WCDFTO: Tying it all together - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

WCDFTO: Tying it all together Stuck

Posted on September 25, 2009 at 02:33 PM.

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We have discussed some rather abstract concepts thus far this week. I'm going to try to tie the four graphs I put together and make it seem relevant. For those of you looking to figure out some background on what I mean by each term, simply hop on to my supplemental post I posted alongside this one.

So why does it all matter? Remember, the purpose of this week long survey is to ask the question, "Why aren't sports games meeting our expectations in this generation?"

First off, we have to consider hardware limitations. As I depicted on yesterday's graph, I believe games can only achieve 85-90% of total possible realism using today's hardware under ideal conditions (unlimited resources and time). And since I also theorized getting further up the ladder once you reach a certain point is much more costly, I believe we're not going to be in store for any huge leaps with games the rest of this generation.

Games such as Madden, NBA 2K and even MLB: The Show have so many nuances they still don't do right, and one has to wonder if they will ever be able to be properly modeled in a game anytime soon given the increasing complexity of what must be done. Developers also have realized, whether they admit it outright publicly or not, that you can't get too realistic with gameplay or you will risk having the casual fans turn on you for the game being too hard.

It is that combination of components coming together which we have gotten a generation of sports games which just haven't quite cut the mustard for many folks. There is a certain component of expectation which just can't quite be delivered due to the constraints developers are running into in regards to the inherent difficulty of developing complex games in a limited time span.

As you go up the scale on realism, developmental resources are more strained to produce even more complex solutions. And then there is the problem of running straight off the edge of the cliff in regards to fun factor and making a game too complex for it's own good. This results in a delicate balancing act which some development teams (NHL, NBA 2K, The Show) have been figuring out for a few years and others (Madden, FIFA, NBA Live) are beginning to catch on to.

The end result is that if you are expecting major year over year gameplay advancements from now until the end of this console cycle in 2013-2014, you will be sorely disappointed. Sports games will only marginally advance forward, and while significant progress will be made from the start of this cycle to the end, year to year advancements will seem minor and possibly insignificant for some.

Comments

# 1 JkA3 @ Sep 25

me again, just want to say great blog series. i really enjoyed the content and graphs.

# 2 RayAllen20 @ Sep 25

Great couple of blogs man! But have you seen what NBA Live 10 has done in this one year cycle? Do you think it is possible for them to continually improve this much every year? Or do you think it is inevitable that they will hit a wall at some point?

# 3 TreyIM2 @ Sep 25

Once again, great blog. Like I said on your blog, yesterday, I understand the situation that devs are in, overall. I keep this in perspective so I'm not over critical of a game. I think when people begin to more so understand the nature of the beast, we wouldn't get so many ridiculously whiny criticisms and statements by posters not only on this site, but around the "gaming net."

# 4 Jump @ Sep 25

While your theory that developers and gamers don't games to be too realistic may have some truth to it, where the hell are you pulling these numbers from? Seems like you've just created them to back up the way you perceive sports gaming.