Real.Com has a games division apparently, and has announced beta testing of a baseball strategy game it calls SmallBall. The kicker is the game combines baseball with virtual pet-like technology. According to a brief FAQ about the game,
The concept behind SmallBall games is to combine sports with Artificial Life (A-life) technology. When you sign up for SmallBall Baseball you get your own team, and each of the players are genetically unique. By training and interacting with them, you can improve their performance. You don’t do this by pitching and swinging as in a typical baseball video games – you win by getting to know your little players and caring for them to help them grow… kind of like Virtual Pets, only you can pit your pet ball players against others.
How exactly will this work,
Each player has his own set of genes. Each gene is expressed as a specific skill. Like running speed, Throwing power, Pitching skill, etc. Each player basically starts out the same, with low skills. But each gene in each player has an ‘elasticity’ value. This means the genes can change and change at different rates. Also, the ‘elasticity’ change changes over time. As a result each player is totally unique. And their differences become more extreme as they age and practice. So at first you may have a little rookie, but if you keep him fit and happy over time he may turn into a Babe Ruth!
Sounds like it might be worth a look.