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by
Joe - jgand@pcfootball.net
12-22-04
Greetings
all!
Now
even though this is my annual year-end column there has been a
recent development that has taken place in the world of gaming
that deserves comment.
EA
recently bought the exclusive rights to the names, faces,
logos, team colors and stadiums of the National Football
League.
Since
that announcement, I have noticed a lot of teeth-nashing and
rendering of garments as a result of this deal. A lot of
gamers seem to be opposed to this deal, thinking that it will
destroy all competition from Sega, Microsoft, 989 Studios, and
that the ESPN brand will now just have to go away. They are
saying that EA Sports will now have a monopoly on the football
gaming market and that theirs will literally be the only game
in town.
My
response: everybody just calm down!
Look,
in my mind this does not mean the death of NFL Fever, NFL
Gameday, ESPN NFL 2k6 or any other football title out there.
There
is a possibility that EA could sub-license to other companies
if they so choose, so those other games are not necessarily
dead right now.
It
also means that a game like Maximum-Football could have an
even bigger impact on the market than it would have had
before. Think about it, if Madden is their only competition,
as many of you have speculated, then that makes David
Winter’s job of promoting and marketing the game that much
easier because he only has to worry about one product instead
of three or four.
Is
there a bad side to this? Well sure there is. Without
competition there is a possibility that EA Sports could become
lazy and complaicent, and not put out a quality game. If
theirs is the only game then people would buy it no matter how
bad it is.
Do
I seriously think this will happen? No. I somehow don’t
think that Jerremy Strauser would allow his team to release an
inferior product. I don’t think that they would be so lazy
or arrogant to think that they could just slap some new
graphics on the Madden 2005 engine, put it in a box and call
it Madden 2006.
All
you have to do to see that results of what happens to
companies who do that is to look at Sierra. They did exactly
that when the Football Pro series was in its heyday in the mid
to late 90’s. All they did was tweak the graphic interface
and sent the same game out the door. That was until 1998 when
they put out the re-tooled and buggy Football Pro ’99 onto
store shelves. The complaints about the game came in fast and
furious and the game was re-called. Due to lack of support
from the top executives at Sierra the series’ throat was
slashed, and it was allowed to die a humiliating death. A few
years later, Sierra itself had its throat cut by Vivendi
Universal, in the ultimate example of “what goes around
comes around.”
Somehow
I doubt that EA Sports wants to head down the same road as
Sierra.
So
what’s going to happen next? I have no idea. As gamers we
will all have to be patient and we will have to wait and see
what happens next. “Those who do not learn from history are
doomed to repeat it.” I would like to think that EA Sports
has learned from the mistakes of their competitors, and I
would also like to think that they will not go down that same
path.
Having
said all of that, without further adieu, I give you the 3rd
annual edition of:
The Good, the Bad, and the
Downright Idiotic.
Good
– Madden 2005.
Bad
– More of the same, just a different dressing.
Good
– New storyline mode in franchise mode.
Bad
– Newspaper articles don’t go into as much depth as I
would have liked. I would have liked to see game re-caps that
I could export for a website.
Idiotic
– No created teams in franchise mode?!? I’m hanging onto
Madden 2004!
Good
– All of the classic teams are available again.
Bad
– The roster editor still has a few limits on jersey
numbers.
Bright
spot – There is a way around that limitation if you want to
put the work in.
Good
- Muscle Mike's Historic Roster for Madden 2004 PC.
Bad
– Don’t quite agree with some of his choices for the
All-Time teams, but that’s just me.
Good
– The “Hit Stick” is a nice addition.
Bad
– I’m still so used to the playmaker features on defense
in Madden 2004 that I have to fight myself not to use the
right stick to call for a run or pass coverage on D.
Good
– The immenent release of Maximum Football.
Bad
– Jeez David, what’s taken you so long?
Good
– Changes made here at PCFootball.net.
Bad
– What took me so long?
Good
– BlindSideBlitz.com.
Bad
– Don’t you guys want to post over here too?
Good
– We moved to a new server.
Bad
– Transferring the database was a pain in the ass.
Good
– No trouble here at PCF for a long time.
Bad
– The fact that I had to allow a good friend to be banned. I
didn’t want for it to happen, but after evidence was found
that he used my username and password to go into the forum
controls and make changes to how people could view the forums,
I had no other choice but to let it happen. I will always hate
the fact that it had to happen. The whole episode disappointed
me on so many levels…
Good
– The election is over.
Bad
– The build-up to the election has left us on the brink of
Civil War.
Good
– More people than ever voted in this election.
Bad
– They re-elected W.
Good
– More people voted against W than in 2000.
Bad
– More people voted for W than in 2000.
Good
– More jobs are coming back.
Bad
– The prerequisite for going back to work is that you have
to get used to saying “You want fries with this?”
Good
– Fahrenheit 9/11
Bad
– More people seem to care about Janet Jackson’s tits then
the fact that their sons and daughters are in harm’s way so
that W’s friends in Halliburton can be war profiteers. But
that’s just how I see it.
Idiotic
– People who hate Bill Clinton so much that they want to
blame him for everything that is going wrong now. Give me a
break! The man has been out of office for almost four years
now! True, the man lied about his affair, but how many
American soldiers did that lie kill anyway? W’s lie about
WMD’s has killed over 1,000 American soldiers, yet I don’t
hear anybody on the Republican side talking about impeachment,
do I? If we are going to impeach a President for telling lies,
then let’s impeach this President for telling a lie that has
led to bloodshed.
Good
– I still live in a country where I can speak my mind
freely.
Idiotic
– People who believe that if I say anything against W then
that automatically makes me a traitor and that I deserve to be
lined up against a wall and shot between the eyes.
Bad
– The fact that I am considering carrying a gun so that I
can protect myself from any nutjob who wants to kill me for my
political beliefs. And believe me, the day that someone is
killed because of their political affiliation, I’m going
down to the local gunstore no matter what wifey’s feeling
are on the subject.
Good
–
Boise
,
Idaho
. Why didn’t I move to this town years ago?
Bad
– I had to sell my ancestral home in SoCal.
Good
– We have seasons here in
Idaho
. The leaves actually turn brown and fall off the trees and it
actually snows here!!!
Bad
– Out of the 19 houses we looked at, only two of them
didn’t have fireplaces. We bought one of those two and now
it’s cold enough to have a fire in a fireplace
Good
–
Boise
is such a sports-crazy town!!!
Best
– (arms outstretched) MY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!
Good
– THE MIGHTY VAN HALEN HAS RETURNED!!!!!!!!!
Bad
– Internet rumors that they’re going to split again.
Good
– www.anysoldier.com
Bad
– Something like this site is needed
Good
– The soldiers are going to get the armored humvees that
they need.
Bad
– The fact that it took a soldier asking Rummy about it to
get the Pentagon of their ass and get these men and women the
armor that they should have had since day one!
Idiotic
– You know that there is going to be some ultra-left-wing
nutjob in California who is going to try to burn up all of
those new humvees to protest the war/environment/because they
feel like it/for no reason whatsoever/because they were bored
and there was nothing good on the Discovery Channel that day.
Good
– “The Curse of the Bambino” has been broken!!! The
Boston Red Sox won the World Series!!!
Bad
– “The Curse of the Billy Goat” still exists. Sorry Cub
fans.
Good
– Baseball returns to
Washington
D.C.
Bad
– Au Rivor
Montreal
.
Idiotic
– The D.C. City Council, led by Linda Cropp, deliberately
sabatoging the move to D.C. by voting that private financing
should be part of the package. As a result, D.C. will now not
get the Expos. They will not play in RFK Stadium, nor will
they play in a park that will now not be built. They might
even disband the team altogether and contract MLB by one team
since there are no buyers at this point, or they might keep
the team on the road for the entire year, or move them to
Vegas.
Congratulations
to Linda Cropp and all of the D.C. City Council. You wanted to
kill the deal, and you did. You never wanted baseball to come
back to the District, and now you taken steps to make sure
that it will never happen. It doesn’t matter how much you
say to the media that you weren’t out to kill the deal, we
sports fans know differently. You acted in your own selfish
interest and did what you wanted to benefit yourselves instead
of your constituents. Congratulations, good luck getting
yourselves re-elected.
MLB
cannot, and should not, trust the D.C. City Council to live up
to any agreement that may be reached. The Commissioners office
should just cut bait and re-open negotiations with Northern
Virginia,
Portland
, Vegas and any other city that wants a baseball team starting
now. Don’t wait for the agreement to expire on Dec 31st,
the D.C. City Council have violated the agreement that was
reached therefore that agreement should be considered null and
void.
Coming
to their senses - Cropp and Co. trying to work this out at the
11th hour.
Good
– David Stern
Bad
– Ron Artests’ act of going into the stands after the
President of the Chess Club instead of the President of the
Varsity Club who actually threw the bottle.
Idiotic
– Hey John Green, hope that bottle was worth it idiot! Now
you and Steve Bartman have something to talk about. Neither
one of you can show your face at your favorite teams yard ever
again. Thanks for coming!
Good
– Drew Brees showing the skills that I have always known he
has had.
Bad
– I‘ve had so many opportunities to sign him for my
fantasy football team yet didn’t because I thought as soon
as I did his hot streak would end.
Idiotic
– The Chargers may still let him go after the season!!!
Bad
– The NHL Lockout.
Worse
– People are not missing hockey.
Idiotic
– Victor Conte throwing Marion Jones under the bus and
saying that she did steroids in front of him.
Oh
yeah, I would trust this guy…NOT!!!
Good
– EA Sports Fantasy Football for free.
Bad
– Two of my receivers (Steve Smith and Charles Rogers)
receive season-ending injuries in Week 1, and my top draft
choice (Deuce McAllister) gets a high ankle sprain.
Good
– The San Diego Chargers season
Bad
– Jerry Rice’s demise
Good
–
Utah
and the Boise State Broncos cracking the BCS hierarchy
Bad
– Only one of them can go to a BCS Bowl
Good
– The USC Trojans
Bad
– They still can’t get any love from the East Coast
Idiotic
– The college presidents still don’t want a playoff, and
the excuse of “it would adversely affect the well-being of
the student athlete” doesn’t wash with me. They already
exploit the student athlete as it is, so why would a playoff
make any difference?
Good
– Matt Leinert, Heisman Trophy winner.
Bad
– Adrian Peterson was more deserving.
Good
– The wife and I are going to Disney World for our 10th
Anniversary.
Bad
– We may have to scrap those plans and lose all of the money
we put into it if I get a job before then. I don’t know of
any boss who would give me a few days off just after they hire
me so that I can take a pre-planned trip like this. I don’t
know of anybody out there who would be sympathetic to the fact
that we had been planning this for over a year, and that the
tickets are non-refundable. I can picture anybody that I
interview with telling me that I would have to choose between
the trip or the job. I can see myself sleeping on the couch if
I choose the job.
Good
– I’m still writing my book “Can they play this?”
Bad
– The video gaming industry changes so fast that I’m
constantly having to make corrections to it.
Good
– Wifey’s new business website, www.spotlight-gifts.com
is finally open. She has over 500 products up on the site
available for purchase.
Bad
– It’s December 16, 2004 and we still don’t have one
sale.
Good
– The friendships that I have cultivated through this site,
MaddenMania, BlindSideBlitz and others.
The
Best – BigBaldBen, Concussion, Phenom, Crewe, Rollintider,
rigg, Alandawg, Norm, Dom, Nob, Croydo, jaqstrappe, yick,
Raistlin and everyone else who I have met online these past
few years. You guys rock!!!
Good
– The PC Football Instigators. The BlindSideBlitz Lunatix.
Bad
– I can’t use them in Madden 2005.
Solution
– Use them in Madden 2004.
Final
Thoughts –
It
looks like my life is going to be changing in drastic ways in
a very short period of time. We don’t have much left in the
bank account, and the new internet shop hasn’t taken off
like we were hoping.
But
the good news is that the organization we got the site from
wants to help us out and make it very successful. If we take
them up on it, we could be solving our money problems quicker
than expected.
In
the meantime I will continue to run this site to the best of
my ability, and try to make this a fun place to come and
visit.
I
hope that some of you who haven’t been here for a long time
will consider coming back. This is still a good place to be
and we still have good people here.
So
on that note, let me leave all of you good people with these
wishes…
Have
a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Until
next year…
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