When I was about 6 years old, my dad took all of us to the local Target. This was right after Chinese News Year, and I had a pocket full of money just itching to be spent on the next NES game. Beyond Transformers and toy soldiers, I wasn’t a big action figure type of kid at the time. No, I couldn’t wait to get to the electronics section and see the giant wall of Nintendo games mounted, each a potential adventure for me to play and cherish.

When I got there, (cue the heavenly music) I was inundated with black boxes with cool looking pictures of the games that I could be playing when I got home. Each belonged to a “series.” There was the action series, adventure series, and I also remember the sports series. I could not fathom all the different types of games that were available to me.

My dad is not a very patient man, and he wanted me to pick my game so we could be on our way. I looked and looked, and finally saw something I wanted to play- Baseball. I gestured to it, and he picked it up and looked at it. Then he told me something I would never forget. “These games are a waste of time. Pick something else.”



I was heartbroken. I wanted to play Baseball. It looked so cool and fun. But my dad’s word was the law, and I so I had to pick something else out. In the end, I think I picked Donkey Kong Jr. (I don’t remember completely) and had a blast playing it. The important thing I remember that always stuck with me was that “Sports games are a waste of time.” It would carry with me for many years until I had my own source of income and then I was able to purchase sports games under my own volition.

This morning, I got to thinking, what causes everyone else in the gaming community to have this aversion to sports games? For myself, it was my dad’s words. I didn’t question it, because in my 6 year old mind, truth spoken is truth said. Could it have been, that he wanted me to go out and play these sports in real life? I would go on a couple years later to play Little League baseball.



Or, could the truth have been much more sinister? Could it have been something I was being warned about and just couldn’t comprehend at the time? Yes, I believe I had my answer. My dad was a prophet. He came to the realization before I did that sports games are the same. No matter the title, the initial five minutes of a sports game will be the exact same as the next five minutes of a game. And those first ten minutes of a sports game will be the exact same as the last ten minutes of a sports game. Nothing changes. And real life variables that apply like wind, skill level of competitors and teammates can not truly be duplicated by a computer’s formula. Because in real life, random chance is at play. That cannot occur in a session of Madden or NBA Live. If it does, it is a bug, a glitch.



As an adult, I have the means to purchase my own games and on occasion I do buy sports games. However, each time I do, I do hear a distant nagging in the back of my mind that states, “Its just a waste of time.” Inevitably, I shrug off the talking and purchase my game. Upon playing it though, I make note to remind myself that yes, that voice in my head is correct, and though the graphics may be shinier, the options more robust, that the Madden session I’m engaged in or the online match of Fifa that I’m playing, is the absolutely fuckin’ same game I played when I was little. Only they’re not titled John Elway’s Football, or just plain old Soccer.

Epilogue- I do enjoy sports games. I also enjoy real life sports. No matter how far technologically we have moved forward in the realm of the sports genre, nothing beats being outside playing a pick up game for an hour with friends and strangers. Win or lose. That my friends, is true co-op.