

As sports videogames have, more or less, existed for the better part of two decades, it only seems natural to have this progression of gaming intensity. In my opinion, text-sim gamers are the freakiest of sports gamers, the people who can't get their fix only with a gamepad or a handful of Fantasy League teams. The fact that sports text games draw a more intellectual and involved crowd comes as no surprise, as many of these gamers tend to devour statistics like the Russians sip vodka. In World of Mixed Martial Arts, some fighters may refuse a match simply due to bad blood with an opponent. When navigating through a season of Front Office Football, among the variables is gauging a player's past injustices, be it losing a starting position or getting cut the previous season. They're well-rounded, voluptuous creatures, who spit out the unfocused sports gamers who reset un-victorious Super Bowls due to "computer cheating." Don't send a boy to play a man's game.ĭownload the demo of any of the Out of the Park Baseball games, and watch yourself gawking at its endless flow of statistics, menu screens, and toggable variables. They're not the equivalents of the cute-faced cheerleader, twirling her hair and popping bubble gum. Text-sim games aren't for the ditzy, lacking-in-confidence types. Huh? I know, I know, but think what constitutes sexy (don't confuse it with gorgeous or hot!): sleek, smooth, intelligent, spontaneous, perplexing, and, at least upon first glance, intimidating. My assignment with this article is to explain what exactly makes these sports text games. But with text games, with more time to gnaw over personnel or tactical decisions, I tend to savor my successes more deeply, and, as the Afernee Weatherspoon debacle shows, I am capable of moping and brewing longer than any adult should. While I mashed away at the buttons on the Playstation 2, I got angry and happy in much the same way an adolescent might: intensely for short periods of time.
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I have evolved in my sports gaming tastes, aging like many professional athletes do, hanging up the sneakers and tossing on the business suit for the high-pressure seat in the executive suite.Īnd as a result, I have also discovered a significant shift in how I "experience" sports games. Perhaps I was burned by too many Michael Vick bootlegs or Steve Nash 35-foot 3-pointers in the past. The draw to text-sims is much more than any console-based game. To me, that hands-off approach is the biggest draw for me to text simulations. You just make your best guess, close your eyes, and hope for the best. From the virtual sidelines, similar to the gambling addict down 50 Gs on the roulette table, the ball, is literally out of your hands. You shift from the fleeting striker cracking goals into the back of the net to.a soccer dad. In the traditional sports games, you control all the players and your individual skill dictates the result however, in text simulations your impact is decidedly more indirect.
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That something, consisting of an awkward fusion of two former NBA player names and a 2kb data file of career statistics, could jolt me to "just dumped by hot girlfriend" proportions is shameful, yet ask any true connoisseur of PC text sports games and you'd likely uncover similarly sobering stories.ĭo Madden fantatics or NBA Live jumpshot masters fret over their personnel like this? Sure, but not in the same way. It affected my life, even disrupting my well-being, the emotions waving over and through me: first anger, then sadness, and lastly depression.

Krause, with the sudden retirement of my transcendant shooting guard, Anfernee Weatherspoon. I was the Jerry Krause that Jerry Krause always wanted to be.Īnd then, in the summer of 2027, I got duped, much like Mr. By year 2027, I was the brainy, prodigal mastermind of a six-time NBA champion that the Chicago roundball fanbase (well, just me) adored.
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Indeed, for three months or so, in between wandering the aisles of the Giant Eagle grocery store and making failed plans to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I played virtual general manager of the Chicago Bison in Total Pro Basketball 2003. So, it was during that summer in the city famous for a flaming river and Jerry Springer that I fell in love with a computer text simulation game. As a 20-year-old intern in the unfamiliar city of Cleveland during the summer of 2004 I found myself with no friends, no family, and most regrettably, no fake ID.
