Kotaku (currently the best game news site up, IMHO) claims that EA paid half a billion dollars for the rights to the NFL, spread over five years. That’s half of the rumored number that was flying around previously, I feel required to point out that Kotaku lacks a link that shows where that information is coming from, merely a sketchy description of accountant’s comparing EA’s public records before and after the transaction. Continue reading
Category: Sports (Page 3 of 3)
Here we are talking about how playing it safe in the world of design is a loser of a philosophy. To prove that I can link any disparate topics, here is a similar discussion about football. The esteemed Dr. Z (probably the best technical football columnist) writes about how some teams get so scared of taking a huge chance and instead lose quietly.
There are coaches who are always looking for ways to beat you, who will go for the throat. Give us 40 seconds and one time out and we’ll put points on the board, is their philosophy. These coaches have Super Bowl rings.
There are coaches whose playbooks are filled with things that can go wrong. They have a fine working knowledge of the terrors of the game. They coach not to lose. Yet they lose, maybe not over the course of a season, or a career, but they lose the big ones. Let me tell you about this latter breed.
The article was spurred by two incidents, in two seperate weeks, where fraidy-cat coaches were so terrified of an unlikely scenario (interception, fumble, sack) that they gave their kickers long, unlikely field goals in very hostile, pressure cooked circumstances, rather than try to throw a couple passes to get a little bit closer and make the kick a little bit easier
Fantasy Football is a brilliant design, especially to those trying to run the business of the NFL. It’s remarkable, really, how well it keeps football fans engaged in the game even when, say, the football team that they actually root for has no hope to get into the playoffs because Vinny Testaverde gives it up more often than the high school slut. Continue reading
As a followup to the big borg news, Midway has announced that they didn’t want those pesky rights anyway.
“No longer bound to the NFL license, there will be no league restrictions on content and gamers will finally experience what makes playing a football video game really fun: off-field controversies, dirty hits, excessive celebrations and much more,” Midway marketing chief Steve Allison said in a statement.
From the imminently quotable Tuesday Morning Quarterback:
Let us now praise the most important player in NFL history. We speak, of course, of Preston Ridlehuber….
I watch baseball once a year. It starts about midway through the divisional series, and continues through the ALCS. Then, whether or not I watch the World Series depends on who is in it. As a former Ohioan, I still harbor a deep love for the Cincinnati Reds, and since the only way I see them is opening the paper to watch them slide southwards in the standings, I just don’t pay attention until the year’s almost over.
I hate the Yankees for a simple reason: they broke baseball. As the lead designer of a massively multiplayer game, nothing ticks me off more than a guy who exploits – except a guy who doesn’t stop. Baseball needs a patch. Last year, I didn’t watch a single inning of the World Series. Even if the Yanks ended up going down, it’s so tiring to watch the evil empire claim the crown year after year.
Last night, of course, we were reminded of why its worth hating the Yankees. A-Rod swatting the ball out of Arroyo’s hands with a girlish jab, prompting the everclassy Yankee’s fans to debris on the field until the riot police came out will be emblazoned in my memory for all time.
In the last four years, it’s been even more intolerable. I had a Yankees fan living with me. Every time the Yankees would stumble, he’d remind me, “We have 26 world series victories.” What can wipe that away?
I think that the most humiliating collapse in baseball history will do.
Steroids, okay. I dealt with that. Ridiculous inequities between teams? Okay, needs change, but I’m still a fan. But, Christ almighty, ending the all-star game with a tie – I don’t know why, but it breaks the camel’s back. The final ignomy was that, due to the fact that the game ended in a tie, no MVP award was given, even though it was renamed in favor of Ted Williams just yesterday.
I’m now fully in the camp of ‘everyone associated with this sport is a whining crybaby’. You’ve got 10 pitchers on a team, and you can’t cover 12 innings? Everyone’s up past their bedtime? And you aren’t getting paid enough?
Baseball needs to clean up it’s act. Get rid of the drugs. Fix the prima donna attitudes. Install a salary cap. Stop talking about contracting teams. And finish the damn games.
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