''MLB Front Office Manager'' is a Major League Baseball-licensed sports management game developed by Blue Castle Games and published by 2K for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released on January 26, 2009.

Gameplay

''MLB Front Office Manager'' allows a player to take the role of a baseball general manager over the course of a thirty-year career; the goal is to perform well enough to become inducted into the

Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. The player's GM is rated on eight disciplines including North American scouting, international scouting, pro-league scouting, player development, trades, contract negotiation, owner confidence and leadership. GMs also have former career backgrounds (e.g. ex-manager, lawyer, business person, former player, or talent scout) that affect the GM's disciplines. A GM's ratings improve or regress over his career depending on their performance. A GM will also have seasonal goals depending on the club they're hired by. The player will be faced with decisions such as

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

evaluation, initiate and respond to trades, develop rookies, and even bid for Japanese baseball players. The game also promises advanced AI-controlled GMs who have unique motivations. During the game, the player may opt to manage, and can issue instructions such as intentionally walk batters, make a bullpen changes, call for steals and bunts, and pitch; the user cannot call individual pitches. The game features a full 3D engine for single game gameplay. Full nine inning games take roughly 10–15 minutes to play.

Statistical depth

The game utilizes official SABR stats compiled over the player's career, even factoring such situational stats as batter vs. pitcher historical stats, pitcher's performance at specific pitch counts, and success with runners in scoring position, in addition to the usual situational stats. These stats extend to actual minor league players from Class AAA to A-Short Season minor league systems; due to MLBPA agreements, the players are not identified by name. Players also have personality ratings as well.

Multiplayer

The game features Online Fantasy Mode, which allows up to thirty managers in an online league to compete against one other to develop the best team. Gamers can use modified rules, enter a fantasy draft, and optionally utilize fantasy baseball scoring systems like

rotisserie Rotisserie, also known as spit-roasting, is a style of roasting where meat is skewered on a spit – a long solid rod used to hold food while it is being cooked over a fire in a fireplace or over a campfire, or roasted in an oven. This metho ...

, head-to-head or traditional scoring.

Development

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

general manager

Billy Beane William Lamar Beane III (born March 29, 1962) is an American former professional baseball player and current front office executive. He is the executive vice president of baseball operations and minority owner of the Oakland Athletics of Majo ...

served as expert consultant on the GM experience and environment. Beane also appears in-game as an advisor to the player. New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was also involved in the project.

Reception

''MLB Front Office Manager'' received "generally unfavorable reviews" on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. '' Game Informer'' said, "The nuts and bolts of gameplay are apocalyptic failures, but the awfulness doesn't stop there. Managing games is utterly pointless." GameSpot noted "the decisions made by computer GMs are beyond bizarre" and player trades "are nondescript affairs shuffling minor leaguers around, utthe game hits you with a Bizarro World blockbuster on a regular basis." Hilary Goldstein's IGN review was more charitable, but still complained, "Lack of three-team deals, a mediocre interface, and questionable AI logic are unacceptable even from a new IP."

References

External links

Official site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mlb Front Office Manager 2009 video games 2K Sports games Games for Windows Major League Baseball video games Sports management video games PlayStation 3 games Windows games Xbox 360 games North America-exclusive video games Video games developed in Canada Multiplayer and single-player video games Capcom Vancouver games