Please, Make Sports Game/Player Ratings Matter. - Dagan's Blog

Dagan's Blog

Please, Make Sports Game/Player Ratings Matter.

Posted on September 22, 2022 at 04:54 PM.

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This is a decades old, vicious (albeit, playful often) debated circle around these parts but in also many other forums and in countless work breakrooms. Not to pick on Madden, but I'm just going to go through the back and forth's using Madden as example:

THEM: We now have Superstar X-factor boosts to separate the elite players from the rest.
ME: Or you could just make ratings sliders absolutely matter and that by adjusting all of those specifically to be why any one player is simply better than another.

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THEM: We have added a new fatigue system.
ME: There's a Stamina rating slider for each player, bro. How about just making it matter, and there, done, it's all you need to set/adjust to make almost all of the players fatigue differently.

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THEM: We added a momentum meter that will boost players over others.
ME: If just the freaking ratings sliders mattered and were only there, everyone would already have to play to the strengths of their players compared to their opponents players. We'd have to coach, play-call and execute with set rated players to find and/or utilize strategically how to win and/or grind out a come from behind victory. You know, kind of like real life sports?

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THEM: We created a new, free form passing mechanic to make elite QB's stand out.
ME: What if...hear me out...what if ratings just mattered, that's all there was and that's the reason why a QB is just better than another? Wouldn't that be simple and pretty cool?

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Those are the most obvious ones to point out. There are many others. And again, it's not just Madden. All of the sports games have them, now. It makes the simulation modes fall right back into arcade tropes. It's worse if you choose to play the modes actually called, "arcade" modes.