Imagine the ultimate sequel, anyone for a game of Football II?

Posted on 26 Jul 2010 at 13:08

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Despite criticisms of creative staleness, the sequel has become a mainstay of modern culture. Sequels to movies, games and books give the consumer more of what they want, while their ‘low risk’ nature keeps the publisher happy. Recently we’ve even created a sequel to the sequel, with ‘reboots’ helping to further the re-churning of old characters and old ideas.

However, imagine if we were to create sequels to long-running cultural institutions, like sports, maybe even the mega-goliath of Football. What would Football II be like, how would you improve the game if you had free reign to experiment? I guess we’d start with the little things, like how the leagues are organised, or the way players are recruited by clubs and paid. But these are just tweaks, so maybe something more drastic could be attempted?

Bigger goals for higher scores, would certainly appease some, or less players to give more space on the pitch, differently shaped pitches could allow for different styles of play. Hell, let’s go the whole hog and introduce two balls (or even the multiball courtesy of Budweiser), or have four teams playing at once.

Imagine the look on Wayne Rooney’s face when he turns up at pre-season training to discover a small hillock has been erected in the middle of the pitch, or that tactical changes have entirely removed the need for a defence, or replaced it with a robot army. It all seems completely improbable, and it is for football at least, but a very similar thing is happening in South Korea tomorrow.

South Korea’s much-lauded fibre optic network has provided the country with high-speed internet for over a decade (something our own politicians always look to, but never achieve). Its introduction created a huge boom in internet cafes, which persists to this day. Koreans flocked to these for online chat and to play games. The height of their popularity coincided with the release of real-time strategy game Starcraft.

Rather than playing Starcraft to death and then moving on to the next big thing, as gamers usually do, the Korean fans took Starcraft to their hearts and have stuck with it for the last twelve years – an unthinkable period of time in a medium that often considers games only a couple of years old to be outdated.

Around 4.5 million copies of the game, about half the worldwide total, have now been sold in South Korea. There are leagues of professional players, organised into two competing federations, whose matches are televised on a pair of dedicated channels. Top players aren’t in Rooney’s league when it comes to wages, but most of us wouldn’t turn down $200,000+ a year to play a game we love.