For the Love of the (Video) Game

I can understand why sports video games leave certain things out.  We don't need to see play stopped because some fan threw a beach ball into the outfield or watch some guy mop up the floor after a guy takes a charge on the basketball court.  Do these things happen?  Yes.  Do they happen pretty often?  Yup.  Do I miss them when I'm playing a video game?  Not at all.  These are things that only a hardcore sports fan thinks about, but I think the majority of us (yes, I love my sports, but not too much...) are fine with these omissions.  These are artificial things that don't really affect the players, physically, emotionally, or psychologically.  Unfortunately, there are things that are omitted from the games that do effect players on the emotional and psychological level.  Do I feel like they need to be in the game?  Yes.  Why?  Because it definitely effects the people playing the game, as it would in real life.

I was playing Mario Baseball against my friend, who owned the game and the Game Cube.  I realize this is a very unrealistic version of baseball, but it's still grounded in the rules and strategies of baseball.   I know there are special trick pitches and "star" swings that automatically hit home runs if you hit the ball, but you can still use hit and runs, and more importantly play mind games with the opposing manager (my friend).

For some reason my friend would always pick at least one of the Baby Mario characters and one of the female characters (Daisy or Peach).  I say this not because I think women and children are terrible at baseball, I say it because I care my friend never seems to learn his lesson.  I would always pick Waluigi (because I value pitching over hitting, like a real baseball fan) and a bunch of adult male baddies.  If my friend would gain some momentum while batting (getting a couple of guys on base), and one of the aforementioned characters would come up to bat (Peach, Daisy, Toadette, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi), I'd immediately bean them with a fastball on the first pitch of the at bat.  While this gives the batter a free base (like a walk), it really would infuriate my friend.  He would be so filled with rage that he wouldn't be able to concentrate, and I'd be able to strike a couple of his batters out, if not all of them.  Am I playing "dirty"?  Sure.  But what do I care?  I'm the bad guys anyways.  And even if I wasn't, this is baseball and this is what happens.  When a guy hits a home run, you bean him the next time he's up.  You send a message.  

The basketball equivalent to beaning a batter is to commit a "hard foul" or a flagrant foul.  Either way you're looking to send a message.  In video games, there is no way to differentiate a hard foul from a regular one (not sure about flagrant).  So in basketball video games, I use the Hack-a-Shaq technique on my friends when one of their players seems to be on some sort of hot streak.  If you're not familiar with this strategy, it became famous in the earlier part of this decade when teams would foul Shaquille O'Neal every time he touched the ball (in the fourth quarter especially), forcing him to shoot free throws.  O'Neal was a terrible free throw shooter so it often was a better alternative than letting him score at will.  In a video game, I don't need to be playing a friend that has Shaq on his team.  I will foul whoever their best player is and force them to shoot free throws, not because they're less likely to score, but because it'll cause my friends to get frustrated.  Either they'll start missing free throws because of its tedious nature, or they'll start launching terrible shots trying to beat my foul.  Either way, it gives me a chance to get back into the game.  

Of course there are times where I don't get to play against friends, so that means I'm playing against the computer or someone who doesn't understand the hilarity of my mind games.  Honestly, my friends don't care too much when I do it, they're as angry as they are serious about the trash they talk.  Unfortunately,  I've met people (usually kids) who like to play games with the sole intention of whaling on their opponent.  They refuse to play other games and they're just brats in general.  They take any enjoyment out of the game with their piss poor attitudes and they really like to rub it in.  They think winning 10-0 is more entertaining than being in a tight game with both players on edge of their seat.  This is why I'm sad that the Mutant League Franchise of the mid 90s failed.  In a Mutant League video game, if a kid was running up the score on you, you could just try destroying his team to make him forfeit.  Getting frustrated? Take out the ref.  No matter how far behind you are, there's always a way to win or do at least go down swinging.  Maybe the games of today could learn something from that defunct franchise to teach the children of today.  It's not if you win or lose, it's literally how you play the game.