{"id":290,"date":"2018-02-04T21:54:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T02:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/post-one\/"},"modified":"2018-02-04T22:07:58","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T03:07:58","slug":"on-the-brink-of-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/2018\/02\/04\/on-the-brink-of-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Brink of Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you hear \u201cFIFA,\u201d your mind could go to one of two places: the recently exposed international soccer governing body, or the video game franchise, developed by Electronic Arts (EA). My first game log is an in depth look at <em>FIFA 18\u2019s<\/em> gameplay, specifically its \u201crealness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Robert Caillios\u2019s 1958 article <em>Man, Play, and Games<\/em>, he specifies six criterion for \u201cplay\u201d: it must be free, separate, uncertain, unproductive, governed by rules, and make-believe. It is necessary to use Caillios\u2019s definition when discussing <em>FIFA<\/em> because so often I hear, \u201cDo you want to play <em>FIFA<\/em>?\u201d or \u201cLet\u2019s play <em>FIFA<\/em>.\u201d Play is always in the conversation with <em>FIFA<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But how much do <em>FIFA\u2019s<\/em> creators, EA Sports, want this play to be \u201cseparate,\u201d and how \u201cmake-believe\u201d do they want the game to be?<\/p>\n<p>In my game lab, I played Manager Mode, a feature of the game where you can act as a manager of any team. I chose Watford FC, a mid-table team in the English Premier League. The game asks you to design your manager by choosing a face and an outfit, and allows you to name your manager (I named mine Mattinho Reinikkinhos, my Brazilian alter-ego.)<\/p>\n<p>As a manager, other clubs wanting to buy your players often approach you. On my second day as manager of Watford, Everton FC, another English club, approached me to buy my starting goalkeeper, Heurelho Gomes. When I elected to negotiate with Everton, it sent me to a meeting room, which you can see in the video below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jL4UEnJphDA?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Instead of simulating the sale of Gomes, EA designed Manager Mode to be as realistic as possible. It sends you to the boardroom to discuss the transfer, and gives you, the manager, complete control of the transfer. In my case, I proposed too high of a transfer fee for Everton&#8217;s liking, causing them to back out of the deal.<\/p>\n<p>The other noticeable decision that EA made with <em>FIFA 18<\/em> was to make each individual game as close to a real broadcast as possible. In the video below, you can see the introduction to my first game as Watford manager against Liverpool FC. The game goes through showing players in the warm-up, the walkout, the starting lineup, and many other features you would see on an actual Premier League broadcast on NBC.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tq_rM9TAmJI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-31-at-8.45.40-PM.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-54\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-31-at-8.45.40-PM.png?resize=480%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Screenshot from NBC Sports broadcast of the English Premier League.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-31-at-8.51.12-PM.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-55\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/Screen-Shot-2018-01-31-at-8.51.12-PM.png?resize=480%2C257\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"257\" \/><\/a>Screenshot of FIFA 18 gameplay.<\/p>\n<p>In the <em>FIFA 18<\/em> actual gameplay, EA emulates the exact same noise that can be heard on an NBC broadcast. The crowd noise, the commentators (Martin Tyler and Alan Smith), the sound of the ball being kicked\u2014it is exactly the sounds you would hear on a Saturday morning watching a real Premier League game. Additionally, the design of the scoreboard in the upper left-hand corner is identical to NBC\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Why did EA decide to make <em>FIFA 18<\/em> more \u201creal\u201d than any previous <em>FIFA<\/em>? Their decisions stand as a direct challenge to two of Caillios\u2019s tenets\u2014that play must be separate and make-believe. Though <em>FIFA 18<\/em>\u00a0is not real soccer, it is the closest \u201csoccer\u201d watching experience to an actual NBC Premier League broadcast. With increasing demands for higher quality graphics and more realistic gameplay in the video game world, EA pushes the envelope of reality with <em>FIFA 18<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Works Cited<\/p>\n<p>Caillois, Roger, et al.\u00a0<em>Man, Play, and Games<\/em> in <em>The Game Design Reader<\/em>. MIT Press, 2006.<\/p>\n<p><\/img><\/img><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/post-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" pf-nom-item-id=\"273\">On the Brink of Reality<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you hear \u201cFIFA,\u201d your mind could go to one of two places: the recently exposed international soccer governing body, or the video game franchise, developed by Electronic Arts (EA). My first game log is an in depth look at FIFA 18\u2019s gameplay, specifically its \u201crealness.\u201d In Robert Caillios\u2019s 1958 article Man, Play, and Games, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"item_id":"5b54fc37449797d224a4ab1f95bfacea","pf_source_link":"","item_date":"Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:24:34 +0000","item_author":"admin","item_link":"http:\/\/fms321.mattreinikka.com\/blog\/uncategorized\/post-one\/","item_feat_img":"","item_wp_date":"Wed, 31 Jan 2018 19:24:34 +0000","item_tags":"","source_publication_name":"","source_publication_url":"","nomination_count":"1","sortable_item_date":"1517426674","item_description":"","pf_word_count":"715","pf_forward_to_origin":"no-forward","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[34,125,126,127,128,129,130],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-round-1","tag-console","tag-ea","tag-electronic-arts","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-18","tag-xbox","tag-xbox-one"],"nominators":{"1":{"user_id":1,"nomination_datetime":"2018-02-04 21:31:05","nomination_unixtime":1517797865}},"archiveOrgStatus":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xw5i-4G","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/301"}],"feed":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/pf\/v1\/feeds\/234"}],"nominator":[{"embeddable":false,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/user\/1"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"attributes":{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true},"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/games18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}