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Games Entertainment

EA Gives Hockey Fans a Virtual Season 38

Posted by Zonk from the better-then-nothin'-aye? dept.
se2schul writes "Although there is no NHL hockey this year because of the labour dispute, you can still look up scores. EA is simulating the 2004-05 NHL season using NHL 2005, made in the company's Vancouver studio. The irony won't be lost on long-suffering Maple Leafs fans: It's taken a lockout for Toronto to top the league."
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EA Gives Hockey Fans a Virtual Season More

EA Gives Hockey Fans a Virtual Season

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  • Toronto has always topped the league during regular season games anyways. They suck in the playoffs.
    • Toronto has always topped the league during regular season games anyways. They suck in the playoffs.

      Just like the recent Red Wings, actually.

      • Your comment might be insightful, except for the Cups Detroit won in 2002, 1998, and 1997. Oh yeah, and even 1995, although they lost in the finals, I'd hardly call a conference championship a sucky playoffs. That's 3 league championships (4 conference championships since 1997).

        The Leafs haven't won a league championship since 1967.
  • I'm waiting for the day when things like this actually draw more attention that the real events would... It's going to happen eventually. Ok, maybe not. But this certainly has a niche audience that will insist on this to happen every season regardless of whether the real players want to play or not. It could also be an interesting test of the AI, stats, engine, and a whole host of other game components. You know you've made a great game when you simulate the season and it closely matches the real players.
    • ESPN should have coverage of this, showing highlights on Sports Center. Nothing like mocking the players. What, they want more money for playing a game? Sure, hockey's probably the lowest paying mainstream professional sport in the U.S., but they make plenty of money.

      Mock them!
      • I continually fail to understand the anti-labor sentiment in this country, especially as real wages continue to drop.
        • judging and generalizing labor opinions based on professional sports salary disputes doesn't make sense to me.

          such a profession, where the people who don't do anything make more than $180,000 per year [nhlcbanews.com], can cry all they want about their low salaries.
          • The general consensus was against the striking UPS workers quite a while ago too. I just never hear people complaining about the owners, who are *also* whining not making enough money. (Hint: no one holds a gun to their heads to make them sign player contracts)
          • That number is too high. It may be the contractual lowest possible salary, but *no one* makes that. The agents simply won't sign for that "little". The lowest guys on the totem pole make 300 grand minimum, usually 400.

            Salary database [usatoday.com]

      • Wrong. The NHL makes a larger percentage of total revenue than any other professional sport. Yes, even higher than MBL and the NFL, even the NBA. Thanks to the marvels of no salary caps, NHL players make more money than anyone else.

        "But Dizzle, percentage revenue doesn't translate into money!" Actually, yes it does. The revenue earned by a league is a direct measure of how the public feels the league is worth. NFL makes $2 Billion while NHL makes $1 Billion? That means that the NHL isn't worth as mu
    • And then your console becomes a money printing machine, due to your newfound ability to predict matches outcomes!

      Go EA and illegal sports bets!

  • Reminds me of the Olympics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sgant ( 178166 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @10:48AM (#10597998) Homepage Journal
    Just this past Olympics, here in Chicago channel 7's sport's guy Mark Giangreco would use a Sony PS2 to playing an Olympic summer game on it, as to simulate the games going on in Athens.

    Since it was ABC and they couldn't show any footage at all of the games due to copyright, they had the footage from the PS2 and Giangreco would do the voice over saying the scores and winners and losers.

    It was pretty funny and I'm sure not the only place it happened in the country, but I only saw it in Chicago.
  • Does the computer play itself or is it just simulating the game?

    And I wish we could download and watch the games, EA's graphics are awsome.
    • Holy Crap, I think you are serious, and thats scary. I realized the humor of the game being released without a season the other day when a commercial for it came on. There is no real precedence for this if I recall, during the baseball strike, games weren't the yearly EA release, but a more general "This is BASEBALL!"
  • Remember around Christmas 2003 when the Leafs were on their huge winning streak? They were tops in the real life NHL as recently as then, and that wasn't that long ago! Besides.. RTFA.. the season is only 7 games in.

    GO LEAFS GO!
  • Maybe its just me, but it seems like EA's simulation has many more tie games than would occur in the real world. There were very few if any teams that didn't have atleast one tie so far into the season.

    If for the average of every 7 games a team has 2 ties, thats gonna be a lot of ties.

  • For the last quarter century (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LordOfYourPants ( 145342 ) on Friday October 22, 2004 @11:16AM (#10598286)
    The hockey season in Toronto has been the following:

    The Leafs getting off to a good start early in the season. Hockey fans saying "The Leafs are gonna win it this year!"

    The Leafs going on to a mediocre mid-season. Hockey fans saying "The Leafs are gonna win it this year!"

    The Leafs picking it up big time toward the end of the season. Hockey fans saying "The Leafs are gonna win it this year!"

    The Leafs win the first playoff game. Hockey fans saying "The Leafs are gonna win it this year!!"

    The Leafs lose the second playoff game brutally. Hockey fans say "The Leafs could have won it this year if it weren't for that call by referee X in period Y."

    It has been this way since 1967. Everyone here seems to ignore the fact that the last time the Leafs won the cup the NHL only had 6 teams.

    If ever there were a real-life city-wide reality distortion field, it would be in Toronto when dealing with the Leafs.

    I love this city so much, but the Leafs fans are something else :)

    Strangely enough, the Blue Jays seem to get bashed all the time despite winning two world series in a row about a decade ago.

    -- Speaking as neither a baseball nor a hockey fan. Take it as you will.
  • The article doesn't seem to mention it. G4Tech [g4techtv.com] does virtual games of NHL 2005.
  • WhatifSports is also doing this. They are a website that simulates games in the major sports using historical real stats of players. (disclosure: I am not an owner of the site, just a frequent customer). They set up the season and are playing the games on the days they would have occurred. Seeing both, the Whatif model will be much truer to the real thing IMO.
    • Not if they base their sim on their recent 2005 standings projections. Those were absolutely loopy. They had Calgary winning the West, Minnesota being a top team, with Vancouver and St. Louis missing the playoffs.

      Now, sports are notoriously difficult to project, but each of those four items are *huge* longshots. At best, one of the four will be accurate. No chance in hell of all four longshots come in.

      They did the same thing in the East as well. I suspect they want to be one of those "psychics" that wil

  • If only the NHL players had thought to demand full season-of-play level royalties from EA Sports in the event that the actual season never happens!
  • But G4Tech [g4techtv.com]'s version has daily hockey coverage with guest Luc Robataille. Not great, but much better than weekly updates in a newspaper.

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