The Process to a Simulation

[Marauders]

I have a question that I've thought about but have never really asked: how many beta team mebers, including Old Coach and anyone that had input from the Matrix Games staff, actually have experience coaching football?

The reason that I ask is because I often ask questions in football terminology or talk about football statistics as real quantities rather than as abstract numbers that have little meaning. Sometimes I receive answers that are game related answers or graphics related answers that do not really answer the football question asked.

One example is the question I asked about inputting plays. When I stated that plays are not called in pieces in the real world, the response was in game terms. Yes, games like Tom Landry Football have done this by selecting formation and then a play, but it would have been more realistic in coaching terms to call a play as one play. There was not even a second thought given to why the play calling sequence would be strange to a real world coach.

A second example has to do with questions regarding statistical results. When I say that numbers are unrealistic I have to real how there are factors that have to be taken into account and that the sample was small. That may be valid if the stats were a little bit off, but stats off by hundreds of yards is no matter to take lightly. Receivers with record numbers of catches should not either no matter how small the sample, because real world numbers are not ever that far off and real world records are not broken often.

When I post questions about the ability of offensive linemen to trap, defensive linemen to stunt, or a safety to come up in the box and fill a gap I expect that most of the beta team and staff should know what I am talking about. Those questions should be easily answered by a staff working on a football simulation.

That is the key here: this is a football simulation, and it should simulate real world results; otherwise, it is an arcade game.

The game has gone gold, and it is ready to ship. I ask if enough effort was used to make sure that the game had the best input while it was in design and in beta? Will the game be able to realize its full potential as a simulation? Will the tools be good enough to actually simulate games rather than approximate them. Is the AI robust enough to handle poor coaching without allowing results that are a caricature of the game?

I hope so. I really do, but I must ask those questions.