I got a strange phone call today from my old buddy Nav. Whom my loyal riders will remember as my go to guy for a game where playing co-op is a necessity. He had a strange question for me: Which Big 12 Team plays its home games in Floyd Casey Stadium?

Now Nav knows me very well, and is aware of the fact that I am a certified trivia master (if I do say so myself), but since I know that we both have internet access, the point of the interrogative was not to plumb the depths of my vast, cluttered mind. So when pressed him on it and he gave up the goods: the “Back to School” feature in EA’s NCAA Football 07, and its game performance affecting multiple choice midterm and final exams.

Now while we are in full disclosure mode, let me just say that college sports games rank just above racing games, self-important movie directors and tax preparation on my scale of dislikes. Their repetitive nature and the randomness of statistic based action count against them just for starters, not to mention that since a new one is churned out every year, their resale value is nonexistent. This is of course the real reason that I don’t like college sports games, and not the fact that my alma mater, Bradley University, still doesn’t have a damn football team!

Anyway, the idea of what amounts to a trivia mini-game (since I doubt there is a Campus Bookstore or a Study Hall mode included for test prep) within a football sim really makes me question if a reexamination of priorities are in order. Are developers really that sure that fans of the sports genre won’t be happy with just an improved game mechanic, updated graphics and a modernized team rosters? They have to include time-sinks like actually taking tests? They are not even real tests! I know that big time college football players usually go for what could be considered ‘gimme’ majors like Turf Management, or Communications, but they (hopefully) end up learning something beyond mascot trivia. One goes to college to learn an advanced skill! Even if it’s just how to keep a forest from burning down, it’s not going to be the kind of thing that’s only useful if your in Final Jeopardy!

Besides we know what happens when they make trivia games, after a half hour the questions start repeating. This has been happening since Wheel of Fortune of the Commodore 64, and besides the late lamented You Don’t Know Jack On-Line, no effort has been made to solve this problem.

Well, it’s time for some free advice. First, how about an on-line trivia comeback? It would be easy (from my perspective anyway) with a system in place like X-Box Live. A Live Arcade version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? could be created with regularly updated question pools (you could even change for them Microsoft! I know that would get your attention.). With either Gamerscore achievements or the actually valuable MS Points at stake, I believe you’d have a hit on your hands, one that require very little graphical programming (unless you just had to shoehorn lens flare in somewhere).

Speaking of, while EA could even use XBL to keep the test mini game updated (Don’t write me, I know the BtS mode is not on the 360 version). They could also use downloads to improve their sports franchises in useful ways. Taking a cue from Steam, EA could deliver updates to the games over the internet (I could do a ‘series of tubes’ joke here, but I like to maintain a timeless quality in my writings) Improving the useful aspects of their product (the gameplay, the graphics) and not have to come up with ultimately meaningless gimmicks for their marketers to hype. For the cost of a subscription players could have the game reflect every change that the league undergoes in the course of a week: roster changes, coaching changes, even weather conditions.

Innovation and change are important and powerful forces, but they must have meaning. I don’t want to be here next year shaking my head at the new Apply For An Internship Mode.

This is my stop.

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Comments? Questions? E-mail me at seth410@gamertransit.com. Complaints? I know I said I wanted my work to seem ‘timeless’ in an article about a specific year’s football game, so you don’t need to point that out, thanks.
Back of the Bus is © 2006 by Seth “4:10” Robison, used with exclusive permission by gamertransit.com. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.