A while ago, Bill Abner had a piece at the Escapist about the Stagnant State of Sports Games. I meant to link it back then because it was a good read, but never got around to it. So I’m linking it now.
I was reminded of Bill’s article because today I also came across this post from Zack Hiwiller (via a long list of places, originating with Troy) about the State of Sports Games:
How many people out there watch and enjoy football without having a Knute Rockney [sic] level of understanding? The answer is: more than the games industry is hitting right now.
Zack makes a lot of good points, go read the whole thing. This is coming from a game designer working on sports games, not a games journalist. Not sure if that fact makes me a little more optimistic about the future of sports games or not.
Be optimistic. While I complain about the failures I see, there are a lot of great successes that I see here every day as well. It’s just a matter of whether we see them as a trickle or a deluge.
@Zack – I see you worked on my favorite EA Sports game, NCAA 0X, so I will be optimistic. I’d love to give you my wish list, but I’m sure you’ve seen hundreds of them
Have you guys read Dubious Quality lately? He’s always riffing about Madden problems. His arguments seem valid, but I don’t play Madden so it’s no big deal to me.
However, the latest college game was the best I’ve played in a long time and I’m not saying that to brownose.
@Nat – Bill dissects sports game with precision. He gets into it way deeper than I do, that’s for sure.