Marlon Anthony
Purist
Great post. Yeah i agree that we're really a dying breed. There's now a whole generation of PES players that didn't even grow up or play PES during the famous PS2 era. It's a part of footballing history that would get scoffed at and sniggered at by some of the shallower current gen gamers because it "looks old". There's a few people who are open minded and had commented on my videos and tweets of the older games and are pleasantly surprised how well it looks and holds up visually and mechanically but they're also in the minority. The ethos has completely changed now though...
...This is also a perfect summary. The industry has completely changed too, Gaming has obviously always been commercial on some level since the dawn of time as obviously, the point is to make money the same way movie studios and record labels want to make money. Certainly over the last 10 years it's become more commercial and arguably in the last 5-6 years more cut throat then ever.
It's a combination of the influence of social media in our lives and the manufactured nature of the advertising campaigns for in-game spending with real money - It's this blood thirsty fighting for your left over gaming budget with these shiny new myClub and FUT packs and players, These new skins for Fortnite or whatever... People are pressured with to log in, snap up the content and be ahead of everyone else online or be left behind in the dust. You'll want it because we tell you'll want it. The games are being curated to be addictive just like social media platforms are.
Then they'll go online and cuss about how the game is shit and online is scripted but they're not dropping the game either, their hooked on it like a drug, spending more money. Reddit is full of confessionals like this.
Exactly. I'll just paste below what i posted in the retro thread a couple of weeks ago regarding stats and the linear passing from the PS2 games;
Well what make the stats so influential & instrumental is that their made with the limitations of the game engine in mind. It really is genius how Konami took mechanics that aren't truly free in a sense and yet still created the illusion of individuality and footballer influence to create this sense of diversity and preference while playing.
The player ID, stats influence and individuality truly didn't start becoming a challenge for the devs until the freedom of the games mechanics started evolving, especially in regards to passing. It's why a common complaint of modern football games is that apart from trivial pace, most players feel the same and for most part, accomplish the same things.
Then this user below asked me;
Well, the short answer is that it's algorithm based. On the older games you could only aim your pass in 8 directions on the controller, even with the analog stick. Not to mention on PES 4 onwards, outside of holding the the pass button down to reach a further away target, it was very rudimentary and there is no input on passing power or speed.
That's where the stats come in. It was a combination of the stats of the player calculating how fast, accurate and smooth a pass would be as well as the context of your players body position, their momentum and situation. That's where the stats "mentality" (and i think it was "response") would come in too, determining how composed a player would be and if they could pass while being pressed by a defender or under any other urgent circumstance.
So in the example of passing, that's where all these variables would combine to give the player the illusion that the game was as diverse and hence the individuality. It's because of this you felt like there was a difference between Pirlo and Gattuso. Why one felt more like an elegant passer when you needed it and why the other felt like a reliable pit-bull when out of possession. Konami did well to disguise the limitations of what's really an engine that limits your passing to certain directions and the fact the ball physics aren't literally free & individual.
Once the technology improved it kind of became less about player algorithm and more about the actual human players skill with a controller. Don't get me wrong stats still have their role in modern games but i think it's also more of an issue of game design that players weaknesses aren't really felt particularly well in modern games.
Well in 2006, There wasn't any better technology and we had no idea what to expect from football games on the upcoming 360. So PES 5 & 6 really were the closest we got to a simulation. Before that, before ISS on PS1, games were really just distractions, past-times. There wasn't really a pressure for a game to be taken seriously enough to demand a simulation because the technology was so primitive. So when we got the golden age of PES on PS1 & 2, we were just grateful to have a football game that was not only polished mechanically but also replicated those great dramatic moments of euphoria and anguish we know and love from the real sport.
Not only that but the philosophy was very different back then. Other devs just wanted to make fun but vacant football games. Konami wanted to create a faithful recreation of football. They respected the sport and PES wanted to create a game that forced the player to respect the nuances and fundamentals of football too. It was truly a love letter to the beautiful game without the pressures of online gaming and graphic snobbery.
As for another favourite post of mine, here's Miguel's retort to my post about the influence of stats and the "limited" mechanics of the PS2 games...
