Have Sports Games Lost Their Accessibility?

[Rhouston]

scottyp180 hit the nail on the head with this one. Unfortunately, we are in a "more control = more complex" mode nowadays, and I don't really see a way around giving users more control while keeping the control scheme fairly simple.

You take away the different button/trigger movements, and what you get is people upset that they feel like the decisions are not up to them now, but rather the AI, kind of like how some people felt about the new Skill Stick for NHL 14.

Much like Scotty said, I do like how EA Sports NHL series allows you to use NHL 94 controls as it allows me to play with my young nephews, girlfriend or other family members for fun, but as a sports gamer, I could never play fully like that.

I had plenty of fun playing Genesis and SNES sports video games as a kid -- no, they didn't offer anywhere near the control as we have now, but we were OK with that because back then, we didn't know any different.

Back then, I also had to walk uphill both ways barefoot in the snow to get to school

[N00B SUPREM0]

Actually FIFA can bring fun do non gamer people. It has 2 button controllers.

[Josam27o7]

Why are you attacking the core gamers? You want to ruin games by making them more simple? Please take this article down.

If Fifa is not accessible for this guy he is a joke. Fifa is one of the simplest games I've ever played.

[RipCityAndy]

I'm not a big fan of voice command in video games, but I think the implementation of voice controlled substitutions, play calling, etc. would be a great way to reduce the barrier to entry of sports games. Consider in Live and 2k how many buttons you have to press in order to call a specified play or substitute a player... way too many. Too difficult to explain to a newbie.

The only real answer to the problem is for all sports games to have very deep training/tutorial modes. They are a MUST HAVE.

[WarlordZMaster]

This article makes a great point. Sports game controls are highly complicated, and could be very difficult for a beginner, such as my soon to be 10 year old son. The way I see it, you have 2 options: Make a simplified game, like NBA Jam, or (more difficult to impliment) offer an easy control scheme that removes the bulk of the controls.

[Cletus]

In this era of videogaming, which has more power than ever before, why is this even a question? Why can't users have their choice in accessibility in offline modes? Why can't we map the controls the way we want? We only want to use 2 buttons, why can't we?

There are some games that are more of an art form than a game, but sports games are not that. However we still can not make the game play how we want it because developers won't allow us. Want a full on football sim that takes 2 hours to play, let us do it. Want a tecmo super bowl like version of madden? Let us do that. The problem is we have ONE choice per major sport (except for soccer) so the game has to be made for everyone, instead of making the game and giving us enough sliders to make it play how we want.

[kadzier]

a true football sim is always going to be complex and relatively intimidating to newcomers, just like the real sport of football. You can say the same for any other sport with sufficient depth. It seems the issue here is of maybe adding simplified or stripped down game modes, maybe "easy" or "newcomer" control schemes, but that the main game's control scheme is complex isn't a bad thing for actual fans of the sport.

[Armor and Sword]

The only two sports games my young 9 year old loves to play me on my PS3 are The Show and NHL 13

With The Show we use my auto field manual throwing approach....and he loves pitching and hitting using classic and timed. We have so much fun.

NHL self explanatory via your article. A blast.

But for basketball and football we go to my old trusty NES system and rock with Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Basketball. We also go slam dunk crazy with his Wii version of NBA Jam.


I hope the new PS4 eventually gets some family friendly sports games by the time i come around to making the jump.