The History of the Madden Curse

It was recently announced that Drew Brees will be on the cover of "Madden 11," the next installment of the Madden NFL video game franchise. He was awarded the cover by fan vote, winning out over Reggie Wayne and Jared Allen online. Even in mainstream coverage of Brees' cover announcement, every story seemed to include a quick bit about the Madden Curse, and whether or not Brees was "worried." Brees was clearly aware of the phenomenon, saying he "[looked] at it as a challenge."

John Madden himself was on the cover of every Madden title until 1999. From every year there on out, a star player was put on the cover. Apparently nothing notable happened for the first few years, but here's a list skimmed from Wikipedia:

• Daunte Culpepper appeared on the cover of "Madden 2002" after leading the Vikings to the playoffs the previous year. He then proceeded to throw 23 interceptions and set a single-season record for fumbles, dooming the Vikings to a 5-11 record.
• Marshall Faulk appeared on "Madden 2003." The next year, he needed knee surgery and failed to really perform at the same level ever again.
• Michael Vick was on the cover of "Madden 2004." That year, he broke his leg in the preseason and the Falcons bombed. Needless to say, Vick would only go on to worse things.
• Ray Lewis was on "Madden 2005." He got a wrist injury and didn't get a single interception all year.
• Donovan McNabb was on "Madden 2006." That year, he had a hernia and tore his ACL.
• Shaun Alexander appeared on "Madden 2007." A foot injury took him out of six games that next year.
• Vince Young was on the cover of "Madden 2008." He suffered a knee injury and was replaced for a large part of the season by Kerry Collins.
• Brett Favre was on the cover of "Madden 2009," in what was originally seen as an effort not to curse any player that year. Favre had retired, but ended up coming back to play for the Vikings that year. He generally played well, but struggled through a bicep injury and had a disastrous last few games.
• Troy Polamalu and Larry Fitzgerald shared the "Madden 10" cover, in another attempt to switch up the cover design and avoid a curse. Polamalu was injured for all but about three games the next year. Larry Fitzgerald had an amazing year, but did miss out on the playoffs due to a ribs injury.
  

Not that I think this really needs debunking, but it should be pointed out that Sports Illustrated covers are also considered to have a jinx. Given that a similar status symbol within sports should have the same effect gives you a clue there's something else at work here besides a curse. Both "Madden" and SI covers are awarded to a player at the peak in his career, so any other season of theirs will look disappointing by comparison. It takes really special players to have a season worthy of landing the cover of "Madden" and keep up that legendary play the next year. Regression toward the mean, and all that. Still pretty fun to look at, though.

Infinity Ward vs. Activision: A Timeline and Summary

Amidst reports that their game had reached 25 million unique players and the upcoming release of an incredibly successful map pack expansion, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" developer Infinity Ward clearly had some sort of issue with their parent company, Activision, which led to the sudden departure of a large chunk of the development team.

(Note: If you're unaware of Activision's process with its "Call of Duty" developers, Treyarch and Infinity Ward alternate in developing new titles. Infinity Ward is considered responsible for the "Modern Warfare" titles while Treyarch develops World War II-themed (or possibly Vietnam next time) shooters.)

I've developed a timeline of this surprisingly intricate story, so it can all be seen in one place. A large portion of this comes via Joystiq and Kotaku.

• 3/1/10: A form Activision turned in to the SEC says that "The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."
  
• 3/2/10: Sources claim that a "bunch of bouncer-types" show up at Infinity Ward HQ and are unwilling to divulge their purpose in being there. Infinity Ward studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West had not been seen since a meeting with Activision Monday morning.
• 3/2/10: Later in the day, Activision formally announces the departure of Vince Zampella and Jason West.
• 3/3/10: An internal Activision memo says Infinity Ward will remain central to the "Call of Duty" franchise... But also says that a new wholly-owned studio of theirs, Sledgehammer Games, will now also be developing "Call of Duty" titles, but action-adventure instead of first-person shooters.
• 3/4/10: Zampella and West file a lawsuit against Activision for breach of contract, alleging that they were fired to avoid being paid royalties for what was already the third best-selling video game of all time, "Modern Warfare 2." The suit asked for just compensation and, interestingly, control over the "Modern Warfare" brand.
• 3/4/10: Later in the day, Activision responds with a rather patronizing statement, expressing their disappointment with Zampella and West's "meritless" lawsuit. Activision vaguely alleges that Zampella and West failed to honor their obligations to their parent company.
• 3/5/10: Joystiq obtains Infinity Ward's court documents. They allege that Activision fired Zampella and West to avoid paying royalties, and take more complete control over the "Modern Warfare" brand. The document also complains about the increasing development pace forced upon the studio.
• 3/12/10: An anonymous source tells Kotaku that remaining Infinity Ward developers are only staying until they receive their royalty payments, and that morale at the studio is extremely low.
• 4/6/10: Two more development leads at Infinity Ward, Todd Alderman and Frank Gigliotti, quit.
• 4/9/10: Activision counter-sues Zampella and West in a shockingly juvenile-sounding lawsuit. They allege that the Infinity Ward execs took "a secret trip by private jet to Northern California, arranged by their Hollywood agent, to meet with the most senior executives of Activision's closest competitor [probably EA Games]." The lawsuit actually says that Zampella and West "morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain." Further allegations: That Zampella and West threatened to stop production of "Modern Warfare 2" in late stages of development for contract leverage; That they slowed pre-production of "Modern Warfare 3" for the same aim; That they refused to meet with Activision; That they "[engaged] in a campaign to portray Activision and its management in a negative light to IW employees in an effort to solicit those employees."
• 4/9/10: Zampella and West react, calling the counter-suit "false and outrageous." They continue the surprisingly juvenile tone of the argument, adding that any false allegations of insubordination can hardly have hurt Activision, given that "Modern Warfare 2" was the world's most successful video game.
  
• 4/12/10: Webcomic Penny Arcade chimes in with the comic below.
• 4/12/10: Zampella and West announce a new development studio called Respawn Entertainment, with a publishing agreement and funding coming in from EA Games.
• 4/12/10: Activision respond later, saying "this agreement comes as no surprise to Activision given the myriad of improper activities detailed in the cross-complaint filed on Friday against Jason West and Vince Zampella. We look forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward's deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects."
• 4/13/10: Three more IW developers, Jon Shiring, Bruce Ferriz, and Mackey McCandlish, all leave the company.
• 4/13/10: Later in the day, another four leave: Zied Reike, Steve Fukuda, Rayme Vinson, and Chris Cherubini.
• 4/14/10: Mark Grigsby and John Paul Messerly also leave Infinity Ward.
  
• 4/15/10: EA spokesperson Jeff Brown comments on a recent Activision Q1 report's bragging, saying "This is kind of like announcing: The race horse I shot last month has won the Triple Crown!"
• UPDATE 5/6/10: By now, around 35 former Infinity Ward employees have resigned and joined Respawn Entertainment. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says the studio is not going to be closed down, despite the huge personnel losses.
  

Controversial Classics: "Custer's Revenge"

Today's entry into my Controversial Classics series is heavy on the "Controversial" and light on the "Classic." I'll go ahead and say it's not a game worth defending by any means, but that above must be the best box art ever.

It's not a belated April Fools' Joke, no, "Custer's Revenge" is an actual 1982 game for the Atari 2600. There are a surprising number of pornographic games from that period, when you consider just how terrible the games look, sound, and play. There are very few now, (unless you count Japan, like the still-controversial "RapeLay"), which probably has more to do with the high cost of making a serious game now, rather than the presence of a market for this sort of thing. A gameplay video is embedded below, which I must warn you is crude in every sense of the word (well, it's not oil, but--).




If you don't want to see the video, or if you're not very good at charades, "Custer's Revenge" lets you play as a pantsless, erection-sporting General Custer as he evades arrows to rape/maybe-have-consensual-sex-with an Indian woman. That last distinction is important, for this vague depiction of... whatever was most controversial for depicting rape, even though maybe it's not, who can tell with so few pixels?

Wikipedia is a very entertaining source for this story. One cited source from Wikipedia claims that this game "generated many gang rapes of Native American women," following that quote up with a story about a Native American woman who was attacked by two white men, who apparently suggested that she play "Custer's Last Stand" [sic, I guess?] with them while assaulting and I assume raping her. I find many parts of that story bewildering, but let's move right along...

The game went through a number of other versions, including name changes to "Westward Ho," (heh, real funny) "The White Man Came," (dear lord) and a version called "General Retreat" in which the Indian woman apparently chases down Custer to have sex with him (empowering?). Trying to find the right gameplay video on YouTube, I found so many different versions of the same game, I can't even begin to count. The Indian woman was even made to beckon for Custer in later editions of the game, to guard against rape allegations.

As is usual with these controversial classics, the hoopla over the game's content actually served as a boon for those who made it. This was the best-selling game by far made by the porn game developer Mystique (they wouldn't last through the mid-80's game crash, though). I'm kind of sad for everyone involved in this game, including those who protested it so vehemently.

And Now... A Swiss Game Ban

Switzerland has now ratified a violent video game ban, but, according to an article translated by GamePolitics, a rather selective one, akin to Germany's current situation.

The ban will not blindly ban all violent video games (a difficult definition to pin down, when you consider fringe cases like "Madden" and even "Super Smash Bros.") and it will not ban games based on the PEGI rating standard, which acts like the ESRB for Europe. No, instead they will follow Germany's example, banning specific games that display "cruel acts of violence."

According to the article, this means that "Mortal Kombat" and "Manhunt" will be banned, but not "Counter-Strike." My first reaction to those examples is, of course, why must we always talk about such old games? Only "Manhunt" is from the 21st century, and it was released in 2003! "Mortal Kombat" developer Midway Games has gone bankrupt and become WB Games Chicago! It is incredible that such an old game can still be considered controversial, and it likely only reveals how clueless the politicians are who are ratifying the bill.

The violence standard here is a little odd, too, and doesn't really reveal their standard of "cruel acts of violence." "Manhunt" makes sense, given its snuff film stylings, and I can see how it is considered more harmful than "Counter-Strike"'s shooter violence. However, again, "Mortal Kombat" makes very little sense. If we're really talking about the original game, the pixellated fatalities are no more harmful to today's kids than "The Great Train Robbery" was to film-goers in 1903. More recent "Mortal Kombat" titles aren't really worth worrying about either, as the violence level actually hasn't significantly increased. There are much worse things to worry about.

Heavy Rain Retrospective

"Heavy Rain" has now been out for a little over a month, so it's time to look back and see the wake left by the game meant to change the industry as we know it. How was it received?

Critics: "Heavy Rain"'s Metacritic rating is 87. There's a mostly constant wave of review scores from 100 on down to 70, with three reviews giving scores in the 40's. If you consider that a 70 is about as low a score that reviewers will usually give a serious title, these scores run the gamut. Many reviewers loved it, many hated it, and so they resolved nicely into an above average score.

Positive words and short phrases critics used to describe "Heavy Rain": momentous, revolutionary, incredible, emotionally engaging, transcends the current definition of a video game, ground-breaking, not just a masterpiece but an ingenious step of its own

Negative words and short phrases critics used to describe "Heavy Rain": flawed, disappointment, technical issues, plot that's shocking but not sensible, not good enough, mediocre to bad voice acting, unexplained plot twists, the spectre of what might have been

Sales: I hate VGChartz because their actual sales numbers don't seem transparent enough, so I can't tell what's real, what's current, etc., but I don't have any other reliable way of finding sales for any game. Regardless, VGChartz has "Heavy Rain" as having sold a little over a million copies so far. Which puts it already at exactly the same sales that "Shenmue" had over its entire lifetime. So I'd say the sales have been pretty decent for an "artsy" video game.

Peter Molyneux: But of course, reviewers and sales don't matter when Peter Molyneux ("Fable," "Black & White," "The Movies") has an opinion! Molyneux the game offered a glimpse of the future, but he was unable to play it for more than 90 minutes because the game world was too dark and emotionally engaging for him. That last bit is what makes Molyneux a bit like Fry in "Futurama": His stories always go on one sentence too long.

Heavy Rain and Stanley Kubrick

Just a quick observation from playing "Heavy Rain" and being a huge Stanley Kubrick fan: I had heard before that Heavy Rain director David Cage was a Kubrick fan, and the game appears to have two clear allusions to Kubrick films.

First off, Norman Jayden sees an odd red-suited character while inside his ARI alternate reality system he uses to solve crimes. You can see what I'm talking about just briefly within the first thirty seconds of this video. Now, compare that to the bartender, Lloyd, who talks to Jack in "The Shining," pictured above. Start this video at 1:24 to see his role in the movie. Given that Cage is a Kubrick fan (in this interview, he says the game is inspired in part by Kubrick), this cannot be a coincidence that two semi-imagined characters in similar roles look so similar.

Now, there's also a similarity between "2001: A Space Odyssey"'s Louis XVI room at the very end of the film and Ethan Mars' fifth trial room. Skip all the way to 6:18 on this video if you want to see the final trial room, which I'll try not to spoil too badly here. Anyway, the room is completely unlike any of the other trials, being instead completely pristine and white. And if you compare the rooms side-by-side between "2001" and "Heavy Rain" it's just impossible not to see a similarity in their architecture and furniture.

The typical theory as to why the room at the end of "2001" has Louis XVI architecture is that the protagonist Bowman is trapped in an alien zoo that has tried to build their best idea of a human habitat. So why does "Heavy Rain" use the same sort of thing? Without spoiling it, I can't even begin to guess, and I'm not sure myself, anyway. Interesting, though.

The Game Review Timesink

I read about this little news story recently about Gamespot publishing then taking down a review of Global Agenda, an MMO. The game got a low score, and some readers apparently complained that the reviewer had not played the game for long enough to get any real sense of it. The reviewer had said he'd put in 15 hours of gameplay, but his data was online, and it turns out the real number was closer to six hours of evaluation.

In any video game without a natural story arc, it is very interesting to decide how long is long enough to have evaluated the game fully. I've reviewed the Baseball Mogul series before, in which case there are any number of variables to consider when making this decision:

• The game lets you go through it at any speed, from watching every pitch of a major league season to simply setting general lineups and simming the whole season in ten minutes. This choice is left completely up to regular consumers, and everyone has their own style. The game is naturally very different depending on which way to play it I choose, so do I have to try them all out, even though I know which way I enjoy the best?
• Playing through an entire season at my usual pace would take months. And a lot of the satisfaction of the game comes after playing through two or three seasons, as you start to see your draft picks develop and odd players set records.
• You can play any team from somewhere around 1900 on, or create your own fictional teams. Baseball has not been at all the same game over those periods, and in fact, the increased realism of older periods is a selling point to the game. How much of that do I need to evaluate?

The list goes on and on and on. Realistically, I won't be able to answer every question, well, ever. I am never going to play through an entire season, calling every pitch. I am never going to play a deadball era season.

So what did I do, in the end, writing without pay, mind, for a rather small reviews site? I played through six months of a Seattle Pilots '69 expansion team and played through six months of the 2009 Atlanta Braves' season. So I did not in fact complete a season until after the review was published. But I spent more than twenty hours just doing that much, and it wasn't really enough.

I've also reviewed movies, it turns out, and doing that feels like a breeze compared to reviewing a video game. You know exactly how much time you're putting in, probably between 90 and 180 minutes. Compare that to the timesink for reviewing a video game, which could easily be anywhere between 180 and 1200. For games without a storyline, 1200 minutes may not even be enough, but you have to stop somewhere. There are plenty of story-driven RPGs that will set you back more than 1200 minutes as well, especially if you have to be thorough like a reviewer, but 1200 is plenty enough to be shocking.

If the movie is bad, don't worry, you'll be out of there and ready to have fun ripping it apart in less than three hours. If a game is bad, and especially if a game is ridiculously freaking hard, then you don't know how long you've got left. A walkthrough may not even exist, because you're playing this before or at release time.

Sonic & the Black Knight was my least favorite game to review ever, and unfortunately, my review was for Kidzworld.com, so I couldn't really say whatever I wanted about it or use nasty humor or something. I just had to plod right through that crap, which was at first easy to the point that I thought I was missing something, then eventually became difficult in a really idiotic way. I just felt like I was wading through shit, playing levels that had zero fun content for the "reward" of cutscenes that made my childhood want to puke. Why, Sonic? Why? Then on the second or third-to-last level, I just couldn't move on. There was a point with insta-kill drops that I just couldn't move past, especially because I was already so infuriated with playing that piece of garbage. So, I threw the Wiimote down, and just wrote the review right then and there.

Thankfully, I didn't send it in immediately, because upon waking up and reading it the next day, I realized the review wasn't really appropriate for Kidzworld.

What's the answer, then? How can we reform video game reviews to make this process either more complete or more tolerable?

We can't.