Randomly Mine: Sports Fans

It's common place in gaming circles to talk about sports fans like another race of human, entirely locked off from the rest of people who enjoy playing games, and it's not hard to see why. I bet the only soccer game a good chunk of Steam users have is Rocket League, which is odd because mainstream sports games like NBA2k & FIFA sell millions of copies yearly.

Just from the surface it makes sense why sports fans are separated, and then as one digs further, it's easier to understand the vitriol against them.

These games sell despite notoriously reusing assets, mechanics, gameplay, and features, some of which date back to the original Playstation. They're also largely to blame for the overabundance of Microtransaction systems, as things like FIFA's Ultimate Team mode, bring more revenue in a year than most games in their entire life cycle.

The characterization of sports game players as baseless casual players who think Guitar Hero Hard mode's pretty hardcore exists for a reason. There are millions of people who buy these games once a year because they're familiar with the sport itself, and little else motivates the purchase.

Thing is... that doesn't mean there aren't hardcore players.

Obviously, there's Esports players, but beyond that, there's YT channels dedicated to individual franchises, fans who are familiar not just with the biggest successes, but also their most obscure entries like EA's Arena Football. And players who analyze the tiniest details from ball trajectory to animation speed.

So that raises the question, if there's hardcore players of these franchises, and don't just consist entirely of Dads buying something to drink beer too, why are they the way they are? Why are they so relatively simplistic, derivative, and unoriginal, if they have customers with discerning tastes?

And being a racing fan, I realized it's actually pretty simple. 

There's no choice.

The racing genre, despite being one of gaming's smallest niches, has more choice now than it ever has before. There's games for all skill-levels, styles, budgets, and commitment. Need for Speed, The Crew, and GRIP for a full arcade experience. DIRT, GRID, and Wreckfest for something grounded but easy to pick up and play. F1, Project Cars, Forza, and Gran Turismo as accessible sims. Raceroom, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa and more for in-depth simulations.

Contrast this with sports games, and its easy to see why Hardcore players go to FIFA, Madden, NBA, etc. 

There's next to nothing for sports fans to dig their teeth into. There's no real competition between brands. Alternatives like EA Sports BIG are long dead. And Rocket League's really the only game of its type.

While it's easy to tell people to stop buying these things, I understand how difficult it is to love something such as sport, and ignore its presence. Lock off that experience and isolate it to live matches only, especially with friends who actively purchase it, and that's what companies like EA pray upon.

Lots of fans in the racing community, and I include myself in that, constantly go on about how we wish the different simulators could combine their best elements into one mega-sim that does everything properly. But in truth, having different game with different strengths, is something I bet most sports fans would kill to have again.