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fakesam · 6 years

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Madden 18′s Story Mode Has Aged Poorly

Of all the bizarre plot twists 2017 has thrown at us, the NFL becoming a battleground in the political discourse is… actually pretty low on the list. It’s been that kind of year. But it is still very weird. The Cheeto-in-Chief has made a habit out of picking nonsensical fights, spewing vitriol in the direction of everyone who dares to disagree with his agenda. The spray-tanned septic tank had bleated his displeasure about exiled quarterback Colin Kaepernick before,an easy appeal to his supporters to whom an admonishment of a dissenting minority is a reinforcement of national values. To love this country is to accept the word of our tiny-handed fascist wannabe unquestionably, accepting his every word without discerning between facts and the ramblings of an elderly hate-filled loon.

The Kaepernick “issue” had already been made inert anyway. Colin Kaepernick has yet to, and likely won’t ever be, signed by a NFL team despite relatively impressive numbers on a bad 49ers team, almost assuredly due to his insistence that unarmed black people shouldn’t end up dead after encounters with the police as often as they do in this country. America’s problems with race have been embedded in the core of this nation from the very beginning, but avoiding difficult, self-examining questions about itself is America’s most unshakeable habit. The dozens of videos revealing needless violence against citizens at the hands of their alleged protectors should speak for themselves, and yet the societal uproar over a person kneeling during the anthem often sounds louder than the cries from black people pleading for the establishment to give the slightest fuck about this civil injustice, at least in certain circles. Every argument against Kaepernick - that he’d be a distraction, that you’d have to rebuild an offense to suit him, that he’s somehow worse than Blake Bortles,Josh McCown, or Andy Dalton - wilts under the slightest whiff of scrutiny. But much of the furore over his unemployment had subsided, given way to disappointed acceptance by an industry that is much more comfortable exchanging takes of various temperatures anyway. The league’s stance is clear. Domestic abusers will receive second chances, someone who becomes the symbol for increased civil engagement in sports will not. Cool.

And then White Patriarchy Incarnate referred to Kaepernick, and all players who follow his lead, as sons of bitches at a rally in Alabama supporting Roy Moore, a probable child molestor.

This rash disparagement led to a spirit-lifting dragging session led by Lebron James, and galvanized dozens more football players to voice their opinions on the state of the country, forcing the sports media machine to bring potentially awkward race debates to the willfully ignorant. The death of sports as an apolitical sanctuary away from the rest of the world is a necessary one. To many, watching sports has been the primary escape hatch from the suffocating news cycle where you could just have fun, try to win a fantasy league, and not think about the crumbling state of society. This was always a false comfort, an illusion for people who have the luxury of not worrying about how the new regime might seismically reconfigure your daily life. The national anthem and the co-opting of patriotic symbols was a choice (It’s not a coincidence that the NBA and NFL’s official logs are utilize a red, white, and blue colorway.). Taxpayer money is used to build stadiums because no one needs financial help more than billionaires. Sports are still the most foolproof way for poorer people to break through the increasingly reinforced glass ceiling of class stratification. It’s all been there, it was just easier to look past before the last year happened. The commotion has died down again, but the impact is long-lasting. In spite of everything, Colin Kaepernick still won.

This is not the world Electronic Arts planned on entering, but it was a motivating factor for me to watch a playthrough of Madden NFL 18’s new single player mode. (Money’s tight and I don’t want to put money in the NFL’s pocket. Still think my opinion is valid.) Longshot tells the story of Devin Wade, a prodigious quarterback talent that loses his way after the death of his father, played by Mahershala Ali. The addition has received plenty of praise in reviews, mostly for the portrayal of the friendship between Devin and his ride-or-die best friend, Colt Cruise, natural and lifelike even as the tension between them becomes strained and tightened by their situations. There are several character moments that I found really endearing. But the further I got into the story, the more difficult it became to view the narrative through the lens of its creators, divorced from the controversial reality that has forever warped the NFL’s image.

Longshot was clearly made by diehard football fans - the phrase “football is family” is uttered by a character at one point -, but the ways it glosses over the problematic elements of the game to focus on football’s tendency to self-mythologize is the large elephant in the room. Football is seemingly the only source of happiness for these people, except for perhaps the lovably villainous slimeball executive running the show who is attracted to the money and high ratings that come from a connection to America’s favorite game. High school football games are the main event in this small Texas town, with and Wade and Cruise’s past triumphs easily recalled by them and their less athletic friends. There’s a visit to a military base for Wade and his crew, reinforcing the strange relationship between the NFL and the armed forces. This exaltation of football culture feels misleading in this climate. Devin Wade’s inner torment over the death of his parents is mostly left offscreen, framing sporting success as his only salvation. What Longshot does decide to depict traffics in tired stereotypes that should’ve went extinct years ago.

It’s established early on that Devin Wade is a superstar talent who was destined to make it to the NFL if not for his breakdown while at Texas. But it also makes it clear that he is the least knowledgeable football person in the game by a distance. He doesn’t know how to direct an offense, read formations, or even the most basic levels of game theory. It defies belief that a dude who doesn’t know that running on second and one is the smartest play for an offense is some unpolished diamond with the capacity for greatness. Longshot plays into this depressingly persistent idea that black quarterbacks, without proper teaching and moulding from coaching staffs - staffs who tend to be overwhelmingly white - are nothing but imprecise flourishes of talent, succeeding in spite of their lack of intelligence because of their “natural talent”.

Black people make up most of the NFL’s population, but the sight of a black QB is still incredibly rare. The position sits atop the highest pedestal in the game, with its occupants expected to be the leader and face of their franchises. America’s reticence to progress could only lead to one conclusion. This is a direct quote from Warren Moon, the first black quarterback inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, via The Undefeated:

“Despite the fact that there were a lot of African-Americans playing in the National Football League in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, there was a stereotype that we weren’t capable of succeeding at certain positions. If you played those positions in college and you got drafted, you knew you were probably going to get moved in the NFL. Supposedly, we weren’t smart enough or had the leadership qualities or whatever it took. At every position, for African-Americans, conquering that myth at quarterback was so important.”

The stereotype is slowly eroding, although after seeing the flak Cam Newton caught in the past for celebrating himself and Colin Kaepernick got for speaking out, it’s clear that flagrant displays of confidence from black people still stirs up some uneasiness. It’s likely a mistake of oversight rather than malevolence. I don’t believe that the writers of Longshot had designs on making the one living black character in the game to be so dumb because he’s black. But when you create a story that uses sports movie cliches as a launching point, the origins of those cliches should be scrutinized.

EA’s workaround for Wade’s airheadedness is to allow his supporting cast to shape him however they see fit. Devin Wade has very little autonomy once he begins to practice with retired coach Jack Ford, a man who initially objected to Wade’s progression through the TV show, after failing to convince the higher-ups that another qb contestant was a better candidate (The tv exec overruled him because Wade would draw more viewers.). Wade’s rough edges eventually push the coach to the brink of quitting, only to be convinced to keep working with him by Cruise, who was brought up to help speed up the learning process. Wade’s lack of polish is a longstanding issue, he explains, and the duo work together simplifying the playbook to fit Wade’s skillset through an all-night montage, without any input from the star of the show. His success is only possible due to the machinations of his white cohorts working behind his back.

Everything falls into place after that. Wade’s prospects pick up after that, as the coach-player duo resolve their differences and truly become a team in order to progress through the show, the final test being a televised scrimmage against NFL washouts. Next comes the draft, the results of which are predicated on your performance during drills and some of your dialogue choices in conversations. Either way, both of them make it onto a roster. The ending of Longshot makes it clear that a sequel with the same characters is in play. I would be curious to see where Devin Wade’s life goes from here. This is the first time Electronic Arts has written a narrative for their football game, so growing pains are to be expected. While the business partnership with the NFL potentially complicates the scope of the story, I hope we see more of the issues complicit with Wade’s job now that he’s made it to the league. It’s not like they’re going away anytime soon.

#madden 18 #video games #writing

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