Sports 2010: An Outsider's Perspective

23 Dec 2009 at 00:00:00 by Tim McDonald

With the new year about to dawn, thoughts (yes, I have them occasionally, albeit probably less frequently than those who sign my pay slips might wish) turn to what's coming next year. Right now, it's sports games that intrigue me, not least because as per usual we're going to see them in amounts that make the water that got into the Titanic seem like a trickle. I imagine all of the popular series will be represented: we'll likely see new FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer games along with new NHL, Madden, and NBA games, and we already know we're going to see more in the way of UFC.

Sadly, I rarely play the bloody things, so all of this is going to pass me by.

The last football game I actually bought was Pro Evolution Soccer 4 on the Xbox (the original black four-tonne behemoth, that is.) It was fun. I enjoyed it. I saw absolutely no reason to buy another football game the next year, and frankly, I haven't since. I've played more recent sports titles with friends, but none of them have grabbed me in any way that makes me feel I have to rush out and buy them.

I suppose there are a few sports games I can get into – Fight Night Round 4 kept me captivated for a couple of weeks – but by and large they don't hold my interest. As someone who rarely watches sports I'm not the target market, but y'know what? I think there are ways I could be made to be interested. At this stage it's probably fair to say that the gameplay is generally pretty good, as I've enjoyed what I've played, and that's not really my focus. What I want is a sense of involvement. Being that I don't really care about the actual physical sport, licensed teams and authentic codpieces don't really do it for me; I need something personal.

It's something a few games try every now and then. Don King Presents: Prizefighter had a good go at giving the player a personal connection by charting their character's career in a video documentary format, but was sadly let down by being quite shit. UFC Undisputed and Fight Night both let you create a fighter and improve his stats, taking him up through the ranks from rookie to champion. Even team sports have had a go, letting players create their own pro and use them in pretty much every mode in the game.

But what I need is something more than just a customised face and customised stats: I want a connection. I want some emotion in there, and not just in the sense of a particularly tense last two minutes of the match. I want to hate another fighter or another team; I want to loathe particular players because of their in-game personalities, and not because of the way they've been acting on the real, physical pitches.

Make me feel a genuine connection to my player, or my fighter, or my team, that doesn't rely on in-depth real-world knowledge. Make me hate teams and fear them; make me feel grudging respect for particularly worthy foes. Add some bloody personality. There's enough of it in sports in the real world, and I don't want to have to put my own feelings and emotions about the way it all goes in the real world into the game. Do this while still maintaining high-quality gameplay, and market the shit out of these features, and I can guarantee you that people on the fence – like me – will flock to the games.

Happily, I suspect we're actually moving in this direction. Modes that encourage this sort of thing are on the rise and are being toyed with more and more, with even racing games getting in on the action with driver personalities. Considering the attempts made by Fight Night, at least, to create a sense of rivalry with another boxer, I'd wager over the next few years this is the sort of thing we'll actually see ampiclass= thickbox"hls s3 thi sbrt" title="Madden NFL 10" href="/images/screenshots/11285orig.jpg " target="_blank">Or – and this might actually be a better idea - someone should just make Speedball good again. That'd get me buying one sports game, at least. After all, that was a game which managed to add genuine personality without even being based in the real world.

If fictional sports can do it, real-world ones should damn well be capable of it.

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