Who's to Blame for Cheese Play? - Joborule's Blog

Joborule's Blog

Who's to Blame for Cheese Play?

Posted on January 6, 2009 at 09:29 PM.

(3)

Remember the days before online play hit the console? Where our form of multiplayer in sports games were from bringing some buddies over and just kicking it playing Madden or NHL? It was always a great time and there was always the one time when a friend (or you) would use a cheap play to get a score. The penalty for doing that would usually result in a sore arm due to getting punched there from a displeased colleague. Once you played the game a fair bit, you figure out some of the AI and physics exploits that you could take advantage of, but in the spirit of fair play (and being able to move your arm), you would avoid using those moves most of the time to keep the game fun and exciting. The days on Super Nintendo and PlayStation One are gone and gaming technology has only expanded since then. Along with it, our expectations in game authenticity has greatly increased at the same time. Gaming stepped up to the challenge and has become a lot more realistic in a short time. The physics and animations has improved, the artificial intelligent has learned very fast in the past decade and over, and those cheap plays are getting harder to come by because the AI and physic nature of the game prevents it from being effective. At least, it should be. There are still some goals or plays that are �money plays� and still highly effective to be successful on when attempted even with the in depth AI systems that are in sports games now.

Enter the online multiplayer world.

In the first ten games of entering the online world you�ve may have immediately realized three things. One, you are most likely not the best player in the world anymore and there are players better then you. Two, this is the future of gaming and changes everything with how multiplayer is done. No more having to get buddies to come to the house. You can actually play your buddy who is across the street if you both have an internet connection hooked up to your console! Three, you�re going to get to learn to hate (or love) the �cheese�. Cheese is a coined term for a type of play style that takes advantage of AI loopholes that makes a play over effective compare to real life. Since you don�t have the chance to actually make people feel the pain for using a move like that all the time, you�re going to encounter it again and again because people want to win and rise to the top of the leaderboards for bragging rights. It�s not cheating since you are not doing anything abnormal, and it can be stopped more times than not if you take control of things yourself since it�s the computer not being programmed to prevent it. But it�s extremely boring, frustrating and unfair seeing the same thing over and over again since if a player is a master of a certain cheese move, they will find a way to complete it, where as if the AI had a bit of a brain, the success rate would be much lower. The revolution of online play has brought out an experience that can cause players to be turned off from playing the game. Players that aren�t that experienced or skilled, or even those that are experienced and skilled at the game may only play a few games online due to getting sick of the cheese play. Which in turn can end up in them stop playing the game period since offline mode doesn�t hold everyone attention for a full year. Online play is meant to extend the playability factor of the game since you can get a different experience day by day by playing new players each time. But what�s the point in doing so if half the players are going to make their gameplan based off of taking advantage of the ditzy AI to win. Realistic play style isn�t being rewarded because it�s not the most effective way of winning games.

But can they be blamed? If it wasn�t so easy to pull these things off, less people would attempt to use them, if at all, because it wouldn�t be worth relying your play on these plays because the success rate is too low. Players would look for alternative measures to find ways to win games. When those measures encourage using the same move over and over again when in real life would be stopped or slowed down over and over again, then why not use it; competition nature is to take advantage of weaknesses correct? Players are going to wrap around the net and shoot top shelve short side to get their goals. Might as well interfere with a player all over the ice because I�m never going to get a penalty call for it right? They are going to go for it on 4th down quite often because the slant routes are money to get 8 yards even with middle zone coverage all around where the ball is going. Might as well run backwards in the backfield to buy some time and throw it deep to my receiver pass by pass. If you want to be number one in the world on the leaderboards, you have to win. If you want to win $100,000 in an annual game tournament/reality show competition, you have to win.

So how does this come to an end so online play can be what it should be? Where unrealistic play is the most ineffective way to win games and the best players are those who play realistic and highly skilled? Is it even possible? Should leaderboards just be removed? Should these national game competitions be cut and all online play is about is 1 on 1 player games that don�t record records?

Well, no. Nothing has to change in structure. Realistic play should be the primary way win games. And the number one player in the world can very much be that by his realistic play and best stick skills in the online world. So what has to be done? Where does the blame come from and what needs to be fixed there?
The developers. They need to step it up.

As technology advances and games become more realistic, the expectations for what the consumer expects from a simulation sports game increases as well. We expect the AI to be good enough that the most basic plays and moves can have an offense and defence counter attack. When a player can wrap around the net and shoot top corner always because the goalie moves into the middle of the net way to early, that�s unacceptable. When a goalie goes into desperation save mode more times than not, due to a simple pass from the side boards to the slot, therefore leaving the top of the net open, that�s unacceptable. When I call a defensive coverage that has man coverage on a wide receiver, 4 middle hook zones to stop the slant route, and the receiver gets and 10 yard completions 8 out of 10 times, that�s unacceptable. These exact things in real life would not even be possible for pee wee level of play because the players would make it impossible for these to be successful just by positioning and reacting; never mind the AI adapting or other players intervening against the player attempting to create offense off of these plays. When the most basic plays becomes a method for cheese play, then the AI is simply not good enough. The physics and animation system isn�t up to good enough par either since it does factor into what is successful or not in the game as well. Because of these, some of the community is asking to make the game take some restrictive measures that are unrealistic compare to real life to counter act these abnormal play styles. Getting Fair Play in to prevent players the option from going on 4th downs because players go for 4th downs to often in Madden online is not the answer. People go for it on 4th down because the game makes it too easy for these players to get the 4th down. If it wasn�t so easy, then this wouldn�t be the case. If players defence are getting beat on 4th down still, then that�s the players not doing a good enough job of defence themselves. It�s important that we honour players freedom to play any play style they want and not restrict them with unrealistic measures. Thats the incredible thing about online play, the diversity in play styles and skills. But if the game played realistic and the AI is good enough that simple plays don�t become over successful, then realistic style would be the best way to win games because trying out things you wouldn�t see in real life sports just can�t be successful in game (unless they have terrific stick skills).

It�s the developers job to step up and make the game have the most realistic as possible physics and animation system therefore the players move in proper fashion in relation to their size and skills and what is possible thanks to the laws of physics. It�s key that the AI is intelligent enough that it adapts to the thing it sees time after time as well not get so easily fooled and learn when to be aggressive or conservative. If my defender is a shutdown corner, then he shouldn�t act like a complete buffoon when he gets beats once again on a slant play 5 times in a row. Make the #1 player in the world the best player in the world rather than the best cheeser in the world.

Comments

# 1 Acedeck @ Jan 7

In my opinion, much of the development time of sports games should be spent countering cheese. Rather than try to innovate every single season, try to cut out some of the cheese to make the game extremely enjoyable to play online. In the end, it's the developers fault for having cheese in their game. The people who take advantage of it are only being human. They are abusing a loophole in order to better their own record. They are the same type of people that pick up a wallet and keep it for themselves, just because they found it laying on the ground. It's there, so they take it. There's no repercussions for cheesing. As long as that's the case, and there's cheese moves out there, people will cheese.

# 2 65South @ Jan 8

Great, great post Jobo. Thoughtful, unbiased and very well written. It seems that everything you've touched on, gamers -- particulary those here at OS -- have been clamoring for years. Since many of the developers and designers claim to frequent OS and other gaming websites, I wish they would take the cries of the gaming public and the ideas of some VERY good posters of this forum into consideration for at least one year.

In agreement with Acedeck, I think these developers should slow down on trying to break the next great gimmick every year and focus on the gameplay at hand. I'd hinge a bet that a majority of sports gamers would take the previous years game with a few tweaks and improved gameplay over a new release with the next "great" gimmick or mode with the same old gameplay (NCAA 09 comes to mind here).
Make the #1 player in the world the best player in the world rather than the best cheeser in the world......Brilliant close!