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Monday, December 28, 2009
OS Awards: Day 1 Thoughts Stuck
02:29 PM - December 28, 2009. Written by MMChrisS
Each day this week, I am going to be providing my own thoughts on each award we hand out and list who I voted for in our staff vote. So if you are interested in this sort of thing, be sure to read on and see if you agree with my votes or not.

Day 1 was planned to be the busiest day, with 5 Awards being handed out today. For the rest of the week, we will be releasing two Award Winners per day, culminating with the Sports Game of the Year and Developer of the Year on Friday. Here are my thoughts from the day 1 action:

Best Player/Career Mode: I voted for Road to the Show, as did many other OSers on staff and our readers. I don't think there really is much argument against Road to the Show either, it's still the most innovative, comprehensive, streamlined and fun mode out there.

Best Dynasty Mode: Many are wondering why text-sims weren't included in this mode, and the reason is because Text-sims, by and large, are games built off the dynasty mode concept. This award was for the traditional team sports games and I honestly can't think of anything else that comes close to Association right now. Maybe The Show's menus will be reworked or Madden/NCAA might be revamped, do I smell a future blog series?

Most Innovative Feature: Without a doubt, for me at least, the most innovative feature of 2009 was SvR's Create-a-Story mode. Dynamic season and commentary are interesting ideas, but they didn't compel users to completely change the way they play games much like Create-a-Story opened up a whole new realm of user customization. And while TeamBuilder was a solid idea, in my opinion at least, the execution was about as bad as could have been imagined. I'm pro user customization, and that's why I love Create-a-Story mode.

Most Realistic Gameplay: Anytime I can use actual strategies straight from the managers handbook of any sport to win a video game, and on regular occasion as well, a game is very realistic. MLB '09: The Show is, despite some minor faults, the most realistic game released this year. Given the info we have for '10, The Show could be in line for a long reign as champion in this category.

Best Presentation: As much as I hated the gameplay for NCAA Basketball 10, I loved the presentation even more. Integrating real networks into the game is an excellent idea, and I would love to see this expanded to EA's other college game: NCAA Football. How cool would it be to see which network you were televised on each week and then have those graphics overlaying your game?


What did you think about the day one winners? Any surprises? Do you think the Staff and Readers will disagree about future categories later in the week?
Blog: MMChrisS
Sunday, December 27, 2009
OS Perspective: Looking Back on 2009 Stuck
05:11 PM - December 27, 2009. Written by bronco92
As I did last year, I want to take this opportunity to look back on the year that was 2009 and see just how far OS has grown over the past 12 months.

Here are the interesting facts for 2009:
  • Over 5 million unique people visited OS in 2009 (up from 3 million in 2008)
  • These people generated 111 million page views (up from 100 million in 2008)
  • 81% were from the USA, 6.5% from Canada, 2.3% from UK and 1.3% from Australia
  • Firefox took over from IE as the preferred browser for OS visitors in 2009 (42% Firefox, 39% IE, 9% Safari, 5% Chrome)
  • 85% were on Windows (down from 91% in 2009) and 10% on Mac (up from 6.6% in 2008)
  • 1280x800 took over as the preferred screen resolution (1024x768 was top in 2008)
  • 41% of our traffic came direct from Google (up from 30% in 2008)
  • Over 60,000 new members registered at OS (up from 27,000 in 2008)
  • Over 98,000 new threads were started in the OS Forums (up from 55,000 in 2008)
  • Over 1.6 million new posts were posted in the OS Forums (up from 1 million in 2008)
  • The front page of OS was visited 3.8 million times in 2009 (up from 2.6 million in 2008)
  • 1 million Reviews were read in 2009 (up from 520,000 in 2008)
  • Blogs were read 461,000 times in 2009 (up from 30,000 in 2008)
2009 also saw the launch of two very big new features here at OS. OS Instant Messenger (aka Meebo) was launched in April, with OS Fantasy Football kicking off in August.

A big personal thanks to everyone who contributed to the growth of OS over the past 12 months, in particular Steve, Chris, Chase, Chris, Trent all staff members, forum mods and everyone who has OS bookmarked as one of their daily websites. See you all in 2010.
Blog: bronco92
Friday, December 25, 2009
Unpublished NBA Interviews from Oct by OS 
12:11 PM - December 25, 2009. Written by SBartlett
Hey all,

Me ( Steve B.), TD, and Richard Chavez from Operation Sports did a bunch of interviews that never really made it to the front page here on OS. I just saw a OS blog talking about the dunk contest and we asked the Champ - Nate Robinson - what he thought about this year's competition. Check out the short interview below ... Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

Nate Robinson Interview NBA2K10 Launch Party

Operation Sports: Nate. We are here at the NBA2K party so what do you think about your 2K ratings? Should you be higher than an 80? What do you think they should be?

 Nate Robinson: [Laughs] I mean right now, where they got it at 80, or 78, it’s cool. It’s kind of cool as the season progresses and you’re doing good, then your stats will go up. So I’m a leave it to myself to really go out, go for it, and make sure my stats are where they need to me. So it’s nothing on [2K]. It’s on me. So during the NBA season, you can work harder during the season, and in the game you get better.

 Operation Sports: So you already know your rating?

Nate Robinson: Yeah, 78. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the sneak peak.

Operation Sports: Oh okay cool. How do you feel about the dunk competition? Are you going to do it again especially if LeBron is going to be in it?

Nate Robinson: Yeah why not? It’s going to be… It’s going to be history. So I would love to be in it again if LeBron is going to be in it. If he’s not going to be in it, I don’t really see myself really wanting to be in it. But…I probably wouldn’t. Hopefully if he’s in it, then I’m in it. I’m trying to get him, Dwayne Wade, a couple of big guys in there. If they can do it, it will be a whole big event. You know? Do something different with the dunk contest. Like bring back some of the guys like Vince Carter or Tracy McGrady, or whoever that want to dunk. You can, I guess, you will be able to vote to choose another guy and have a teammate dunk, and let that person do the dunk for you. Have your teammate dunk, you know? Just change it up a little.

Operation Sports: Okay, well we got to go. It would be nice to get a shout out to the fans at Operation Sports. Thanks a lot and good luck this season.

Nate Robinson: Yeah. How ya’ll doin’ man? Shout out to Operation Sports. This is how we doin’ it – 2K style baby.
Blog: SBartlett
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Thursday Other Stuff (12-24-09) Stuck
10:44 AM - December 24, 2009. Written by Steve_OS
QOTD: What is Santa bringing you this year?

Happy Birthday to the following OS'ers!

Jordanfan23 (37), nateseesee (37), Zephyr (28), TheIcon23 (28), Josherz18 (26)
Blog: Steve_OS
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
2K Sports: The Inevitable Demise? Stuck
10:26 PM - December 18, 2009. Written by MMChrisS
I almost feel like I'm watching a train wreck in slow motion. You see what is coming, you can't do anything about it, and the end result is all but certain.

2K Sports is dying, and not in a grandiose we'll fight you to the last man 300 style death, but in a curled up in a dark, cold corner all alone kind of death. With the recent spread of rumors (or reports depending on your standard for that sort of thing) that Take Two is at least considering dumping NHL 2K from it's lineup, you can't help but feel the time is coming soon when something has to give.

The top brass at the top of Take Two have already admitted that the Major League Baseball franchises are all but disasters, so the only other game in the 2K Sports lineup which is viable just might be NBA 2K. Maybe they can rename it 2K Sport after the MLB license expires?

Sure, longtime 2K fans are grimacing at what I'm saying, and I'm sure many will have some great arguments to the contrary. However, falling sales plus a shrinking game lineup plus only one mega-blockbuster profitable franchise doesn't quite give me confidence 2K Sports can keep this up.

There has to be a new plan going forward. Can 2K Expand it's game's lineup? Can a new publisher buy the brand and put it to better use? Our own Jim Harris has a '2K Survival Guide' we will be posting either over the weekend or early next week he wrote even prior to the NHL 2K news from today to help answer some questions.

I'm going to take closer looks at 2K's status in the coming week myself. However, it really doesn't look good. However, it's now your turn. Do you think 2K is on the path to destruction? No matter your opinion there, what can be done to bolster the brand?
Blog: MMChrisS
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Thursday Other Stuff (12-17-09) Stuck
04:53 AM - December 17, 2009. Written by Steve_OS
QOTD: Would you pay for Sony PSN services?

Happy Birthday to the following OS'ers!

delanceyj (36), RTP2110 (30), Kane182 (28), fiend55cs (28), JP le Requin (28), Egarim (25), RealSeahawkFan (18)
Blog: Steve_OS
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Major League Baseball 2K10: Time to Make it Happen Stuck
04:41 PM - December 14, 2009. Written by MMChrisS
To steal the thunder of several other reports, such as how MLB 2K9 was blamed for Take Two's bad quarter or how Owen Good over at Kotaku is calling this a big year for the series.

All of the talk about Major League Baseball 2K's future this year has been two parts disappointment, one part anger, and one part something else. This is all adding up to something big: this is a make or break year for Major League Baseball 2K.

Major League Baseball 2K10 will be fighting several uphill battles, many of which are of it's own doing. Given the amount of money spent by 2K on the MLB Third Party exclusive license, the game has to sell well. In turn, the game is going to have to be a heck of a lot better and at least a comparably good option to the heavyweight championship fighter in the other corner, MLB: The Show.

In today's age of speedy information, a bevy of poor reviews from places like OS and from customers will spell certain doom for the franchise. We could easily end up with a situation where Take Two simply can't afford to make a quality baseball game but it won't be able to afford to dump the license either.

In that situation, where development costs are minimized in order to keep losses as small as possible, Major League Baseball 2K will simply swim in a painful pool of mediocrity as we watch the exclusive contract slowly run out over the next couple of years.

So for 2010, even moreso than Madden in 2009, Major League Baseball has to perform. If MLB 2K10 fails to deliver, then start prepping an eulogy, because death almost certainly awaits the franchise.
Blog: MMChrisS