Gameday 3D has arrived!

While the new Wii interface is interesting, to say the least.

WHERE IS GAMEDAY MINI??

It's almost July and you have done nothing about the majority of the comments on this board, which relate to the gigantic unusable size of GD2008. Are you trying to scare away your user base?

Jake

Holy sh*t Batman that rocks. Wow, wow, wow. You're going to be hammered for what it's not and that's a shame. You have a very fun customizable product that greatly enhances both the enjoyment and perspective of the game.

The 3D interface looks pretty slick. Only enhancement I could see, which would be purely asthetic, would be to give the batter a uniform color similair to the team for which he is on.

I like it, but one thing that I noticed that's kind of a problem is that the videos don't work on this new Gameday, and they always worked perfectly on the other one.

There seems to be a problem with some of the hitters from the pitcher view.
A switch hitter is not hitting right against a right handed pitcher!
A right hand hitter is not batting left.

Some are correct and some not - can be confusing.

I like the old layout better.

The new graphics are cheesy and I liked the outlined strike zone in the old graphics...

Poorly done.

SoSideCubsFan

This new innovation is useless as all you get to see with the enhancement is the batter. Why have a view of the field if there is nothing to look at- no defenders, no base runners, etc. I see no advantage to your 3D enhancement. Go back to the original.

nice i like it, good job guys!

Since the change to the 3-D system, I cannot get the Gameday window to load--all I get is a white screen. Is this a known problem? I have made sure that the appropriate flash player and version is installed, and still nothing. Very frustrated.

I life ESPN gameday how the ball flies around and how they put baserunners on the bases. could you do that please.

It would be nice if the batter looked more realistic and had some color on his uniform (team colors?) and if there was an outlined strike zone. Otherwise it's good.

The new interface looks great, but as jmsmith noted above, the highlight videos don't show over the new visuals. Those videos are a great feature, so I hope you fix this as soon as possible. Thanks for all the great stuff!

One additional comment: I wish your comment interface didn't show my e-mail address.

The 3-D interface/GUI is groovy and I appreciate the latest developments, but coomercializing every last freaking moment in baseball will drive me away. I already pay to see the webcast application. THE LAST THING I WANT TO SEE IN "Strikeout-SPONSERED BY (NAME YOUR *****)....STOPPIT!!!! PLease, let us enjoy the game-I don't want to be bombarded by something like: "HOMER-SPONSRED BY CENTURY 21!!!"....this was one of the best deals until this latest crap. Get real. Respect your fans. Lose the $ plan!!!!!!

The 3-D interface/GUI is groovy and I appreciate the latest developments, but coomercializing every last freaking moment in baseball will drive me away. I already pay to see the webcast application. THE LAST THING I WANT TO SEE IN "Strikeout-SPONSERED BY (NAME YOUR *****)....STOPPIT!!!! PLease, let us enjoy the game-I don't want to be bombarded by something like: "HOMER-SPONSRED BY CENTURY 21!!!"....this was one of the best deals until this latest crap. Get real. Respect your fans. Lose the $ plan!!!!!!

I have to admit that I'm surprised that people are leaving positive responses in regards to the visuals. I think the new version looks terrible. The batter image looks strange as if its from a completely different world than the rest of the layout which in addition, looks drab. I don't quite understand why we need the 3D aspect. Even when I only use gameday to keep track of games, a few years ago, I was and still am satisfied to see the simple layout you've used since then.

Now I watch the games on MLB TV premium and use the gameday to check stats. I agree with those complaining about the adds and such. Give me a break, MLB with your excuses regarding how 'necessary these are' to ensure that the service is free. You're raking in the money more now than ever, and part of the reason the massive solicitation of corporate dollars through annoying adverts such as the ones that have become unavoidable. Such corporate B.S. spin on greed – greed on your part. Disgusting that you'd try to spin it as generosity.

please tell me there is going to be an option that allows the users to go back to the old gameday, this version is absolutely terrible, the black background is annoying, the ability to move the angle is only there to frustrate people, just do what espn does or go back to the old version, because this new version is a downgrade

i want info, not lame graphics. things like the "billboard style" event notification are wrong-headed, i want the info right away, i don't want to wait for an animated baseball to go by each time something happens. there used to be better ball and strike info too. i agree with a prev poster...please let this be an option (esp because the other "options" you give us are useless). this is what you get when you let folks from a country where they don't understand baseball design your interface.

ps: not that i have anything against folks from other other countries...i just think you need a baseball fan designing this thing and that is not what it looks like so far

pps: thanks for the opportunity to vent

Well, it's OK. I do like the 3-D aspect greatly, but what I don't like is how large the viewing area is. If there is going to be a large viewing area like this, then put base runners on the base paths or players in the infield. The background is bad, at least make it light blue, or a different color than black. The batter in the batter's box is also weird, it just looks out of place compared to the graphics (basically what demodog said above) and maybe make the all white player in the batter's box the team color jersey. This new gameday is also VERY CPU consuming, my CPU is working about 60% only on gameday, making other apps not as fast because of this. This gameday needs some improvements.

The new gameday sucks. why do you people always have to fix things that aren't broken? Was that Selig's idea? He sucks too!!!!!

Another technical problem.

Once the view is set just how I want it, if I move the cursor anywhere in the area like to see what a pitch was, it moves all around.
Is there some way to lock the view once you have it set?
If not, can you do something about that?

Also, it would be cool to see something with the batter, maybe an animation of swinging the bat when there is a foul, strike swinging, and a ball hit in play.

I agree with lemledog, as that was going to be my comment. You get the view set, you're ready to go, and then you mouse over to find out more about the pitch, and it changes on you. Maybe a "lock in view" feature. We really don't care to switch the view after we got it. My other thought was the uniforms, which I'd think wouldn't be too hard to code, but is obviously unnecessary on your first go around.

I do take to heart some of the comments about the 3D. Most people will just set it to where it was before. You can't see the fielders, or even the baserunners (I tried). So what's really the point? Cool, perhaps, but maybe efforts would have been spent better elsewhere. Videos are definitely great.

Now, after all there HERE'S why I actually wrote. The pitches coming in add some great drama. You watch it come in, hope it's going to be a hit or a ball, watch where it tracks, etc. BUT, the best parts, when the ball is put in play or a strikeout/walk, you blow the surprise. You change the layout up top, whether it be outs or baserunner position, and put that large banner over the top. BEFORE the pitch makes it to the plate. I'd highly recommend changing it so that the pitch has to reach the plate BEFORE any of the other information is change.

Otherwise (and I seriously mean it!), great job!

BTW, to toid_me's comment, who knows what country they are from? I'm actually betting U.S., if MLB is smart, because of what you mention. There are plenty of Flash coders here (including yours truly), who can do this kind of stuff.

I ask this in all seriousness: What is wrong with you, MLB? Why do you insist on giving us features we neither need nor want? Just when I'd almost sort of gotten used to the previous version, you've found new ways to foul it up. The black background, cartoonish batter, and new scoreboard-lights style for displaying game events are all just just awful. The game events take way more time to load and aren't as visually intuitive as the previous version, not to mention the atrocious ads. (Oh, and for the record, "strikeout," a noun, is one word, not two.) How about giving us features we could actually use, like highlighting the current batter and displaying the inning-by-inning score in the Lineups/Bench view.

After playing around with it a little more, I admit the 3D is pretty cool; I just wish it wasn't so slow compared to the previous version, and that details like the batter picture were handled better. I do, however, stand by my comments on the game events display being worse, the spelling of "strikeout," and how highlighting the current batter and displaying the inning-by-inning score in the Lineups/Bench view is a sorely needed improvement.

This is pretty much worthless. It takes up valuable real estate (to display a cartoon) that otherwise could be used to surface situational stats and a host of other interactive game metrics (spray charts, expected outcome stats, trends, etc). How about adding some real-time fan commentary web parts?

I'm having the whitescreen problem - Windows XP, downloaded the newest Flash, cleared cache/ temp internet files, only the tabs are showing up. Gameday was working just fine before the switch to 3D.

Any help? Why isn't this in the FAQ?

You gotta be kidding. I hate to be negative, but this new interface is poorly executed.

I used to be able to follow a game in almost real-time and it was tolerable. Now what happens? Strike One, Ball One, Ball Two, PAUSE... PAUSE... PAUSE... PAUSE...

(I have come to realize now that each time the screen pauses for a long time, something has happened. A batter has struck out, or hit a homer, or a base was obtained.)

...then when the 'action' resumes, the previous batter is gone, and a new batter has taken a ball or a strike. The only way to tell what happened to the previous batter is to scroll the screen backwards to see the batter's fate.

God forbid there is one out when the batter strikes out immediately followed by a batter who flys out on the first pitch. In this case what the viewers see is "(1) one out (2) batter waiting a pitch (3) side out." How the H*LL DID THAT HAPPEN?

This new interface is poor at best.

And god, can't we find a baseball fan to build a baseball site? I doubt many British citizens know the game. In fact, I would be willing to bet that this is why the break in action and missing events happen - because the coders don’t understand the significance of the narrative.

OK, I give up. This interface sucks. You can't even get the narrative in the right order without overlaying the wrong information at the wrong time.

The last interface presentation was watchable. This is unbearable. I come here because even though I cannot watch the balls and strikes on TV, I could at least get to see how the game was going.

Now all I really get (in sequence) is end of inning results strung together. I might as well just watch on my home team's web page.

Goodbye.

I agree with biktoptrvi, this gameday is way too slow and the interface is horrible. Please redesign this.

I've been very supportive of Gameday changes in the past, but I thought this was July 1st, not April 1st. You sure this isn't an April Fool's joke? While I'm sure the coding to produce this version of Gameday are top of the line, the graphics are commodore 64. All the college grads writing code and only guys left for graphics were gradeschoolers? Cmon! I expect more from MLB.

Starting on a positive note: It was very smart of the gameday powers that be to run that five- or ten-second demo of the new controls the first time a user accessed the new version. I tried a few views. They were cute. Then I shut them off. I don't need or want them, but I don't mind them being available for others who do.

When I attend a game a Dodgers Stadium, I pay for my seat and I see ads all over the place. (It could be worse: imagine if NASCAR redesigned MLB uniforms!) I don't mind the dotted-light scoreboard animation "Stolen Base! Sponsored by One-a-Day". Cracker Jack has been in the song as well as the ball park for a century.

That said, I hope never to see an ad mentioning male or female specific medical products! When those ads show up on tv in my household, the set goes off or the channel is changed. No matter who's leading, whatever inning, whatever lap, that show is over. MLB: You can ask TiVo, they can tell when channels are changed.

Please, let's keep this 'family friendly'. If you think commercials for products 'for when the moment is right' is proper to air in front of children, you need help.

Why is it that no one seems to understand what users want? The Internet's purpose is to provide information, NOT useless special effects. For example, in previous versions of Gameday, when a batter walked, the display presented "Walk." Now, I have to wait for all these fancy graphics just to get the information I'm waiting for. What did the batter do? Sorry for the soapbox, but this is another example of technological flash for the sake of flash. Microsoft got it wrong with Vista. They don't understand that users want their computers to work. They don't care about flashy special effects! Now Gameday folks, you've done the same thing. I appreciate the extra control, but don't add special effects at the cost of dispensing the information, which is why the users are on the website!

This kicks ***! I love all the minutia. Lots and lots of info like pitch count, speed, location, and much more. Some people are half empty times (as i usually am), but this thing rocks. It is also more timely than in the past. It is about 15 or so seconds behing the cable broadcast, and about thirty seconds behind the radio or less. Nice. Also great to listen to one game and gameday another. Cudos. Pardon the spelling.

The new 3D graphics seem to me to be nothing more than a gimmick. They do not provide additional information or add to the usefulness of GameDay, and it's clear from the other comments that the new interface is too slow for many users -- not everyone has broadband or computers with the latest fast processors.

I would like to request a very simple feature that would be easy to implement and I think would improve the interface considerably. Please display foul balls (or at the least two-strike foul balls) in a color other than red. I rely on the green (ball) vs. red (strike) vs. blue (ball in play) colors for a quick read on what's happened in the game. Two-strike fouls look like third strikes--one has to read the text to disambiguate. This is not only misleading, it's led to several near heart attacks in my household. Might I suggest orange as an appropriate color for foul balls?

OK... thought, comment, suggestion...

Since the Gameday "application" is often arrived at by navigating to your favorite team,,, why not allow the application to "know" the team the user is rooting for, and change the perspective based on whether the team is in the field or at bat?

Perhaps a little toggle button selecting "home team" or "visiting team" perspective might do the trick.

Also... since the diamond icon shows who's on first (ha ha), why are there no players on the bases in the 3-D perspective. (Not so much a complaint, as an idea).

Hey Gameday team, why are you ignoring the white screen problem??? Why won't you acknowledge it???

I really like the new Gameday 3D, but for us color deficient folks, the new red/green for the balls and strikes are too hard to see. Can you go back to the brighter red and green from the old one? Thanks!

I can't add much to what's been said but I wanted to add that I completely agree with an earlier commenter who said that the point of the internet is to provide additional information not fancy graphics. I don't "watch" on Gameday to get a "tv like" experience with below par animation. I watch to get cool data like the pitch f/x so if you can provide other things like spray charts, matchup info, etc. that would be great.

I do want to thank you for the video feature, it is awesome that I can see a highlight a few minutes after it happened, I really think that is great.

The one thing I continue to be amazed at is your inability to hide our email addresses when we post comments here. You've got an army of programmers constantly working on gameday but you can't spend 10 minutes blocking out my email address on my comments?

I Love the new 3D way of seeing the pitches, but occasionally, I accidentally run my mouse over the 3D view (or whatever it's called), and it moves my view. That will really tick me off sometimes. Especially when I'm trying to get a consistent view of where the balls and strikes are being called. My suggestion is for there to be a switch or check box where you could lock your view, possibly located in the options box. That way, the only way for the angle to change is by clicking the controls on the right of the 3D view.

I'm actually getting great performance now from this, but once the fricken animated ads come in, forget it. I don't mind the ads, but would you please change the position of the ads or at least not show animated ads and only show image ads?

I like it fine, but honestly since we only get to see the pitch, the multiple 3D angles don't really help much.
Here are a few tips that I think would make a HUGE difference.
1) I'm suprised I haven't heard this one yet. Maybe it's there and I'm missing it: Sound! Since I have it up at work, I often just check back in now and then. If I had sound, (I wear earphones at my desk for music) It could help me follow and know when to check back. I'm not talking about real time audio of the game, I'm talking about canned words that go along with the images. For example, when someone strikes out, you have an ump calling "Strike 3! Yer Out!" . When someone hits a homer, it's "HOME RUN!".
These would be pretty simple to add and would really add a lot to the interface.
Ideally, I'd like to have even more robust sound, with options. Have a sound option menu so you can checkbox each sound you want, maybe with sub-menus. Something like:
_ Basic Sounds

I like it fine, but honestly since we only get to see the pitch, the multiple 3D angles don't really help much.
Here are a couple of tips that I think would make a HUGE difference.

1) I'm suprised I haven't heard this one yet. Maybe it's there and I'm missing it: Sound! Since I have it up at work, I often just check back in now and then. If I had sound, (I wear earphones at my desk for music) It could help me follow and know when to check back. I'm not talking about real time audio of the game, I'm talking about canned words that go along with the images. For example, when someone strikes out, you have an ump calling "Strike 3! Yer Out!" . When someone hits a homer, it's "HOME RUN!".
These would be pretty simple to add and would really add a lot to the interface.
Ideally, I'd like to have even more robust sound, with options. Have a sound option menu so you can checkbox each sound you want, maybe with sub-menus. Something like:

_ Basic Sounds
_ Out
_ Hit
_ Run Scored
_ Strikeout
_ Home Run
_ Additional Sounds
_ Strike(1,2)/Ball(1,2,3,4)/Foul Ball
_ Single / Double / Triple / (1,2,3 run) Home Run / Grand Slam
_ Hit By Pitch
_ Fly Ball / Ground Ball to (location, e.g. center field, 3rd
base)
_ Double / Triple play
_ Error

These are not indenting correctly in the preview, but basically you could check all or individual options.

2) Animation of the swing and where the ball goes. There's something very fun about the anticipation. If you see the swing and an animation of the ball going towards the fence, you're begging for it to go over and see if it does, rather than just a blank screen followed by "Home Run".

In my previous post, "Basic Sounds" and "Advanced Sounds" are top level menu items, and all others were sub level below them.

couple other "nice to have" sounds:
_Inning announcement (at the beginning of each half, e.g. "Top of the 3rd", "Bottom of the 8th")
_Outs announcement (after each out, "(1/2/3) Out(s)" )
_Pitching Change
_Crack of the Bat on a hit ball in play

even more fun: on deep fly balls or home runs, they both start with: "Long fly ball to deep (left/center/right) field" .... followed by "Caught at the warning track" or "Home Run".
Maybe I'm getting a little carried away now. But I can see it.

I'm sure you can think of some good other sounds.
It could be a phased approach too - Give us all the easy sounds right away, then add some advanced sounds later.

I think GameDay is great! Here is a suggestion to make it even greater. I would like to see a tab (next to preview/gameday/box) for an official score card. Scoring a game the old fasion way is a lost art; one that I have never mastered but enjoy doing since I was a kid, albeit using my own made up conventions aloing with the official ones....BB, K, backwards K etc. But it would be a great way to learn the correct way of keeping an officail score card. As the plays unfold a viewer could refer to the SCORE CARD tab and see how the play was scored officially. There can be a complete reference of abbreviations with explanations. This would be a great service to the fans and to the game. Who knows, maybe once the public at large learns the correct way to score, there could be a renewed interest in this lost art. What do you think?

New gameday stinks. Can't move around the box score, only hitting team shows, can't move back in the batting order or to previous innings to see what happened. etc., etc. It's gone back ward.

Gameday works great on Opera browser. After some tinkering, I've had best results with the following settings:

1) Must use 'Allow Pop-ups' for this page or it won't load:
Tools>Quick Preferences>Edit Site Preferences>General tab

2) Preferences dialog setting:
Preferences>Advanced>Loading
set to 'Redraw instantly'

3) Get the latest Flash Player plugin for Opera at:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P2_Platform=Win32&P3_Browser=Netscape
Enjoy!

Loving the new additions, thank you so much!

One thing I've been wanting to see for awhile would be bullpen information - who is throwing in each team's pen. There have been many times when I have been following games on Gameday, my team's pitcher is getting shelled, and knowing that the manager has at least got a reliever up and throwing would have calmed me down a little. Any possibility?

re: white screens
Be sure you set your browser to allow pop-ups for this page. Otherwise it won't load, even though Gameday doesn't launch a pop-up. Don't know why, but it works that way

Forget about the graphics - the data is what I need and this is messed up. A new batter comes up and all the pitches from the previous batter are displayed with the new guy's name. A batter gets hit with a pitch and then puts a ball in play on the "next pitch." This is not right.

The new look rocks. It just gets better and better. I've used Gameday Live for a number of years, following out of town games, so I've got some experience in using it. You guys are doing good. I remember what this looked like the first year. Trust me, anyone complaining just likes to complain. Great job!!

Exactly what apter57427 said: Why does the data keep getting messed up when batters change? Gameday sometimes doesn't show you the result of a batter, and then the next batter's name just appears where the old name was, with the old batter's pitches still listed. This happened occasionally before the switch to "3D". Now it happens constantly. Please fix it!!!!

WTF:
They do not pay attention to this blog or don't care as long as they get thier money. Hot Springs Ar. belongs to four teams. I reguarly have anywhere between four and 6 games blacked out do to thier rules. I have Direct with the sports package and get east and west coast ABC NBC CBS FOX as well as have the local cable service. One of the blacked out games is on a station that I can see. 30 bucks for that......KC, STL, Texas, Houston all are blocked out. Then a game that is on national tv but does not warrent being seen here i can not get. Every email I have snet has been responded to with the typical "we can not control blackout rules crap" Is this NOT MLB TV?

Hey new topic about gameday here. Why have there been less highlights of the games available on Gameday as of late? you guys used to put EVERY scoring play and quality defensive play up on the video alerts. Is there a specific reason for this? Just would like to know, thanks.

You guys should inprove gameday by putting a section where it show's who is warming up in the bullpen.

I've noticed sometimes players with "." in their names don't display correctly. Example:
Mil vs. Wash 8/8/08 9th inning

Ryan Zimmerman grounds into a force out, second basemen Rickie Weeks to shortsop J. Hardy. Cristian Guzman out at 2nd. Ryan Zimmerman advances to 2nd, on throwing error by shortsop J. One Out.

There are 2 problems with that one.... it should be J.J. Hardy

Bos vs. ChW 8/8/08 8th inning

Dustin Pedroia homers (10) on a fly ball to left field. Jason Varitek scores. Drew scores. One Out.

Should be J.D. Drew

Hope this helps!

gameday sucks. it would be nice if it just works. so many times it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo delayed. and it is sooooooo cowardly. put back in the strike zone box....... you think we can't tell how bad the umps are? the umps should have to watch the whole game they call to see. how can they be soooooo bad? stop trying to be soooooo clever and make it work and then leave it alone.

How do you turn it off and go back to the old version? This version is too sophisticated and slows down my system. Too much sugar for my diabetic computer.