Interfering With Play 26/02/08
Posted by Dan Bolas in Interfering With Play on Tue 26 Feb 2008
Welcome to Interfering With Play. This week will see the writing and finalising of the Seabass letter, but due to the overwhelming and frankly huge response I have had from e-mails, messages and MSN chat, it is going to take slightly longer than first thought. I hope to post a copy on this site before Friday, as I am now in the process of collaborating all the points together now, before finally turning it into a piece that ill not bore readers. I apologise for anyone desperate to read it, but for the sheer volume of information that needs to be included, it is, in my opinion, better to take the time and get it right than rush it and waste the last few months’ work of hard work. With that said, enough has happened in the last week in order to keep Interfering With Play more than full, so lets get rolling.
Showing His Studs
Undoubtedly the talking point of the week, especially as regards to the English Premier League was the challenge on Arsenal’s Eduardo by Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor, which caused a horrific double break of his leg and torn ligaments. The tackle itself was nowhere near as bad as some of the challenges that have occurred this season, and was more a case of bad timing than intent to hurt the Croatian. Those who view Sky Sports News on a regular basis will see that Martin Taylor is far from a dirty player. He has received a total of 2 red cards in nearly 300 professional games, and averages a booking every 39 games, a very respectable record for any footballer, never mind one who plies his trade as a Centre Back. Arsene Wenger has since retracted his statement that Taylor should be banned from football, and most players and managers, including Eduardo have cleared him of blame for the incident. But I ask, how long before such a thing happens to a Rooney or a Gerrard, and England loses a key member of their side. Croatia would have probably been considered with an outside chance of winning Euro 2008, and now have lost one of their star strikers. Couple this with the fact it was an English player who had made the tackle, and you realise that although it was undoubtedly a horrible injury, it could have fallen so much worse for the FA, and given the media a field day. Players like Essien and Mikel are both renowned for leaving their foot in, or even occasionally going over the top of the ball in a tackle, and had they done so to an English player, I am sure the media would be called for more hefty treatment of these players. Kuyt managed to get away with a yellow card for what is arguably the worse tackle of the season so far, and this again is an area which is far to inconclusive for the modern game. Bans need to be greater for reckless play, and the FA should be able to hand out extended bans or even review incidents after the referee has taken action. At the moment, whatever the ref decides regarding a caution must stay as that, and this means yellow card tackles that deserve red are not getting punished. Couple this with the madness of a four game ban for Alliadiare, who whilst slapped Mascherano, did not cause any physical injury, and you realise that the system is both flawed and highly outdated. Any views on this subject, an issue, which is on most people’s lips at the moment, are more than welcome.
Welcome to My Empire
2008 will see the launch of a whole new world of gaming, as for the first time ever, there will be an interactive multi sport online community. For those of you who are unaware, a title called Empire Of Sports is going to be released for PC in the middle of this year. The game is to follow a similar role to the exceptionally popular World Of Warcraft series, in which you create your own character and move him or her round a virtual world. However, instead of fighting battles and collecting experience points, you work out at a gym and play in online sporting competitions to increase your rank. Sports range from Football to Tennis to Basketball and even more extreme sports such as Skiing, and are coupled with time spent in the gym to help you build up your athlete’s stats. The difference is, of course, every player you will play against will be another human being, be it in a 1 on 1 tennis match or a full scale 11 a side football league, with your team mates being real people playing the game just like you. For many sports gamers, something like this would seem to be the Holy Grail, and in my opinion, it does seem to be very interesting. I have never dabbled into the World Of Warcraft, but since my PS3, would consider myself a regular online gamer and love the idea of competing against real world opponents. The idea of having a team with mates, which you would pit against another team is one that I have personally been looking forward to for years, but I still feel that, although the idea is an excellent one, it still has a long way to go to make itself a must own game. It is due for release in May / June of this year, and anyone with anymore information would be welcome to post it as a comment, or send it this way via e-mail.
And We’re Heading Live To The Rumour Mill
Rumours this week have struck of PES2009 actually not being released until 2009, and even reports from a couple of sources that it will be Seabass’ last PES offering ever! Before we go any further, can I point out that most gaming rumours change on a daily basis and that one minute a game due out in 2009 turns up next week, with another game being delayed til 2010! The problem with a medium like computer games is the fact that is built for a generation that hates waiting. Game players are the same people who have been brought up on Cash Machines, Fast Food and Ready Meals. We have 100’s of channels so there is ‘always something on’ and we don’t buy CDs, if we like a song we download it that minute, legally from iTunes of course! As soon as any news of a slight delay occurs, immediately annoyance steps in and we get very frustrated. Many people were furious about the delay GTA IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 both experienced, yet movies have 6 month or 12 month set backs all the time. Therefore, as soon as any rumour hits the Internet about a delay, some people will see it as gospel, and some sites have even already printed that PES will not be released this year. I am personally far more sceptical. In an industry that moves so quickly, 6 months is a very long time, and more news about the next PES instalment will be far more accurate at that time. The other factor, which needs to be taken into account, though, is would PES gamers wait another 12 months for a new version of PES, if it irons out the ‘problems’ with this seasons title. EA Sports will have released three new titles (four including FIFA Street) by the time the new PES is released, so whether the game comes out in October or January may not be that important. What is important is that the game reaches the exceptionally high standards that it has set itself, and the Seabass and Konami take on board the views of football fans when making the game.
Ask The Experts
Moving on from the above point, I wonder how many experts actually work on a set game. For example, Call Of Duty 4 brought in a number of ex-military members, who all put their input towards the game. Wherever possible, Infinity Ward took their views and replicated it in the gaming world, and as a result what occurred was one of the most realistic and best war games on the market. But there were changes that had to be made. Simple things that are the difference between games and reality that needs to be added for effect. The grenades that you throw out should take 5 seconds to explode, however, the developers thought 5 seconds was too long for gamers to wait, and despite taking the advice of the experts, shrank the time delay down to three seconds, resulting in an increase in speed, even if it does sacrifice realism. This is of course, not possible for all genres of game, and indeed not for all titles. It would be impossible to take the views of a 13th Century Assassin on board when making Assassin’s Creed, and games like Stuntman: Ignition require a more user friendly interface than just diagrams and drawings presented to a real stuntman. However, with most gaming developers having not experienced many of the things they design games about, surely there is a call more than ever for experts to be brought in. Ray Houghton, ex-Republic Of Ireland and Aston Villa midfielder plays a huge part in the tactical development of Championship Manager, so surely working with professional coaches will help give a greater understanding to the AI in games like PES and Fifa. Your views on this subject would be, as always, greatly appreciated.
‘Keep On Rolling’
Comments made on the previous Interfering With Play have led to the question what will this article feature once the Seabass letter is done and dusted. This weeks article made very little reference to the aforementioned letter, and is as long, if not longer than previous weeks offerings, however, Interfering With Play’s future is totally in the hands of the PESGaming.com public. Every week I receive e-mails commenting on something someone has read on the site, and every week I sit down on a Tuesday with a list of ten or so topics and have to shrink them down to 3 or 4 in order to save time. I plan to continue writing for a while yet, as I still have a number of talking points that can be discussed, and have no intention of packing it in. With that said, I appreciate that over the summertime, there may be a point of a few months were Interfering With Play will go on a summer holiday. I hope that should this happen I will return in time for the build up to the future PES, with the latest news and dealings from the gaming world. So in answer to the question, I have a few topics to still discuss and write about, so you won’t be getting rid of me just yet!
That’s it for this week’s column. Hopefully the Seabass letter will be up for your viewing pleasure on Thursday, but it may come slightly later, depending on work and time restraints. As always, comments are more than welcome at the bottom of the page, along with e-mails, which can be sent to danbolas@hotmail.com. I also have to apologise for any people who may get deleted of my PS3 friends list in the next few weeks. I have too many people on there at the moment, and with some of my mates buying PS3’s in the next few weeks, I need to streamline it slightly. Send me a message on there in the next few days shouting out who you are and that your read the column, and I will not delete you!
Thanks for Reading.
ur a LUN…all of u hu knw wt tht mean….u lun
It doesn’t matter how long before Rooney or Gerrard get crocked by a tackle, you know one of them will end up self destructing in an important match and end up getting sent off anyway!!!
Bad tackles will always happen. Its the Sh*t that goes off afterwards when the players surround the referees that should be stamped out with red cards. All you need to do is watch one 6 nations rugby match and compare it to any football match and your’ll see that the referee actually has the respect of the players and its not because its a toffs game either!! So many Premiership footballers seem to be hyped up by their over inflated egos I think they forget that they actually have to listen to the ref and learn to play by the rules occasionally! Anyway rant over!!
no1 gives a shit about rugby…we r talkin bout football
Hi Dan,
Thanks again for IWP, its always a great read.
I can not remember if the following things have been mentioned previosuly to be added in the Seabass letter, and it may be way too late to add new things but here goes anyway…
1) Better Trophy Celebrations that bring you closer to the players and realism and enjoyment in winning trophies.
2) Randomly showing player stats during a game, were it focuses on a player and it states the Games PLayed/Goals/assist/passing%/etc.. And the comentator stating a player has scored 13 goals so far this season, or he has scored in his 3rd game in a row or he has 7 goals in the last 4 games.
This will bring you closer to the players and that added realism of stats.
3)More stats for the Master League would be nice
Cheers
Jim
@mn9ajas
You miss the point entirely with your comment about officials in rugby as compared with football.
The role of the pitch official in rugby is to almost talk the players through the game. The rugby official takes an active role in how the game flows and moves players around, letting them know when they could potentially foul etc. Although the official in rugby obviously stops the game for fouls and the like, he’s relationship with the players is built throughout the whole game as the official. will talk throughout the whole game.
The official in a football match only really get involved in the game to stop it! This in itself makes the relationship between the player and the official completely different. Where the official in a rugby match continuously talks to the players, the football official only ever talks to the players to reprimand them, so, the relationship can never build.
Rugby and Football are two very different games, to try to make justified comparisons is, quite simply, naive.
Interesting point. Naive - No
Mores the point though, how did premiership footballers ever get to the point where they became so abusive to referees. In rugby AND in other sports if you so much as swear at the referee, let alone start putting your hand on them, you can be banned for x amount of macthes. The point I was trying to make is that there seems to be a lack of respect in the football that you watch on TV compared to a lot of other sports.
You definietly can’t call me naive about that as thats fact!
pes2008 is lame I didnt play in months,fifa is even worse and I have no football game to play which is sad…cant wait till october when the new pes comes out and it better be a drastic improvement
Fair comment, but, the fact is footballers do get punished when they abuse the officials, it’s a huge misconception of how a football match works and the language of the game.
All sports generate from somewhere; the language and rules of most sports are governed from where they originated. You can sit and deny that rugby and cricket are not ‘toff sports’ and I would agree, that is too crude a description, but, the facts are this. Football is a working class sport, that is where it was born, kids on street corners, all that stuff. It was adopted as the national sport because of it’s simplicity and mass appeal. Football carries the traditions of the culture from which it came. rugby, cricket & tennis were played in sweeping valleys, on beautiful green cricket pitches & wonderful lush green lawns (mostly on someones large estate)and as such all of these sports attracted and maintained a largely upper class audience. Different classes behave differently from one another, that’s the point, it may not sound nice, but, class systems are a fact of life.
It pains me every time I here people calling Premiership footballers over paid this and that, lack of respect, it’s bullshit! Does anyone truly believe that a boy of around 12 to 15 years of age who, in most cases, has to leave he’s home and train every day with just a glimmer of hope that he could make it into the big time, has a lack of respect? Does anyone really think that a boy could achieve that level of success without having to have earned and shown respect? Yes they earn a stupid amount of money, so what, they also pay the taxman a shit load of money too, coupled with all the crap thier wives can buy in a week, the VAT on that stuff alone is probably more tax than anyone of us will pay in a life time. So, remember, footballers are also contributing to UK wealth.
Football is a passionate game, fast flowing, brash, unpredictable (at it’s best), noisey, and in the Premiership, very unforgiving.
Stop trying to compare chalk with cheese, it just ain’t hap’nin!