Where Are The Sports Gaming Options for Someone on a (Time) Budget? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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Where Are The Sports Gaming Options for Someone on a (Time) Budget? Stuck

Posted on December 2, 2013 at 03:55 PM.

(20)

Here's the deal -- I love playing sports games and making progress through my seasons like everyone else.

However, as the number that indicates my age continues to rise, I'm finding the time I can dedicate to gaming as a hobby (and not job) has dwindled significantly as responsibilities elsewhere rise.

The thought of playing a full 162 game season in MLB: The Show is a laughable proposition for me, as I'm sure it is for other gamers. Ditto for an 82 game NBA season or an NHL season as well.

Frankly, I'm on a time budget and I'd love to see developers of sports games recognize this about their older customers.

It wasn't that long ago NCAA Basketball from EA Sports had an amazingly simple fix to this problem: the ability to sim a game in real time and jump in whenever you wanted, be it early in the first half or in the waning moments of the game.

You didn't have to enter a loading screen unless you entered the game which meant you could move through games rather fast if the outcome was a blowout or if you carefully simmed ahead.

I once had a Dynasty Mode in NCAA Basketball which went a full nine seasons in because of this feature. I could sim a full 40 minute game and jump in with 10 minutes to go or so.

Most of the time the game was either in doubt with me holding a close lead or I was playing from behind trying to catch up. With good settings, this made for continually challenging gameplay. As I did this, I would typically skip through blowouts because that's just how those games went.

To me that was part of the team building process, and I have no problem letting a simulation play out in this manner. Some people will find their mileage may vary, but this simple idea and concept allowed me to play through more seasons than I ever had the right to with a sport which featured pretty long (30+) game seasons.

Think about that same concept with The Show or NBA 2K.

For me, this solves two problems: 1)Realistic stats over the correct number of minutes and games and 2)The ability to make progress on dauntingly long seasons.

MLB 14 The Show will be offering a unique way around this, by 'simming' into an at-bat making each one start with a generated count based upon factors going on within the game. This is going to save a lot of time, and if you coupled that with the sim-through option NCAA Basketball had, a 162 game season is something that's entirely doable for the Average Joe on a time budget.

Time savers are a simple idea, but I hope they become standard in sports games as we head into the future.

What other time savers should developers look into to help gamers on a time crunch?

Comments

# 1 H to the Oza @ Dec 2

I believe you are talking about the 'Intervene' feature. One of the best and simplest features in a sports game but is somehow absent year after year. I used this feature all the time in Live 04/05 and I wish it would make a comeback. I would much rather intervene through a 82 game season than play a full 14 game season.

# 2 jaateloauto @ Dec 2

NBA 2K14 still had this in current gen.

# 3 jenglund @ Dec 2

I like how the Show does it, you can sim some innings if you want. I totally want this in 2k: I want to play the 1st and 4th quarter, and sim the 2nd and 3rd quarter. Same in Madden.

# 4 tril @ Dec 2

cant you sime to end of quarters in NBA 2k14 current gen. and MAddeen?

# 5 jmik58 @ Dec 2

I loved the way MVP Baseball allowed you to quickly initiate an inning-by-inning simulation with the option to "intervene" at any moment. All of this was done from the schedule/calendar so it made progression very quick.

# 6 JohnDoe8865 @ Dec 2

I'm getting older too. Job, life, responsibilities...it all takes TIME. I hope sports game devs can add something for gamers like me and Chris down the line without taking away development time from the core features..

# 7 poulka @ Dec 2

You are right Chris that has been something that has been a thorn in my side now for about ten years. I have resorted to playing shorter quarters Madden 4 min NCAA 3 min.

# 8 tarek @ Dec 3

It only gets worse my friend. I'm sometimes so desperate for a gaming fix I'll play Disney Princess: Enchanted Forest with my daughter just to get my hands on a controller.

My approach to sports gaming with limited time has been to first understand that I can't play every game, and that I needed to make a personal system to select which games to play.
For example, with NCAA football I have a house rule where I only play 4 games + conference champ if I make it + bowl game. This means I only play between 33-50% of the games per season. Which makes each season much shorter and fun.
I haven't played NBA in a couple of years but what I used to do was play a maximum of 1-2 games per month against rivals or teams I just wanted to play, then in the playoffs I would just play game 1 and game 4 and any deciding game (i.e. game 5 if it's 3-1 not 2-2). Meant that at most I would play at most 30% of potential games in an NBA season.

MLB The Show was a tough one. I mainly played RTTS and not dynasty (because I was/am a terrible batter - I swing at everything). But I'd follow something similar.

# 9 13whitebread @ Dec 3

I have to agree your gaming days maybe coming to an end. For me and I am at an advanced age of 44 with 3 kids to fight over one system but I usually pick one sport game and play that sport only that year. It is usually hockey but next year I might pick baseball or football. But the amount of time is dwindling.

# 10 sooperb @ Dec 3

Disney Princess: Enchanted Forest?? Damn bruh you need a PsP and a Twix. The Gm mode needs a way tosim and jump in for sure.

# 11 cream6 @ Dec 3

It's easier for me to play multiple seasons in Madden and NCAA compared to The Show and NBA 2k. In The Show I usually play the first month of the season and start simming after that until there is either an important game, playing games in historic or new parks or in big markets. In my 2K series I do something similar playing only important games and big market places. I'm still in my first season of MLB The Show 12 even though I enjoy the game it takes forever. I need to sim more.

# 12 jukeum445 @ Dec 3

Amen to this post.. i have about an hour to an 1hr 1/2 to play games.. my poor ps 4 is collecting dust since i bought it..

# 13 onac22 @ Dec 3

Madden needs a slider system for skill points on players. This one at at time purchase system is just time consuming.

# 14 onac22 @ Dec 3

In addition to maybe changing progression systems to be more user friendly, everyone should try and use a slider system like the show.

Moving on in an effort to save time and keep moving, I like to pre-establish how the season will be. For instance in Madden, I will divide the season into several parts. Something along the lines of four, four game chunks. Or one eight, one four and two sets of two games. Something along those lines. Once that is established some ground rules go infer example, in a 8-4-4 such as I can only play four games in the first eight, two in the next four then 2 more in the final 4. This forces me to simm a few every season and honestly adds to the competition level and the difficulty on a game such as Madden.

I will use this in other games such as NHL or the show. I will just break the season into bigger chunks and play fewer games. These rules also make playoff runs fun. I will play every other of a seven game series or break it into two game segments. I almost never simm playoffs in Madden a Madden CFM.

# 15 ufer2 @ Dec 3

I'm 47 and have found myself in the same boat the last few years. Been simming NCAA football games and just doing the recruiting a lot lately. NBA 2K games I play a 28 (?) game season - face everyone once. All playoffs are one-game. Can get through a season just in time for the new game to come out. Ha.

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