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!

[brorth]

Nothing, really. League 1 is just way more active as far as the owners.

[JBucc]

You can have my team if you want it, and if it hasn't been given away already. I don't quite have the interest level in football to do something like this right now.

[carlos3652]

Id like to kick it in L1 if possible, its no fun, if there is no activity... :P but i would understand if you needed to move up from L2 to L1 if you had to.

[cdcox]

Originally Posted by carlos3652

Id like to kick it in L1 if possible, its no fun, if there is no activity... :P but i would understand if you needed to move up from L2 to L1 if you had to.

Do you want Richmond or Chula Vista? Rain Man posted both rosters a few posts back.

[carlos3652]

Richmond - Sanchez and Charles to Glory -

[carlos3652]

...

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by carlos3652

...

Cool. cdcox will get you set up.

As the coach of that team last year, I would recommend upgrading the receiving corps. But they did pretty good considering they didn't have Charles most of the year.

[brorth]

It's amazing how I've fallen into watching football games from a Sandbox perspective.

It's almost like fantasy in that I watch for players on my teams in all the games, and that makes watching games more fun.

What I really like, though, is that while good or great games from my players get a thumbs up, I don't "need" a player to perform specifically.
In other words, you can root for a good game, but you're not hung up on needing 14 points from a player so you don't have to focus on him.
Injuries get the same reaction, however.

Few examples:
Duane Brown, bitches!
Donald Butler from San Diego will be a beast next Sandbox season if he keeps it up.
Mike Williams wasn't great last Sandbox year, but I can expect at least one 100 yd game from him.
Lardarius Webb NO! At least I know to bump CB up on the priority list for week 6.
Cam Newton has taught me to draft a QB every year, whether I think I need one or not.

So, thanks for letting me play, it's helped make this season a lot better already.

[DJ's left nut]

Yeah, I was watching Aaron Rodgers 6 TDs and Dez Bryant's big day with undeniable glee. Pad those figures, fellas.

I've also been loving the Percy Harvin MVP caliber season (though I wish I could install him as a punt-returner/kick returner - seems like I have 'Street Free Agent' returning punts fairly often).

On the flip side, Travelle Wharton's blown pectoral has made me woefully thin on the interior line, Marcus Trufant isn't even starting anymore and Shawntae Spencer, who beat out DeMarcus VanDyke for the number 2 CB gig (who promptly got cut) is now hurt. So I figured I would have that starting CB one way or the other with both those guys...now I have neither.

And I find myself tracking the progress of Jason Pinkston. Jason. Pinkston.

It actually gives me something to watch in an otherwise worthless season, that's for sure.

[brorth]

I'm starting to assimilate the Pittsburgh Tacos I have in to my game watching, too.
It's going to be fun to figure out how to rebuild that team. It's basically Peyton Manning and Jared Allen.
The cool thing will be to see how the new owner player acquisition goes. I imagine it will be like the 1995 expansion draft, new owners can pick from a list of unprotected players.
I'm still curious about player movement in general, too.

[carlos3652]

yea - this should be a lot of fun - its really detailed - fantasy football - but the right 53 - not just 8 -10 players.

[noa]

Kind of pissed I have Eric Winston as my RT

[brorth]

Originally Posted by noa

Kind of pissed I have Eric Winston as my RT

Because he's a massive dickhead, or because he's a massive dickhead shaped turnstile?

[Rain Man]

Man, I am a defensive end killer on my Duluth team. I killed Bowers and then I killed Clayborn. Dumervil is my other leading defensive end, and he's doing fine (sigh).

[Rain Man]

Oh, and we'll be getting the draft up relatively soon. cdcox and I have both been slammed at work recently, so we're a bit behind schedule.