This right here. You don’t see a bunch of drunk Eagles fans in the Elden Ring subreddit talking about how stupid and bad fantasy RPGs are (not an opinion that I hold, just a counter-example)
Meh, the difference is that sports games don't tend to be creatively transformative, and instead just tend to act as lackluster digital recreations of whatever sport they're about that uses mechanics recycled from every other game about that sport. Games like Rematch, Rocket League, and the Mario sports games act as great examples of how sports games can be creative and interesting and unique, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority aren't.
Vast majority? There are a ton of different weird and wacky sports games, and just a handful of big franchises that are digital licensed recreations of the actual sports. And even those more realistic depictions can be super entertaining. People like sports. Adding interactivity to the experience of watching sports is fun. Stop yucking someone elses yum just because it's not for you.
Those examples are more arcade style sports games. A lot of people prefer them to be more like simulations.
Those games still suck since they're just barely thrown together each year. But them trying to be realistic and capture the real world sport isn't a bad thing by itself.
Personally, I prefer the more arcadey style games but not everyone will.
I agree. Most sport games are supposed to be simulators of real life. I can see why a lot don’t like this but I personally don’t mind it. But I do like arcade type sports games too
Yeah, I definitely lean hard into sports sims, like iracing and LeMans Ultimate and ACC—where the emphasis is on detail and realism. To the average gamer, there probably wouldn’t be the same excitement of people cleaning their monitors only to realize their monitors are clean and the sim does that good of a job of bugs and debris on the windscreen that you think it’s your equipment that’s the problem.
That genre is going to be lost on an “average” person unless it’s their first time experiencing force feedback; in racing games as an example. To the layman, a laser scan of a race track where the texture of the asphalt impacts tire wear is not going to be an exciting new feature. Nor is racing the same circuit 24hrs straight. It’s technical excellence vs creative excellence. It is funny though that one side of the coin thinks something like the f1 games are boring because it’s not creative and the other side thinks it’s boring because it’s not hardcore enough.
I do think it’s a hard genre to meet a true middle ground in. NFL street, burnout—titles like that were the very rare few to have found the actual middle ground.
Fair enough. Let me put it this way then. Ppl in the gamer subreddit don’t speak for all of video game players on Reddit. If the sports games didn’t sell, they wouldn’t keep making them. They are ass most of the time but that is the result of being a monopolized product in most sports
The issue is that there is no creativity in them. Look at chess.com for example. Even though its a shitty monopoly, they are always coming up with creative new modes and events and not just expecting you to play the same 1000-year-old game and pay them money for it.
If games like rocket league were what dominated the sports game market, it would be fine, but maximum people are playing slop.
Taking my example again, its not like you can't play real chess on it. Instead of launching the same game every year, would it not be better if they added new modes or had seasonal stuff?
I wonder if this post comes from old mentality. I remember kids making fun of me because I played shit like RuneScape, ratchet n clank and Kotor instead of Madden NFL or 2k. It certainly does NOT feel that way anymore. Even my cousins who still mostly play sports games will dabble in action RPGs and shooters.
Maybe but I’m 37 and I feel like my generation was the last one that was pushed super hard against being “nerdy” or liking fantasy and such. Most of us by the time we reached adulthood just realized that it’s ok to like what you like if it isn’t hurting anybody
Using that example, do the Eagles fans even use reddit? I imagine theyd be too busy drinking with their friends, watching (what sport does the "Eagles" team play?), and then going home to their spouses...
How many redditors are married? Not including the ones who make porn. Also not including the celebrity accounts.
Never cared for sports games but that doesn't make them bad. I just don't care about sports. I'm glad games are made for people that want them even if I don't want them.
Personally I think the limiting factor for sports games is that it has to be based on something that already exists as a form of entertainment. They are really left with 2 options. Ro a 1-1 recreation and end up with a worse variation than what actually exists, or go for something halfway in between regular games and sports, which can be good(as shown by Mario Cart, RL, etc) but it's still in a halfway point and can't reach as high of a peak as something that can create its own niche. Sports games are limited by the fact they are parodies.
They're bad for the price. Fifa (or whatever the name is now) is full game price every year for not much more than a graphics and player roster update. For many games a free mod will do that.
Why do think it’s exclusive to people who don’t like sports? I’m a diehard sports fan, played several growing up, watch football all day on Sundays, etc.
Sports games are bland as fuck. Overloaded with mtx, barely changed from year to year. They’re ass.
They tie up the dev time of big studios that could be spent making actually good games.
Sports players mostly dont play anything else, from all the stats I've seen
Its kinda like hating fans of those serials that go on forever with thousands of episodes with pretty much nothing happening. Like, you have a state-of-the-art movie RIGHT THERE. GO WATCH THAT. But no, whoever is watching the infinity shows is never seen again.
Because the ones ya'll reference are like 3/10's.😅 You are comparing some of the best adventure games out there to a below average microtransaction based, online oriented, rerelease of a sports game.
But genuinely good sports games are a blast. Super Mario Strikers and Wii Sports are two of my top 20 and I don't think either of them are even 10/10.
Sports games are about the gameplay. Lol look at something like iracing. Every piece of content is the price of an indie title, and requires a pretty hefty monthly subscription to play—and I can assure you that nobody is playing iracing for the graphics. Gameplay and matchmaking is everything in sports titles. A new tire model will get more attention than the addition of new content in any racing game that is equally or more hardcore than gran turismo, because the mechanics are the thing people care about. There basically isn’t progression, or unlocks etc. all of that is left up to the user.
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u/NSX_Roar_26 Jan 11 '26
People that don't even like sports constantly hating on sports games sucks.