tuluse
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2008
- Messages
- 11,400
You're right and you're wrong. If you played the same people you're losing to with a team of NBA all-stars, and they used d-league players, I'm sure you would win. The stats do have a big effect.The elevating of stats in games like NBA 2k series is funny because player skill is the dominant aspect of these games. I can't comment on other sports games, but knowing something about basketball doesn't actually help me much on these. It takes 5 seconds to look at the the ratings the players have and pick someone with high numbers. Then it's just manipulating the controller.
I have an understanding of the game of basketball and of the teams and players in the NBA over the past 25 years, but never does my knowledge of, say, how to challenge the Miami Heat come into play in the actual game. My opponent just learns button combinations better than I do, and thus he wins, because L. James is doing things he won't do in real life, and I can't get Garnett and Pierce to work together properly on defense. I'm not convinced that knowing the combinations better would help much...because people usually end up finding a method of play that works within the rules of the video game itself but has little correlation with reality.
Maybe if they took full advantage of keyboard mapping, and plays could be run with more diversity, and simple keystrokes could allow for a wide range of actions with or without the ball, then it would be different--like playing an RTS, perhaps. But I doubt it. The games aren't designed as sims. The stats, then, in my mind, are there mostly to give the appearance of reality--allowing them to pull in a wide range of fans from the casual to the stat geeks--and perhaps more so to cause discussion and hype. Really, it's amazing how much controversy is stirred up when the ratings for players are released. Even the players themselves get in on it via twitter.
Hopefully FIFA is better. Meh. I suck at gamepad games, and will just admit that I'm probably wrong anyway.
Also, knowledge of real basketball is still player skill, so it sounds like you're grumpy because it's not a perfect model and someone else's skillset trumps yours.