Saturday, June 23, 2012

Baseball Contract Analysis

We've been going through contract and salary data, in order to improve the artificial intelligence in Baseball Mogul 2013 and future versions.

Contract Lengths for Major League Baseball Players (n = 516)
We examined the 516 players on Major League 40-Man Rosters (as of opening day) that had reached either arbitration or free agency. The first fact worth noting is that the vast majority (84%) of all player contracts are between 1 and 3 years. The longer deals get all the headlines, but the shorter deals dominate team rosters.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Windows Screen Resolutions (and Operating Systems)

Baseball Mogul 2013 in a 640x480 window
Just an update for game designers and web designers, since it can be hard to find all of this information in one place. The following is a list of the most popular screen resolutions for Windows machines:

Resolution Share Width Height Ratio Type
1366x768 20.8% 1366 768 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
1024x768 17.5% 1024 768 1.33 Video (4:3)
1280x800 12.1% 1280 800 1.60 Widescreen (8:5)
1280x1024 7.0% 1280 1024 1.25 Video (5:4)
1440x900 6.4% 1440 900 1.60 Widescreen (8:5)
1920x1080 5.6% 1920 1080 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
1600x900 4.1% 1600 900 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
1680x1050 3.6% 1680 1050 1.60 Widescreen (8:5)
768x1024 2.4% 768 1024 0.75 Vertical (3:4)
1360x768 2.4% 1360 768 1.77 Widescreen (16:9)
1024x600 2.2% 1024 600 1.71 Widescreen (5:3)
1280x720 1.6% 1280 720 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
1280x768 1.5% 1280 768 1.67 Widescreen (5:3)
1152x864 1.4% 1152 864 1.33 Video (4:3)
1920x1200 1.1% 1920 1200 1.60 Widescreen (8:5)
800x600 0.9% 800 600 1.33 Video (4:3)
1280x960 0.7% 1280 960 1.33 Video (4:3)
1093x614 0.6% 1093 614 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
2560x1440 0.4% 2560 1440 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
1311x737 0.4% 1311 737 1.78 Widescreen (16:9)
Other 7.5%

Some facts to take away:
  • "1024 x 768" is no longer the most common screen resolution.
  • About 96% of Windows machines have a width of 1024 pixels or more.
  • About 75% of Windows machines have a width of 1200 pixels or more.
  • About 65% of screens are now "widescreen". That is, they have an aspect ratio closer to the new High Definition format (16:9) than the old Low Definition format (4:3). 
  • A significant share of monitors (probably 3-5%) are being used vertically.
And here's the operating system breakdown (among Windows machines):


Windows 7 Windows Vista Windows XP
Game Players 69.6% 12.6% 17.8%
Classrooms 62.8% 4.9% 32.3%
Installed Base 50.6%11.3% 38.1%
Average 61.0% 9.6% 29.4%