Sports Games - The League Experience - johnprestonevans's Blog

johnprestonevans's Blog

Sports Games - The League Experience

Posted on April 27, 2010 at 09:44 AM.

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Franchise mode has been a longstanding feature of all major sports games. It is that ongoing "relationship" mode that takes the excitement and connection to a title beyond the traditional single exhibition game. Over the past 10 years or so this mode has grown to include actual schedules, roster updates, daily player tendencies, injuries, training, playbook customization and all the back office administration you'd want to handle without actually drawing a paycheck.

While all of these elements give sport gamers a deeper investment in their respective team's success on the field, the feeling of operating within a true "living" league still eludes us. Sports games have obviously had nice visual improvements and have done well to offer stats, standings and summaries in post game menus. But this does feel like somewhat of an afterthought. I challenge developers to bring the experience of operating a team within a league that really feels alive.

There are many sources of reference and inspiration, both from past sports videogames and from watching real world telecasts. Here is my list of Off The Field Presentation that would take League Immersion to the next level:

1) Out of town scores and highlights. Few games display a "live" scoreboard or ticker that constantly updates the action out of town. MLB The Show does this from time to time, but it would be nice to take this a step further and give us the opportunity to watch Game-Breaks � a quick highlight of something happening on other games being played in the league. Picture playing a game with you beloved Red Sox and getting a Game-Break that transitions to what the rival Yankees are doing in their game. More than just scores should appear as well. Depending on the sport, it would be realistic to see game stats and player performance numbers in these scrolling ticker updates.

2) Commentary Awareness. Here is another area that is seeing some improvement year after year. It would be incredibly immersive to hear announcers talking about the standings, updates and trends that are happing around the league. This should be something ever-present in in-game commentary, with casual references to the out of town scores and updates, as well as dynamic analysis within highlight clips and editorial shows (see below).

3) Pregame/Halftime/Postgame/Weekly Shows. To truly bring broadcast home, league happenings need to be discussed, analyzed and summarized in a variety of shows. Give not only our own games the gravity they deserve, but flesh out playoff implications, player performances, top plays and matchups happening around the league. Again, emotive and dynamic commentary is critical to pulling this off. Avoiding repetition is key. To make the league feel alive means bringing the emotion of dramatic situations to cascade throughout the game's off-the-field presentation. NFL2K5 did a nice job and it would be fun to see what can be done with today�s technology.

In the end it�s really about simulating the experience of watching and playing in a real living and breathing league. This means paying close attention to the little things in real telecasts and emulating them in sports videogames. I hope to see developers continue to push the authenticity of broadcast presentation and elevate the emotion and drama of taking your team to the top.

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