The Good - An Imaginative Movement
Back in the SNES and N64 days, I guess you could call me an imaginative gamer. Not only did I create little modes and handicaps for myself to go through, but I also sometimes came up with frame stories in my mind to add to the experience. This mostly happened with racing games where I would create fake alliances/teams and add all of the members’ points at the end to see who would emerge on top, as well competitive-based games, such as Mario Party and Super Smash Bros., where I came up with imaginary feuds.
Once the GCN/PS2/Xbox era came though, that creative spark just never clicked with me in all the games I played, even sequels to games that I already done it before with. It wasn’t until two games and a link between them that paved the way for my most ambitious and time-consuming side project in video gaming ever.
I love sports games, but after buying most of EA Sports’ 2004-2005 lineup, I decided to put off buying their sports games for awhile. I was only convinced to buy NCAA Football ’06 by some friends who wanted to do some tournaments. We only ended up doing two, so to get enough bang for my buck, I decided to go ahead and start a dynasty.
Like with the previous NCAA Football games, I didn’t like seeing my favorite players be listed as their jersey number and not by name. I had a friend that bought a memory card that had roster names loaded on it, so went on ebay and found one for $20. Now I didn’t have to input the names manually, so I could dive straight into rushing 200+ yards a game with Laurence Maroney.
At around the same time, I was asked by some friends at school to buy Madden ’06 so that we could play online and also start an online franchise. The former was a blast, but the latter was a buggy mess that would often crash. Like NCAA Football ’06, I wanted to get more value out of my purchase, so I went straight to franchise mode where I could do managerial stuff to my heart’s content.
Instead of doing solely that though, I decided to start a franchise with my two favorite teams, Dolphins and Jaguars, and play their games on top of all the management activities. Before I knew it, I had played a full season, with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. I was about to head into the offseason when I saw an option to upload a draft class. I ignored that feature for the previous Madden due to the jersey number crap, and seeing that I was close to finishing my first NCAA season, I decided to hold off so I could bring in the draft class with all the names.
After completing the NCAA season, I was ready to go into the Madden offseason, but I decided to take a notebook and write some interesting things down from the in-game NFL season, such as spectacular games/performances/plays, as well as intriguing stories. After getting all that down, I looked at the retiring coaches and players and wrote some fake farewell press conferences.
Next on the agenda was resigning our own unrestricted and restricted free agents. For unrestricted, you would also see players who are holding out or demanding a trade. I remember laughing when a then 37-year-old Junior Seau held out on me, so I cut his ass immediately. I wrote up a hilarious press conference for him and me, as the GM, about that which may or may not be in poor taste now given his recent suicide.
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