Get it? Full Metal Jacket, did you say it like that?
I've been back on OS for over a week now and have learned a few lessons which have not really been that pleasant to learn.
I found this site in 2008 when I put in my Head Coach 06 for the first time in a year or two and needed to look something up online. I typed in Head Coach oblivious that in just a month or two Head Coach 09 was being released. (Yes, go ahead, take a moment to imagine my surprise...done? Okay) A link to OS was listed in my results for Head Coach and I clicked.
Again, imagine my surprise when the people, the actual people that were
making the new Head Coach were on here
talking to people, to
everyone! I'll admit it now, I was a bit starstruck. (I'll brag about having Looman on my friend list here.) I even became a feature writer for OS, briefly. My articles were usually a bit too niche for the common sports video gamer and I found I would rather play my games than write about them and disappeared from the OS boards in early 2009.
What does all that have to do with the lessons I've learned? I popped in Head Coach 09 at the beginning of summer for the first time in a couple years and was playing throughout the summer blissfully until in one of my careers I accidentally opened up the Play Creator menu from the clipboard and enacted the
bug. It didn't take long for me to remember a lot of the other bugs there were and my memory quickly recalled that this forum was the place to go for answers. I really had no intention of coming on here though until I saw the commercials for the physics engine in
the NEW Madden 13 during a commercial. In the middle of playing my career as the Raiders coach, I was thinking how cool it would be just to have Head Coach with the graphics I was seeing on TV at the moment. So I headed online and my first search on YouTube brought up a video with "What, Serious?!" Looman talking about CCM. (Again, take a moment to imagine my surprise that once again
me beginning to play Head Coach again has spawned a new Head Coach being released, sorta) I debated for several days whether to buy M13 at that point. No, seriously, I DEBATED myself! I knew M13 would not be Head Coach 13, I knew it was too good to be true. (
I was right) But after watching the videos I made the decision that I was going to buy M13, heck be damned, because I was going to support the
possibility and
potential that if I bought M13 then perhaps it would evolve into Head Coach 14. (
I can't tell you if I'm right on that yet.) Again, what does all that have to do with the lessons I've learned over the last few weeks on here?
First lesson, like my articles, I realize now that I am a niche sports gamer. As sad as I am to say it, I'm not a Madden gamer. I began my video football career playing XOR's NFL Football. A great sim-engine that had illustrated play results with Xs and Os playing on a gridiron. The sim-engine was great, but it wasn't perfect I realize now. For instance, running a screen pass (3-6 were the keys you pressed to choose the play) against a 2 Man Under (2-5) would result in an interception at least 90% of the time if not 100%, but still, it was a
great sim-engine. What you did not do was use a controller. You were the coach, you simply chose the plays while your partner or computer chose their defense and you watched the result of your genius (the players were ratings based by the way which is why I say it was the Grandfather of Madden) play out on the 15 inch monochrome Mac512 screen with eleven Xs and eleven Os battling it out. I remember saying then to my brother, "WoW! Imagine if there was a way to watch real football players do this!" So that is the basis of me as a sports gamer. It is all about the strategy of football and not about juking or diving or hurdling or trucking around or through the defender in front of me. Had I been born later and Madden been my first football game, I'm sure I would be a gamer like the majority of people here in the Madden forum where being
on the field would be just as important as every other part of the game, but I'm not, and as much as I want Madden 13 to be my game. It can not be and I am okay with that
Second lesson, the Madden forum is different than the Head Coach forum. Most of you probably already know this, (but Head Coach was the only online forum I had
and have ever been on before M13.) but every forum has its own personality. I am not a fan of the personality of the Madden forum. I'm not judging others or saying anything but that they are different. Like their respective games, the forums of Head Coach and Madden illicit two distinct types of people. Forgive me if I am romanticizing or waxing nostalgic about the past, but I do not remember the Head Coach forum being as umm...
aggressive as the Madden forum was. The atmosphere of the Head Coach forum was about education, communication, and improvement. The developers of Head Coach were there because it served a purpose. There was true communication between them and the players of the game and we fed off of each other. The Madden forum as you can quickly ascertain from the titles of most threads on here are more about criticism instead of constructive criticism. (Yes, I know there are good threads and constructive criticism but I'm generalizing which is always faulty so, don't bother arguing those specifics, I concede) The Madden forum, like I said seems to be about being aggressive and conflict rather than contributing. I am not surprised that if the developers of Madden do peruse the boards, they do it inconspicuously to avoid the barrage of arrows constantly being fired on here.
Third lesson, I get frustrated at how much time I spend on here rather than
playing! Right now, I've got the Patriot/Raven game on, and I can't have DirecTV and PS3 going at the same time, so I don't get to play until Sunday nights during football season. Actually, what generated this posting in the first place is that I thought of a great concept I would love to see in the game but decided against posting about it because of, well, what I'm writing about now instead. Instead of playing the game at other times though, I find myself reading through the posts on here and I don't know why anymore. I'm not saying it is a waste of time, because it isn't, I think it is more of a personality flaw on my part: part of my compulsive behavior I suppose. Also, it leads to my next lesson.
Fourth lesson, everybody has their opinion and while having a forum to express them is great, you're not going to ever change anyone's opinion once they have decided what they think about a game. People will see what they want to see and will be oblivious to anything else. Cheating AI will always be cheating AI once someone has decided that is what they see. The developers can't change that, other forum members can't change that, the
video game can't change that, even
real life games can't change that. I don't know why I feel like it is my responsibility to educate and inspire people so that they can enjoy the game more, but I do. Which is why lesson three and four are so closely tied and why lesson two makes it a bit more frustrating.
I'm not in any way denouncing the forum, the site, or
any of its members because I am quite confident that all of the game forums serve the greater purpose of making their respective games better and I strongly believe it works. Developers and EA employees may be the Great Pumpkins on some forums but I have no doubt that the forums help them as much, if not more, than it helps us.
Finally, and I doubt anyone actually read every word here, but
is there a trophy for longest post?
Peace, love, and football however you like it <3