$60 Roster Updates

So I was at Best Buy the other day, yea I know sellout whatever, but I was picking up my copy of Captain America on Blu-Ray, which is awesome by the way if you haven't gotten it finish reading this post and go get it, when I noticed a display advertising last years Madden on sale for 1/2 off (don't know if it was a local deal or what).  But this really got me thinking about how ridiculous sports games really are.  I mean we pay $60 for a brand new game every year that pretty much consists of a roster update.  There has to be something that can be done about this problem.  Thankfully you have me here and together were going to fix it.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, the whole sports in video games has been around for along time, Excitebike, Duck Hunt, and Tecmo Bowl ( I had to) are all very good examples of very early sports games.  Now times have changed a little bit since they have came out but they are still sports games.  The big difference now is when those games came out people played them because they were new and interesting, now people buy them for only the reason of having to have the latest and greatest.  Fortunately for my own sanity I have not gotten into the whole sports games fad and do not plan on it.

I'm sure we all have fond memories of this.

Still why are they so popular, well look back at my post on Call of Duty and what its caused.  With the dawn of the new generation of games, i.e. better graphics, online play, and tournaments, this type of game has become more popular.  People are willing to go out and spend their money buying them because their friends are going to get them and they want to play with their friends.  Game Studios found something that works, and they're exploiting it.

Now I know that last week I said that games like Call of Duty should be applauded because they found a good marketing strategy and a good core experience that will keep people coming back to play their games for years.  But why is it so different with sports games?  Its like I said earlier: you pay $60 for a roster update, something that should be a yearly patch, or a monthly patch.  These games will rarely add new features but once every 3 years and quite honestly the multiplayer experience almost never changes.  The biggest things that change are the following: 1) The roster gets updated, 2) The graphics get slightly better (oh yay now i can see my players sweat stains), 3) The rookies get added in with new stats.  That's it, three things, don't look for much else.

For the love of all that is good don't buy it.

However there is a solution that can we as consumers can do to help fight this problem.  Actually I have more than one solution, but some are just better than others.

First, we can proceed to hunt down every last person who buys a sports game every year.  Once we find them we herd them into a giant walled city for them to live in and not spread their affliction of uselessly buying sports games.  While they're living in there we select a few people at a time and start them on a intense rehab program that involved watching hours upon hours of Hannah Montana and being shocked every time they think of next years Madden, or NCAA title.  And once the rest see that their friends are leaving they will start to act in a similar manner and not buy a yearly sports title, thus curing them of their psychosis.  Slightly cruel, but it should be pretty effective.

Second, we can form a massive lynch mob head for EA Sports' studios.  When we get their its time to light your Molotov's ladies and gentlemen because this building is going to burn.  Its like Queen Myrrah said: "Cut of the head of the snake and the body dies".  The head is the game studios, burn it and they will no longer spew their yearly excuse for a $60 Frisbee.  Less cruel, more fun, still effective.

You know you want to.

Lastly, and the most plausible one of them all, we limit ourselves on how often we buy these games.  For instance instead of buying them every year, we only buy them every other, or every three years.  This is honestly the best way for a couple of reasons.  The game studio still gets to make their yearly abomination but they don't get the pleasure of giving it to every american gaming console.  Also, if you only buy a copy every 2-3 years you still get the new content and graphics, but it will be all the better because you've had to wait for it.  And the biggest reason that this is the best option is because no one will be blaming me for the tragedies that will ensue if either of the former should occur.  Everybody wins.

If this was an actual achievement I might try playing it.

So I guess long and short is just don't buy into the sports games every year.  The games don't evolve very fast, there's really not much new that is brought to the table, and honestly, it's kind of a waste of money.  So not only help yourself from this terrible decision, but also help your friends with it, remind them next time that they decide they want a new sports game, ask them is it really worth it?  Till next time.