How hard would it be to create a 2k game with fictional players and let us customize?

[budsticky]

I'm not sure if this has been talked about on here. I'm sure it has somewhere. I don't visit these forums much, but I've reached my wits end with Madden. I bought into the marketing hype this year. Based on everything they were talking about I thought this was finally going to be the year. Anyways, no bashing, on to my point.

How hard would it be for 2k to just create a game with fictional players and teams and just let the community take over from there? I mean guys put out rosters for NCAA right? Also, if you do a file share thing similar to Fight Night where guys can create players instead of boxers for download you'd be all set. I wouldn't even care if they looked anything like the players they represent so long as they allowed you to edit the ratings. And let's throw away real players for a minute. I for one enjoy playing sports sims with fictional players if they're done right. I love OOTP and I am always running a fictional league along with my real league. And really, if you're a hardcore enough Madden player to play multiple seasons you're going to end up playing a fictional league eventually anyway. I don't know anybody who has ever taken it that far, but that is where you would end up.

EA holding the rights to the NFL can't stop 2k from releasing a game where a fictional league is set up just like the NFL can it? Instead of the AFC and NFC you have the APC and NPC or something like that, same amount of teams and all. I think it's Front Office Football where they just name teams stuff like the New England Colonials and so on. Furthermore, couldn't they just rate the players as if they were the real life players and give them different names? Taking the New England example, they could have the QB rated as if he were Tom Brady but call him whatever fake name they wanted to. About the only place I can see this being a problem is with uniform logos, but I'll trade that for quality game play any day of the week. I don't know about how Backbreaker is planning to do league structure, but isn't this basically the route Backbreaker is taking (if we ever see that game)?

I understand all of this might be a hard sell on Joe Q. Public. But I gotta believe there's enough football fanatics out there that know and love the APF/2K engine and would snap this up if they knew it was easily customizable. Truth be told, they wouldn't have to do very much development game play wise. Just tune some things up and give us some improved graphics. The main thing would be putting the franchise model in place. They could probably even get away with going back to their old strategy and selling at a reduced price, say 39.99..or even 29.99 if they could get away with it. This would tempt more new buyers. And without any player or team licensing fees to deal with you're reducing cost right there.

I don't know, I'm just brainstorming and really dieing for a new 2K style game. I like APF and all, but the single player longevity just isn't there for me. Maybe these things I'm talking about are way too obvious and would cause legal problems, especially if they do the thing with making identically rated players with different names. Or maybe not. Was it one of the Blitz games that did this a few years ago where they had a guy named Ron Mexico that clearly represented Michael Vick? But even without that, just give us the league structure and set up a good franchise mode for it. Allow us all the customization we need. There's nothing they can do about the community taking control of the game from there.

[K-train]

Todd Sievers is better than Joe Montana.

[baa7]

Quote: Originally Posted by budsticky

How hard would it be for 2k to just create a game with fictional players and teams and just let the community take over from there?

This has all been discussed many times before of course. My take is the people who make the game development decisions have no idea what it is they're doing, evidenced by the fact they've been running the 2K brand/reputation into the ground the past few years. You're essentially asking how hard would it be to get someone who's stupid to behave intelligently.

[Cryolemon]

It wouldn't be difficult at all, but 2k seem paranoid about being sued by EA, so they wont do it.

[Cardot]

Yep, it is a frustrating topic has been discussed quite a bit. 2K already has a solid football engine and a uniform editor with APF2K8. They already have roster sharing in some of their other games. About all they would have to do is allow for logo uploading and the ability to edit the other 31 teams.....Oh yeah, they would also have to figure out what to do with all the money they would be saving on licensing.

It is almost comical to think they are afraid of an EA lawsuit when this year EA themselves have added a teambuilder feature to their NCAA game. Not to mention that the ability to create/edit teams & players have been a staple of video games for 15 years.

Meh, frustrating topic.

[pucho1980]

2K only cares about the NBA 2K franchise.

[mrnoobie]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cryolemon

It wouldn't be difficult at all, but 2k seem paranoid about being sued by EA, so they wont do it.

enlighten me please....why would they be sued by EA? i havent kept up around these parts of the woods...

[Guffers]

Quote: Originally Posted by baa7

This has all been discussed many times before of course. My take is the people who make the game development decisions have no idea what it is they're doing, evidenced by the fact they've been running the 2K brand/reputation into the ground the past few years. You're essentially asking how hard would it be to get someone who's stupid to behave intelligently.

Great post. I can't think about this too much because I'm afraid the universe will implode from the insanity of it all. Surely the 2K football game engine is one the crowning achievements in sports gaming history, why leave it on the shelf? In a perfect world this game would the Pro Evo to Madden's FIFA.

[Cryolemon]

Quote: Originally Posted by mrnoobie

enlighten me please....why would they be sued by EA? i havent kept up around these parts of the woods...

I don't think they would, but it would seem that 2k think that if they give the user enough customization to create the NFL then EA would sue them. I'm not sure that EA would have a case, but I don't work for 2k.

[project_mist]

2K is scared that once the contract is up... the NFL will not allow 2k the rights if people are cloning the league. Which is why they tip toed around the NFL/EA contract.