FIFA Interactive World Cup Racks Up Millionth Player – 58% Believe FIFA 12 Has Improved Their Real Life Game
By Chris Wright
You may remember a month or so ago when Pies first bought you news of the British qualifying leg of the FIFA 12 Interactive World Cup (FIWC), which saw an 18-year old lad from Birmingham handing QPR striker Jay Bothroyd his England-capped arse back on a plate?
Well, the tournament proper has gone on from strength to strength since, surpassing the total number of players attracted by 2011′s competition (which previously held the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest online gaming tournament) by a further 130,000 people – thus tipping it over the one million – that’s 1,000,000 – player mark for the first time since the FIWC’s conception in 2004.
To mark the occasion, FIFA surveyed a shedload of their registered players and discovered that a staggering 58% of gamers believe the virtual skills garnered playing FIFA 12 on the Playstation for hours on end (awareness, vision, skill, positional play, etc) translate onto the real pitch and have made them better football players in real life.
Indeed, we’ve got a little infographic of all FIFA’s findings…
The only thing playing FIFA has ever taught me is how to efficiently reduce a Playstation controller down to it’s component parts in less than a split-second using nothing but basic propulsion, the laws of physics and a bloody hard wall.
However, I’m not sure about it improving my actual game. If it had made my vision, tactical nous and general technique any better, you’d think that the improvements may have taken affect by now. Alas, no.
Anyone out there feel any aspect of their game has been improved noticeably as a result of spending all evening thumb-twiddling on FIFA, rather than – y’know – kicking a ‘real life’ football around on a ‘real life’ football pitch out there in the ‘real world’?
Contestants can still participate in this year’s FIWC through an online tournament played on the PlayStation®Network, by registering ‘in-game’ in FIFA 12 on their PS3™. For more information on the FIWC, go to: www.fifa.com/fiwc.
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Eh, I think it may help some people slightly with having better ideas on the pitch, but not by much. For me it mostly inspires me to try passes that I have no business attempting in the first place. Sure, I can try and pick out a pass like Cesc on FIFA 12, but that doesn’t mean it’s coming anywhere close to its mark.
My defending positioning has improved drastically.
It doesn’t help with technique, but it helps tremendously with thought processes on the pitch.
I’ve learned bucketloads about pretty much anything and everything football related.
I can’t execute any of it on the pitch.
The vision to pick incisive passes has improved, so has the work rate.
Since FIFA 06, when I started playing in a Sunday league team with the older guys, I’ve moved from CB to CAM. I’ll put most of that on the fact that I’ve felt a particular joy from playing through balls since the aforementioned FIFA was released.
It might not make overall game better, but as “Pete” mentioned, it gives you more of an idea of what you like, and what to do to be more efficient on the pitch.
Yea man, I like playin cesc like through balls aswell, so does everybody!
I firmly believe the 17% of people who said it improved their awareness of other players were talking utter bollocks. You don’t get an overhead view of the game in real life, it’s a completely different concept to first person. The 23% who said that it improved their skills must be referring to the fact that they practiced their skills more because of the game, because playing a game has no resemblance to the real-world technique.
I’ve actually experienced an improvement in picking off passes from opponents. Mainly because FIFA translates into more “ballsy” moves than you otherwise would’ve tried. As Pete also mentioned.
I like to pretend that I also earn 250,000 a week with my virtual pro
Yep, if you want to improve tactically the only game is PES anyway.
“The only thing playing FIFA has ever taught me is how to efficiently reduce a Playstation controller down to it’s component parts in less than a split-second using nothing but basic propulsion, the laws of physics and a bloody hard wall.” Brilliant!
The only thing that proves is at least 58% of FIFA players are morons.