#1 Sports games are different because they are predicated on competition. Period.

#2 When people lose they blame the game or cheese. Period.

#3 Sports games are a microcosm of sports, therefore they'll always have a defined loser and unfortunately people don't like to lose... and generally when they do they never take responsibility. (see #2)

#4 Sore losers tend to masquerade as hardcore gamer's with strong opinions, so don't believe every complaint you hear.

I get what you mean but the "rational" complaints (which I understand somewhat gets drowned out by the whines of rediculous complaints). Most of us just want madden and other sports games to replicate that sport. Sports as it is is spontaneaus and unpredictable so it cant be identically replicated but just take the basics of it. Games like Nba 2k are far from perfect but it plays in a realistic way players move,react and make realisticly

I would say I hold all games to the same standard, I want them to work as advertised.
If the publishers and developers say the game will do X, then I expect that it will do X. I don't care if it's a sports game and FPS and RPG or some silly thing with a plastic guitar.
I believe that most gamers expectations are based on what the devs tell us in the months leading up to the release date. They go on and on during interviews in blogs at conferences that their game will do X,Y & Z.
Personally I lay the fault at the feet of these company's. They build it up and make statements about the games that have so far proven false. "If it's in the Game, it's in the GAME", "Everything you see on Sunday" (or Saturday).
It's fine for them to come out and say these things but if they prove false, people are going to complain, and they have a right to do so.
For me, I'm now going the route of renting games first. To many reviewers are either getting paid off or are too friendly with the devs to put out a bad review or preview. I'll put out $5 to rent and try it out before wasting $60 on broken promises.

I get the point you're trying to get across, the only problem is it's comparing apples to oranges. I expect games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty to be unrealistic. I know when I buy those kind of games that it doesn't represent real life and if it did it would probably be boring.

Maybe we as sports gamers are getting spoiled but our expectations are much greater for a realistic game. To date I feel like The Show is the most realistic sports game out there, although it's still flawed and can be improved. But I cannot explain in words the feeling I get when playing a game and I feel like I'm living it, all the way down to the final out. Same thing with the NBA 2K series. Every once in a while I play a game and it feels like I'm watching it live on real TV as I;m playing it. I get caught up in the drama of the game.

Now take Madden. Madden still leaves a lot to be desired. Between the horrible commentating to the suspect game physics it takes you out of that and the flaws stand out.

The best way to compare what I feel as a gamer would be if I bought Call of Duty and was promised certain maps, modes, game elements that just weren't there. I would feel cheated. If everytime I tried to get online I couldn't I would feel cheated. If the game didn't play the way it was intended to play I would feel cheated. I expect a more realistic game when I play a sports title (unless I just bought NFL Blitz or some other arcady game.) For me it's all about expectations.

Lastly, sports games in general are released every year and most of the time are little more than a major roster update. Every once in a while a game is overhauled or sports a major new feature but most of the time you could wait it out a few years if it wasn't for the rosters.

With games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, you are getting a brand new game. I don't think anyone would be that excited about buying Call of Duty if it was nearly exactly the same game that was released the previous year. But again, you really can't compare the two because they are different genres.

Sports games have the daunting task of not only having to simulate scenarios we see on the daily bases, but having to do so while maintaining the "fun factor." We can't hold Halo, GTA, COD, etc. to the former and easily get over any flaws or shortcomings when those games achieve the latter. The standards are unfortunately going to be a bit different. That does not excuse the overly sensitive microscope many put sports games under. I don't know how a prostitute should fall when punched in the face, or how a body should fall after being choked with fiber wire or what's the proper protocol for urban combat. When someone gives me a simulation of it, I have to assume its accurate. I do know how Cover 2 should be executed, when a coach should pitch hit for a reliever and how a pick-and-roll should work. When it's not properly simulated in a game, it obvious to me. It pulls away from the "fun factor." When team colors are off or uniforms are inaccurate, is it nit-picking to say it ruins the game? Surely. But if a action/adventure game was based on an actual city (not fictional cities in the GTA series) that we are all familiar with and it inaccurately depicted elements of that city, would there not be some negative response for that? Let's take the fanboys and chronic negativists out of the equation (basically, dropping the highest and lowest score), and I say sports games are judged on the standards specific for their genre.

this may be a bit off topic .alot like other people i have been thinking about this question for a long time. one thing what happened is that when the graphics improve we see more of the flaws happen. at the same time the devs need to notice this and fix it . i do think sports games operate under a different standard . some reasons are already listed in the comments ive reed . i'm a sports gamer and have to say i loved madden when it was on the ps2 . i can remember doing a fantasy draft and i could tell the difference between a average player and all pro . my d-line would get pressure every time .what im trying to say hear is if you have a great back field , d-line , o-line ,wr's it should show. one thing so far no one has mentioned is it so easy to program 11 vs 11 because other than fifa that seems to be the thing madden can't find the right engine for.i know games are not perfect but i don't expect to get a game that has things not working right out of the box .

I'm gonna use MLB for example. I love the blue jays. Growing up I always wanted to play for the blue jays. Unfortunatly I suck at baseball. Video games let me, in a weird way, live that fantasy. The closer the game is at replicating the real thing the easier it is to be immersed in that fantasy.

I have my complaints just like everyone else but most of the time they aren't deal killers. I have complaints about NCAA Football 12 this year but overall I've loved it and have had a ton of fun.

My biggest complaints are things that developers do that are baffling. For instance in past NBA 2K games, such as 2K11, you could change the color of socks, change ages, use legends in franchise mode and change their ages, and for some reason they take those options away for reasons that are inexplicable to me. These are the things that drive me crazy because there is no good reason for them to have taken those options away.

Everyone has different things that drive them crazy and some people have issues that makes the game unplayable. For some people in NCAA Football it could be something as simple as the poor cb/wr interaction, for me NBA 2K12 looks awesome, feels awesome but not being able to easily use legends, change ages (though not a deal killer), and no rookies (no fault of 2K) has caused me to really never get into a game. I'm not an online gamer, I play strictly offline, but some people that's important to them, you just never know.

It all comes back to immersion for me. It always has I think. If a sports game can draw me into it's "world", it's got me. An RPG with engaging characters, shooters with a great SP storyline with relate-able characters, or racing games with cars and tracks that are interesting to drive, it doesn't matter.

It's all about making me suspend my disbelief. In sports games, since we have a real life example as a marker to compare, it is always going to be tougher to match that. That doesn't mean however, that developers can cop out and say "Screw it, we can't simulate this, so let's just do our vision". That would be the worst idea they could have. Gamers have expectations, it's reality. Sports gamers expect those games to be a natural extension of the real sport and that should always be the goal of a "sim" natured sports game like NBA 2K and Madden/NCAA.

Any game, irrespective of genre, that is trying to replicate our real world in terms of visuals & physics has a massive job on it's hands. Sport games certainly come into this category as do the various PC simulator products such as Flight Simulator X.
While you quote some comments made in regards to the realism of games such as Modern Warfare, the fact is these games are telling their own story & doing their own thing.
Sport games are so difficult to script because we want to see what we see on TV & in real life. The reality is that whatever we see in a videogame is what the developers have decided to include. Therefore no matter how many different scenarios those developers create, with repeated playing we are going to see alot of repetition. Real live physics in games has made a massive impact in delivering variety within the actual gameplay but when it comes
to the immersion factors such as commentary, cut scenes & little moments such as the beachball being thrown onto the ballpark in MLB the Show, well then things start becoming a lot more finite.
Technology has given us the ability to recreate alot of what we see & hear in out favourite sports games but to create a real world environment with all it's variables is not only beyond current technology but something that realistically we are unlikely to see reproduced.
When watching sports in real life we sometimes see events that are not only rare but sometimes once in a lifetime occurrences. In theory a developer could spend time scripting lots of one off scenarios that are programmed to only ever play out once in the lifetime of any individual game but the time, effort & ultimately the cost of doing so makes this pretty unlikely. Repetitive, albeit rare sequences, such as the aforementioned beachball cut scene, are probably the best we can hope for in this regard.

Overall gaming standards have risen to very high expectations. The newer series are the games that get the most good feedback based on the game actually setting the bar rather then trying to raise it.

When a new series debuts people are thrilled with a new game, second of the series people just want more of the same, but by the time the third game in a series is out people want something different or improved upon. Sports games have the disadvantage of having to release a game on a yearly cycle. this short development cycle people still expect the same big changes that other genres can do.

Same standard. When you play a game that suppose to be a recreation of something, you EXPECT it do and have certain things. When I play Modern Warfare 3, I EXPECT every gun in the game to look exactly how it looks in real life and function the same way it does in real life.

When I play a RPG, I EXPECT people to have magic skills and EXPECT their to be some type of dragon, demon or ogre type creature in the game. And I EXPECT the story line to be very long with you doing many quests and side quests.

When I play Batman, I EXPECT him to look like Batman, have his cape and gadgets. And I EXPECT all his villians to be the actual villians he fought in the comic book series. Wouldn't it be out of character for Batman to be fighting a dragon ? Yeah it would be.

So therefore when I play sports games, I EXPECT it to look like and function like the sport I see on tv. Sports games have been getting a pass way too long. Too many people say the same BS statement of well if you want the real thing, go out and play the sport in real life or to a sporting event in real life.

If you going to take that logic, I could easily tell everybody who love playing Call of Duty or Battlefield 3, if you want the real thing, go out and join the military.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make the sports game you making actually look like and function like the sport you suppose to be representing. Certain sports are known for certain things to happen, it is what that sport is known for. And for a sports game to not have those things is a disgrace.

Not all complaints are legitimate, but not all complaints come from sore losers either. And I don't think trying to achieve realism is a faulty goal. Take for example the super linebacker complaint. Is a gamer being unreasonable to ask that when he throws a post pattern at 15 yards down the field that a middle linebacker not leap up with one hand and grab the pass when the MLB is standing at a depth 5-6 yards off the line of scrimmage? Or what if I complain that a DB warps threw a WR on a hitch route to make an interception? Am I being unreasonable? I understand 100% realism will never be achieved in a game based on AI, but shouldn't the creators be striving for this? Shouldn't they be farther along than what they are in some aspects of the games?

Sports games can't be 100% sim because in real life, a game is based around decisions made by on the fly by humans ; something a computer can't recreate.
It can, however, ''cheat'' by using tactics wich are frustrating ( psychic dbs, wr dropping open passes, defense not being alert on a qb scramble, etc. ) but in the end, it gives realistic stats and scores.
If it were up to me, my opponent would always go 3 and out ; my o-line would never get any holding penalty when my rb just got a 25 yards run ; I would never throw an interception in the red zone : but these things happen in real life. That's the way I try to see it when it happens to me in a game.
I really used to get frustrated with sports game when I lost, but I learned to grow up and just enjoy a good game.

As many others have already stated, the expectations of the game are most likely set by the company's pr. No ones complains about the about of blocks and steals in nba jam, and last time i checked that is a sports game. The main complaints I've heard aren't realism issues they are balance issues in respect to video game basketball. Lets take the same examples used in your article:

Modern Warfare players complain all the time about campers and boosting in the game along with overuse of popular weapons and kill streaks.I actually remember a complaint about akimbo 1887's firing across the map.

I'm not too familiar with little big planet, but i do remember complaints about the awkward jumping mechanics.

For awhile in GTA's life cycle the aiming and covering systems have been somewhat in question. Lets not forget a.i. placement and reactions in some missions making it more trial and error than gameplay.

To me if the game is fun depends on if i can use all the features as advertised, do the game control effectively, are the exploits game breaking(because exploits will happen),is the world intriguing and exciting (more of a story and art design issue), and lasting and most importantly is the game balanced within the world's parameters.

In sports fans know the rules, which players have superstar skills, and how defense reacts. When the game overpowers one aspect of the game and makes all other relevant strategies a deterrent the game is unbalanced and grossly flawed.