Sometimes when playing a game, you think to yourself, “why didn’t the developers think of that” It’s the thought which gives all of us confidence that in some way, we can all design and develop at least part of a quality video game.

So in this first installment of an ongoing series, “Why Didn’t They Think of That?”, I will present to you one of my longest game design features that I’ve held so long that I’m surprised no one else has ever incorporated it into a game since. For lack of a better term, I’ll call it Real-Time Conditions.

The thought came to me way back in 1999 at the Dreamcast launch. The SegaNET infrastructure hadn’t launched yet, so online multiplayer was not yet available. But here was NFL2K, sitting in a Dreamcast with an online port, and the two were not yet integrated. And then I had an idea on how to utilize that online port without the infrastructure in place.

When I play a sports title, I don’t usually play through a virtual season. I’ll most likely replay a few select games from that year’s real season, most of the time to relive an exiting game or to erase an embarrassing loss. And I’ll tell you I’m a Chicago Bears fan, so I’ve had my share of both over the years. But in order to relive that real-life experience, I want it to be as close as possible to how things played out. So that not only means authentic rosters, but also game-time conditions, such as weather and time of day.

Now this might be as easy as adjusting the game options prior to the snap, but what if it was a game in a different city, several weeks prior? Wouldn’t it be cool to have an option that, when selected, would automatically select and configure the actual game conditions for that particular date in history for that location? Taking it one step further, what about two options: one for historical conditions, and another for current conditions? By entering in the gamer’s location, perhaps from a gamertag or game profile, the current conditions outside would be automatically selected for a particular sporting event. For instance, an early morning tee time for an early morning game of golf? Or trapped inside during a blizzard, see what it would be like to actually play a game in those same conditions? This could extend not only to team sports like football, soccer and baseball, but also to racing titles, golf titles, pretty much anything not played indoors or those which could be called because of weather and conditions.

These options don’t seem to be particularly difficult to implement, and would pull the gamer closer to a realistic gaming experience.