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RaychelSnr · 01-16-2009, 04:53 PM

Ever get frustrated by the fact that only a handful of plays in your favorite team’s playbook are actually useful? Have some creative ideas of your own that you would like to try on the field? Do you just want to re-create the plays you used to run in the glory days of your high school/college career?

Unless your sport is hockey and your game is NHL 09, you are out of luck, because for some unknown reason, sports developers have decided to keep the virtual coach inside all of us bottled up for well over a decade.

Read More - Stagnancy of the "Create-A-Play" Feature in Sports Games

J.R. Locke · 01-16-2009, 05:36 PM

Great article!!!! I am in just about every forum here rallying for a create a play feature. To me it is the most important aspect of sports games. It is the most easily identifiable "AI" and if give the tools would greatly enahnce sports games.

The lack of create a play/playbook editor is the biggest feature missing in all sports games. If you would have told me back in 1998 that sports games would regress in this area I would have said what is the point in buying the games then? Sometimes I still wonder why I do.

I sure do hope those developers prove us wrong! Great article!!!

MC Fatigue · 01-17-2009, 11:26 AM

I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the lack of AI these days.

Seems create a play can really be used to just completely take advantage of what is some pretty poor AI programming in sports games these days. I kind of wonder if developers are leaving such a mode out because of this.

Acedeck · 01-17-2009, 02:09 PM

I think create a play is most definitely left out of games due to that reason, Timmay. There's already tons of money plays in football and basketball games. Being able to customize the cheese could definitely make things challenging on the programmers with regards to the CPU AI. It didn't break NHL 09 because there's only so much you can do in hockey. There's just five guys and the puck. In football, creating plays could definitely break the AI, if people abused it (which they would, as they already abuse every little loophole in the games as is).

I'm all for customization personally. I really wish a football game had a create-a-play feature. I just don't know how great it'd work out in the ranked lobbies of Cheeseville, USA. For playing against fellow sim gamers, I could see it being a fantastic addition. With the lack of innovation in football games these days, I'm shocked something as simple as creating plays hasn't made it into the games. It's only been like 20 freaking years now! Come on!

b psycho · 01-17-2009, 03:03 PM

If I could create plays in NBA 2k9 I'd never use the ones that were built in.

I don't know how well the plays reflect what teams actually run in real life, but it seems like a lot of them run the Motion offense -- which is IMO terrible -- so I always have to remember to switch the playbook to "all plays" so I can change it.

kjell1979 · 01-17-2009, 03:52 PM

The football games need to take a page out of the Front Page Sports Football Pro create a play editor. I'm floored that no other game has really come close to it.

duke776 · 01-17-2009, 05:00 PM

Quote:


	Do you just want to re-create the plays you used to run in the glory days of your high school/college career?

I can't speak for myself as I decided against playing football in high school, but I know my brother would always re create his high school defensive playbook on madden. He would've rather done it on college football, but there wasn't an option to(except on a couple versions on the ps1).

As for me, I just like to see if my ideas would work, though they usually didn't...

Jared99 · 01-18-2009, 12:18 AM

It's ironic that you didn't mention the new Football Mogul. I could see how a text sim would slip under the radar. I basically agree with James over at 'OutOfEight' (http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/2008/11/football-mogul-2009-review.html) that FM this year hasn't changed a whole lot (and I don't like the dark color scheme) but the new play editor is awesome. It's fun and intuitive to design new plays -- all the info on player ratings is right there so you can build the playbook to your strengths. It sure beats the hours it can take in Madden to enter just a couple -- and you can save as many playbooks as you want to your hard drive and even re-design plays in the middle of a game if you want (this really comes in handy if one of your stars gets injured). I wish the big companies would take some lessons here.

01-16-2009, 04:53 PM	#1
RaychelSnr Executive Editor OVR: 57 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Oklahoma City, OK Posts: 4,846 Blog Entries: 490	Stagnancy of the "Create-A-Play" Feature in Sports Games Ever get frustrated by the fact that only a handful of plays in your favorite team’s playbook are actually useful? Have some creative ideas of your own that you would like to try on the field? Do you just want to re-create the plays you used to run in the glory days of your high school/college career? Unless your sport is hockey and your game is NHL 09, you are out of luck, because for some unknown reason, sports developers have decided to keep the virtual coach inside all of us bottled up for well over a decade. Read More - Stagnancy of the "Create-A-Play" Feature in Sports Games

01-17-2009, 11:26 AM	#3
MC Fatigue Banned OVR: 29 Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 4,153	Re: Stagnancy of the "Create-A-Play" Feature in Sports Games I wonder if it doesn't have something to do with the lack of AI these days. Seems create a play can really be used to just completely take advantage of what is some pretty poor AI programming in sports games these days. I kind of wonder if developers are leaving such a mode out because of this.

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01-16-2009, 05:36 PM	#2
J.R. Locke Banned OVR: 31 Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 4,137 Blog Entries: 5	Great article!!!! I am in just about every forum here rallying for a create a play feature. To me it is the most important aspect of sports games. It is the most easily identifiable "AI" and if give the tools would greatly enahnce sports games. The lack of create a play/playbook editor is the biggest feature missing in all sports games. If you would have told me back in 1998 that sports games would regress in this area I would have said what is the point in buying the games then? Sometimes I still wonder why I do. I sure do hope those developers prove us wrong! Great article!!!

01-17-2009, 02:09 PM	#4
Acedeck Pro OVR: 16 Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Kalamazoo, MI Blog Entries: 6	I think create a play is most definitely left out of games due to that reason, Timmay. There's already tons of money plays in football and basketball games. Being able to customize the cheese could definitely make things challenging on the programmers with regards to the CPU AI. It didn't break NHL 09 because there's only so much you can do in hockey. There's just five guys and the puck. In football, creating plays could definitely break the AI, if people abused it (which they would, as they already abuse every little loophole in the games as is). I'm all for customization personally. I really wish a football game had a create-a-play feature. I just don't know how great it'd work out in the ranked lobbies of Cheeseville, USA. For playing against fellow sim gamers, I could see it being a fantastic addition. With the lack of innovation in football games these days, I'm shocked something as simple as creating plays hasn't made it into the games. It's only been like 20 freaking years now! Come on!

01-17-2009, 03:03 PM	#5
b psycho Rookie OVR: 2 Join Date: Jun 2007	If I could create plays in NBA 2k9 I'd never use the ones that were built in. I don't know how well the plays reflect what teams actually run in real life, but it seems like a lot of them run the Motion offense -- which is IMO terrible -- so I always have to remember to switch the playbook to "all plays" so I can change it.

01-17-2009, 03:52 PM	#6
kjell1979 Rookie OVR: 8 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Oxford, Mass	The football games need to take a page out of the Front Page Sports Football Pro create a play editor. I'm floored that no other game has really come close to it.

01-18-2009, 12:18 AM	#8
Jared99 Rookie OVR: 2 Join Date: Jan 2009	It's ironic that you didn't mention the new Football Mogul. I could see how a text sim would slip under the radar. I basically agree with James over at 'OutOfEight' (http://jaguarusf.blogspot.com/2008/11/football-mogul-2009-review.html) that FM this year hasn't changed a whole lot (and I don't like the dark color scheme) but the new play editor is awesome. It's fun and intuitive to design new plays -- all the info on player ratings is right there so you can build the playbook to your strengths. It sure beats the hours it can take in Madden to enter just a couple -- and you can save as many playbooks as you want to your hard drive and even re-design plays in the middle of a game if you want (this really comes in handy if one of your stars gets injured). I wish the big companies would take some lessons here.