What All Sports Games Could Focus on Improving in 2017

[jpollack34]

^Agree. The games you mention (Madden, Fifa, MLB The Show) I tend to agree.... They are very very generic. And as such lead to boredom. I would add NHL in there as well. It's insanely generic.

Player individuality and team individuality are sorely lacking, but for two exceptions... NBA2K captures player individuality nicely, but could probably do better with respect to team individuality. PES takes it even further, not only capturing player individuality but team individuality as well. It's brilliant.

Individuality is an absolute key in sports games.

[DaSmerg]

If a dev team just copied the top 7 posts here and took them back to meetings room and broke them down to tangible improvements, I'd wanna buy that game and buy copies for 3 friends of mine.

It's these kind of improvements gamers and fanboiz alike have been clamoring for.

[Mike Lowe]

Nice read, Kevin. I agree that more time and energy should be spent on a games' core and not necessarily card trading and the like, but money is so tied into all of these decisions that it'd be hard to image a team grounding themselves and focusing on the fundamentals. It almost seems backwards when you say it, but that's a bigger risk today than...taking a risk.

[Caulfield]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpollack34

Customization, Customization, Customization! The future of gaming will be all about putting power in the gamer's hands via customization and edit modes.... Any company that tries to pull control away from the user will be on the wrong side of history.

This is exactly the direction I want to see sports games go, esp. MLB The Show.
And the smallest of things too, like renaming umpires and setting their tendencies the way you want them. Even things that might just be cosmetical, like personalising the team owners and general managers names. No reason why I shouldnt be able to edit service time or rename coaches and managers. Heck I should even be able to edit stat numbers and if I want my season to say 1987 instead of 2017 I'd like to be able to edit that too. Anything and everything that allows the end-user to fully immerse one's self. I'm for.

[drugsbunny]

It depends on the sport:
Baseball: I would like to see them take it back to what mvp 2005 had to offer. I would like to see a real team creation and dynamic stadium attendance and improvements. If I am a new team that only has 5000 fans attending games, the audio and environmental visuals should reflect that. Once the play is done, I should still be able to toss the ball around and enjoy myself until I feel the need to continue play.

Basketball: I feel that 2k17 hit the right stride as far as gameplay and such. I would like to see the my player experience expand to life outside of basketball. With the money I have earned, I should be able to buy houses and or cars that can be explored. I would like to have a more open world experience than a linear storyline. I would like to see a more robust player creation system. Not just assigning attributes but taking the workout exercises that are available and tying that into the player creation. Back when Kush games was the developer, you had a very robust player creator that allowed you to adjust, forearm, biceps, wrists, waist and all. Lets go back to that.

Football: There have been so many things that I have been done in football games that are now being ignored by game developers. No matter how many times you invent the wheel, in order to work, it must still be round. The recipes for a a great game are there, just dive into history. You had a dynamic stadium and franchise system in the past that allowed you to actually build your own stadium how you wanted. Give us a varying animations that tie into the ratings systems in a more organic way. Make ticket and concession prices matter towards attendance and let us see the dynamic crowd change. If I can leave footprints in the snow, why doesn't my body follow suit once tackled? Why does my football still clip through objects like back walls and sideline players. Once the whistle blows, why can't I hit afterwards and risk penalty or ejection. These are things that would close the gap and add layers of fun and strategy.

I don't really play hockey and soccer to really understand the nuances of the sport. I enjoy them as long as I turn off icing and offsides.

[XFLFootball]

I would like to see Madden one day allow people to edit their uniforms, logos, and stadiums in franchise mode when relocating.