Tag: Nazi

Sim Sports Gaming Vs. Casual Sports Gaming (Remember The Titans)

We have been focusing on Madden 13 and football gaming quite a bit over the last few months.  One of our more recent articles was about the complete subjectivity in what makes someone a “Sim” sports gamer.  After considering my own personal views and then looking at my own advise to the NTTV community (…have a good time and play the game however the hell you want to…) I was left to wonder what the other people within the sports gaming community thought about this rather trivial but somehow vital prescription for how games should play and be played.

The ultimate showdown between the Casual Sports Gamer and The ‘Sim’ Nazi… Where do you stand?

it was at that point that I came across this post on operationsports.com from community member, Big FN Deal –

“…I will suggest this again, for all the good it will likely do. We are all aware that the game is not tuned for optimal realism, it is tuned for a “fun”/realism balance. So they should release two separate optional tuner sets, one “balanced” for casual Madden play, the other for the “hardcore” tuned for optimal realism. …” (click the link for the full post)

What made my mind explode was the mention of the word ‘FUN’. In case you don’t remember what that is; it was that thing you used to do when you were younger and playing games that made you laugh and enjoy the moment because you were just having a good time.  You wanted to smile your way through whatever happened and breath in that fresh air of innocence.

Then something happened… you can’t pin-point it, but chances are good that it happened when you started playing high school sports and the coaches started screaming at you and you thought every moment was live or die.  You stopped wanting to have fun and just wanted raw, unadulterated, anger inducing competition.  You stopped smiling.  You stopped playing the game for fun.  It became a chore to even go home and relax with a game of Madden football because there is NO WAY someone can rocket catch in real life!

The Definitive Movie Reference

This clip can be viewed from a two sports gamer perspectives/comparisons…

1- Casual Gamers That Play For Fun (The Players) VS. Sim Gamers That Play Strictly For Realism (Coach Boone)

or

2- Madden Fanboys (The Players) VS. 2K Fanboys (Coach Boone)

Hopefully you are laughing at this point, because you are supposed to be… if you are angry, that is okay too.  Just remember to think back to when you used to have fun.  Once upon a time when there was no such thing as a ‘patch’ for the 100-Yard pass in Tecmo Super Bowl.

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Beware of Slider Nazis – Madden 13

We are only a few days from the release of NCAA 13 and just over a month from Madden 13.  That being said, you can almost smell the football in the air.  Unfortunately, you can also smell  the elitist sports gamers over the internet.  Readying their little fingers to type angry messages in response to your excited Franchise Mode Connected Career performance updates that may or may not include winning a Super Bowl with the Cleveland Browns in 2013.

Usually your success with a ‘weaker’ team is going to be attributed to your Slider Settings.  These wonderful additions to sports games have been around for awhile.  They are meant to act as a way for you (the end user) to tune the gameplay in order for you to either make the game play like your opinion of simulation (or Arcade – which Madden is usually a fine example of every year).  It then becomes a war of words and Slider Settings in the messageboards and sports gaming communities.

Your typical interaction with a slider nazi could sound (read) like this.

———

You – I just won the Super Bowl with the Browns!  It was amazing!  We managed to sweep the AFC North behind the amazing play of Trent Richardson (led the league in rushing and TDs) and our under-rated defense!  We beat the Cowboys 24-10 as Brandon Weeden connected with Josh Cribbs on a screen pass that ended up sealing the deal late in the game!

Responding (Hater) Slider Nazi – You obviously have to change your sliders!  There is no way the Browns will EVER win a Super Bowl, let alone this year.  You need to make sure your run blocking is tuned down if Trent Richardson is leading the league as a rookie.  Not to mention the fact that the Browns are terrible… wow.  big props to you on beating the weak CPU to a pulp.  Did you have the difficulty set to Rookie?

———

There are two ways to look at this conversation and neither of them is necessarily wrong.

1 – If you enjoy your game, no one should be able to tell you how to enjoy it otherwise.  If you truly have a good time winning the Super Bowl with ANY team, let alone a team like the Browns, Cavaliers,  Kansas City Royals, Western Michigan or Columbus Blue Jackets… more power to you.

2 – There is something to be said for a game giving you a challenge.  While the reactions of many sports gamers (such as the example above) are blown out of proportion, you should often consider if your sliders are providing you with the best challenge while still being fair to both sides.  I have played 18 Collective Seasons in Madden 12’s Franchise Mode with teams such as the Browns, Bears and Jaguars.  I won a few Super Bowls with the Browns and decided I wanted a new challenge so I switched teams and tweaked my sliders.  It was three seasons before I won a Super Bowl with the Bears and the Jaguars team I inherited after leaving the Bears is going to be rough to work with.