Wired (the best magazine out there?) weighs in on how video games are impacting real live sports:
Today’s football players have an edge that no athletes before them have possessed: They’ve played more football than any cohort in history. Even with the rise of year-round training, full-contact practice time on the field hasn’t increased — in fact, it has actually gone down, as coaches have tried to limit the physical punishment that the game exacts. But videogames, especially the ubiquitous Madden NFL, now allow athletes of all ages to extend their training beyond their bodies.
indeed, indeed 
February 1, 2010 at 1:32 pm |
i dont see a correlation between video games and atletic prowess. i would have dunked in 3rd grade if that were the case.
February 1, 2010 at 3:53 pm |
I can totally see the correlation between video games and sports development. Madden or Fifa help you recognize coverage and aid in the development of strategy for athletes. They help with vision of the field as opposed to the physical abilities.
Golf pros are using the Wii Tiger Woods 10 to help people fix their crappy golf swings. I’ve played and it is very realistic, I am a terrible golfer on the links and while playing tw10.
Also wired does rule.
February 1, 2010 at 3:58 pm |
this isn’t covered in the piece, but i bet that Tony Hawk has drastically impacted skateboarding (not just for helping to grow interest in the sport, but in thinking up moves)(though the combos that people can hit are so unrealistic in that game. if Tony Hawk were Madden, Peyton manning could throw a football 900 yards.)
February 1, 2010 at 4:23 pm |
i dont see the corelation. shenanigans
February 1, 2010 at 4:27 pm |
Playing madden for an nfl player is not like film study or anything of the sorts. It may help a teeeny tiny bit, but the benefit is likely not substantial.
Peyton Manning has a binder on every defensive coordinator in the NFL where he takes notes during film study to get a feel for all their tendencies…playing madden likely does 0 for him and other nfl qb’s.
Football is an extremely complex game which involves reading and reacting as well as running designated routes and plays and NFL players do this all as a job. They are extremely well versed in plays and playbooks down to understanding the tendencies of specific players.
For Madden to really help an NFL player, the game creators would have to study NFL football more than current coaches and players do. That’s simply not happening.
Wired is a very good magazine…i thought they were going out of business though?
February 2, 2010 at 12:57 pm |
Didn’t read the article yet. But I don’t think they are claiming that playing Madden is going to help a current NFL players. My impression of what they are claiming is that by the time they reach the NFL Madden has already had an impact. It’s not a direct impact like “The more madden you play, the better prepared you are going to be.”
What I think they are talking about, and what I think is true, is that as kids grow up they are exposed to fairly complex football thinking at a really young age. Teenagers are playing Madden, and already know terminology and general concepts that they have picked up playing Madden. Kids already know what a cover 2 defense is, what a zone blitz is, the difference between a slant and a post, or a trap and a dive. These are simple things but it’s like anything else, if you are generally familiar with them at a younger age it makes learning the nuances as you develop as a player easier. I think this claim has some legitimacy to it.
February 4, 2010 at 2:20 pm |
kenny is right, they’re talking about how kids now are growing up with a much more sophisticated awareness of NFL strategy, they’re not talking about throwing balls into coverage.
the example the article was built around was the madden strategy of running around to waste time at the end of a period that has transitioned into the league.
February 4, 2010 at 2:21 pm |
also, you can learn a lot more about football playing madden than just watching at home on TV because the TV cameras just focus on the ball and don’t let you see what the defense and the secondary is doing.
though actual NFL people have access to the “coaches cams” footage that for whatever reason aren’t for sale to even the most hardcore fans.