Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Little Things

I recently got hooked up to Xbox Live at home, and I also bought Madden 2008 on the cheap. I know, I'm becoming a regular frat-boy aren't I? I blame the joy of a new console.

Anyway, last night I found a feature in Madden that hooks me up to constant sports updates. Now, I'm not big on sports. I barely follow them, but I have to admit the idea of getting ESPN Radio updates every 20 minutes via my football videogame is very cool. It has me wondering how many more games are missing out on this opportunity. Sports games make the most sense for the ticking news updates, and EA's Radio updates are fantastic. I kept track of the NBA games while playing Madden last night... no switching back to TV necessary. That has to be a boon for your more faithful sports fans.

But imagine if MMOs put in an optional real world news filter, or filters, that let you choose what topics you want to be kept up to speed on. I know a lot of folks would hate the immersion factor being ruined, but I know I would dig a feature like that. I can get lost in MMOs, and often feel like I'm missing out on the rest of the world's events when I'm sucked into one for an evening. For my personal taste, a news ticker or something along those lines that was optional would be fantastic.

Ye or ne for you and why?

2 comments:

Tipa said...

Feature creep is bad, m'kay? I want my game to be a good game, not a mediocre game, news reader, web page designer, hot trends from E! and a running commentary from our award winning cast.

Write a fun game. I'll use my own MP3 player and coffee mug designer, thanks.

Bildo said...

I never said anything about it being a bad game at the expense of features... I'm hopeful enough that both can be had, and that said feature creepage can be optional.

Maybe I want too much... but that's how things get better.