[brentech]

I've been playing offline dynasty since day 1, but I figured I'd see how the game played online today via ranked match. (First NCAA I've bought since 2002, played a lot of 07 Madden online and was fairly high ranked at one time, but I digress...)

I picked my hometown Buckeyes, opponent took Oklahoma.
Everything started like a straight game. I stopped him early forcing a punt and continued on with a long drive, mostly rushing, that ate up some clock. Put 6 on the board and he happened to time my kick right as having only played offline till that point, as soon as it came up I jack the stick back for my extra point....but anyways he blocked that.

I simply chalked that up to my rustiness of online play. Stopped him again, drove for a field goal.

Second half, had a long rush with Pryor for TD and was wise to let him go offside then kick. From there on out he starts pump faking for wide open catches that are insta-TDs.

Every point he earned was via the pump fake while I continued to just play straight up. Luckily he wasn't very good and that allowed me to burn the clock every time I had the ball back -- and still managed to get TDs.

He ended up DCing himself with 20seconds left.

Anyways, the point is I love to play straight-up football. It's an amazing sport and translates well into video games. Unfortunately, much like the internet giving people anonymity to say whatever they want with no regard to other people, online gaming has done the same thing to all types of video games.

Whether it's this glitch or another (some of which EA can fix), the true problem is the people playing the game. People will always cheat when there is no one there to enforce the rules. Sure, EA can create supreme AI, but then you can't beat it. They have to make sure the game holds up to football's likeness, but yet also have to account for the hundreds of little cheap things that the end-user can do.

With that in mind, how do you make a game that works flawlessly and plays realistically?
If you ask me, that's a very fine line to walk.

Again, EA can fix this pump glitch, but many other things they can't do much about without destroying the integrity of an actual football game. In the end, it all comes down to the people playing the game and what they make of it.

Love the competition that online gaming has allowed, but without a liaison between the game and the players, I can't see a future where this is ever corrected. I guess it's the virtual version of steroids destroying our games too...