Eight Minutes
Playing video-game football can become a complicated endeavor; there’s a necessary yet significant learning curve and the sport itself has nearly unlimited ways to succeed… or fail. Every year, Electronic Arts churns out two football titles - NCAA Football and Madden NFL - and in an era where releasing game demos is critical to gaining access to gamers’ wallets year after year, they’ve settled into a reliable and comfortable pattern.
The problem is, it’s a bad one.
Football, a sport in which virtually every coach will state in their pre-game interview that they must control the clock, has that critical element of the game completely removed in EA Sports’ football demos; eight playable minutes split into four two-minute quarters. Along with it, the challenge, the strategy and even the ability to show off the game’s improvements vanish. The baby goes out with the bath water, and the game’s demo often becomes a lightning rod for criticism. It’s the worst possible result for a demo, which is supposed to offer insight as to why the game will be worth purchasing and whetting gamers’ appetites for more.
The problems with the four two-minute quarter demo paradigm are manifold, and they’re on clear display in EA Sports’ latest gridiron demo, released last month in an effort to sell next week’s NCAA Football 10:
1) With two-minute quarters (and four-minute halves), every drive is forcibly abbreviated; a mad scramble down the field that runs counter to the simulation-style football the design team strove to create. In real football, teams run the football roughly half the time or more, yet with a two-minute quarter, roughly five running plays will deplete it. Mounting true-to-life football drives, at least with any variety, is impossible.
2) While drives can continue through the first/second and third/fourth quarters, the demo’s already rushed feel is broken up further by halftime, which forces a change of possession and another kickoff, which in turn forces desperate play for the entire second and fourth quarters.
3) The abbreviated quarters also force the AI’s hand - or it should, if the AI’s worth its salt. Instead of playing a more conservative, standard offense or defense like it should during most of the game, the AI is instead playing an aggressive offense and defense, which make both easier to defeat. There’s no secret to a desperate AI when you know it’s coming, and since the too-short quarters all but insist that the AI plays this way throughout the demo, it’s not indicative of the final product.
4) The “full game” illusion doesn’t feel satisfying, and it also tends to give away parts of the game that would otherwise need to be earned over time, for example, the in-game commentary spouted by NCAA 10’s announcers. “You’re the national champions, sweethearts,” says color man Lee Corso at the end of the game. While it’s not a huge reveal, it seems unnecessary to give anything away at all after such a brief and rather empty experience.
5) One of NCAA 10’s latest features is the ability to “set up” plays; to lure the opposing defense in by running the ball and then surprise them with an effective play-action call. You can see some of this in the demo - during play selection, certain plays will have text stating, “(x)% set up”. But don’t expect to see how it works in action; there’s simply not enough time to call enough plays and bait the defense. In this case, and in the case of the new (and exciting, for strategists) “Game Plan” feature, two of NCAA 10’s most significant additions are glossed over and ineffectual in the demo, which seems to run contrary to the reasons for building a demo in the first place.
Developers and producers at EA Sports have often stated that these brief demos are important to them, but that their brevity is necessary; a misguided fear that many gamers will find the demo too satisfying and will therefore forgo the purchase of the game. But that seems out of line with history; EA Sports has generated billions of dollars in sales by releasing a new version of the same product every year for over two decades now, and the games’ sales numbers keep growing rather than declining. It’s obvious that any gamer who’s interested in NCAA Football 10, for example, won’t find any demo game between Florida and Oklahoma, with limited functionality to boot, a satisfactory replacement for the full-featured final version and the hundreds of different teams and stadiums available.
But a demo that doesn’t truly reflect the depth of the final product may indeed chase them away.
Fortunately, the changes necessary to better promote their product through a demo aren’t difficult to accomplish; save breaking the momentum of perpetual motion that tends to help bean-counters sleep at night.
First and foremost, NCAA Football’s and Madden NFL’s demo time should be extended to fifteen minutes of game-clock time. This length, which would still be five minutes shorter than a single default game, doesn’t make the demo any sort of replacement for the final version, but it would allow time for the game’s more strategic elements to reveal themselves, whether that’s NCAA’s “set-up” functionality, its new “Game Plan” coaching tool or simply the revamped run-blocking mechanics.
Second, this fifteen-minute period should be all in one quarter, preferably the first (or second, if some sort of halftime presentations must be highlighted). This lets the game evolve more naturally, with running and passing plays; long drives and thoughtful defensive play. Essentially, the demo would allow the gamer to play football, as they will in the retail product, and it’s likely to deflect much of the criticism leveled at the game pre-release; something that the current demo archetype - which misrepresents its own product - all but encourages.
Last but not least, like any good demo, movie trailer or television cliffhanger, the 15-minute single-quarter demo concept inherently leaves the gamer wanting more. While playing the demo, the gamer isn’t rushed or forced into a frenetic style of play; they can settle in and experience all that the game has to offer, and then it’s done - no final score, no post-game celebrations or commentary, just a satisfying first act. The following ones can be found for $60 at your local game store.
Isn’t that the point?
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