That's right. Football is the guy's soap opera. Listening to an enthusiast talk about his engagement with a modern football simulator makes this abundantly clear. He's engaging in the exploration of possibility in variations through time, starting with a core interest point through which they have an emotional connection - usually a hometown. And the "home" effect on football is huge; most fans feel a family connection to teams from their hometowns, or even vicariously explore a loyalty to a desired living place through support of its sports teams. When a player picks up ESPN NFL 2K5, is he cognitively engaging to determine the most intellectually interesting possibilities among the options available? No. He's moving immediately to select a favorite team; that has a lot more in common with selecting a Second Life avatar than a golf club.
Bottom line, electronic football enthusiasts are engaging in narrative play. It may not involve expansive voiceovers or branching dialogue, and that is exactly why it is the form of narrative most unique to video gaming: the kind of narrative that emerges from mechanical complexity.
But it isn't just about relationships or Tiki Barber thumbing his nose at the city of San Diego, only to get traded for a defensive lineman that nearly took the Chargers to Super Bowl XLI. It's a rags-to-riches story, too.
The American Dream
It goes without saying that football's dominance is unique to the U.S., and some readers may only recently have realized I'm talking about the sport with the spandex and leather, not the shorts and the sphere. It is no coincidence, and American football will never be a truly international sport purely by dint of the expense of its maintenance; soccer requires a ball and a big field, while football involves a good 20 pounds of equipment per player, if not more, to say nothing of the rules complexities currently mediated in large part through technology.
But as can be seen in many traditional narrative interpretations of the sport, the story of football is one of team achievement and individual achievement. A football celebrity is unique among all other American celebrities for his origins (rarely are they glamorous) and his skill. The rise of an individual star athlete is inherently a story of will, talent, achievement, hardship and, in many cases, temptation. It is a story of carving a life of humble beginnings into one of obscene wealth: the American Dream.
First And 10, Do It Again
While it's easy to dismiss the popular, it is often of greater benefit to analyze its popularity, since so often its roots are in elements central to human behavior that games so uniquely access and ignite. But the question remains, is there uncharted territory in this oldest of ludological franchises? A compelling game element is a compelling game element, but is there room for competition? Are there wells of compelling narrative, gameplay and strategy into which we haven't yet dipped? Ultimately, the power of a license or franchise is it is palpable economic acknowledgment of a compelling idea - and the roots of that idea rarely require permission for execution.
The gaming world, like any other, is an ecosystem, and the presence or even profusion of one game type does not threaten others; the game ecosystem is not zero-sum. The success of one game type creates further demand for that same genre, allowing other games to flourish and new competitors to arise. And one thing that games have always shown us is that wherever there's a big tree, there's always room to grow.
Erin Hoffman is a professional game designer, freelance writer, and hobbyist troublemaker. She moderates Gamewatch.org and fights crime on the streets by night.
