WSEM 13: The Whoa

		Your Junk my Happy Zone
		by Brandon Corbett

Not only have we brought back the video game style ratings for 2013, this season we plan on featuring them as part of the intro for game videos. Since they will now serve a greater purpose than "one-off gag for amusement", we brought in a few more voices to better round out these numbers. Five sources provided their opinion of each team's contact at the plate (CON), power in the bats (PWR), pitching (PIT) and defensive ability (DEF). Those were averaged together, then the overall team rating (OVR) was averaged from those four categories. Ratings will be updated before the season, after seeing teams in the satellite tournaments, and possibly once more mid-season. Obviously, other elements on these screens will be updated more frequently - franchise record, NWLA rank, and championships. Franchise records used to include all "modern era" (since 2009) games, including tournaments. However, this offseason we simplified that definition to include only league games from the season and playoffs. Championships do still include those won in tournaments, though, and are noted by a silver star. Gold stars stand for Commissioner's Cup Championships, and pennants won are indicated by gold pennants. Two more silver stars will be handed out for the satellite tournaments before these are put into use at the start of the season. If you're not familiar with the NWLA by this point, it's time to crawl out from under your rock. The NWLA does a great many things with the fifty-plus member leagues, but pertinent to this context, they rank the top 50 "large league" teams and top 25 "small league" teams. WSEM is a large league with our eight teams, and over our two-year run we have had eight different teams crack the top 50 rankings: Belgian, Commandos, Squirrels, Punchouts, Warriors, DeLoppes, Aces, and Ducks with our highest ever rank, #3 on August 19th, 2011. Two basic parameters exist in the NWLA rankings. One: only teams with records above .500 may be ranked. Two: no more than fifty percent of a league can show up in the rankings. As teams crack the top 50 for the first time or push higher than they have before that information will be added to these screens. So, everyone make that happen and if you don't think digital-your-team adequately matches real-world-your-team, get out to some preseason events to make your team's ratings more accurate for Opening Weekend!

EA Sports: We're in the Game?

		Your Junk my Happy Zone
		by Brandon Corbett

It is a nasty spring day: cold, windy, and wet. Not a day suitable for getting out and playing Wiffleball at all. You sit down in front of your TV, turn on your gaming system of choice, a couple developer and sponsor screens scroll by, and then BOOM!: a WSEM splash screen with images of DeLano and Pearson covering the screen with the sound of screaming fans in concert with a Passalacqua tune coming out of your speakers. You are getting the full-on digital WSEM experience! One that is being shared by thousands of at least sixty other fans out there! Okay, so the idea of a video game, like "The Show", built around you and your league is a just a little bit of a distant dream, still. But, let us run with the thought for a minute: "what if this was a video game?" [<- NSFW] What would that look like? How would your team show in those "attribute ratings" graphics? Well, close your eyes (figuratively, you need them to read the rest of this) and prepare yourself for dalliance!





So, I can sense the question hanging on your lips: what does any of this mean? Well, as much as you want it to. As is the way in video games, you can win it all with the Lions in Tecmo Super Bowl; you can win the Stanley Cup with the Nordiques in NHL '94; you can take the Colts to the Superbowl in Madden '95; Beavis and Butthead can beat Gore and Clinton for the championship in NBA Jam; you can do just about anything you want in Ken Griffey, Jr. Presents Major League Baseball; and then there is whatever the heck is going on in (the pretty Wiffle-y itself) Baseball Simulator 1.000! As is also the way in video games, these attribute ratings are never exactly accurate; more like a fun estimate to visually leverage game play and skill. Basically, evaluation of talent - especially in the digital realm - means nothing compared to how that talent eventually gets used by you on the field: real or pixels.

It is fun to dream, though!