Every year, sports games make a little incremental upgrade over their predecessor by adding a new game mode, control scheme, mechanic, etc., or on rare occasions, an extreme overhaul (like the unbelievable NBA 2k11). Since the very first sports game, however, programmers have ignored the the most important thing that makes all sports leagues run in real life:
Money. Salary. Deals. And what do to with the cash.
The Association and My Player features in NBA 2k11 sort of have salaries in them, but they give no motivation for caring about the amounts. It included sponsorship deals where you could get your very own shoe design, billboards, and magazine covers if you play well enough. This could be expanded on some more. So what if I get a bajillion dollars per year? The money will just keep on piling up in a soulless number that nobody gives a damn about. However, isn't this what most athletes care about the most? How are programmers supposed to make the money matter in a game?
I believe that the athletes we play with in game should have an in game life outside of their sport.
Here are some things I've been dreaming about:
1. Put in things that can be bought. I could buy things like houses, cars, jewelry, a posse, businesses like clothing lines, etc., and then I can display them online or place them in my chosen city to play for.
2. Add people around the player. Every player has a family, friends, managers, assistants, charities, moochers, etc. that they support. These people are the very reason that these players work hard to earn a living.
3. Inflict penalties. If you commit a technical foul in the NBA, you get fined something like $10,000 (not sure). Missing practice will cost $25,000. Putting a system like this in place adds realism to the game too.
4. Make the locations "liveable". Another motivation for players is that they want to play in a certain city because it's more glamorous or whatever. For example, New Jersey may offer more money, but Los Angeles is where the stars live. I could choose to purchase a house and move my player there to play for the Lakers, and this is also where I can put all the stuff I bought.
5. Allow for outside activities. There should be times where my athlete can choose to go out to a bar and get drunk after a game. More expenditure. Just like real life.
Anyway... it's a pipe dream. NBA 2k11 made me see that sports games can be much bigger than they are now. I hope that they can implement something even remotely close to this.
