Don't Blame Gamers When They Cheese

[RaychelSnr]

In his first piece for us here at Operation Sports, Nathan Marshall checks in with what might be a bit of an eyebrow raising piece for users here. What could have you all up in arms? Marshall says, "Don't blame gamers when they cheese."

Quote:

"We have all been there. You find an opponent to play against online, then right before the game begins, he makes a few changes in the coach settings (blind to you). You figure, “Hey, I understand the sport well enough to overcome whatever strategy my opponent is cooking up.” Then, five minutes later, you are highly perturbed. This frustration is the result of two things:"

[hidetoshi981]

human are too smart, we will always find ways to abuse the game

[D.Winn]

There should be no way that receivers streak down the field constantly the whole game and not see the effects before halftime. I can run the no huddle offense for a whole drive and still beat the defender on a deep post. NBA 2k has plenty of animations that are unstoppable. Such as the turn around layup under the goal. I've played people who isomotioned toward the baseline the whole game and triggered the fall away lay up animation. Or they run to the baseline and play keep away with the center/powerforward until the defenders get confused and open the lane for a dunk. To be honest, every play could find an exploit, some just choose to play the game the way it was intended to be played.

[Cardot]

I agree. While I accepted that money plays might have been too difficult to code around back on the NES, developers should be doing a better job today. Some of these franchises have been around for 15 years. And yes, clever cheesers will always find some glitch, but it should be something more obscure than a QB scramble or money route.

I also agree that too many games seem to be oriented for a "fantastic finish". I have long believed that offenses get a rattings boost in the late going of most EA games.

[SportsmenRife]

Thank you for this column it was thoroughly enjoyable.

With that being said football has a quick solution to cheesing. Anyone who has played the game, coached the game, or paid close attention to the game knows that players like Tim Tebow or Vince Young can run around and make a defense look silly and create a big play. What the games do not take into effect is the fatigue and the fatigue that comes from getting hit. Vince Young is a perfect example. In the pros when he gets popped, he gets injured or his quality of play drops. So your point about fatigue is dead on. The second point is simply this, why does madden brag of improved AI and how the game adapts when your defense wont adapt for you. You can only control 1 player, yet even though you know a slant route is coming you cant defend 4 receivers yourself. The answer should either be expanded defensive hot routes to jump patterns or defensive AI that identifies repeated trends. This cuts both ways, if you set up a slant and go, or a post corner, its more rewarding to see someone bite. Finally the back foot revolution needs to occur in videogames. I want a big press conference with Vince Young, and other mobile quarterbacks there for EA. Have an 11-11 contact drill. And make them replay ridiculous moments in the video game. "Vince run back 20 yards, hash to hash, break one tackle, run back 3 yards, and off your back foot throw it 45 yards cross field. Now do this 8 times on a drive." When they see what actually happens they'll be embarrassed at the quality of game they've been delivering. There's a reason his completion percentage is sub 50.

That's all, nice work.

[Tengo Juego]

I still blame cheesers. Just because its there, doesn't means its right to abuse it. You can get out of maps on COD4, it doesn't make it right just because developers missed it. They know what they are doing, and know that their success rate is high running these plays or abusing these glitches. Yet they continue to still do it.

Do I expect developers to catch this? NO, I expect testers to catch it, thats why they test these games. And I expect devs to fix these bugs/glitches.

Sports games are in development for too little time, EA constantly using the excuse that time and priority interfere with doing everything. Then we get gimmicks like EA rewind, Backtrack(which is the same thing over and over), Poor online leagues that IMO should have been left out, Superstar, etc...

Gameplay is my beef with Madden. Its awful, and still hasn't been a solid gameplay experience this generation. I honestly don't expect it to be anytime this generation.

[BlackRome]

Bring in the cheesers in during testing. Seems pretty simple to me. It could eliminate quite a few before the game hits the market.

I guarantee if you wold have let the cheesers in EA would have known about the direct snap error and the crossing patterns in Madden and NCAA .

[Methlab]

This column fails to me because it offers zero solutions. We all get that the developers are dropping the ball, but we past the stage of caring and now more interested in finding a solution.