Classic football video game anyone?

If you have not hear. Due to a recent lawsuit EA sports has stopped development of its next NCAA College football game. You can learn about it here:

http://kotaku.com/a-blindside-hit-takes-down-an-ncaa-football-team-rallyi-1429336606/@tcraggs22

http://kotaku.com/no-college-football-video-game-next-year-says-ea-sport-1404530680

So to all of you wonderful football video game programmers out there now looking for work consider this: Ironman Football! A classic football game similar to this failed attempt at a football game for the PS1:

http://www.playstationmuseum.com/games/CGIMAN/

It today's world of digital download and  indy games game designers going into business for themselves and making their own football game would be pretty cool. A true throwback game would be fun too. It could include classic teams like

Rochester Jeffersons

Bloomfield Rams

Goodyear Silents (yes an all deaf football team)

Even teams like:

Pottstown Firebirds

Chambersburg Cardinals

More than likely no football video game designer will ever see my idea but if you know of any, pass this idea along.

What went wrong with the XFL?

Do you remember the good ole XFL? If not go ahead and read the Wikipedia page:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL

The XFL was yet another failed league for developmental football. It had some good ideas and a good deal of money but failed after 1 season.

The XFL had some good ideas: The creative things on the players backs, the way you could get into the huddle and go into the locker room, it had players being interview on the side lines during games, the extensive amount of pyrotechnics helped make games seem special.  But ultimately the league failed. Here are some of my thoughts on why the XFL was such a failure:

-the XFL advertised wild play and loose rules. The truth is that the rules were different than that of the NFL but nearly all of the rule changes were taken from other professional league like the CFL or the old USFL.  This marketing mistake turned off a massive part of its potential fan base.  The football/sport fan didn’t want to watch it because it seemed too wild and crazy. The wrestling fan gave it a try and then discovered that it really wasn’t wild and crazy like pro wrestling at all.

-The league felt they couldn’t make big enough stars out of their football players to draw crowd. The players in the XFL were typically portrayed as regular Joes trying to keep their dream of playing football alive. With NFL Europe closing up shop and the XFL really playing better than the CFL and arena football the XFL was able to cherry pick the top stars from three of these leagues. Virtually all of the players had been star players in college and a good number of players had NFL connects.  The XFL could have marketed their players. I think people would have come out to see Tommy Maddox. When arena football got on NBC they were able to develop their own stars. Instead of developing star players the XFL placed more attention on how there were pro wrestlers at the games and there were firework (which are cool) and there are cheerleaders (which were NOT family friendly). The league was open about how the cheerleaders, which kept away a lot of families, were bigger stars than the football players.

-The league spent too much time trying to market the league and not market the teams. All of the fields in the XFL looked exactly the same. No field had a team emblem on them. The team color skims seed to run together. People remember the crazy XFL but you have to be a real fan to remember even 3 team names.  The teams all seemed the same and run together. I remember wanting games and not even know which team was the home team. This hurts your ticket sells and the WWF should have known that ticket sells are your bread and butter.

-The league was put in prime time too soon. This is a tough point to make because NBC contributed a lot of money to the league to put it on the air. Without NBC money the league probably never would have had a game. But if the XFL had been this edgy thing on cable that people heard about but a lot of people had not seen (you know like what arena football did) and it spent a few years on cable and after a few season came to NBC it would have been much more successful. Starting out right out of the gate on 3 networks (2 of which were on broadcast TV) with a league were the teams all seemed to blend together and where some of the football was really bad really over saturated the market. You can get away with bad football during the off season on cable. Particularly if it is so bad it is good football like people love to watch the ‘blooper’ reels of the USFL on youtube(USFL bloopers).  Being on 3 networks was a receipt for TERRABLE TV ratings.

Ultimately the XFL’s legacy is it helped a list of players make it to the NFL and it opened the door for the AFL to get on NBC in 2003 (also part of the legacy is that VinnyMac can fail at something). The AFL a football alternative with faster action and higher scoring and all of those things the XFL promised but didn’t deliver on.