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

# 16 RhodyRockstar @ Dec 5

I'm totally with you guys! A new Dad, with a budding career, so my time is definitely dwindling. For me, it's not so much as not being able to play the games, it's just that my seasons take longer. A decent game of Madden takes 30 mins or so, so if I can get a game or two in, I typically finish seasons in 10-14 days. So, personally, I feel like it's just taking me longer to get through whole seasons, not necessarily the games themselves.

As a huge baseball guy, I've learned to let go and just sim certain games so I can get through a 162 game season, but an "intervene" option is definitely a great way to still feel connected to your team. We just gotta realize that the time for games is dwindling, and just make adjustments!

# 17 stlstudios189 @ Dec 6

I have just decided to keep my games longer. Still playing NBA 2k13, MLB 2k12, Madden 12, NHL 12 and NCAA 13
On NBA I play 58 game seasons and have playoffs at 3,5,5,5 it's a blast
On MLB I play the 104 game season and play on quick mode. Madden I have played 2 seasons as 2 teams just finished the Super Bowl and the draft,
On MLB I still havent' finished the season sitting at 77 games in after 2 years. 4 kids and 55 hour work weeks just keep getting in the way. Time to win the lotto

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