NHL 13: How GM Connected Can Revolutionize Franchise Modes in Sports Games
Hockey may not be your favorite real life sport, and you may not ever really play the NHL series on Xbox 360 or PS3, but there is something you should know about one aspect of NHL 13.
The concepts behind GM Connected in NHL 13 are going to change the way franchise modes run in sports video games. The online franchise mode has been done by Madden in the past, NBA 2K, MLB The Show and others.
Madden 13 even went a step further with Connected Careers, but no sports game has a mode as huge as GM Connected. The jury is still out on the modes functionality.
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Servers genuinely take a pounding early in a games' release.
The full retail version was available on Tuesday, so it'll be at least two weeks before we know just how well the mode functions, but conceptually, it is awesome.
In a nutshell this mode allows up to 750 human players from around the world to participate in a league. This would be a huge mode even if it were just a league with that many owners, but GM Connected goes beyond that.
The different roles that make up the 750 human players is what gives the mode so much potential.
Each league must have a commissioner, hopefully he or she can do their best to avoid a cyber lockout. There can be a total of 30 general managers, and up to a whopping 24 human players to play on each team.
While filling out a complete league may be impractical, the concept itself is amazing.
Imagine this being employed in basketball, football, baseball or any other team sports. This idea essentially can grow to a point where human players are playing every vital role in a virtual league.
While there have been others to touch on aspects of this, I credit NHL 13 with truly taking the idea global. The success of this year's mode will dictate how fast the concept catches on, but this can clearly be the wave of the future for sports video games.
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