A father sat with his son in a Michigan basement decorated in maize and blue.
They bonded over soccer video games. One of his features a story in which he takes a 7-year-old boy to his college dorm room, where letters from fans fill his mailbox and the college newspaper announces the championship. , a list of Heisman candidates adorned his computer screen. If he plays well enough, his name could be on there.
It wasn't real. But who said that couldn't happen?
“You know, we always joked with him as a big kid, 'Hey, maybe we'll go there one day,'” says his father, Bill Swartout.
Today, more than a decade later, that 7-year-old Braden Swartout is living out his real-life story mode as an offensive lineman at Central Michigan.
Countless versions of that game, unmade in over a decade, sit gathering dust in basements next to obsolete gaming systems. This is the inevitable fate of old discs, game cartridges, RCA connector wires, etc. But when all is said and done, the dust clears to reveal an enduring cultural phenomenon that is returning in this modern world.
More than just a game
For a generation of young people, EA Sports' college football games have sparked their desire for the sport. From early versions in the 1990s to his immersive experiences in the 2000s that revolutionized player creation modes, the game has become a must-have for sports fans and video game fans.
But as their popularity grew, so did something else. A chorus of voices say the college athletes depicted in the game should be compensated. It was a concept that seemed insane back in my student-athlete days. But as my opinion changed, it started to feel like it made sense.
Until 2021, the NCAA did not allow college athletes to profit from their brand (NIL, commonly known as name, image, and likeness).
The video game developer has spent years trying to differentiate its in-game roster from real-life players. “Quarterback No. 10” remembers this vividly.
“I remember when I was going to games. In high school, of course you want to go to games, but when you go to college you go to games. And I was a 10-year-old from Baylor before the NIL. No. 10, still No. 10,” 2011 Heisman winner Robert Griffin III, one of the athletes featured on the game's cover in 2013, told The Associated Press.
“That's my name, 'Quarterback No. 10 from Baylor,'” he says. “But I’m white, I have a buzz cut, I have a fade, I don’t have arm sleeves on my arms, and I’m from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.They tried to completely change the character so they didn’t have to pay the guy. Or say, “No, that's not his name, image, or likeness. He's not the right skin color.” But everyone knew who No. 10 was at Baylor University. ”
In the end, EA Sports gave up. And the series has been on hiatus for 11 years since his final version in 2013.
I'm really back this time
Society has changed significantly since the 2010s. So is Swartow's cellar, now decorated in maroon and gold.
Gamers' voracious appetite for immersive sports video games hasn't changed much. And with the NCAA's decision to allow college athletes to profit from their brands, that time has come.
EA Sports has announced that it will revive the franchise in 2021. Three years later, the game is scheduled to be released this summer, with a full reveal promised in May. Few details have been revealed so far, but the players' names and likenesses will be real.
“Personally, I believe NCAA football is the greatest game of all time,” Griffin says. “A lot of kids who grew up with this game wanted to see themselves grow up and grow into the players they were made to be.”
EA Sports offered Football Bowl Subdivision players a minimum of $600 and a copy of EA Sports College Football 25 to appear in the game. Accepted by over 10,000 players.
The game intends to differentiate itself from other products on the market, namely sports series that have benefited from evolving time. The difference is that none of them have played college football.
“Video games, while once popular, have evolved significantly based on the evolution of society and have only added to the variety of modes and options available,” said Nicolette Aduama, senior associate director at Northeastern University's Sports Research Center. ” he says. To society.
go out with the old one
EA's 2006 College Football Game was monumental in the world of sports video games. It was the first to fully immerse gamers into the lives of athletes. It had a great soundtrack. Perhaps the only rival to story mode in the early 2000s was NBA Ballers.
There were also issues, such as features that didn't stand the test of time. In the dorm room where I created my players, a wallet-sized photo of a woman hung in the corner of a computer screen. As players performed better on the field, depictions were shuffled between presets. The female figure was sometimes thin. She has changed her bust, her hair color, and her smile.
“I remember watching it as a kid, and even then I was like, 'Why does winning a game make that girlfriend more attractive?'” said Eli Mouser, 21, of Russellville, Alabama. ''I thought, “Is it going to happen?'' That doesn't make sense. ”
EA Sports removed this feature in later editions. Additionally, one more element has been added that allows the gamer to choose a major and maintain his GPA to compete in the field. The developer has improved its equity through other games, including a professional soccer franchise that now includes female players, and a new golf game that asks gamers their pronouns when creating a player.
“Girls are gamers too,” Aduama said. “You see people breaking stereotypes in movies and TV shows, and we talk about that all the time in training. It's a matter of exposure.”
EA Sports said it provides opportunities for female athletes to be involved in the game through its ambassador program, which pays athletes to promote the game.
“I know of one game right now that's definitely going to be a big deal, and that's women's college basketball,” Griffin said. “Caitlin Clark was on the cover. She was an Angel at LSU. She and Reese got the girls together. That game was like mopping the floor.”
Given the game's ambitious features, I wonder what pre-teens will be playing this game and getting inspired to take to the college football field in 10 years when a new version is released. It's easy to wonder if that's the case. Will his 2024 dreams, embedded in a game that is arguably the most immersive iteration of the game ever, facilitate his path to success in sports and deliver the aspirations of tomorrow in high definition?
For Mouser, growing up in Alabama as a Tennessee fan was tough. EA Sports' college football game gave him the space to cast a sliver of orange in a sea of red. Like Bill and Brayden Swartout, the game gave him a chance to bond with his father.
