A while ago, I wrote a fairly negative article on EA Sports’ first Facebook effort, FIFA Superstars. While I am still playing the Playfish-developed game, I still hold to my views in that first story. In fact, it all holds true, except for one sentiment. I said I would never play Facebook games ever again.
I lied. I'm still playing FIFA Superstars.
So...why am I still playing the worst representation of soccer ever four months after I said I wouldn’t?
I spent $10 on microtransactions, and I was going to get my money's worth, dammit.
Hands (and friend requests) across the world
My main complaint about FIFA Superstars was that it moved too slow. With only a couple friends playing the game, my options were very limited. I see this as a very deliberate design decision. The more people you know playing it, the more the game allows you to perform at an accelerated pace. Theoretically, this would cause you spam your friends in order to get them to play, meaning that the EA would have more potential clients for microtransactions and ad views.
The combined mass of FIFA Superstars players, though, found a workaround. Whenever Playfish posts an update to their official page, it is immediately spammed by hundreds of players posting two words: “Add Me!!!”
So I did...and I now have about 220 Facebook friends I don't know in real life.
By befriending so many people, my efficiency in the game is many times greater than what it was. What used to take week now takes a day or so to accomplish. Of course, I spend a full hour clicking my mouse every day -- and I'm not even sure I'm having fun.
With so much interaction with perfect strangers, you’d think I’d be concerned about security. And I am.
Optimal success in the game depends on having access to their posts, and my FIFA friends having access to my posts. With all these new people, my newsfeed is completely useless. For every 10 posts relevant to the game, I will get 30-40 pieces of unrelated content and maybe one or two from real-life friends.
The French also have security concerns, as evidence by the complete destruction of their soccer teams.
I've given up posting ordinary stuff -- status updates, links, everything. Who would read it? I'm certain a good portion of my real-life friends have hid my posts because of all the spamming -- something I had said I wasn't going to do in the first place.
My entire Facebook account is held hostage by the game.
The end game
Thankfully, I’ve nearly finished all the available content. Is it possible to be proud and embarrassed at the same time?
This all begs the question: why? Why did I play for so long and completely ruin Facebook for a game I didn’t even like to begin with?
This is a question I’m not sure I even want answered, but I’ll give it a go.
It may be some sort of completionist, obsessive-compulsive behavior that is not expressed while playing other games. I cringe when I hear about other people playing hours for one achievement or searching for every bobblehead in Fallout 3. I’m content to pop out a disc after the end boss and ship it down to EB Games -- so what if I didn’t get every weapon? Maybe I understand that behavior a little more, but I don't think it was that.
What I see here is a very vindictive part of me. I disliked FIFA Superstars and all the roadblocks the developer put in it so much that I wanted to prove them wrong.
If you recall from my first article, I invested hard-earned money and the game gave me so little in return. This was so vile, so offensive, that I gave an hour every morning to the game just show I could conquer it without investing another dime.
I’m not sure if the tenacious player can trump bad game design and expensive microtransactions, but I sure as hell tried.
Who won? They did, I suppose. I spent months playing a horrible game, after all. For my part though, I think I got my ten bucks out of it. That's a small victory.
Either way, my work is almost at an end... what?!?! They just posted an update with new player rankings and new leagues?
Groan.
Well...back to work.
