[adembroski]

I think the key to making a good "sim" game and still having it be a good user experience is to identify what needs to be done in abstract and making sure that area is dealt with in a manor that doesn't detract from the experience.

One of the advantages that exist in American football that other sports don't have is that the actual on-field play time is only about 15-20 minutes per game. That means, I believe, we can be as realistic as we want to be without forcing the player to sit through a 3-hour game. Baseball shares this advantage, and that's why, I think, the most realistic sports games thus far have been baseball games (High Heat, MVP, and now The Show)

Hockey, Basketball, and Soccer on the other hand, have to deal with a continuously running clock that rarely stops, and is almost never running during dead ball situations (well, it does in soccer, but then it runs after the 90 minute mark to make up for it). So certain areas of the game have to be treated abstractly in order to make up the difference.

In basketball, this is generally the play setup. Meaning, watching the NBA, you tend to see a lot of situations where the ball is held in a spot for a long period of time while players get position, the point guard reads the play, etc. NBA 2k11 glosses over this, getting right into the ball movement. This allows the user to play shorter quarters but end up with a realistic number of possessions.

For hockey and soccer, it's a bit of what basketball does... you rarely see a man in FIFA hold the ball on a spot for an extended period of time... but also a lot of transition play. In FIFA, you don't see back-and-forth 50/50 balls as much as in real life, and in NHL, you see fewer changes of possession between the blue lines. The games encourage you to get into attacking position. Less time in transition equals more time on attack, and thus you can create a realistic number of chances on goal in NHL.

I tend to setup clock settings to create a realistic number of scoring chances. For NHL, I'm looking at time on attack and shots on goal (not just shots, as anyone can put up 30 shots, but how many of them were quality chances?). For FIFA, I'm looking at shots on goal and corners. In Madden/NCAA, it's total offensive snaps, and for NBA, I'll generally get the field goal percentages right then adjust to get the scores close.

In closing; no, I don't want to play a 2-3 hour game in order to have realism. I recognize the need to abbreviate some aspects of, particularly, basketball, hockey, and soccer. But within what the game decides to focus on, I do expect realism.