Mar 4, 2012

Whatever a "Steam Box" Means to Video Games, Only Valve Knows for Sure

Kotaku

Whatever a "Steam Box" Means to Video Games, Only Valve Knows for Sure Steam Box. Gabecube. Steam Engine. And, of course, Orange Box. If Valve Corporation is planning to offer a so-called PC gaming "console," the gaming community has already focus-grouped the brand names for it. "Companion Cube" would also seem to be perfect.

Nothing is confirmed. Valve's intentions in hardware are as opaque as its timetable for Half-Life 3. So the potential of the "Steam Box,"—if it exists—spans the range of niche product to the label everyone in this industry seeks: game-changer. It depends greatly on Valve's actual willingness to enter the hardware market, its aggression once there, and its leadership in establishing a standard specification for PC gaming. Those are three huge variables.

But if it is real, the Steam Box could become a disruptive force that moves console video gaming sooner, not later, into digital distribution—the market Valve dominates.

A deep breath is necessary. Valve is widely admired by gamers, and has put in the work to legitimately earn their goodwill toward its new endeavors. But rooting for the Steam Box to exist and change the face of gaming, simply because the company is well-liked, doesn't inform the discussion of what it could actually do.

This is tough to imagine because it starts with the realization that the "Steam Box" doesn't appear to be something that serves any direct need facing the committed PC gamer, and therefore biggest Valve advocate. The specifications for it are not only ones they already have (or surpass) in their current rigs, they point to an expensive consumer device, and even resemble products currently available, such as the Alienware X51. It's hard to pin down what constituency this would either create or serve, or what their disappointments would be if the PC gaming "console"/not-really-a-console falls short of that.

But it conceivably could touch every aspect of video gaming—PC gamers, console gamers, third party developers, the major publishers and console makers. Let's start with those who know Valve best.

PC Gamers

Valve may be, in the long run, trying to create more customers of its Steam marketplace, but it should also want to create more products that marketplace can offer. Developing for a wide range of hardware is one big turn-off when studios and publishers consider whether to offer a PC edition; securing the game's code in an open platform is the other.

First, if Valve starts setting the industry standard for PC games development, while that gives some needed structure and incentive it could also erode some of the benefits of the current arrangement. Major publishers would, theoretically, start building to Steam Box standards. That could mean everyone has to upgrade their PCs whenever Steam Box 2.0, 3.0, etc. rolls out its next model even if, as some have speculated (or hoped), Steam's console has swappable and upgradable components. At some point, a PC gamer may decide he doesn't want to spend a bunch of money on a new (or upgraded PC) but would prefer to keep his old one—they do, you know, a lot more than just play games—and just switch over to a Steam Box as his primary option.

Whatever a "Steam Box" Means to Video Games, Only Valve Knows for Sure

A small form-factor PC built by a Valve employee, rumored to be a "Steam Box" prototype.

Also, a GabeCube might deliver a quasi-closed system. I am really curious what in a PC gamer's existing library could be played on the Steam Box. This would seem to be the biggest pitfall arousing the loudest complaints among hardcore gamers. If they're eventually nudged in the direction of picking up this box that's setting the agenda on their platform, will they be able to bring over everything they already own, and how?

Because if a Steam Box being built for new customers, new customers may not care that they can't import into the system the games they play outside of Steam or another download service, such as Electronic Arts' Origin. That may mean all it can play is something validated through such a service. It may also give rise to special "Steam Box" copies that, even if Valve chooses not to build them, another publisher might. And then we can really go down a rabbit hole, imagining special DLC incentives designed to get everyone to buy the secured, standardized Steam Box edition instead of an open-platform PC copy. Who knows.

Here, also, is a huge question: If the Steam Box is closed or even partially so, what does all this mean for mods and the modding community, too? Is that hard work going to be playable on a Steam Box?

While an aggressively marketed and supported Steam Box may restore some heft to PC gaming in its rivalry with the consoles, it might also mean the platform ends up eating consoles' leftovers more often. Everyone loathes shitty console ports to the PC. Who knows what platform a developer will be building for primarily, or if a Steam Box offers enough incentive to build a version of their game for it specifically (or even exclusively). It may create new incentive to deliver games to the PC platform but it does not assure they will be PC-game quality. Shitty console ports may be fine for the newcomers served by the Steam Box's launch. If the mainstream PC gamer is dragged along, they'll be infuriated.

A Steam Box may restore some heft to PC gaming in its rivalry with the consoles; it might also mean the platform ends up eating consoles' leftovers more often.

And then there are concerns about what type of games are best supported by a Steam Box, and whether some genres will wither because of it. The Steam Box is rumored to have a standard, twin-analog controller. For certain it will support keyboard-and-mouse gaming but is that something you can or want to do from your couch? It's a pain in the ass when I stop to pick up a wireless keyboard in DC Universe Online. This is commonly described as a set-top box, meaning it's going to plug into the TV. While that's fine for shooters and third-person action titles, what does that mean for RTSes? If RTSes are further niched—a PC title that's not optimized for its leading platform—will they continue to get robust development attention?

That's all the doomsaying. The good news is it could be a huge catalyst for independent games development. While Microsoft has the Xbox Live Indie Games channel and some of its offerings have been quite good, it's still a subset of the Marketplace and viewed as "less than" next to full Marketplace titles. Xbox Indie Game developers also have to use the XNA toolkit. Indie games offered over Steam don't have that restriction, and giving them console-quality exposure could deliver some really heartening results for the passionate gamer.

And finally, as the resident sports guy, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that a surge in PC games development overall may revive the sports simulation genre on that platform. As most of these deals are cut with console distribution in mind, a robust PC alternative could reinvigorate competition in a genre that confronts video gaming's most expensive licenses, many of which are exclusive, either by contract or by the high barriers to development on consoles.

The Big Three

Technically, there's a "PC Gaming console" available already, and it goes by the name of OnLive. The difference is the games it plays are stored and rendered in the cloud, which poses its own set of technical limitations (a 3 Mbps or higher wired broadband connection, for starters). For consumers, no one is downloading the games and playing them off of the unit itself. And for games makers, OnLive isn't so much a console as it is a broker, and doesn't present much incentive to develop for the PC platform.

One of the biggest points in the rumors surrounding the Steam Box is that developers could build games without paying a licensing fee to the platform maker. This is a console in appearance and name only; it's still a personal computer. But if people can afford it like a console and play it like a console—and a traditional controller is said to be part of the package offered—the absence of licensing costs makes a Steam Box an immediate player in an environment that's looking at rising development costs when the next console generation launches.

The absence of licensing costs makes a Steam Box an immediate player in an environment that's looking at rising development costs.

If Valve (and Electronic Arts, whose Origin service would not be locked out) start raking in cash even marginally attributable to the Steam Box, everyone's going to follow that ball. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will be competing not only with one another, but also for developers and publishers who figure their game can make plenty of money without the distribution costs of physical goods, and the vig paid to the console maker on top of that. Something's got to break down here.

The rear-guard action would be to buy up studios and invest more in first-party exclusives and, as Microsoft is often accused of doing, paying premiums to ensure their consoles get exclusive or preferential treatment. This is expensive and unsustainable long-term. Near term, the PS3 has probably the most diverse library of quality exclusive titles right now. Nintendo's first party development is also strong, but a lot of that is by comparison to how weak third-party offerings are for its platforms. Both are better positioned than Microsoft, which also publishes to the PC more than its rivals, and would have to make a choice in whether it wants to release a game someone could play on what is, essentially, a direct competitor.

And then there's the fact of Valve's own software offerings. Let's not forget, that company comes to the table as a maker of great video games, well loved and rabidly desired. Its top franchises are primarily developed for and supported on the PC. While holding, say, Half-Life 3 as either a PC exclusive or a timed exclusive to drive sales through Steam would be an act of aggression inconsistent with its current reputation, Valve has gotten away with things for which other publishers would have been excoriated (last year's nakedly rigged "early unlock" of Portal 2 comes to mind.)

And What About Apple?

Valve boss Gabe Newell is wary of the growing influence Apple wields through its tightly-controlled app stores for the iOS and Mac OS platforms. While Apple is nowhere close to having the influence over mainstream PC video gaming that Valve does, it is an agenda-setter in how it has set up the App Stores it runs for the Mac OS and iOS devices. They are tightly controlled, highly profitable, and immense corporate assets.

A Steam Box may be Valve's foothold against Apple's further encroachment into traditional gaming. Remember, Apple did design a console (the Pippin, produced by Bandai, released in 1995) and has been rumored to be interested in taking another crack at it thanks to the particular success of iPad gaming. Though the company certainly has the resources to barge into the PC gaming space if it wished to, let's not forget that in hardware, Apple is a company that proceeds cautiously and wants to preserve a winning streak going back to the iPod, which has cemented its status as a tastemaker.

Still, a Steam Box could simply be Valve shoring up its position against Apple. The list of features in Apple's "Mountain Lion" OS show how the company is willing to take on some players that are the go-to service for what they offer (Adium, Dropbox), but not others (Twitter). The size of the competitor has a lot to do with it. A Steam Box could be not a visionary device but essentially an insurance policy, bulking up Valve and keeping Apple from moving further into the deeper gaming experiences that Valve sells and provides.

If so, then a lot of the game-changing speculation I have offered above may be inoperative. All of it may be inoperative. We simply can't know yet. This bears watching.

Mar 4, 2012

Samurai Yetis and Ninja Werewolves: How One Teacher Turned Sixth Grade Into an MMO

Kotaku

Samurai Yetis and Ninja Werewolves: How One Teacher Turned Sixth Grade Into an MMO Editor's Note: Ben Bertoli is a longtime Kotaku reader and commenter, a lifetime, dedicated video gamer, and a sixth-grade teacher in Indiana. He reached out to Kotaku this past week to share the story of how he turned his class into a role-playing game. The enthusiasm and motivation of the children in Bertoli's class evoke the success stories seen in gamified experiences such as Fitocracy. Here, Bertoli explains his creation, ClassRealm, how it works and what motivated him to develop it.

Video games and education. Two passions in my life that I tend to keep separate. I've been on the learning side of education for the last 16 years, but last fall I made the transition from student to teacher. I was dead set on bridging the gap between my life as a gamer and my life as a teacher before the school year even started. I plastered the walls of my classroom with posters of Link, set up Mario action figures across my desk and crafted 8-bit sprites all over my board. My sixth grade students loved that I was interested in video games—just like them! As sixth graders, most of the boys in my class were more focused on Call of Duty and Madden, they had no knowledge of the magic of platformers, RPGs, or adventures games.

I wouldn't be as well read as I am today if it wasn't for video games.

As I was describing my video-game-related teachings to my buddy Courtny, we began talking about incorporating gaming into education. Why not? I probably wouldn't be as well read as I am today if it wasn't for games like Pokémon Red and Blue. Games that relied on text. How else would I have known a large Pokémon was blocking Route 12? Video games are surprisingly helpful in school. They often promote reading, help students think through problems, and give players a sense of accomplishment to strive for. Courtny and I weren't the first to think of gamifying a classroom, but maybe we could come up with the best system to date.

I worked on my classroom system for a month before I had it completely devised. The system would have RPG elements and focus on various achievements. I made the achievements tiered so students would be able to earn the lower ones quickly and get a sense of how it felt to profit from their hard work and good deeds. The whole management process would be based on working hard, doing well on assignments and tests, and being kind to others. I dubbed the system ClassRealm and spent hours working out the kinks with Courtny, throwing ideas around, creating a basic website for parents, and building a simple bulletin board for my students.

Knowing I could get some supportive and insightful feedback I even ran the idea by my pals on the Kotaku #speakup forum. Quite a few regular users posted their thoughts and helped me flesh out some of the details I hadn't thought through.

Originally I thought I'd try ClassRealm out on my students this coming fall, but soon realized it would be too much for me to deal with at the beginning of the school year. I needed a beta test for ClassRealm. I decided I would simply put the system in to effect at the start of my current student's third trimester. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. I didn't tell my principal for fear he might dismiss the concept before I had a chance to test it out. Video game ideals in a classroom setting!? Ridiculous, right? Maybe not.

Monday arrived and as my students filed in they noticed the new bulletin board and the giant grid paper baring their names. Once everyone was settled I introduced the system and went over the rules of ClassRealm.

1. ClassRealm is completely voluntary. If you don't want to participate you don't have to.
2. XP is the backbone of ClassRealm. Every 10 XP you earn pushes you to the next level. Every one starts at level 1.
3. XP can be obtained by doing simple things such as:
• Answering questions
• Joining in class discussion
• Working hard on an assignment
• Helping others
• Participation in general
• Random Encounter Friday (explained below)
• Gaining achievements (explained below)
4. Achievements are gained by completing specific tasks. For example: a student can obtain the "Bookworm" achievement by reading two unassigned chapter books and explaining the plot and characters to me.
5. Each achievement has four levels – bronze, silver, gold, and master. Each level is harder to reach than the one below it.
6. Boys are pitted against girls. The gender that can acquire the most achievements by the end of the year will win extra recess and an ice cream party during lunch.
7. Each Friday will be Random Encounter Friday. Every one who wants to battle will put their name in a hat. I will draw out two names and they will battle. Students will be asked a question. I will repeat the question twice and then start battle music. The first to write the correct answer on the board and put their hands up will win XP. You can only answer once. Question subjects are chosen at random.
8. Students may join in alliances of up to six ClassRealm citizens. The alliance with the highest combined level at the end of the year wins a pizza party.
9. All info, except for the current amount of XP each student has, will be listed online and in the classroom for students and parents to see.

Many students were thrilled right off the bat. It was mainly my group of athletic boys, who are constantly driven by competition to do well. The fantasy/sci-fi aspects of ClassRealm drew in other students as well. It didn't matter why they cared. I just wanted them to care.

To get an achievement, children had to write an unassigned essay. Twenty were turned in during the first week. I could hardly get my students to free write when it was mandatory.

I gave each student a half sheet of paper with some sections to fill in. To give ClassRealm an added (albeit pointless) feel of fantasy and role-playing I had each student create a character. I gave them a list of fantasy and sci-fi races, as well as a handful of "enhancers" to make their characters. Although the majority of my students picked ridiculous combinations they certainly enjoyed it, and that's what was important. Samurai yetis. Ninja werewolves. Mermaid princesses. It's all good in ClassRealm. Students used the sheet to keep track of their current level and as a form of ID to show their friends and parents. At the end of the day do you really want to be Billy—the normal boy? No, you want to be Molkor—the level three mountain goblin.

Participation skyrocketed on the first day. I had students I never heard from volunteering to answer questions they didn't even know the answer to. Students who normally wouldn't even care were going out of their way to get XP from class participation. Every one of my students pushed themselves to focus during the day's assignments and behave. One student, who earned a bronze level achievement, was even applauded by the entire class. It blew my mind. The amount of XP I was going to give out was undetermined, so I just let them come naturally. Share your math answer with the class? XP for you. Let a classmate borrow your dry erase marker? XP for you!

Tuesday rolled around and I was sure my student's enthusiasm would falter, but it was surprisingly stronger than ever. In fact the first student through the door literally ran to the achievement explanation list and yelled, "I've got to get some achievements today! How can I get some?"

The "Newberry" achievement, based on the Newberry Medal, can be earned by writing unassigned five paragraph essays. It is by far the most popular achievement. I had 20 essays turned in to me in the first week. Twenty unassigned essays written during my students' free time. Twenty. I could hardly get my students to free write when it was mandatory and now they are churning out paragraphs like their lives depend on it. It's unbelievable.

Random Encounter Friday (or REF as one student suggested I called it) was also a big hit. I used the wild Pokémon encounter music from the original Pokémon games to set off the battles. Spelling and math questions worked the best and I could tell the class was excited by the whole concept. Four XP were awarded to the victor, while the defeated student still got one for competing. The students who weren't picked to battle were devastated, but hopeful they would be chosen for next week's battles.

I hope my students also experience the joy and accomplishment that I feel playing video games every day.

Keeping track of every student's XP and achievements was a bit of a pain, but I knew there would have to be some dedication on my part to keep ClassRealm running smoothly. More than once students had to remind me to fill in their achievement on the bulletin board, but I was on top of it for the most part. As the trimester drags on I'll have to tweak my XP recording system. It is a beta test after all.

Though a week really isn't a long enough time to judge whether a classroom management system will work in the long run, it's still amazing to see such excitement and hard work spawn from such a simple idea. Video games have always been a big part of my life. I knew when I went to college it would be for video games or for education, but I guess it was both in the end.

I suppose you could say this system has nothing to do with video games and everything to do with role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, but I don't play those games. This idea is the result of years of video games fixation. I just hope the students in my class get the same feeling of joy and accomplishment that I feel playing video games every day.

I hope that feeling is there at the end of the year and not just in the initial week. Only time will tell, but it's a journey I'm more than willing to take. For now, I'm off—to ClassRealm.

Contact Ben Bertoli by email or follow him on Twitter.

Mar 3, 2012

Is This a Photo of Valve's Rumored Console, Or At Least a Prototype?

Kotaku

Less than 24 hours since the website The Verge reported that Valve is working on a video game console, we've got what could be a photo of a prototype unit.

The image comes from the Twitter feed of Valve employee Greg Coomer. It was Tweeted on November 2, with the caption: "Built this tiny PC. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, Zotac Z-68 mobo w/ onnboard Nvidia mobile gfx. Runs Portal 2 FAST. "

Yesterday, The Verge reported that Valve was making a console—or at least a hardware standard—for Valve-supported gaming and that: "We're told that the basic specs of the Steam Box include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU."

The specs line up.

But take this with a grain of salt.

Is This a Photo of Valve's Rumored Console, Or At Least a Prototype? I can't confirm that the Valve is really making a console (they've not replied to a request for comment). Nor can I confirm that Coomer was working on such a project.

But the specs match well enough to suggest that whatever The Verge thinks Valve is up to matches what Coomer was up to on November 2. The machine seen in Coomer's pic looks to be, essentially, a shell built around a Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi platform, which you can see pictures and specs of on its official product page.

I was shown the image earlier this evening by an eager tipster of unknown identity who said they wanted to share more details. They urged a quick reply, and when none came as quickly as hoped, they followed-up with the following about Coomer...

This is all from the tipster:

There's this one Valve veteran who was definitively too chatty in the past. His name is Greg Coomer (http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/people.html), he's a product designer and leading the SteamBox-team, which is pretty unspectacular in size with just 5-10 people working on it. Now, Greg sometimes tweets interesting stuff:

(in a non-chronological order)

Date: 22 Oct 2011
Link: https://twitter.com/#!/gregcoomer/status/127560965821693952
Tweet: "What I'm working on: http://t.co/jDLQnxvl"
Note: Read the article and especially Gabe's statements. It's obviously about a possible Valve console.

Date: 14 Oct 2011
Link: https://twitter.com/#!/gregcoomer/status/124651468501434371
Tweet: "Building a mini-ITX form factor PC is hard. Even things like wiring the power supply are not standard or straightforward."
Note: Well …

Date: 3 Nov 2011
Link: https://twitter.com/#!/gregcoomer/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com%2FuVdGOtZq

Tweet: "Built this tiny PC. i7 quad core, 8GB ram, Zotac Z-68 mobo w/ onnboard Nvidia mobile gfx. Runs Portal 2 FAST."
Note: This is the demo unit they used to demo the Big-Picture-Mode to possible hardware partners at CES 2012. This specification DOES NOT necessarily reflect what's going to be used as the "baseline" specification for the final product(s). (contrary to Joshes' story)
That's just a snippet of all the information I've gathered about this project. However, I think these tweets pretty much confirm that Valve is actually working on a console (-like PC).

You may take screenshots of the tweets – just in case they get pulled.

While I was following up and trying to verify this information, the tipster spilled those same details onto the 4Chan message board.

There's plenty of reason to be skeptical here. The October 22 "What I'm working on" Tweet links to a Seattle Times interview with Valve boss Gabe Newell that includes speculation about Valve making hardware, but it is more generally about Newell's wariness of Apple's closed system. There are many things Coomer could have been working on that involved Newell's Apple concerns, though I should also note that The Verge said that Apple's closed system was a motivating factor for making this rumored hardware.

The Coomer Tweets neither support nor refute The Verge's many other details about a configurable controller or an incorporation of biometric feedback into the gaming experience.

Is our eager tipster on to something? Or are they piecing together some extraordinary coincidences? I cannot verify their claims that there is a console team at Valve, let alone that it consists of a paltry 5-10 people.

I've asked Valve for comment about Coomer's involvement in hardware that matches what The Verge reported.

For now, one wild story just got wilder.

Mar 3, 2012

Like It or Not, the Wheaties-Box Era of Video Game Covers Is Over

Kotaku

Like It or Not, the Wheaties-Box Era of Video Game Covers Is Over Looking over the field of candidates for the Madden NFL 13 cover, I'm thinking of what William Munny said before he shot Little Bill in Unforgiven: Deserve's got nothin' to do with it.

That's not to say all of the 40 candidates announced so far are meritless underperformers or lack star power. But when you've got a kicker and a punter in this contest—from the same team, so one is assured of winning at least one round—it dawns on me that the Wheaties-box era of video game covers, initiated by this game, may be behind us.

While I don't think Oakland's Shane Lechler really has a shot at winning out, I know someone's going to get a campaign going just to see if we really can put a punter on the cover of North America's premier sports title. And strange things have happened when fans vote, as the NHL and Major League Baseball, whose all-star teams are selected by fans, can attest.

Last year, Aaron Rodgers by all rights should have won Madden's 32-player vote-off. He was the starting quarterback on the reigning Super Bowl champion and MVP of the game, to boot. Yet Packer fans threw their support to other players, convinced that the "Madden Curse" would doom Rodgers to injury or some other tragedy if he made the cover.

So, that's what I mean when I say deserve's got nothin' to do with it. It's fine to put this up to fan sentiment, and it certainly feels democratic, but there is no wisdom of the crowd here, just passion. That's why it's been such a successful marketing initiative for EA Sports and has really driven, among other things, its social media outreach. Every game made at EA Sports Tiburon since NCAA Football 12—even the downloadable NFL Blitz—has had some kind of fan vote. I don't think they'll stop the practice any time soon.

But as you blow out the fields for these things—Madden's will draw on 64 players—you're inevitably going to get candidates who simply don't pass the sniff test. That's because talent is a necessary but not sufficient condition for eligibility. EA Sports has to be able to reach a deal with the player should he win out. It would be a disaster if the label put a bunch of names in a bracket—I guess they have the right to do that, per the terms of their NFL Players Association license—and ended up with a winner who either wanted too much money or simply wasn't willing to participate.

The other spanner in the works is free agency. There are players in this bracket who may not be with their team by the beginning of next season—St. Louis' Brandon Lloyd almost certainly will be somewhere else. The Indianapolis Colts' Dwight Freeney may be out as that franchise rebuilds. The Steelers' candidates haven't been named yet, but could you imagine the humiliation if Hines Ward—a reasonable choice—had been nominated before he was released this week?

Fans are conditioned to see Madden's cover as an ultimate honor. Yet a punter eligible for it.

It's not just Madden. Looking at the covers of other sports simulation titles, NBA 2K12 delivered three different ones. Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are widely named one-two-three when you're arguing that sport's three greatest players ever; the last game any of them played was nine years ago.

Tiger Woods now shares the cover of his own game, and hands up if you either recognize Rickie Fowler or would buy a game because he endorses it. Robert Griffin III must share the cover of NCAA Football 13 in a year in which he is the reigning Heisman winner and, likely, No. 2 overall draft pick. He'll be joined by another Heisman winner.

This gimmick, for as much as it engages the fans, can be confusing or disappointing to them, too. They've been conditioned, going back to Eddie George's appearance on the cover of Madden NFL 2001 to see a a sports video game cover as an ultimate honor. So, you see it in message boards, from fans who can't understand why Tom Brady and Eli Manning, the incumbent Super Bowl quarterbacks, aren't in the discussion. The plain fact is if either had any intention of being on the Madden cover it would have happened by now—long ago, in Brady's case.

This will run its course, but then what? In the days before the explosion of social media, simply announcing the cover star generated the kind of buzz that marketers and PR managers wanted to see for this kind of product. Now we have elaborate fan engagement. What will be next? How long will this even be a concern, as video games move inevitably toward digital distribution, making a physical cover irrelevant?

***

It's tough to take myself too seriously saying all this because, in the end, we're talking not about a feature in the game but how it is marketed. None of this costs anything on top of the $59.99 you pay. And I admit, it is fun both to vote on these things and try to predict who'll be nominated. I went 6-for-8 predicting the AFC South, announced today, and I'm 27 out of 40 overall.

Still, a sports video game is distinct from other genres because of its archival nature. It represents a snapshot of its league at the time it was made. I feel like the guy looking back at me from its cover should mean something to his sport at that time other than the fact he won a popularity contest. And the thought of someone like Lechler winning out through a combination of viral mischief and why-not enthusiasm makes me cringe as much as seeing a guy on the cover in a uniform he won't be wearing when the season kicks off.

Of course, I guess we already went through that with Brett Favre.

STICK JOCKEY

Stick Jockey is Kotaku's column on sports video games. It appears Saturdays.