CFBPlayDon’tPay

I don’t know exactly where else to put this but I needed to share my thoughts somewhere. I’m not exactly sure where I’m taking this piece yet because thoughts are just going nuts in my brain like that one GIF from SpongeBob.

This is just going to be one of those straight from the heart things. I just needed to tell something about this and for people to understand where I’m coming from.

It’s been bad for years. I’m 23 years old so I only know the bad part of sports video games. The first Madden I ever got was 13, the very start of the bare-bones franchise modes, Ultimate Team, and the complete lack of any depth. I remember having fun still, which is cool.

The first NBA2K game was 11, generally considered the greatest 2K ever but I was too young to fully understand or appreciate it. The first MLB The Show was 13 on the PS Vita. Anyone remember the PS Vita?

Back to the point, microtransactions have been in sports games since I started playing video games. I’m used to it even if I don’t really like playing ultimate team style modes. I only know greed.

Even with that, and my general numbness to this stuff, what EA Sports did to College Football 27 lit a fire under me and pissed me off in a way I didn’t think a company like that ever could.

I have not played the game because I didn’t buy the game, I would’ve considered it if the reviews were good enough. I liked CFB25 and opted out of 26 because I didn’t like what I heard.

Adding microtransactions, or really insanely expensive transactions for a video that already costs $70 dollars is nothing new but franchise/dynasty was still supposed to be a separate thing. Who is spending real money in an offline mode? Seriously, who?

Even in an era where franchise modes are full of bugs or game-breaking issues. Where the CPU AI Seattle Mariners might trade C potential prospects for Juan Soto somehow or it’s MLB26 and the trade system is broken because you can’t get certain players.

Anyway… I still found ways to enjoy these modes because it’s all I got. I love my MLB15 The Show Miami Marlins franchise or my Madden 17 New York Giants (It’s kind of funny my first two teams memories are in the same division with Philadelphia teams) or my CFB25 Temple dynasty. Even with the issues, I found ways to have fun because at the end of the day, the game was still mine even if I had to do weird stuff with it.

So for a game to make it basically impossible to max out your coach unless you spend money killed a part of me inside my heart. It’s where this stuff wasn’t supposed to go. I didn’t think a company that is now owned by the Saudi’s, whose game I didn’t even purchase, could do this to me.

Well… here I am.

I guess this means sports games have stopped getting stale? We have something to discuss? I don’t know.

My recent eBay searches have been looking at PS2s and PS3s because I’m craving to go back to a different time, a time that I don’t know very well but one I know is better. I’m not trying to be one of these people who claims they’re born in the wrong generation or anything and I will never act like one of these people. Some modern advances seem fine (except for the obvious shitty ones), just not with sports games.

I’m not the only young person who is looking into old tech, if you look up “young people buying old technology” on the bullshit that is 2026 Google, you’ll get several articles discussing this new trend.

I’ve been looking into old consoles because even just imagining being able to play sports games that were meant to be offline and meant to be good seems like a dream to me. It’s crazy that something like that actually happened at one point. Yes, I know emulators on PC exist but my computer is old and buying a computer in 2026 is a fucking joke. I need this thing to write and stream MLB.TV and it’s doing that perfectly fine.

Anyway… there are plenty of people who compare modern Madden games to ESPN NFL 2K5 and it’s not a fair fight because ESPN NFL 2K5 was made for people to buy and play the game. Since it was 2004, there were no microtransactions or title updates so the game had to actually be finished at launch. What a concept!

Back to the reason I’m writing this, there are two ways the #CFBPlayDontPay movement is actually going to do. EA sports waits it out, which it seems like they’re trying to do, and nothing is done. All of the same creators who made videos talking about this will have damaged their reputations with the company for a cause they believe in but greed wins. Those creators still need to make content because it’s their job so they are sort of stuck in a bind. Or EA caves and tries something different again later.

Even if they cave, it won’t bring me back. I’ve given them enough, well more than enough. I don’t regret it but I decided years ago I wasn’t buying unless I actually thought the product would be different. Now, I’m tapping out entirely which doesn’t matter to them because I’m one person. Even if a bunch of others are deciding with me, they’ll make the few dollars they’re losing back with whatever bullshit they’ll come up with next. I’m not naive about this, I’m not trying to pretend I’m fighting for a bigger cause (I do appreciate the creators who are fighting this because even if I’m done, it still matters to part of me and I will watch those videos), I’m just done.

This was a decent therapy session, doc? No edits, let’s see how stupid I look when I publish this weird ramble.