Thoughts on "Sim" Gaming - HealyMonster's Blog

HealyMonster's Blog

Thoughts on "Sim" Gaming

Posted on September 12, 2013 at 08:34 PM.

In the last 3 years Ive had sort of a "revolution" in my thoughts on playing video games. Certainly, being 32 has something to do with it. I am more mature, I have a kid now, and less time to devote to the scrutiny of video games. I, for the most part, try to enjoy them the best I can, in the time that I have available to enjoy them. Gone are the days of spending hours finding "cheat codes" and embracing "invincibility" in games like Grand Theft Auto. Now, I enjoy the experience, I enjoy the stories, and more or less I enjoy playing the game the way it was designed to be played.

At the same time, I have to admit, my play style, and desires have changed towards sports gaming as well. In 2001, I was at an Army school in Missouri, and I purchased a PS2. With the console, I purchased Madden, a game I played a lot of on the Sega Genesis in my teens. I probably hadn't seen a Madden in 4 years or so, so its no surprise I was amazed by it. I remember playing it non stop.

The game actually renewed my interest in the NFL. Because of Madden, I knew every player on the Titans. I knew the depth chart, and it took me from being extremely casual about the NFL, to being a die hard, eat, sleep, and breath fan of the NFL.

I quickly found OS a short time later, and connected with people like me. The truth is, on OS, I played sort of a heel role, my username was Renegade44, and I would more or less troll because I didn't give a crap about how the "internet viewed me", but nonetheless I embraced the sim lifestyle. Unless I was feeling "froggy", in the early years I didn't post much, just stayed around and learned the new traits of sim gaming, and played in some solid online leagues.

In 2004, NFL2K5 came out and changed my life. I joined an online league, and we had 32 teams, we all payed like 20 bucks, so there was a large payout, and it was a super sim league. We had lots of rules to abide by, and there was a leadership structure in place to enforce the rules. 2K5 had a online league website that looked like actual ESPN circa 2005, and the league made the most of it. We had all sorts of people doing news stories, power rankings, there were some intense rivalries going, I mean the guys in the league were all really into it. We never really seemed to complain about the game. When I played a league game, it was intense, it was extremely competitive, and I was really into it.

I noticed on the boards during the 2005-2006 NFL season, that the term "sim" started really becoming a part of the community. 2K5 players started playing Madden, and there was sort of a clash. Madden didnt have the sexy online interface or presentation that 2K5 did. What Madden had was a cult like following that "knew Madden". They knew how to play Madden, they were all about Madden. Some guys played sim, didnt drop back with the QB, didn't glitch, were all in all stand up people to play a game of Madden against.

Here in lies the problem. I cam over to Madden, and wanted to replicate my previous 2K5 experience. With 2K5, it was the "whole experience." The feeling I got week to week, the way the game would feel like I was playing an actual NFL season hooked me in, and when I joined a league, there was no cheesing, and it was about the stats, the players of the week, the PLAYOFFS, my god being in a race for the playoffs.

When I played Madden, all it really had to offer was the game of football. You join a league, with a bunch of rules, sure it was OK, but you had to manually input your stats on league daddy. You had to create your own web page to do anything special. With so many people playing Madden for so many years, we had to overcome ALOT more play-style issues. The rules doubled, it felt like more of a chore to enjoy the game.

Once the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 came out, Madden more or less became an issue more than a game. We have gone through directors, different goals with the franchise. One minute we are going to experience "on the field" gameplay, the next its "beyond broadcast", and all the while we have been here on OS, trying to turn Madden into an "experience". We have tried to run leagues, we have made rules, we have done whatever we needed to do to make it feel like an experience.

9 Years after NFL 2k5 was released, we have, in some aspects, gone in the opposite direction. Sim is still sim, but at 32, I am tired of a thousand rules. I am tired of not playing the game the way it was meant to be played. There is no story to Madden. There is no life. You play an online league, you make rules, you enforce them, for what? Every game is the same. There are so many rules that need to be made, there are more fights about the rules than there are solid members in the league.

Madden doesn't care what happened last week, or what will happen next week. It would be easier to run a league playing exhibition games. There is no experience. There is no, I am the Tennessee Titans, and I want to win the championship.

This leads me to the point of this blog. What is more important to a sim gamer? I can play a thousand games where my opponent doesn't drop back 35 yards before rocketing a 85 yard bomb to a rocket catch receiver. Awesome. Thanks for not cheesing. But what do we get for that? The game ends, and we go and play our next game. No news stories, no recaps, no experience. The 1% of people who run their own site and have some system in place to offer a similar experience is still putting in hours upon hours of extra work for something we were given in 2005 for 19.99.

What is "sim?" What is the point of it. Don't cheat, don't be a peckerwood. Enjoy the experience. Why is it so hard for Madden to be this way?

As a "sim gamer" the time of criticizing the fact that the online blocking doesn't mimic real life is over. its never going to be the same as real life, because it will always be fake. As sim gamers, we need to start demanding that the experience is real. We want commentary, and stats, and records, and league leaders, and playoff pushes. This is what we, as die hard football fans enjoy week to week.

In my honest and humble opinion sim gaming quite frankly does not mean what we have thought it has meant for the last 10 years. Sim gaming is the creation of an experience that makes us feel playing a video game , the way we feel watching the NFL on Sunday. Certainly rules can be put into effect and enforced, but this should not be the main focus of a video game, and I feel our feelings on "sim gaming" over the past decade have been misguided.

The NFL EXPERIENCE. Feel on a Wednesday, the way you feel on Sunday. That should be sim gaming, and a massive gameplay overhaul isn't needed to bring that into reality. Just a new philosophy.

Comments

# 1 tril @ Sep 13

GREAT AWESOME ARTICLE!!!!!
This should be on the front page.

You're experience with an online 2k5 league makes me regret that I never played on line with NFL2k5.

# 2 tril @ Sep 13

Your experience with an online 2k5 league makes me regret that I never played on line with NFL2k5.

# 3 majesty95 @ Sep 16

Interesting read but I'm kind of confused by the point you are trying to make. Are you saying that we could get true "sim" gaming on NFL2k5 before and that Madden has never reached that level or are you saying that your expectation of what is sim has changed?

# 4 Jimbo614 @ Sep 16

Here's what I picture going on in the Madden EA Playroom..
A bunch of young guys who are loving life because they have the ability to make Madden the way THEY always wanted it; Punch Button Thumb Smashing that looks something like the NFL.
The idea of someone wanting realism or sim is arcane to them. Why would anyone want a football game that's actually like the real thing? When they can have what "we" have...a kids video game where players score on every play and every play is an 80 yd td from RGIII?
I mean.. Sim is like so much over 30.And we're all 25, rich, good looking, drive Ferraris, and have hot girlfriends. We're in Geek Heaven.. All this Sim talk is such a drag... That's what I see going on in the EA Madden Playroom.
And therein lies the problem. They live in their own little perfect bubble.

# 5 HealyMonster @ Sep 17

Majesty, Mix of both. Im saying that when "sim gaming" came about, we had a bunch of different options, and the "total experience" in my mind is what made us "sim gamers" Less about rules, more about playing they way you are supposed to, and enjoy the game. Then when all we had is madden, there was less experience, and "sim gaming" went the way of 8 million rules, and less about just playing a game and enjoying the experience.