What is your fantasy…sport?
In my everlasting attempt to create things to entertain people, I’ve made video games, blogs, radio shows, contests…lots of things, and it’s all been fun, but I have yet to make a web-based game that I consider successful. I’ve tried but it never worked out like I had hoped. I’m trying again and this time it just feels right.
Try, try again…
One type of game that lends itself to the web in a manner by which I can actually develop is fantasy sports. But not being a big sports fan, I never really bothered playing a fantasy game. I did play a fantasy pro wrestling game for a while, it was pretty good, but was way to complex for me…but that sparked an idea - I can make a better fantasy wrestling game.
So I tried that and discovered quickly that running a fantasy game requires one thing I don’t readily have - stats. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing fantasy baseball or fantasy wrestling, it’s all about what happens during real events. That’s not a big deal for players, but when you’re trying to run a fantasy game that means you have to collect all those stats yourself. Even though I love my pro wrestling, I don’t like it enough to watch every program to document the entire show just to support an on-line fantasy game.
Thus, unsurprisingly, that project went unfinished and got dumped.
Fast forward a bit and I’m back working on another fantasy sports venture, but this time it’s something a) I really enjoy, and b) involves stats that I can easily get and control. I guess it’s not really a “sport”, per se, but I don’t know what else to call it…it’s Fantasy Derby Racing…yes, more Hot Wheels stuff.
Fantasy sport for a fantasy car
I took a look at how fantasy NASCAR worked at Yahoo and kind of took that as a model. In my version, players will get to choose cars for their “garage” and then I will hold weekly races - which I’ll be doing anyway once the weather turns back to normal. The cars race. Results happen. And players get points if their car wins and lose cars if they lose. A pretty straight forward concept and one that involves numbers I have direct access too without a lot of effort.
To my knowledge, this will be the first virtual diecast racing club/game (assuming I complete this), but it seems like the niche is open to try it. I broke my norm with this project and posted the idea in the Redline Derby Racing forum for feedback. A few guys replied saying something like that sounded interesting and the discussion has gone from there picking apart my ideas, hopefully resulting in something mildly entertaining.
Do you play any fantasy sports?
This whole project is just starting so I wanted to find out what people liked about the fantasy sports they play. It doesn’t matter which sport you follow, I’m just interested in learning about why you like playing…
- What brings you back?
- What don’t you enjoy about the league you’re in?
- What do you expect to get from playing?
- Are you playing out of pure fan passion or does your league have prizes, etc.?
- Do you play with friends? Is that a big factor?
- Do you play any fantasy sports you don’t actually watch or care about?
- In essence, what creates a good fantasy sports experience?
I’ve explored existing fantasy sports for inspiration on how you work with fantasy sports from a management perspective, but I haven’t actually played any fantasy sports - which is why I need your help.
And assuming I finish this project, I invite you all to play.
I’ll get you collecting Hot Wheels yet. Suckers.
