Year after year, 2K Sports and EA Sports miss the mark when it comes to their games. They always seem to be close to making a truly great game, but then ceremoniously shoot themselves in the foot and revert in quality. You almost have to wonder if they’ve ever been told that certain things drives gamers wacky. Well …wonder no more. Here are the top five things sports game developers do that drive us to drink. And if we missed something that drives you looney, make sure to let us know in our forums.

1. Exclude Online Franchises from Their Plans.

Online gaming isn’t a frighteningly new concept any more, but it's something that hasn’t grown much in the past few years. At its heart it's still guys playing pick-up games against each other with the default rosters.

The current style of online play for most sports games is seriously lacking. We are a generation of gamers brought up playing off-line franchises with our brothers and friends. At this point we damn near have the desire to make trades, draft players and sign free agents in our gaming DNA.

So why are we stuck playing Manchester United every other game online?

If anything, online gaming has taken a step back. Those of us PC Madden gamers remember Madden 2001 fondly. Sure it was very buggy, crashed all the time and former commissioners still have those “corrupted franchise” nightmares.

But it was something sports gamers had been waiting for: a fully functional online franchise where you could be the player, coach and general manager. You think fantasy football drafts are intense? Try getting online with 30 other owners (no Texans yet at that point) and drafting fictional players that you would be playing with two times a week for the foreseeable future?

But instead of making it work, EA considered it too big a hassle and killed it. Online leagues still exist, but the leg work to make it work the same is no joke.

Hopefully the online coding has gotten to the point where somebody will give a true online franchise another shot. Sure 3v3 and 5v5 are cool features – but tell the masses a fully functional online franchise is coming down the pike and people will go bonkers.


2. Take Well Established Features Away

Trent: I wish they still had fights in this game so I could bitch-slap Wayne.

Mike: What? They don't have fighting anymore?

Trent: Doesn't that suck?

Mike: Why'd they get rid of the fighting? It was the best part of the old version.

Sue: I think kids were hittin' each other or somethin', man.

I guarantee everybody reading this nodded in agreement when watching this scene in Swingers. Since then NHL has taken out fighting, added fighting, taken out fighting, added fighting, taken out fighting, and added fighting.

It boggles the mind.

Let the following be noted. If you have a feature in the game for more than two versions it needs to stay. Taking features out people got used to isn’t cool. Adding them back in as a new feature a couple of years later deserves a spanking.

And if you do remove it you better make sure you’re putting in a new feature that fills the voids and handles it 10 times better.


3. No More Fake Currency! This isn’t Star Wars or World of Warcraft.

It amazes me that in this day and age some sports games still try to get us to sign baseball or soccer players in…I don’t know…ducats? Deutschmarks?

“Man I have to pay Wayne Rooney like 50 mad ducats a week!”

This year FIFA upped the currency bar. Not only are all transactions carried out in real world amounts -- you have your choice between pounds, dollars and euros! From feast to famine in one year!


4. Not Paying Attention to the Real Thing.

Realism is a big deal. After all, in most sports games we are trying to experience the same kind of actions, thoughts and strategies in our living rooms as the coaches, players and general managers do in the real world.

Hopefully the developers will keep that in mind the next time they design a game that figures it’s a good idea to bat A-Rod lead-off. Or feels Manny Ramirez should bat .400 for three consecutive seasons, probably because his face is on the box.

Free agent, transfer and trading systems should be as realistic to their real life counterparts as possible. Star players shouldn’t be passed around the league like Paris Hilton. Good running backs shouldn’t sign with a football team they’re not going to start on. And players shouldn’t accept a transfer to a team that is clearly playing at a level below what they are used to. One of our forum members just told a story about Drogba - an elite player for Chelski - signing with his League Two club. Much like the New York Subway - that just doesn't pass the sniff test.

Developers should also do their best to limit freaks, and perhaps temper the random naming of new players in international games. Personally I don’t know too many Ibrahim Gonzalez’s that hail from Ghana. Nor do I ever recall seeing a 300 pound fullback in the NFL, or a 6’5”, 300 pound defensive end that was as fast as Jerry Rice.

5. Have Some Fun

Just my opinion, but I think the sports games have gotten a bit too stuffy. What happened to the developers having a little fun and maybe throwing some easter eggs or funny commentary in the game?

I just think back to Mikey, Trent and Sue sitting on the coach.

What was the last game you can remember that did something like “make somebody's head bleed?" Or watch an ambulance tear ass across the field to pickup an injured player? Or made gamers genuinely laugh out loud at something that happened?

(I will give FIFA some credit – some of the manager’s mode scenarios are kind of funny).

Anyway, what are some of the things you think are the biggest issues with sports games today?