Despite NHL lockout, network has season covered -- digitally
With a record of 19 wins, 22 losses, and four ties, it's been a pretty disappointing season thus far for the Boston Bruins. But there's a bright side -- none of the team members are playing hurt. After all, electrons don't bleed.
The only Bruins on the ice this hockey season are the electronic sort. With the National Hockey League shut down by a management lockout, the players are out of work and the fans are out of luck -- except for those willing to accept a digital substitute for their usual quota of icy thrills, courtesy of a cable television network called G4techTV.
Once the lockout began, G4techTV began to fill in the gap with a full roster of virtual hockey games. Using a
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''The morning that the NHL announced the lockout, we were sitting in a meeting and [G4 founder and CEO] Charles Hirschhorn brought up the idea of simulating the season," said Peter Green, the network's senior vice president of programming.
The idea wasn't newborn. ''When they were threatening the baseball lockout two or three seasons ago," said Green, ''we were putting together a plan to do the exact same thing." But Major League Baseball settled its labor troubles that year, so the idea was shelved. This time, the hockey league came through. G4 had the work stoppage it needed to give its virtual hockey league a try.
Playing hundreds of NHL games isn't too difficult if your arena is located inside a microchip. There's no need for human gamers to spend weeks twitching and clutching at game controllers. The NHL 2005 software, like most sports games, has a setting that lets the machine have all the fun. Both teams are controlled by the computer, with no human intervention. The software contains the complete statistical history of every player in the league; each simulated player will perform at a similar skill level. The gamer just picks two teams and presses the start button. Multiply by 1,230 and you've got yourself a hockey season.
''We've already played the whole season," said Green. ''It's done." But don't ask him who won the Stanley Cup. Results are released in accordance with the NHL schedule.
G4 execs were so pleased with the concept that they applied it to other sports. Inspired by the constant moaning about the need for a playoff system in college football, the network last month created one of its own, featuring the best teams in the land. ''We played it out over a week," Green said. The first round was a battle of the undefeateds -- USC versus Harvard. Ivy League teams don't play against Pac-10 schools in the real world. Good thing, too. ''USC beat Harvard, I think 58 to nothing," Green said. ''It was for fun, and it was a what-if." USC won the tournament and was crowned national champion, just like in the real world, except that the Trojans pummeled Auburn instead of Oklahoma in the decisive game.
But while the college football playoffs featured matchups that would never happen in the real world, the virtual hockey league features digital reenactments of the very games that avid fans long to see. Would they scour the G4 website for the latest statistics and rankings? Would they tune in G4techTV for a nightly highlight show featuring videos of the games and commentary from Los Angeles Kings player Luc Robitaille?
Apparently not. The message boards at the G4 website witnessed a spike in visitors during the league launch in October, but interest quickly lagged. In hockey-addled Buffalo, the local paper has carried the virtual hockey league scores, but most news outlets have ignored them. As for G4's own nightly highlight show, the network bagged it in early November.
''It seemed like the heat was sort of dying down after the first month," Green admitted. He thinks part of the problem is the choice of sport. Except for in cities like Boston, most Americans don't much care about hockey. ''I think it would have been better if the NBA had been locked out instead of the NHL," Green said.
Maybe. But even avid hockey fans like Joshua Trupin, a 36-year-old magazine editor from Bay Shore, N.Y., don't see much point. Trupin checked out the G4 league when it started up but quickly lost interest, preferring to spend his time managing his 10-year-old son's hockey team. ''I've put in a real commitment that has helped 16 kids develop a love of the game," said Trupin. ''Who needs a game simulator?"
