This piece on sports games might be the best thing I've ever read on Kotaku

[sclpls]

http://kotaku.com/the-truth-is-last-years-games-had-problems-this-year-1264532486

 

I don't play sports games at all, but this article makes me kind of wish I did. But what I actually love about the article is it really digs into what makes game design so fascinating, namely that constant process of iteration and trade-offs. It is so easy when we put on our hats as critics to talk about good or bad design decisions when of course the reality is a lot messier than that, and there aren't absolutes of a good or bad game design. This came up in the Dotato Day podcast that Brad Muir appeared on where he was talking about what was so interesting about DOTA 2 and M.O.B.A.s is that they are filled with seemingly "bad" game design choices, but in spite/because of these design choices they are endlessly fascinating in a way that games with more "correct" game design choices aren't. 

[Roswell47]

To quote Cory Banks from the Gamers With Jobs podcast: "...oh this time it will really be perfect!" in response to unending, annualized sequels.

[Codicier]

There's a famous quote about football/soccer

 

"The ball is round, the game lasts 90 minutes, everything else is pure theory"

 

If you look at the history of a competitive sport you will see year after year, decade after decade minor tweaks and revision to the rules, the tactics, and even the physical build of the players.

 

Sometimes this comes from a commercial imperative other times it is rooted in two more far interesting yet nebulous concepts "fair play" & "the spirit of the game".

Sports governing bodies in particular have a habit of retrospectively condemning actions that at the time they defended to the hilt, and i find it interesting that the marketing for the digital representations of sports seem to be mimic this process.

[sclpls]

That is totally true. The impact that the evolution of the offside rule has had on soccer is fascinating. Jonathan Wilson, author of the excellent book Inverting the Pyramid, has written some very sharp analysis of that rule and how it has improved the modern game.

 

I like your point about "the spirit of the game", and how there's a tension there that creates a flux in the protocols of the game. This is especially interesting in soccer which is such an international sport, so different countries have different prevailing ethics and norms. There was a vivid example of this during the last World Cup during the match between Uruguay and Ghana when Luis Suarez prevented what would have been a deciding goal with a handball. As a result of the action he received a red card and removed from the game. Ghana received a penalty kick (which they missed), and Uruguay was able to move on to the next leg of the tournament as a result. In the Anglophone world this was treated as disgraceful, and some people accused Suarez of "cheating" even though what he did was, technically speaking, not cheating since he suffered the full repercussions for his action, he was simply in violation of the regulations. But of course for many people this contradicted their notion of what counts as "sportsmanlike" behavior. Many editorials were written about it. Interestingly, if you looked as the sports press in other countries you would sometimes see this event described without much comment, it simply wasn't considered a violation of norms in other parts of the world.