What Happened to Playing for the Love of the Game?

[DaveDQ]

MMChris...great article.

I think if you gather the group here at OS, and other communities that primarily focus on realism in their sports games, you'll see a group that probably spans the age spectrum of maybe 18-35ish (I add the "ish" because I'm 36). With that comes a certain maturity where playing games with high offense and big time scores begins to feel silly. It's only natural to begin to want the more balanced experience that best presents each respective sport.

Still, there's a pretty unhealthy trend right now in the sports gaming community where many find some odd validation in taking the time to platform every mistake a newly released game has. We're not talking about venting their frustration with a game that is truly unplayable (because of errors in development), but we're talking about people who thrive on the Bugs and Glitches threads, as if being the first to post the error adds one year to their life.

Taking two games that have been released this year, MLB 2K8 and NCAA 09, yes they have some game play issues, but with both games, nothing in them prevents me from wanting to play them and enjoy them for what they are.

[TopCop7980]

I think that people are upset these games are coming out of the box with serious glitches and bugs to them after months of hype of how great the games are going to be. If it were like the old 2k series that only charged 20 bucks for a game I would say no big deal but these games are 60 bucks a game and for those of us without cushy jobs writing about video games for a living, 60 bucks is hard to part with and then get a crap product, especially in the tough economic conditions we are facing these days. Its not hard to form the opinion that EA/2K doesn't care about producing a quality product after these games come out with huge glitches or complete features that don't work.

[ChaseB]

Quote: Originally Posted by TopCop7980

I think that people are upset these games are coming out of the box with serious glitches and bugs to them after months of hype of how great the games are going to be. If it were like the old 2k series that only charged 20 bucks for a game I would say no big deal but these games are 60 bucks a game and for those of us without cushy jobs writing about video games for a living, 60 bucks is hard to part with and then get a crap product, especially in the tough economic conditions we are facing these days. Its not hard to form the opinion that EA/2K doesn't care about producing a quality product after these games come out with huge glitches or complete features that don't work.

That's not really what the article is about, though, I do understand your general viewpoint.

[Sausage]

Quote: Originally Posted by TopCop7980

I think that people are upset these games are coming out of the box with serious glitches and bugs to them after months of hype of how great the games are going to be. If it were like the old 2k series that only charged 20 bucks for a game I would say no big deal but these games are 60 bucks a game and for those of us without cushy jobs writing about video games for a living, 60 bucks is hard to part with and then get a crap product, especially in the tough economic conditions we are facing these days. Its not hard to form the opinion that EA/2K doesn't care about producing a quality product after these games come out with huge glitches or complete features that don't work.

I do think as fans we can be overly critical, but that is why we are here. In hopes that our complaints can be met by a better game and then better game after the next.

Just a heads up the 2K series only did the 19.99 thing for I believe NFL 2K5 and maybe the other sports that year. The rest of there games were the usual average retail of 49.99.

[arseniotall]

nothing happened. Buggy games are NOT FUN.

[Assassin]

I enjoyed your take on this and I have to agree with you. These seems to be a little bit of a loss of having fun when it comes to playing a game.

I guess it just took someone pointing it out to get everyone to take notice.

[CMH]

Quote: Originally Posted by TopCop7980

but these games are 60 bucks a game and for those of us without cushy jobs writing about video games for a living, 60 bucks is hard to part with and then get a crap product.

My splintered buttocks does not agree with this statement.

[duke776]

Good article, I have to agree some of the people take games way too serious. I'm glad I was introduced to power pros earlier this year in probably January sometime, I was looking for a game that was fun but not a complete slugfest and I'd still get some good results. I finally found a game I can have fun with for a long time(I've played 200+ games). I also love how good the animations are, I haven't seen any delay with the animations when I've pressed a button to throw it or anything. It also has a ton of little things that get overlooked, and I think part of that is the replay option, we can't roam around the field and change the camera angles on replays. I love the chest pound, then kiss the hand(I'm pretty sure the player does this part, but I haven't fully seen it because of the one replay option), then point to the sky that the players do after they get a double, or after they get a RBI.