Do real-life players create unrealistic expectations in sports games?
By Michael Lafferty

When rules of the game are not adhered to, frustration can set in

The ball is driven to deep left-centerfield. The centerfielder takes off in pursuit but it is evident that the ball is going to land beyond his reach. He was, after all, playing a little shallower for this particular batter and got caught trying to cheat up. The ball short-hops the outfield wall and jumps to the centerfielder’s right. From the camera angle, while it eluded him yet again, he didn’t appear to put a glove on it.

He hesitates, and then chases the ball. Meanwhile, the baserunner is rounding second and has a full head of steam heading for third. As he nears third, the outfielder retrieves the ball and throws toward the cut-off man. The runner rounds third and heads for home. The throw is too late and the runner scores. It appears to be an inside-the-park home run. But wait … the official score records it as an error, and not the misplay off the wall, the whole at-bat – which means the batter/baserunner does not get credit for the hit.

Ok, suppose the ball hit the outfielder’s glove as it came off the wall. That would be an error charged for the extra bases, but the ball hit over the outfielder’s head in the first place is a hit, pure and simple. A real scorekeeper may have ruled it a double, depending on whether the baserunner was around first by the time the ball short-hopped the wall, and then a two-base error to account for the run scored.

But then this was a videogame, and something so seemingly innocuous as that can drive the true fan right up the wall. Why? Baseball, more so than any other sport, is a game of statistics. Each at-bat, each batter ball is accounted for in its statistical precision. That hit being ruled an error may mean the difference between the batter going 2-for-5 for the game or 1-for-5. Consistent 2-for-5 batting will get a player to the Hall of Fame, where 1-for-5 average will get a ride down through the minors to a job elsewhere.

It would be one thing if this kind of occurrence was an anomaly in the world of sports videogames, but unfortunately it is not. Often there are little inconsistencies, little departures that remind us we are playing a game, not involved in the realistic counterpart to sports games we may be passionate about.

Why is it seemingly so hard to get the facts and nuances of a game right? For several decades, fans of role-playing games have been dealing with variants of the D&D ruleset, which has changed, but has been somewhat consistently handled in videogames. Sure, there have been games that vary in the treatment of the ruleset, but for the most part gamers know what to expect if a game is based on it.

Perhaps what separates sports games from fantasy RPGs are the fact that they include real-life players, for the most part. True, some games do step away from that (think of NCAA titles) because of the changing nature of the rosters on a year-to-year basis (and there is that whole licensing issue as well). But when you talk about pro sports, players are treated to lineups featuring recognizable players and legends.

And that is where we begin to slip into the frustrated madness of expectations not met.

Baseball is an obvious target because of the statistical nature of the sport. As baseball fans, we know that the last man to hit .400 or above was Ted Williams in 1941 (he had a .406 average). Rarely do we take time to stop gazing in wonder at the magical number to realize the opposite side of the coin – he was only successful at the plate roughly four out of 10 times, which means he failed to hit the ball safely six out of 10 times. We chortle with delight when we unlock Mickey Mantle from the legends, then scowl when he fails to dole out mighty clouts each time he steps into the batter’s box. We don’t remember that he was a .298 lifetime hitter and that his best-ever year at the plate was in 1957 when he hit .365.

Would it be any different if we played an NBA game and unlocked Wilt Chamberlain? The most-dominate center of his time scored 100 points in a game in 1962 (Philadelphia versus New York), but he only averages 30.1 points per game for his career, his career field goal percentage was only .540 and his free throw percentage (career) was .511. Translation: he won’t put the ball in the hole each time he touches it. (The stats came from www.nba.com.)

Sports games blur the line between fantasy and reality by introducing real-life players with real-life stats into a venue where what happens in the cyber arena may be at odds with how it would be treated in real life. And the fault, it would seem, is not so much with the game makers as with the expectations of the game players.

Yes, more attention needs to be paid to translating the rules into the cyber realm, but gamers have to also back up a bit and accept the shortcomings, in some small measure. With the next generation of console platforms on the horizon, with the videocards in PCs capable of giving us graphics that will amaze, there has to come a time when developers realize that they cannot squeeze any more realism, graphically, out of a sports title and will have to concentrate on making it a much more realistic gameplay experience in all areas, not just a few high-profile ones.

Sports is about passion, and when passion is riding high and what we expect is not met, then that enthusiasm can sour into frustration.

 

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