly to players who do get snaps and who are near the bottom of the league at their position. Barring the ability to see into the future, that is about the best we can do.

What will you do if say, a backup QB comes in, goes 1/1 with a TD?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by lostcause

With little to no statistics, how are oline measured?

I think describing too much of what goes on behind the curtain takes away from the concept of the game, which is to build a roster and see how they play, just like a real GM does. Your OL will matter. I think we will be able to pass the smell test in terms of capturing their contribution.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by kstater

What will you do if say, a backup QB comes in, goes 1/1 with a TD?

We'll also have a correction for players that only get a few snaps where their statistical ability clearly would not extrapolate to a full season.

Let's just say that if you play him every down, he is going to look more similar to other back-ups than to someone with a perfect passer rating.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I think describing too much of what goes on behind the curtain takes away from the concept of the game, which is to build a roster and see how they play, just like a real GM does. Your OL will matter. I think we will be able to pass the smell test in terms of capturing their contribution.

Will elite QBs with bad olines be sacked less than average QBs with bad olines?

[lostcause]

Originally Posted by cdcox

I think describing too much of what goes on behind the curtain takes away from the concept of the game, which is to build a roster and see how they play, just like a real GM does. Your OL will matter. I think we will be able to pass the smell test in terms of capturing their contribution.

If I'm beta testing a game before it goes live, i like to know what to try and break =)

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Will elite QBs with bad olines be sacked less than average QBs with bad olines?

I think we all know that QBs contribute to their sack rate. The game will reflect that.

[Branden Albert's Huge Balls]

True fans are still going to draft right tackles in the third round.

Another question - will I be able to take a tackle or a guard and put them at a different position? What about taking DEs and playing them at OLB in a 3-4?

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

True fans are still going to draft right tackles in the third round.

I'm doing everything I can to keep my own biases out of the evaluations. If the statistics say that having elite players at ever OL position is the key to building a high-powered offense, then true fans will carry the day.

I think that will make this game fun: you can build the team to your liking and we can see how they fair against each other.

I need to get back to fixing IE.

[rageeumr]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Hmm, I had no problems and I put roughly 60 people on my board. What browser are you using?

(I have no idea how to fix it, but whenever I hear people who know what they're doing, they ask what browser you have. Maybe it'll help cdcox fix it.)

Firefox 5. Could just be my system, especially if I'm the only one having the issue.

[DaFace]

I think you should make the logo bigger.

Seriously, though, good luck with the project. I don't have anywhere near the patience for this type of thing, but I'm curious to see where it goes!

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Another question - will I be able to take a tackle or a guard and put them at a different position? What about taking DEs and playing them at OLB in a 3-4?

This is a really good question that I probably need to put into the help section.

My intention is that you will be able to move players around to a realistic extent. If you move someone who has played RT his whole career to a demanding position like LT, there is going to be a downgrade in performance. If you move the same RT to G, that may not be such a stretch. If you have a finess pass blocking LT and try to put him at RT, your power running may be affected. Eric Berry can clearly play either S position, but Lewis would probably get a downgrade if you move him to SS.

A light pass-rushing DE could probably move to rush OLB.

You get the idea. We may not do this perfectly in year 1, but that is the plan.