Editorial: Sports games and gamer culture

Sports games and gamer culture

          Ah, the age old rivalry between jocks and gamers. Since the dawn of time, the two have battled it out to decide which is superior. Surprisingly, there’s a lot that ties these two groups together. Sports fans often memorize player statistics the same way a gamer would map out a World of Warcraft character. On the other hand, there’s no denying the presence of sports in the gaming marketplace.

          EA Sports is such a goldmine that it’s become a running joke of E3 just how much sports EA can fit into each conference. Half of this year’s show was shockingly given up to Madden and FIFA, going to the point of using the introduction of new coaches as a selling point, drawing some ire from the core gamers in the crowd. As TotalBiscuit said, “We’re nerds who watch Twitch. We don’t know who these people are.” And yet, it’s always at the show, taking up a significant chunk of time. Similarly, Ubisoft ended their conference with the reveal of Steep, an extreme sports skiing game.

          Ever since then, I’ve asked myself this question: why? Why are these sports games so popular that they’re featured so prominently at an event only gamers would watch? The obvious answer is because they make money for EA’s investors, so they need to be there. But I wasn’t satisfied with that. I wanted to know if there was truly a place in gamer culture for sports.

          I’ve always been a fan of cartoony sports games, like the Mario sports series and Rocket League. They bring an exaggerated take on the sports, with power-ups and special moves. Mario Strikers Charged is, to this day, one of the best multiplayer games on the Wii.

          But then there’s, for lack of a better term, the “realistic” sports games. The NBA, NHL, Madden, and FIFA games, among others. They’re yearly releases to update the rosters to whatever the current real life team is running, yet they never change any of the core gameplay.

          There’s no denying these games sell well. I once saw a guy debating whether he should buy Destiny or the latest edition of the NHL games. My youngest brother really only plays sports games. Jocks and sports fans really enjoy them. But that doesn’t answer my question: do these realistic sports games have any place in gamer culture?

          Well, I’m speaking for myself here, but as a core gamer, I find these games to be incredibly boring. Sometimes I’ll watch it just to see if I find it interesting, and I never do. I’ll always feel like playing something else. Judging by people’s reactions to EA’s press conference this year, calling the sports sections “bathroom break time” and the like, I’m pretty sure everyone else feels the same way.

          In the end, it’s all up to the gamer. I’m sure that someone out there loves both Dark Souls and Madden. To that person, I say that you keep doing what you enjoy. More power to you. As for the rest of us, though, I think that we’re going to start enjoying EA Sports games as soon as pigs fly.

Song of the Week

          The Sudden Death theme from Mario Strikers Charged. Charged is a cruelly underappreciated game, and I’d really like to see the return of this series. This song doubles as the intro theme, and it’s just as high energy and exciting as the game itself.