I hardly agree that expectations are diminished based on what I read in forums and message boards. In my opinion, I think the expectations are shooting a little too high.

I will state, however, that expectations can be viewed as subjective as each person may have different expectations of developers.

As a gamer for over 30 years, my expectations are, in my opinion, realistic. I don't expect to play a game of football and have each player truly emulate human behavior. It just won't happen, at least not with this generation. I think that is where the line ends for many people. They want games to be overly realistic and, in truth, they just can't be.

Regardless of the sport, computer generated content cannot react like humans. Although each sport has a basic foundation that consist of rules, tendencies, stats, attributes, etc., the real element that is missing in games is the human element -- the unprogrammed ability to make mistakes.

For example, if a receiver drops a catchable ball in Madden, most people believe this to be a bug or glitch and that the game is broken. If this happens twice, look out. The concensus is that the game is not "real" enough. You need to look no further than YouTube to find a plethora of videos of people breaking down these "flaws" in video games.

In my opinion, if a game can make me forget about reality for even one-half hour, the game is good. That means I am in some sort of immersion. Madden, everyone's whipping boy, does that for me. I believe that the reason is that I don't have some sort of unrealistic expectation of what the game should provide.

Don't get me wrong, I love a strong presentation, controls and extras as much as anyone. However, when it comes to the players reactions, I enjoy what is currently offered.

Good article...my personal views are as follows

1) The yearly development cycle is the gift and the curse...while we get the games we love every year, sometimes there just isnt enough time to make very substantial changes to from year to year. Some titles even support the game after release throughout the year...that could also play a role in what gets put in the next years version as resources are being allocated to support the current year release.

2) Community/Dev interaction...another gift/curse...I think it was awesome Devs started interacting with the general public and really trying to get ideas about what the fans want. I think the curse is when the communities are poorly constructed/ran, and they dont appeal to the majority b/c of a bunch of rude posters. While I am a nba2k fan, I have to say that their forums are some of the worst on the internet. The "Ron" guy comes and goes and lately its like he's the sasquatch or lochness monster (you've heard of him, but you never can quite catch him)

3) The emergence of the casual fan...this should have been number one, but the casual fan has made gaming for hardcore fans almost a thing of the past. Look at "season showdown/mascot mashup" from the NCAA series. For whatever reason it was decided to put on it, the 'hardcore' community was in an uproar. The casual fan adds no value to the development of the series imo, yet devs are steadily trying to cater to them with dumbed down game modes/experiences in order to appease them.

4) Gameplay has taken a back seat to cosmetic features. Who cares if they finally got Ohio States Pro Combat uni's in if the receivers still rocket catch or morph to the ball?? (no offense to OSU fans, but that was the first team i thought of for some reason). I've said it time and time again, gameplay should be top priority and the cosmetic stuff will take care of itself.

totally agree. for example, five iterations of ncaa football and one camera angle to show for it.

Honestly I don't think this generation of sports games is that bad. Look at gems like Fifa, NHL, UFC, various racing games, and The Show. These games are all leaps and bounds over what we had last gen (except MVP Baseball 05 of course :-D).

Anyhow, I think people need to start enjoying sports gaming more instead of pointing out flaws. I sometimes feel as if gamers are more focused on what's wrong with a game, and will sabotage their own/others enjoyment of said game, and completely gloss over the positives.

Let's face it, all sports games have flaws, but how many games have come out this generation that have included complete game killing bugs or omissions. If a game plays outstanding does it matter that a certain setting never autosaves, or there is a quirky contact animation?

I sure do miss the days where nothing else mattered other than having a blast with Tecmo Bowl and RBI baseball. We didn't care that the players looked like blocks, or that there were no 30 year franchise modes. And even back then we used to find glitches (Double Dribbles automatic 3 pointers), did we care? No! All I knew was that I was having a blast with a sports game, and laughing with friends. This is what we need to get back to.

for the most part bumble i agree, but one camera angle for a next-gen game is inexcusable

^This... People seem to forget why we play video games.... Entertainment..... I guess these people go to the movies and get mad when a CGI scene is off or it looks to fake. SMFH at this is what gaming has come to. The 'Generation of OVER Expectations'...who is to blame? YOU

@Str8artist and Christian - You guys nailed it....I recently had an epiphany (ok about two years ago) to just start enjoying the games when I play them. However, as a jaded critic I must still be somewhat critical when writing. But I don't let that get in the way of letting sports games do what they are meant to do.

I enjoy games for what they are, but in all reality, sports gamers get the shaft year in and year out. No other genre of gaming would allow for a yearly release of the same content with minor tweaks over and over. I can't imagine Modern Warfare fans being happy with the next years installment merely adding a new gun or two or a Rockstar game's second iteration of a title merely adding new textures, sounds, etc and those fans being happy, or (insert any popular game and minor update here). To make matters worse, these games generally have massive budgets, huge development teams and every other resource imaginable yet the jumps in progression from title to title are minimal at best.

Sports gamers shell out premium prices for nearly the exact same product on a yearly basis and in turn have their previous purchases rendered obsolete with each new release; that in itself is reason alone for them to expect the world.

good blog

These games try to be all things to all people. Marketing hype takes over and many games fail to live up to expectations, not to mention the price tag. It would almost be easier if there were two or more of each sports game to choose from, made by different developers, arcade versus sim. Instead we end up suffering with a monopoly, or an incomplete sim, or an arcade game that isn't fun. Good luck trying to please hundreds of thousands of gamers, and turning a profit to keep the train rolling.

I'll keep it simple, for once, as I have too much to say about this but will keep it to myself.
I appreciate what is here. I started my gaming days when Pong came out so gaming, today, is heaven. I've gone from Super Play Action Football on Colecovision to Madden 10. NO comparison and my appreciation level is way beyond 10. Yes, of course, there is always room for improvement but I'm like you, MMChrisS, I take the good with the bad because I think the good way out does the bad.

@Trey: I think you got the right attitude here brotha. I'm of your ilk when gaming, I just come off mad and angry on my blog because I have to have something to write about. I'm slowly trying to take a more positive yet critical (positively critical?) approach to the blog. It'll take some time, but I think to get a different tone going within the community, someone has to take the lead...might as well be yours truly. Good inputs from everyone!

Time and cram are the issue's there isn't enough for sports games
i know madden or nba2k want do this but i'm hoping for college basketball
game to come out then just gets a update then a new game

EA actually makes the games for the two systems side by side. There is no porting. Scondly when it comes to feature in the game, they don't take up much space. Art and Audio fills most of that. The PS3 and the Xbox both have their advantages and disadvantages. PS3s are harder to code for for one thing. They also don't upscale most games to 1080p and also lack the amount of RAM a 360 has. The Xbox has less space on the disk, but really with art taking most of the room this doesn't hurt it when it comes to sports games.

I understand the people who have complaints about this generation of sports gaming to be subpar, but to me personally I'm not bothered. I get the same amount of enjoyment out of gaming as I always have.

I disagree with your hypothesis. Gaming company get away with a lot. This year's UFC 2010 promised fight camps on the box but the feature isn't even out yet - but we all paid for it. Madden last year promised online leagues that didn't work right and weren't out when the game was released. Even MLB The Show RTTS didn't work completely. The list goes on and on. Game companies are only adding back in features that were in previous versions of games and not coming up with many new ideas. A lack of competition is one thing that has hurt the industry. While companies like EA have made strides with games like Madden there is no 2K football to push EA so what you get is a bunch of bug fixes and a few minor enhancements. The development life cycle isn't long enough or the development teams don't have enough people on them but that is the software companies fault for not investing in them. But why would they when there is no competition and they can get away with a few new features. Companies also rename features and say they are new the next year. Can't tell you how many sports games I have seen that in. The thing that gets me is when the advertise a feature and it isn't even in the game yet when you buy it. It is almost like fraud because what if you bought say UFC for fight camps but they are working yet. You wasted your money. I don't mean to pick on UFC 2010 because it is a great game but that is the most recent example of a growing trend that is very concerning. A lot of game are also running on old game engines that companies haven't updated for years. NBA 2k is an example, a great game but it is starting to show its age. NBA Live looks like it might be getting a makeover but time will tell. A simple name change and new controls are just the start.