Wait 'til Next Year - tanchl's Blog

tanchl's Blog

Wait 'til Next Year

Posted on December 7, 2013 at 09:04 AM.

Another year of video football is beginning to wind down with the stretch run of the real season upon us (though the video season goes way beyond the end of the real seasons). Another year of experiencing last year's "Wait until next year." Ever since the move to current generation football I have experienced this annual problem of wanting to play a football game so desperately but having to settle for a shortcoming of the experience. I try to think back to my Sega, Ps1, and Ps2 days and remember if I had this same feeling from year to year, probably not. Not that there were any reason to because the experiences in those days far exceeded the video game experiences of the likes of Coleco's Head to Head Football, Mattel's handheld game, Electric Football,or Xor's NFL Challenge that I had grown playing. As I am well underway into my adult years I have grown accustomed to having all that I desire; pretty arrogant I know, and I feel guilty for becoming so spoiled and demanding as a consumer. That's just the way it is.

The main feature in a video football game that I "wait until next year" for is full representation of penalties, yet year after year this vital element is ignored and totally under-utilized. I've read all the arguments that penalties are not want the casual gamer wants but I don't buy that one bit. There are penalties or there isn't; a simple toggle feature gives both the casual gamer and the sim gamer their choice. As I watch football each weekend at all levels of competition, I am continually reminded how vital penalties are to the outcome of football games. It's the element that provides the most controversy and the most drama. The variety of the penalties and how they affect the game is quite dynamic.

Not only does the current video football game not fully utilize the most common of penalties that are included in the game design, but have excluded penalties that have tremendous impact on the game: penalties such as defensive holding, illegal contact, and personal fouls. According to NFLpenalties.com, there are an average of 3.47 defensive holding calls per team per game, .69 illegal contacts, and 1.72 personal fouls. Imagine those roughly five calls called during a Madden game and how it would impact the quality of experience. I for one would be in heaven with that kind of experience.

My personal opinion, the current penalty system at its base is flawed. Having sliders for individual penalties is just wrong. As I mentioned before, there should be a simple penalties on/off choice. If penalties are on, any penalty that could be committed in a real game of football has the potential to be called and the potential for such penalty is integrated with each player's ratings. If a player has a low discipline rating, he has a higher probability to commit a penalty; if the player has a high aggressive rating, he has a higher probability to interfere or commit a person foul, as examples. The realization of this kind of system hit me while playing Madden this year and seeing (one time and one time in my life) a personal foul on a tackle out of bounds. The call totally shocked me and quite frankly excited the heck out of me.

I regret being spoiled, but just like a spoiled kid I can't really blame myself, the blame is full on the advancement of technology and programming. We see quality representation of sports from various titles that have managed to implement the most vital elements of its game. Sadly, football isn't one of them. I am an optimistic sap who isn't losing hope, "wait until next year" will always be my mantra; but hopefully for not too many more years.

Comments

# 1 tril @ Dec 9

cosign!!! good write up.
EA purposefully refuses to expand its player attributes. what good is a penalties slider if they arent included in the players attributes.
Seriously every player should have every penaly attribute, along with the dicipline/aggressiveness feature that you mentioned.

it's an easy fix that EA refuses to implemnet properly.

# 2 jaynral @ Dec 10

NO excuse for next year on next gen....they now have the disc space, technology, and ideas to make it happen...if its the same old stuff again, that should tell us thats football video gaming is over until another comp[any take a chance and make one..**fingers crossed**....yeah right...lol!!!!!