Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

[RaychelSnr]

Sports gamers are a difficult bunch to get along with -- I would know since I'm part of that bunch. We used to be happy with decent on-field action and a patched-together season mode.

Oh how things have changed.

Now it's almost fitting to compare modern sports gamers to fans of role-playing games. Ardent RPG fans demand nothing less than perfection. Woe is the developer that does not live up to the latest Final Fantasy. Woe is the developer who does not understand the subtle differences between a wood elf and a high elf. You get the idea.

Scoff if you will, but the fact of the matter is that aficionados of sports games are not much better. In fact, I would argue that we have become worse. We demand that our games be authentic, replayable, and somewhere further down this list, enjoyable. Sports games have turned us into monsters, highly educated and discerning monsters.

Sp let us take a look at what the modern sports game must include, as well as some of the culprits that have raised our expectations to these heights.

Read more - Who is to blame for sports gamers being so picky?

[ChicagoSparty]

I'd add "Father Time" to your list. Video games had just come around when I was a kid. 30-some years later and you expect something more. And, I should add, we are getting much, much more.

[Logic Doctor]

Well written. We are pretty picky bastards, but only because we want the best.

Meaty Dynasty's 4 life!!!

[elgreazy1]

I think the consumer has EVERY RIGHT to demand excellence out of sports games, especially since unlike any other genre of gaming, we are subjected to yearly releases of said games. NFL, NCAA's, NHL's, NBA's, etc are merely nothing more than roster updates from year to year with a few new bits of programming, maybe a half-hearted new game mode, and bits of polish added with each installment. That's it. Yet the consumer is expected to shell out $60 each year for a game and if they don't, they end up with no one to play with on online servers (many dev's do discountinue server services for older sports games).

You don't see this with any other line of gaming, in fact, look at the backlash Left 4 Dead 2 is getting. That spectrum of gamers is downright irrate at the fact that they're being force-fed a new installment of a game within a year when normally they expect 2-4 year life cycles of games mainly because: A) the content is not worthy of a new game, B) little to no additions to the gameplay & C) litte to no additions to game modes. Doesn't that sound familiar? Sports gamers, unfortunately, pay 3 to 4 times the amount than any other genre of games and so we should demand the best bang for our buck.

[TreyIM2]

Don't have the time to read through your blog but 2 quick things - WOOOOOWWWWWWW, at the NHL screenshot from the Genesis. That did something to me, deep down. My friends and I used to play that game RELIGIOUSLY and to see that shot sent shivers down my spine. I don't play the NHL series like I used to and haven't bought one in a very long time but I plan to get NHL 10. Looks GREAT!

And, 2, I just think real life makes people demand more of their vid games. Art imitates life, right? There ya have it. I remember ALWAYS wanting the MOST out of sports games and even wrote EA when I was in middle school with suggestions and constructive criticisms of Madden, back then. They actually responded to me but with some generic letter but whatever.

I will read this when I get more time then give feedback. Peas.

[Phoenix29]

Re: Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

I find its not just sport gamers, but think about it, if someone was playing WOW, and all of a sudden there was a glitch in the game that stopped them from enjoying a part of the game they would complain to Blizzard, and then Blizzard would make a patch. A game that was supposed to be game of the year, Two Worlds, got killed in the market because the game turned out to be horrible because of many different glitches. It is just that sport games involve almost everyone because most people at least have one sport they are interested in, sometimes more than one.

[GreenGlen]

Re: Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

The marketing department. If you market a game as a simulation or realistic representation of the sport, then you have set high expectations. Maybe they should market a game as an arcade or hybrid sim/arcade if they can’t tolerate the critical reviews.

[Naednek]

I blame operation sports. There, I said it.

[Steadtler]

Whats to blame are gamers who critizize developpers without realizing the kind of constraints they work under. Let me explain...

Simulating a complex team sport on what amounts to a fancy toaster will always leave obvious differences between reality and simulation. The flaws in the now-modern simulation being obvious to them, gamers assume that either -the developpers didnt notice the flaw *or* that they didnt care to fix it. Gamers couldnt know that fixing the flaw would taken too much memory, or that it would cause another problem, or that maybe the licencee doesnt *want* the flaw fixed, or maybe fixing the flaw would make the game frustating, or maybe there just wasnt enough time to address the issue.

While gamers are busy telling the developpers that their new game ISNT a perfect simulation of the sports (which the developpers know, duh), sports gamers are missing the fact that sport simulations are among the most sophisticated games out there.

On previous generations the game and reality were so far appart that no one really expected a simulation, it was only a "game based on hockey", etc. Its kinda like the uncanny valley... on the snes no one gave a damn about madden not having helmet straps.

I guess my point... stop worrying and start loving the game?

[jdareal21]

It's funny, I just posted something quite similar in my blog from yesterday, but it needs repeating. I come from the days of Turbo Grafx-16, Atari, & Vectrex, and I'm always blown away at the sheer amount of criticism sports games come under nowadays.

Now granted, if the game stinks it deserves to be known and ridiculed for it, but I can't understand the outright hatred for some games, Madden in particular. Just from the Demo I can tell things are certainly headed in the right direction. I think alot of gamers in general need to get a grip

[TreyIM2]

Ok, read the blog but my thought still stands that life, itself, causes this, and in this case, the life of sports whether u watch and/or play sports. People just wanna see what they see in the actual games IN the game. That is the root of it, point blank. All the other things that have been said are just branches spawned from that initial rooting.

I have to agree about the NHL series actually drawing me into hockey, a bit. While I don't watch it on a regular bases, time to time, I may watch "my" Devils play or even the Rangers (I'm from NY but now live in Jerz) if a game is on. I, too, started off on the very first NHLPA game on the Genesis and I don't remember how. I am a gamer who was born before the first popular gaming console, Atari, and I grew up with NFL football as my first love but could play ANY sport very well, even from the get go (just gifted, that's all - lol), and got into basketball as my second love. Every other sport is way behind those...wait, I just remembered how I started playing NHLPA - My boy's roomate in college had a Genesis and when I would visit, they would be playing NHLPA so I got into it, too, and became addicted.

[Steadtler]

If I may add something... the author mentions NHLPA Hockey as an ideal example of gameplay. Lets face it, you cannot have the same *kind* of fluidity in gameplay when controlling complex 3d, fully animated players that must look like real-life at the user`s whim as when those players where 2-frame sprites colliding as circles on a flat world. As the representation becomes more realistic, gameplay will authomatically become more constrained. If you want to go back to a gameplay similar as NHLPA Hockey, you would need to accept players clipping together and animating unrealistically.

[pfunk880]

Re: Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

I think the consumer has EVERY RIGHT to demand excellence out of sports games, especially since unlike any other genre of gaming, we are subjected to yearly releases of said games. NFL, NCAA's, NHL's, NBA's, etc are merely nothing more than roster updates from year to year with a few new bits of programming, maybe a half-hearted new game mode, and bits of polish added with each installment. That's it. Yet the consumer is expected to shell out $60 each year for a game and if they don't, they end up with no one to play with on online servers (many dev's do discountinue server services for older sports games).

You don't see this with any other line of gaming, in fact, look at the backlash Left 4 Dead 2 is getting. That spectrum of gamers is downright irrate at the fact that they're being force-fed a new installment of a game within a year when normally they expect 2-4 year life cycles of games mainly because: A) the content is not worthy of a new game, B) little to no additions to the gameplay & C) litte to no additions to game modes. Doesn't that sound familiar? Sports gamers, unfortunately, pay 3 to 4 times the amount than any other genre of games and so we should demand the best bang for our buck.

I think this is very true. Although there are a few genres/franchises that also run on yearly release cycles (Call of Duty and Guitar Hero come to mind), sports games are by far the biggest when it comes to pumping out a new game at the same time every year.

I think the other problem is simply the fact that sports are something that we see every day in real life. Other genres are usually either based on things that can't actually happen for real (sci-fi games, etc.) or things that most of us don't do in real life (FPS games). We watch or play sports all the time, though, and now that the graphics have gotten to the point they are now, they look much closer to what we see on TV than they did in the 16-bit era. I think this has altered perceptions and expectations quite a bit.

[savoie2006]

Re: Who Is To Blame for Sports Gamers Being so Picky?

Scoff if you will, but the fact of the matter is that aficionados of sports games are not much better. In fact, I would argue that we have become worse. We demand that our games be authentic, replayable, and somewhere further down this list, enjoyable. Sports games have turned us into monsters, highly educated and discerning monsters.

Ain't this the truth!! The days of Techmo Bowl and Double Dribble are so far gone. I didn't give a rats those days about attributes, roster accuracy, and such. It was all about putting in the game and getting busy. Now days though people spend the first hours of having a game checking the rosters, player attributes, tweaking settings, and more. Then once they start playing the game they start over analyzing the gameplay. Well passing is too fast, the animations don't look right for this and that. Heck even before we get the games people are nitpickin gameplay pics to shreds. Who's to blame, technology.

[Shadymamba]

you know we are not picky...well not all of us lol..but all i want is for companies not to rush the release date w/o making sure everything is cool...nobody test anything anymore or if they do not fully and then consumers have to wait for patch after patch...I would rather wait until october or november for madden to come out instead of august if it played like it would after the patches and that goes for all games no reason to rush we will buy it regardless lol