Hello, my name is Soda and I am a Baseball Mogulaholic. I’d like
to share my story with you. I have been a baseball fanatic all my
life. I would say that I have invested more time playing baseball
games than any other type of video game. Before Baseball Mogul came
into my life, I’d say that I was pretty strong. I could play a game
for a few weeks and than be able to put it down. I wouldn’t say
that I ever really struggled with “addiction” to video
game baseball. Than came Baseball Mogul. I thought I would be able
to handle myself. “I’m not addicted, I can quit anytime I want.”

Boy was I wrong. Admitting you have a problem is the first step
to getting help.

When I first started playing I didn’t see how I could get addicted.
It’s just a sim; there is no actual game to play. Originally my
addiction began with Baseball Mogul 2002. My addiction carried over
it 2003 as well. One feature I always looked forward to with each
new addition was the new player pictures and action photos. I bought
Baseball Mogul 2004 over the web for download and I was disappointed
that it didn’t come with any player photos at all. Other than that
it was the same old Baseball Mogul screens that I have become so
accustomed to looking at. The best new feature graphically is the
ability to resize that game window. Sometimes that comes in handy.

Baseball Mogul is all about control. Being a GM of a professional
baseball franchise is my dream job, and Baseball Mogul puts you
right in that seat. You control every aspect of how your franchise
is run from how much money you have in your farm system budget to
how much you charge for hot dogs at the ball park. Trying to find
the balance of building a winning team while staying within your
budget and keeping all the fans happy is one heck of a job. At first
I would play as the GM of my favorite team, the New York Mets, but
because of their fan loyalty and high income and exposure they were
too easy to win with. You want a challenge? Try playing as the GM
of Montreal. I spent 25 years building that club into a respectable
franchise, and the only thing I could do to make them any better
was move them to Washington DC where I could make more money. Like
I said before, you have complete control. If you’re a franchise
sports junky, than this is your game.

The main challenge of Baseball Mogul is just keeping track of everything
that’s going on. You have to r
em
ember who you have in the minors
and who gets paid what and when their contract ends and if you can
afford to keep them. The best thing that they did with Baseball
Mogul 2004 is instead of player contracts and budget being based
on a “point” system, they are now in actual dollar figures.
It makes it a lot easier to put things in perspective. It takes
a lot of time and creativity to build a franchise that is successful
year after year. Another part of the challenge is keeping your cool.
One season I got swept in the series and got really pissed off.
I went out in the off-season and signed everyone who was anyone.
The results turned out to be a disaster. Plugging that many new
players into a core that I already had built turned into more losses
than wins, I didn’t make the playoffs, and because of the huge contracts
of every player on my roster I ended up going into debt. Once you’re
in debt you can’t negotiate with any of your players who’s contract
term ends, and I ended up losing five of my best players.

Baseball Mogul is the most fun and addicting baseball franchise
game I have ever played. Everyone who considers himself a fan of
baseball must play this game at some point in time. There are very
few games that I can imagine that you could invest any near as much
time in as you will to Baseball Mogul. If I were to rate games on
a scale Baseball Mogul would get a 10 out of 10 on replay ability.
Yes, it is that good.

The best part, its only 20 bucks. Do yourself a favor, go out and
get this game or download it online at www.sportsmogul.com. It might
take awhile to get the swing of things, but we’ll be seeing you
in our Mogulaholic’s support group in no time.

-Soda Out