FIFA: A Game I Love

FIFA is a game I love. It’s a game where you simulate a soccer (football for the more acquainted) match between yourself and another team, either controlled by the computer or a live person. The mechanics are as follows:

• Player control
  • Passing
    • Grounded pass
    • Lob pass
    • Through pass
      • Grounded through pass
      • Lobbed through pass
    • Crossing
      • Lobbed cross
      • Grounded cross
  • Shooting
    • Normal shot
    • Power shot
    • Finesse shot
  • Movement
    • Dribbling with the ball
      • Finesse/creative dribbling
    • Sprinting
  • Defending
    • Slide tackle
    • Standing tackle
    • Defensive stance
• Nonplayer Control
  • Offense
    • Directing runs of other players
  • Defense
    • Bringing in another defender
• Management
  • Playing formations
  • Squad lists
  • Substitutions
  • Offensive tactics
  • Defensive tactics
• Game rules

We add another layer of complexity if we choose to include my favorite mode of gameplay, manager mode, which allows you to manage a team over multiple seasons, optimizing for player development and assembly of the greatest team while managing a limited transfer budget.

The kinds of dynamics that result from passing and shooting are called as build-up play, which help with the offensive aspects of progressing towards scoring a goal. Movement and nonplayer control contribute to space creation in the game. The defending contributes to a risk/reward loop dynamic, where you have to time a tackle correctly or risk committing a foul or letting the opponent get past you. Management of tactics contribute to the metagame of tactics and contribute to the previously mentioned build-up play and space creation.

In terms of manager mode, the dynamics at play are resource optimization and investment over time.

Overall, build-up play, space creation, and defending risk/reward contribute to a sense of challenge and competition against your opponent. The manager mode dynamics play into the fantasy of being a manager of your favorite team. Over time, through absorption and mastery of these game dynamics, the game has evolved into abnegation for me — it’s simply a way to blow off steam at the end of the day, and playing becomes mindless rather than attentive. I often forget what happened in the previous game once I move onto the next. As a result I would say it is both hard fun in the sense of beating the other team, but more often just serious fun in the sense that it is more of a form of relaxation for me.