Consoles limit what can be done well in (baseball) sports gaming - LetsGoPitt's Blog

LetsGoPitt's Blog

Consoles limit what can be done well in (baseball) sports gaming

Posted on March 31, 2009 at 12:08 PM.

If you're like me and a fan of sim-style sports gaming, you may have practically wet yourself at the news that MLB '09 the show was including all sorts of roster goodies like the 40-man roster and Rule 5 drafts that haven't seen the light of day since the days of All Star Baseball. And then you saw how these items were implemented and initially wanted to tear your hair out. The interface to manage your team is cumbersome at best, and labyrinthine at worst. But is it all the fault of the designers?

Initially, I wanted to say "yes," simply because the interface felt so clunky. Clearly they hadn't thought everything through and improvements needed to be made. But the more I used the system, the more it occurred to me that there really wasn't much the developers could actually do. Sure information could be more efficiently presented, but all of the button-pushing seems to be a necessary evil. Why? Because I think we've reached the limit of what can be done with a controller-based interface. Anyone who has played Out of the Park Baseball knows how much more elegantly things can be done if you can simply drag and drop names, or scroll around and have drop-down menus. This is the interface component that is missing from console gaming, and I don't think it's something that is readily solved. Unless players are going to be willing to plunk down extra money for a keyboard/mouse setup, or LCD touch-screens suddenly become readily available (and don't require a mortgage for purchase), I think we're going to be stuck with clunky roster-management screens for a while.

Comments

# 1 njd.aitken @ Mar 31

I really disagree with you regarding the implementation of features such as the 40-man rosters and Rule 5 draft, I thought they were rather well done.

A part from that though, regarding the whole topic of this post I would really agree that consoles do limit sports gaming, and a dynasty type mode in general. This is also very evident in RTS games on consoles as well.

# 2 LetsGoPitt @ Mar 31

I think the mechanics of the features is fine, but using them is another matter. At least until you get the hang of it.

# 3 stlstudios189 @ Mar 31

I agree that the features are done well it is just the way you have to work them is confusing untill you get it down.

# 4 smokeyvol @ Mar 31

I personally don't have anymore time for an MLB game that is deeper than MLB '09 The Show, but I can understand your point of view.

# 5 tsbraves @ Apr 1

At least you have 40 man rosters and rule 5. With an XBOX 360 we have MLB 2k9 where we can't even edit our own players as we would like. I'd take "clunky interface" any day!!

# 6 LetsGoPitt @ Apr 3

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the depth of the game, and the fact that the features are in there. I'm only saying that the ability of the player to USE the features is lacking, and that the problem is more related to the limits of the console and not the fault of the designers.