Must a football game always be a sports game? For most of the 00s, the football game has hardened into a series of derivative rehashes with improved graphics and the occasional novel mode or overlay mechanic like QB vision.
The core of Madden today is recycled from the Madden of two decades ago. EA excavates it each year, slaps on some polygons and complicates the controls. OK, that's facetious of me, but most other additions are in stat refinement or new modes.
But the lion's share of playtime has always belonged to calling plays, maneuvering the quarterback and manning up on or as a QB, running back or receiver. Same format then and same format now. Whether or not these scenarios take place in a brand new mode or over online tournaments doesn't counter the fact that, paired down, a Madden game is a Madden game is a Madden game.
That works annually for Madden and for a good reason. The format is participatory. We play the roles we most admire -QB, receiver, running back, defensive end- and do so in real-time to boot. When Peyton Manning throws a touchdown pass to Anthony Gonzalez this sensation of "I did that" is both there in the virtual end zone and also on your couch.
That's to say, we don't instead shout "I coached that!" with a celebratory slam of the playbook on our coffee table.
Quick Hit Football, the first challenger to Madden in some time (and one that admittedly plays David to EA's Goliath), wants to inspire those emotions, to be for our inner-coach what Madden is for our inner-QB.
If that sounds boring or niche, it shouldn't. Fantasy Football's popularity is far and away greater and more wide reaching than EA's sports game. In practically every office across America, both women and men participate in what they call a game, and uninitiated call a time suck. When was the last time a good chunk of your office talked Madden?
But who cares if fantasy football isn't for you. I argue, it isn't. At least, not if you've every enjoyed an RPG.
I myself have been quick to lift nose at fantasy sports in the past. Even as a casual sports fan, it seems like a bridge too far, too dedicated to the devoted. But allow me to make a bold statements: fantasy sports are to role-playing games what apes are to humans. The two share a near identical genetic makeup of numbers, stats and chance.
Let's not ignore the fact fantasy sports is two words and one is fantasy.
I wager there are only two differences that separate the two crowds from merging: 1.) the boards and figurines put off sports fans and 2.) the crowds and jockish attitudes put off nerds.
Quick Hit Football alleviates both. For roleplayers, gone is the official NFL license and with it many of sports flamboyant personalities. Gone too is the real-time action and in it's place a turn-based format not unlike a JRPG or a card game. For sports fans, the game's played on an online environment pretty similar to Madden's or a first-person shooters. Gone for sports fans are the basement's and comic shops regularly paired with the collective idea of tabletop role-playing.
We bring inflexible expectations into genre games. JRPGs and football games are two of the worst offenders. Quick Hit may just kill two birds by making an original, enjoyable experience built for fans of both genres, all the while evangelizing sports to nerds and games to jocks.
It's a noble and incredibly ambitious goal, making a sport's game that's not quite a sports game. Time will tell if the Quick Hit team can reach it.
For those ready to give Quick Hit a try, the game's available as free to play in your browser at www.quickhit.com. A new update should find its way down the pipeline any day now, so there's no better time to dive in.
