Posted: 03-09-2018
So I haven't been playing much of anything lately, and what free time I was dedicating to any gaming, well, I've just been doing other stuff. Anyway, I still love reading and discussing trends/etc. in gaming as it pertains to my job quite a bit.
With that said, Chris Sanner of OS wrote a
nice piece earlier this week about franchise modes and what needs to change. Check it out if you haven't read it yet. It got me thinking too about what franchise needs to do.
We all know that card-trading/team building modes have ruled the day of late, and the popularity of these modes is undeniable. I started to think about what is it that might be able to top such momentum? How could franchise mode possibly bounce back and compete?
I came up with two simple terms both of which pre-date well before video games and is something ingrained in our DNA as human beings:
Community and storytelling.
It's the same reason why we get engaged in books, or when a friend is recalling a crazy story from their weekend, or even when we're browsing through Netflix looking for something to entertain us. It's the same way humans have connected with one another for thousands of years.
Community and storytelling are ingrained in all of us, and the way franchise can tap back into gamers of today is to integrate community and storytelling features into these modes.
So what might a franchise mode built around "community" start to look like?
Below are just a few mock-up screenshots, this time covering a mode called Leagues. This game, as mentioned above, is not real, but is just a fun little design project I've tinkered on over the months when I've had some random free time after work.
Leagues Home Page
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This is the Leagues home page. The Home section would show the basics such as standings, stats, etc. It's also where games would be setup to be played/simmed. I may put that screen together later on, but you get the idea. Options is the other screen not mentioned below, but this is where you could adjust the size of your league as well as other rules and settings.
Let's start by clicking on the Media button.
Media
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This is the media page which is almost entirely created by the members within your league. Each week, members can create various forms of content to share with their leagues. Whether it be simple recorded messages covering your latest team news (top middle), chatter from any of the active plugins (such as Discord and Slack, top right), podcasts which can be created by any member (bottom left), and even an NBATV-esque weekly show that covers the real NFL and the actual game with tips, plays of the week, etc (top left).
This is where the storytelling and community integration would really shine for the top leagues. This page can also be customized, much like NHL '18 has allowed people to design their own dashboard.
The weekly NFL show would also cover some of the most active and creative leagues to help give them some deserved publicity.
Let's back out of this screen and head back to the Leagues primary dashboard. Next, we'll click on the Workshop button.
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Workshop
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Leagues Workshop is inspired by the Steam Workshop that has helped reinvent customization in gaming. This screen is fairly self-explanatory, but this is where league members and commissioners could download, create, share, etc. their own designs to customize their league. Looking for some copmmunity-created college jerseys, helmets, and logos for your ambitious 130 team league? This would be the place to do that and would function similarly to the wonderful 2K Share.