FIFA

For any of you active gamers out there, you will know the frustration of games. Whether it be first person shooters, role-play games, puzzle games or sports game there is always a point in the game where you will get frustrated. Whether it's a corner you can't take properly on a racing game, or an impossible challenge on a puzzle game or your constant deaths in online multiplayer. Yet, FIFA, is insanely frustrating at the best of times.


Irish comedian Dara O'Brian highlighted the true brilliance of gaming in a stand up sketch he did on Live at the Apollo. Stating, that in no other form of entertainment can you not advance in the story, before testing your own personal skill. A book won't suddenly close if you can't complete a puzzle, yet in gaming, if you can't beat a certain part of the game, you may never know the ending. The Fifa football franchise is a little different to this, but is a brilliant example of how frustrating gaming can get.


EA have installed a new league system in the current FIFA game, called 'Head to head seasons', where you can advance yourself through leagues and the higher the league the better the opposition. Out of 10 division, I managed to get myself into the heights of division 3, before getting relegated back to division 4 and now i've given up getting into the top division before you just have to accept some people are better than you. This doesn't mean that the entire concept of people being better than me, enrages me.


Last minute goals are like a dagger to the throat, highlighted in my earlier post in The complex gambling world. Yet on FIFA, it will contribute to the high statistics of broken controllers around the world, as you grab anything in sight to throw after conceding in the 93rd minute. Usually, it's the controller that bears the beating. However, phones and other handheld items have also been thrown in the heat of the moment. 


However, a goal doesn't have to be in the last minute for it to be annoying. The 'passing goal', known by many other names, where the opposition passes the ball to a waiting player at the back post, to tap into an open goal, also causes players worldwide to tear their hair out and punch holes through wardrobes. 


Or you can be losing, and you can accept that you're losing. But your opposition player is adamant in running down the lock. Plays the ball along the back line of defence, shields the ball in the corner flag, does anything in their power to stop you getting the ball. Infuriating, to say the least. 


Then finally, that one player that you come up against. That one player, who knows every single trick in the book. Can replicate any skill move in a game, and uses them all against you. He never gets anywhere, he's just sat there in his hovel, learning every single skill move that he can. Similarly to this is the players who try to play like Barcelona, and pass throughout the game. Passing it along the back line, trying to regain possession. A brilliant tactic, if you're setting out for a 0-0 draw.


I hope all you gamers out there, especially the FIFA worshippers can relate to this post. Everything about the game is so frustrating, yet, it still attracts millions of players worldwide.




My next moan: University