Could Sliders be needed less in '08?

[HitDoctor]

One thing about sports gaming that was always met with some ambivalence to me was the need/use of sliders. Rarely was there ever a sports game that gave you realistic results without tweaking the sliders. With all of the changes expected with madden this year, it may be a realistic game right out of the box (that is if the rating and fatigue system really works). It would be nice, for a change, to pick up a game and just play! (I realize we can do it now, but I think you all know what I mean).

[didy]

Quote: Originally Posted by HitDoctor

One thing about sports gaming that was always met with some ambivalence to me was the need/use of sliders. Rarely was there ever a sports game that gave you realistic results without tweaking the sliders. With all of the changes expected with madden this year, it may be a realistic game right out of the box (that is if the rating and fatigue system really works). It would be nice, for a change, to pick up a game and just play! (I realize we can do it now, but I think you all know what I mean).

To tell you the truth i hate playing around with the sliders as well but one thing i have noticed is that right now i play on all madden and i have left the sliders on default. I am getting very realistic games however my playcalling is much better and i try to use a play only once. I guess my point is that the better and more realistic you manage to play will counteract cpu's game play and thus get good games and realistic stats.

[Benz87]

i think the problem is we have the option of sliders. It makes us realize more that things are unrealistic knowing that we can try to change them. We get more picky. A while back we didnt have sliders and i think game were more fun back then. Of course i was only 11 or 12 then.

[fistofrage]

Problem with sliders is that you run a sample, tweak, run a sample, tweak and spend days if not weeks just testing only to realize you aren't getting completely realistic results in your dynasty. Rinse and Repeat. I haven't even completed 1 season on NCAA 07 despite playing 100's of games because I have 6 team dynasties that I always end up starting over about 6 weeks into the season because I can't get the stats to look right.

Bottom line, I miss Super Tecmo Bowl, where you just played, no sliders, just the game. Who cares if the stats got out of hand, it was just fun. Now it just gets frustrating. I think there is less responsibility on behalf of the developers to turn out a quality product because now there are sliders. Unfortunately sliders don't always work-Just look at the kicking sliders in NCAA.

[sleepytercel]

Without sliders, sports games were generally too easy. If you were able to beat the CPU on the hardest level every time, regardless of the teams played, you were pretty much stuck with how they played.

The developers can sit and come up with presets that they feel are realistic, but we all play differently, and we all have different interpretations of what realistic is. Since we are determining the realism based on how we play, sliders are needed to balance this issue.

If they went a Tecmo Bowl route and downgraded the game to such simplicity, there'd be a complete outrage. We expect the absolute most realistic experience that is currently possible. When you see posts of people noticing that certain players are wearing the wrong color socks, this simply display the nit-pick approach that gamers have on todays sports games.

Yes, tweaking the game can suck, but it also allows you to feel better about that large sum of money you just put out.

I am pleased with sliders, and games then didn't always play great right out of the box. My thought is that, we didn't pick apart every statistical flaw and gameplay issues back then. Gamers seemed to want to enjoy games. However, these games are getting way advanced (I couldn't imagine the struggle it was to capture every animation in NBA2K7, sort them out, and balance it to the correctness that was applied.), and there's several styles and ways that we can play todays sports games. Because the new games have so many more possibilities in its gameplay, and we have so many different styles of play, sliders are needed so that the game can fit everyone, instead of the minority.

[countryboy]

Sliders have become a game in themselves. And I don't care how great a game plays out of the box, people are always going to think that something needs tweaking and the madness begins from there.


Personally, I never mess with sliders. The reason.... once I mess with a slider, I will always mess with that slider. You are always thinking that you can make something better. You will never find perfection with a game and messing with sliders aren't going to change that fact.

[sleepytercel]

Maybe not, but they do generally improve the game. I'm no stranger to sliders, and I will tweak happy, but when I find that comfortable setting, the game becomes of more value to me.

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by sleepytercel

Maybe not, but they do generally improve the game. I'm no stranger to sliders, and I will tweak happy, but when I find that comfortable setting, the game becomes of more value to me.

I agree that they improve the game for the person who is tweaking the game, but I would much rather play the game out of the box.

The only sliders that I mess with are the penalty sliders and generally all I do is set those at 90% of the max value because I like to make myself think that there are "blown" calls in the game.