Real-Time Strategy games versus Sports games

[Bones Justice]

I wonder why sports games are not considered real-time strategy games? At least some sports games like football and basketball allow you to control teammates in real-time. I really like Herzog Zwei and NFL 94 starring Joe Montana; there are some real similarities there. You do have direct control of one character but you are also directing a team of others in real-time.

Another similarity is that you can play these games again and again (if they are good, which these are), unlike story or puzzle games that become tiresome to replay once defeated. I really like the X-Men games but I don't replay them much because I know exactly where every enemy is on every level, for example. An X-Men team real-time versus-battle game based upon something like NBA Live would be awesome, though, you could replay it endlessly like a fighting game, RTS, or sports game in that regard. You'd control one player and direct a team at the same time against a team of enemies.

Were sports games the original RTS?

[profholt82]

There are certainly similarities between some sports and rts games. I've always thought of football, for instance, in classical warfare terms where each play is thought out strategically before execution. You learn your opponent's strengths and weaknesses and defend and exploit them accordingly. However, I wouldn't go so far as to call sports games "the original rts games" because real time strategy is and has been applicable to certain types of video games regardless if they were based on sports or not. Chess and checkers, for example, were available in video game form on the earliest consoles simultaneously with sports games, and they certainly involve rts aspects. I like where your head is at though. There is definitely a similarity between how some sports and rts games make you think and act in order to achieve your goal.

[Obviously]

I don't think it's an accident that real time strategy based games are popular titles for e-sports.

[Drexl]

I get what he's saying, but traditionally sports have just been given their own genre. It's like how anime is treated as its own genre, with a special section on the shelves, rather than merely a subset of animation.

I think it's partly because sports games tend to appeal to certain people (those who are fans of sports in real life), whereas RTS doesn't have a real-life counterpart to draw interest - well, except maybe the war simulations.

[Benjamin]

Do any RTS games work on a point scoring system as sports games do? As far as I know, all RTS are of the "destroy enemy base to win" sort.

[Bones Justice]

Chess and checkers, for example, were available in video game form on the earliest consoles simultaneously with sports games, and they certainly involve rts aspects.

I dunno, chess and checkers seem like turn-based games to me. I was thinking they had to have action sequences that you control in real-time. I guess you would also have to control multiple units, otherwise it would just be an arcade game. For example, Jordan vs. Bird would be a "no" but NBA Live would be a "yes".

When it came to Sega Genesis, I only had a few of RTS games: Herzog Zwei, Dune, Lemmings, maybe General Chaos counts, too. I really like Star Control but I don't think it counts since you only control one ship at a time in the action sequences. I got Syndicate for Jaguar instead of Genesis but that would be one, too. Were there any others for Genesis?

Do any RTS games work on a point scoring system as sports games do? As far as I know, all RTS are of the "destroy enemy base to win" sort.

That's true, didn't think about that. Most sports games don't allow you to win by destroying your opponent, except stuff like Mutant League Football.

[goldenband]

When it came to Sega Genesis, I only had a few of RTS games: Herzog Zwei, Dune, Lemmings, maybe General Chaos counts, too. I really like Star Control but I don't think it counts since you only control one ship at a time in the action sequences. I got Syndicate for Jaguar instead of Genesis but that would be one, too. Were there any others for Genesis?

Yeah, there are a handful more, like Warrior of Rome (which is terrible) and Warrior of Rome II (which is quite good). Battlemaster and Centurion of Rome are both borderline cases.

[Kamahl]

Sports games can be strategy/sim games (Football Manager is an obvious one), but I don't think the other kind are RTS games. Other than positioning the players there really isn't that much strategy. In many sports games there's barely any and it's mostly skill.