Slate author: Madden taught me football
by Ross Miller 
{ Sep 6th 2006 at 11:25PM }
I was a late bloomer when it came to knowing the rules of football. I learned the basics (four downs, touchdown is six points, etc.) from NFL Blitz when I was 15; a few years back I started to understand positions and audibles when I came to college and started watching our football team and going to the games.For Slate author Felix Gillette, the intricacies of football were made clear via Madden 2007. In this interesting narrative, Gillette examines how more minor details in televised football have become understandable as a result of a few Madden sessions.
As Gillette concludes, "in the years to come, people who grew up learning about football via Xbox will expect broadcasters to give them more complex information." Has video games provided a means by which one can learn complex rules in an entertaining environment? How might this process be applicable for, say, quantum mechanics?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dirtyboy @ Sep 6th 2006 11:45PM
Too bad Madden football and real NFL football aren't the same thing...
Petrie @ Sep 6th 2006 11:50PM
do they not follow all the same rules and regulations though Mr. Dirtboy? I'm no Madden fan myself but I imagine it follows the rules of the game almost perfectly. Correct me if I'm mistaken.
brandon_r87 @ Sep 7th 2006 12:06AM
Yeah, this is nothing new. Except previously, it was James Bond taught me to kill through Goldeneye on N64. How could I not have learned? It was like a ultra-realistic killing simulator! Every detail was carefully placed to rot my moral fiber and turn me into a cold-blooded killing machine! After senselessly killing my first victim, I noticed how every minute detail and nuance of shooting a man's metal helmet, then shooting his crotch, and finally taking him down with an RCP-90 was perfectly emulated in the game!
SymetriX @ Sep 7th 2006 12:06AM
I learned that if you turn the ball over, you won't win football games!
I also learned that if the ball is thrown your way, you gotta catch it!
Heh heh... just kidding, I like Madden unlike most of the haters here ;-)
ZylogZ80 @ Sep 7th 2006 12:08AM
"How might this process be applicable for, say, quantum mechanics?"
That's actually a really great question. Two of my favorites hobbies are playing video games and reading pop-sci books, specifically quantum theory, relativity, and biology.
Games where the startling effects of black holes (time dilation or blue shifting on the event horizon for example) were brought to bear could be fascinating. Having to travel the cosmos while balancing the problems inherent to light speed travel would be incredible. Simply having a game where dealing with gravitational forces of true scale planets would be incredible. Or how about a game set on the quantum scale. Sum over histories, QED, uncertainty, all of it would open up completely new game mechanics and play.
I would love to see some "pop sci" games spring up. I'd buy whatever hardware was required to play such games (even a PS3 :) ), and I'm willing to bet more than a few other people would to.
ill trooper @ Sep 7th 2006 12:35AM
I learned a lot about the rules of hockey and the (then current) players themselves by playing NHL 93-96 on Sega Genesis, so I get what the guy is trying to say.
Geoff @ Sep 7th 2006 12:36AM
"After senselessly killing my first victim, I noticed how every minute detail and nuance of shooting a man's metal helmet, then shooting his crotch, and finally taking him down with an RCP-90 was perfectly emulated in the game!"
I learned how to steal cars and, er, deliver pizzas playing GTA.
More seriously, SimCity games have been used to train city council planners, and the Microsoft Flight Sim series basks in realism. Games to teach is not a new concept, but it's important to differentiate between educationally viable games and those that Tack Jhompson would label "murder simulators".
Craigo @ Sep 7th 2006 12:37AM
Of course, Madden has also fostered the misconception that Michael Vick is a great quarterback, so it's a bit of a crap-shoot.
And to the author of the Slate piece: Sky Cams cannot follow a pass like a video-game camera, making them almost useless for live-action during passing plays (which are most plays in the NFL).
T-Bag @ Sep 7th 2006 12:40AM
Are you saying that if I can learn how to play football I can master quantum mechanics? Quite the theory you got going there.
Geoff @ Sep 7th 2006 12:43AM
@9 - No reason why not. Baffling sport. Quantum mechanics is much easier.
Farkman @ Sep 7th 2006 12:50AM
I learned not to buy any more Madden games. I feel enlightened.
As a side note, I too would like to see more games based in reality but taking it to weird heights. In a game design class I took I explored the complexity of quantum mechanics, string theory, and singularities. Of course, my device for travelling through the multiverse was a guitar, so it takes all kinds.
Chris Taran @ Sep 7th 2006 1:00AM
Everything I know about football I learned from Tecmo Super Bowl.
T-Bag @ Sep 7th 2006 1:03AM
- Geoff,
I learned everything there is to know about football when I was 10. Forgot most of it since then because I lost all interest in the sport a few years back. Now if you can find me a single 10 year old with adequate knowledge on quantum mechanics I'll have a heart attack.
Geoff @ Sep 7th 2006 1:21AM
-T-Bag
See, I'm British, and therefore of the opinion that if you're allowed to use your hands, it ain't football.
American football has always baffled me. Mostly, I've never had a chance to figure it out.
Still, if your average 10 year old can figure out Final Fantasy, SimCity and other games with complex systems, a game displaying quantum mechanics in action would pose no problem. The subject matter may be technically tricky, but there's nothing that can't be taught.
T-Bag @ Sep 7th 2006 1:36AM
- Geoff,
Sounds easy in words, but unless this is studied further we'll never really know. I'm still skeptic about the whole thing though, because frankly I cant see any possibility of quantum mechanics being incorporated into something that'll turn out fun for kids or gamers alike. In other words: We'll just have a more complex Brain Age sort of game.
Geoff @ Sep 7th 2006 1:53AM
"I'm still skeptic about the whole thing though, because frankly I cant see any possibility of quantum mechanics being incorporated into something that'll turn out fun for kids or gamers alike."
They said that about city planning too, hence SimCity having to search for publishers when it first came out. Planning is needed, but it ain't impossible.
dsub @ Sep 7th 2006 9:02AM
I learned hockey from playing NHL games. Mostly because unlike football, Hockey is tough to pickup on just from watching it. Now I'm a die hard hockey fan, and I notice that I know more of the rules and catch more penalties and plays then people who've been following the NHL for years. Same goes for Madden...after you play it for so long, you start to pickup on the details.
One Mr @ Sep 7th 2006 4:19AM
brandon_r87,
I lol'd. Thanks.
CG @ Sep 7th 2006 8:20AM
I'm a pretty huge sports nut now, but before high school, all I liked was baseball and hockey.
I can safely say that video games gave me the basis for my understanding of the rules of football, tennis, AND golf.
Klif @ Sep 7th 2006 9:09AM
I've watched hundreds of football games on television and in person. But I've never learned as much about how the game works as I did on Saturday afternoon. When you watch a game live, the big plays usually seem inexplicable and mysterious. When you participate in a big play in Madden, the success is not a mystery. Rather, it's the logical outcome of well-timed manipulation and execution.
SuperChuck @ Sep 7th 2006 9:13AM
I think Madden gives a good feel for the shiny version of football the NFL has productized. I don't think it gives a great feel for the sport played in the trenches.
Madden is more of a simulation of watching football than a simulation of playing football. Only, instead of shouting at the TV, you're wiggling a stick at the TV.
kip @ Sep 7th 2006 12:30PM
"Having to travel the cosmos while balancing the problems inherent to light speed travel would be incredible. Simply having a game where dealing with gravitational forces of true scale planets would be incredible."
I think you are describing Mario Galaxy.
Just kidding. :)
Matt @ Sep 7th 2006 1:40PM
This is why i rue and lament the passing of the MVP Baseball series from EA.. I think it was on the track to becoming the proverbial "Madden of Baseball". Hopefully they fix whatever was wrong with the 360 version of the MLB game they did come out with. They should also call it "Jerry Remy Baseball."