Strat-O-Matic

Richman lost money until 1963,[1] when his decision to release a game containing one card for each player in Major League Baseball resulted in greatly increased sales.

Strat-O-Matic's statistical research and game development methods are implemented with the intent of replicating athletes' abilities as accurately as possible, giving the gamer the feel of making managerial decisions.

The results on the player cards are determined by a combination of the respective athlete's real-life statistics for the previous year and (mostly in the case of the baseball game) independent research of news articles and scouting reports.

When the new Strat-O-Matic baseball cards are released each year in late January or early February -- an event that hundreds of players commemorate by showing up in the cold at the company's headquarters—controversy soon follows over the deservedness of such statistics.

Former major leaguer Doug Glanville is an avid Strat-O-Matic player and advocate of the company,[6] and his ex-teammate and noted gamer Curt Schilling also plays.

In the book Magic the Gathering: The Pocket Players' Guide, it was mentioned that Strat-O-Matic was a strong influence in the game design work of Richard Garfield.