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"Football game creators - do they even care?"

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Mon 15/07/02 at 18:43
Regular
Posts: 787
Look at the two most successful football games at the moment - EA's FIFA, and Konomai's Pro Evolution Soccer. Not taking into account the play mechanics of the actual simulation, not even taking into account AI. What I want to know is do the developers involved even care about the drama of the sport?

Look at FIFA - all bells and whistles, but when you actually score it feels like a prescripted event at the best of times. Whereas a well worked move in PES is greeted by your player and the fans with all the enthusiasm of a 9-5 stock boy. Also, In WE6/PES2, you can tweak crowd settings, degree of partisan support, etc, at the options menu and it's a nice touch. The celebration animations seem somewhat time and event-related, too. Something is lost - it says a lot when there appears to be more emotion in one 12 pixel high Sensi player than the two of these games put together. What we need is these games to create an atmosphere, but to also maintain it. A last minute equaliser should not be celebrated by running to the corner flag and pointing at the air. It should be a flailing of limbs - sheer elation. Unless of course you're still losing on aggregate...

It may seem to be a moot point - surely you as a player can create your own celebration?

So let's look at the other aspect of the football game - the actual competitions available to you. Now, we all know that multiplayer is the only true way to play a football game, but that does not stop SWOS being recognised as one of the all time best football games ever. Is it it's gameplay? Yes. But it's also because it gives you something else - the ability to make your team yours. You select the players. You select the league. And then you take them to the top. Add to that possibly the best competiton creator available to anyone.

FIFA has recreations of all the top leagues. Fair enough. ISS has it's Master League. But both pale in comparison to an 8 year old system. Why? Because it seems that developers just couldn't give a damn. Championship Manager is not made by people who just don't give a damn. It is in fact SI Games sole export. Made solely by people who love the concept. Little wonder that it's the best management game available. Made in a country where football is the number one sport. US and Japan can't compete. Gremlin Interactive's Actua Soccer 3 too was made by people who love the sport. Sadly the gameplay was lacking - the options available to the player were excellent.

Now I dare say that Japan aren't passionate about Football, though. You've just got to look at the World Cup to prove this is wrong - the fact that players like Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Inamoto at Arsenal who don't play in the 1st team for their respective clubs but are still get the Japanese press' attentions even if they are playing a reserve match. Plus the England national side were treated like megastars over there too. I actually think that ISS 2 on the SNES showed a lot of atmosphere for it's time simply because you could see the fans interacting with the game, even if it were just through a few frames of animation - it felt consistent with the rest of the in-game graphics.

One thing that I would REALLY love to see in a football game is the ability to mix the management of aspects of the Champ Manager series with the realtime player controlled match engine from the Pro Evo series - the first step has been taken by using CM stats in Pro Evo 2 so surely it wouldn't take too much to merge the two genres together? Wouldn't it be amazing if you could have an RPG aspect in a football game where you create your own player at a non league club, and like Libero Grande, you only control your character. The twist in the concept is that even if the team does badly and you do well, there is a chance you will get signed for a better club and the aim could be to play for your country/win major honours.

I sometimes wonder what Codemasters could achieve if they sat down and made a football game...at least they seem to care a great deal more. It looks like we won't have to wait long, however, as they've pencilled in "Club Soccer" for this Christmas. I've heard of Codies' game, not too keen on the idea of centring each version around a single club, but maybe that's just me. I'm writing a football game at the minute with DIV Games Studio - hopefully I'll be able to recreate that sensi magic.

Here's what it boils down to:

Konami: Japanese. The Japanese are crazy about football. Konami have made some great footy games. They care.

EA: Most of the series was made by Canadians. Right then...

Even though, I would love it if SWOS league system was applied to PES. Also, according to an EA spokesperson, they've moved the entire development team to Europe this year because they want to "capture that European football atmosphere 100% accurately". And also because for the first time in years another football game (Pro Evolution Soccer) outsold the latest FIFA game (2002) in Spain and Italy. There will always be bad games but this is not so much an issue with the gameplay - it is fantastic in Konami's title. Once you have that match engine in place it is not really difficult to create a world around it - something Sensi manages to do so well. It's here that makes me think that after the love that has rightly gone into the gameplay is all gone - it's almost as if the publishers are telling the developers to whack in 50 teams and a workable front-end, and we'll add more teams and stuff next year, and so on.

My advice: wait for the Codemasters game. Looking at how they’ve tackled the (relatively) obscure sports of rallying and touring cars, I can’t see them mucking up what is effectively a licence to print money. In a way, I like the idea of the games being based around one particular club, but I can see why people would be annoyed. Think about how I feel - Telford United haven't been available in any football game ever yet! I feel so cheated! You can't even create a team in PES down to their exact kit. I heard you can in PES2, so hopefully. This is why I want a new SWOS on the GBA - they have to throw in the conference.

Even SWOS is just nowhere near in terms of atmosphere. The fact is, that the crowd have an active participation in any football match. Their volume levels can inspire prolonged pressure. Their constant abuse of a player can wind them up and affect their performance for better or for worse. They may grab hold of the ball in the last minute to time-waste, or they may barrack the opposing goalkeeper who is time-wasting, usually resulting in action from the referee, who may also be presurised by the crowd. These are the first things I can think of, none of which are apparent in any decent football game I have played. I'm not even asking for such complicated actions yet, just a start, easy things. Away goals being greeted by a quieter cheer than home goals. Goal celebrations from the players and supporters dependant on the time and consequence of a goal. A consolation goal is hardly going to be greeted in the same manner as a last gasp winner. Noisier crowds for bigger games as well would also be nice, to make them stand out from a friendlies.

Things like this are important. Developers need to stop fiddling about with commentary, its a bad idea and will never work. Games like PES are getting closer in terms of the game engine itself, but the atmosphere and crowd participation are just, well, non-existent. I can see little improvement from FIFA international Soccer on the Megadrive, which at least tried to implement an animated crowd and chanting. Since then, any improvements seem to have been put on hold to concentrate on commentary (which has just become a de-facto standard), and the stadium design, neither of which have any impact on the playing experience at all.

Perhaps designers should move away from the major leagues, international teams and so on, instead concentrating on the amatuer teams of the country. You can imagine a load of poor players bounding around a dirty field hastily converted into a pitch. This way the (small) crowd could have a more direct impact on the game. This would also create a more emotive response from the player. It would great if Konami could show some insight into the Japanese amateur clubs. India takes it's amatuer cricket seriously; I wonder if Japan takes it's football in the same way.

Thanks for reading,
LF.
Wed 17/07/02 at 11:43
Regular
"Hmmm....."
Posts: 12,243
That was the most interesting post ive read in a long time.

Excellent stuff!

:)
Wed 17/07/02 at 11:28
"`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·`·"
Posts: 463
Good post :-)
Mon 15/07/02 at 18:53
Posts: 0
I use to play soccer games but i found them so boring especially as I use to play the real game. I dout the programers even ever played soccer before.

Oh and nice post btw :0)
Mon 15/07/02 at 18:49
Regular
Posts: 588
Good Post there LF just look at David Beckham soccer as an example of football game developers not caring.
Mon 15/07/02 at 18:48
Regular
Posts: 10,437
nice
Mon 15/07/02 at 18:43
Posts: 0
Look at the two most successful football games at the moment - EA's FIFA, and Konomai's Pro Evolution Soccer. Not taking into account the play mechanics of the actual simulation, not even taking into account AI. What I want to know is do the developers involved even care about the drama of the sport?

Look at FIFA - all bells and whistles, but when you actually score it feels like a prescripted event at the best of times. Whereas a well worked move in PES is greeted by your player and the fans with all the enthusiasm of a 9-5 stock boy. Also, In WE6/PES2, you can tweak crowd settings, degree of partisan support, etc, at the options menu and it's a nice touch. The celebration animations seem somewhat time and event-related, too. Something is lost - it says a lot when there appears to be more emotion in one 12 pixel high Sensi player than the two of these games put together. What we need is these games to create an atmosphere, but to also maintain it. A last minute equaliser should not be celebrated by running to the corner flag and pointing at the air. It should be a flailing of limbs - sheer elation. Unless of course you're still losing on aggregate...

It may seem to be a moot point - surely you as a player can create your own celebration?

So let's look at the other aspect of the football game - the actual competitions available to you. Now, we all know that multiplayer is the only true way to play a football game, but that does not stop SWOS being recognised as one of the all time best football games ever. Is it it's gameplay? Yes. But it's also because it gives you something else - the ability to make your team yours. You select the players. You select the league. And then you take them to the top. Add to that possibly the best competiton creator available to anyone.

FIFA has recreations of all the top leagues. Fair enough. ISS has it's Master League. But both pale in comparison to an 8 year old system. Why? Because it seems that developers just couldn't give a damn. Championship Manager is not made by people who just don't give a damn. It is in fact SI Games sole export. Made solely by people who love the concept. Little wonder that it's the best management game available. Made in a country where football is the number one sport. US and Japan can't compete. Gremlin Interactive's Actua Soccer 3 too was made by people who love the sport. Sadly the gameplay was lacking - the options available to the player were excellent.

Now I dare say that Japan aren't passionate about Football, though. You've just got to look at the World Cup to prove this is wrong - the fact that players like Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi and Inamoto at Arsenal who don't play in the 1st team for their respective clubs but are still get the Japanese press' attentions even if they are playing a reserve match. Plus the England national side were treated like megastars over there too. I actually think that ISS 2 on the SNES showed a lot of atmosphere for it's time simply because you could see the fans interacting with the game, even if it were just through a few frames of animation - it felt consistent with the rest of the in-game graphics.

One thing that I would REALLY love to see in a football game is the ability to mix the management of aspects of the Champ Manager series with the realtime player controlled match engine from the Pro Evo series - the first step has been taken by using CM stats in Pro Evo 2 so surely it wouldn't take too much to merge the two genres together? Wouldn't it be amazing if you could have an RPG aspect in a football game where you create your own player at a non league club, and like Libero Grande, you only control your character. The twist in the concept is that even if the team does badly and you do well, there is a chance you will get signed for a better club and the aim could be to play for your country/win major honours.

I sometimes wonder what Codemasters could achieve if they sat down and made a football game...at least they seem to care a great deal more. It looks like we won't have to wait long, however, as they've pencilled in "Club Soccer" for this Christmas. I've heard of Codies' game, not too keen on the idea of centring each version around a single club, but maybe that's just me. I'm writing a football game at the minute with DIV Games Studio - hopefully I'll be able to recreate that sensi magic.

Here's what it boils down to:

Konami: Japanese. The Japanese are crazy about football. Konami have made some great footy games. They care.

EA: Most of the series was made by Canadians. Right then...

Even though, I would love it if SWOS league system was applied to PES. Also, according to an EA spokesperson, they've moved the entire development team to Europe this year because they want to "capture that European football atmosphere 100% accurately". And also because for the first time in years another football game (Pro Evolution Soccer) outsold the latest FIFA game (2002) in Spain and Italy. There will always be bad games but this is not so much an issue with the gameplay - it is fantastic in Konami's title. Once you have that match engine in place it is not really difficult to create a world around it - something Sensi manages to do so well. It's here that makes me think that after the love that has rightly gone into the gameplay is all gone - it's almost as if the publishers are telling the developers to whack in 50 teams and a workable front-end, and we'll add more teams and stuff next year, and so on.

My advice: wait for the Codemasters game. Looking at how they’ve tackled the (relatively) obscure sports of rallying and touring cars, I can’t see them mucking up what is effectively a licence to print money. In a way, I like the idea of the games being based around one particular club, but I can see why people would be annoyed. Think about how I feel - Telford United haven't been available in any football game ever yet! I feel so cheated! You can't even create a team in PES down to their exact kit. I heard you can in PES2, so hopefully. This is why I want a new SWOS on the GBA - they have to throw in the conference.

Even SWOS is just nowhere near in terms of atmosphere. The fact is, that the crowd have an active participation in any football match. Their volume levels can inspire prolonged pressure. Their constant abuse of a player can wind them up and affect their performance for better or for worse. They may grab hold of the ball in the last minute to time-waste, or they may barrack the opposing goalkeeper who is time-wasting, usually resulting in action from the referee, who may also be presurised by the crowd. These are the first things I can think of, none of which are apparent in any decent football game I have played. I'm not even asking for such complicated actions yet, just a start, easy things. Away goals being greeted by a quieter cheer than home goals. Goal celebrations from the players and supporters dependant on the time and consequence of a goal. A consolation goal is hardly going to be greeted in the same manner as a last gasp winner. Noisier crowds for bigger games as well would also be nice, to make them stand out from a friendlies.

Things like this are important. Developers need to stop fiddling about with commentary, its a bad idea and will never work. Games like PES are getting closer in terms of the game engine itself, but the atmosphere and crowd participation are just, well, non-existent. I can see little improvement from FIFA international Soccer on the Megadrive, which at least tried to implement an animated crowd and chanting. Since then, any improvements seem to have been put on hold to concentrate on commentary (which has just become a de-facto standard), and the stadium design, neither of which have any impact on the playing experience at all.

Perhaps designers should move away from the major leagues, international teams and so on, instead concentrating on the amatuer teams of the country. You can imagine a load of poor players bounding around a dirty field hastily converted into a pitch. This way the (small) crowd could have a more direct impact on the game. This would also create a more emotive response from the player. It would great if Konami could show some insight into the Japanese amateur clubs. India takes it's amatuer cricket seriously; I wonder if Japan takes it's football in the same way.

Thanks for reading,
LF.

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