Giving Minority Pursuits a Sporting Chance
by Ian Sharpe

Welcome to The Greenlight, an occasional series with a mission: to map the world of obscure sports and discover new experiences for EA Sports fans.  Over the coming weeks, we will plumb depths and scale heights in search of sporting excellence - and maybe, just maybe, put all that passion in front of EA Sports President Peter Moore to see if he’ll sign up a new franchise.

So, if you think that there is no life beyond Madden or no greater challenge than FIFA then turn away now. However, if you want to explore beyond the edge of EA Sports, then I am your Galileo, your Columbus, and your Sir Edmund Hillary all rolled into one, with additional PowerPoint skills.

And for all you naysayers, who scoff that EA will never write code for Friesian handball, will never create the artwork for Kite Fighting, or devise a marketing campaign for Rattlesnake Round Up, well, I have the first in a series of inspirational sporting quotes for you.

It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired you quit when the gorilla is tired.
-Robert Strauss

I owe a debt of gratitude to the fine and upstanding members of the “Anybody else think EA Sports should make an Ultimate Frisbee game?" Facebook group for inspiring this blog.

And, so, to reward the patience of the 6,125 long suffering members, we’ll begin with a quick tour of the sport of Ultimate. According to the official website, “the history of ultimate does almost seem like it was the magical result of players meeting plastic. When the first Pluto Platter found their way into the hands of eager players, it wasn't long before spontaneous games of "Frisbee football" were happening in backyards and parks across America.

As the Wall Street Journal would have us believe, "..ultimate frisbee combines speed, grace and powerful hurling with a grueling pace." If you have never played or in fact, seen the game, the object is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone.  Players may not run while holding the disc, but the pinnacle of the sport, a maneuver called ‘The Greatest’, occurs when a player catches the disc mid air and hurls it back into play before his body touches the ground. If anyone has any Slow Motion clips of that on Youtube, I’d love to see them, especially if they involve slowed down howls of “Noooooooooooo!”. I am sure Peter couldn’t resist – it might remind him of Bruce Grobbelaar.

Now, one potential hurdle for a video game version is the licensing issue. While originally called "Ultimate Frisbee," the sport is often simply called "Ultimate." This is because "Frisbee” is the trademark for the line of discs made by the Wham-O toy company, and in fact, discs made by Wham-O competitor Discraft are the standard discs for the sport. Today, the sport is simply known as "Ultimate”, and game fans will have to tread carefully to avoid confusion with Ultimate - Play the Game,  or the Ultima series by Richard Garriott. You don’t want any goblins messing with your elegant tossing style.

More positively, there is an online game you can play to get a sense of what 175 grams of flying disc might feel like between your fingers, which our engineers could use to form the basis of a playable prototype.

I’ve scanned The Ultimate Players Association website for a Pack Shot/Cover Athlete to help promote a potential title, but have yet to find one who is a suitable household name. Feel free to make a recommendation.

So what will Mr. Moore think? We’ve a long road to travel, and many more sports to consider. Feel free to hurl any thoughts, comments, Frisbees and impassioned pleas in my direction.

And remember, as M.H. Alderson, once said: “If at first you don’t succeed, you are running about average."

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