Why scripting made one franchise and killed another

Scripting is a hotly debated topic in football titles and a fairly modern concept to help equalise the ability gap between new players and veterans. While EA have found a market winning formula that also lets the less experienced gamer into games on the fly, Konami always chose to let the user’s ability influence how a game unfurled. 
That was until 2017.

For many years the community was split fairly equally between FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) but between 2007 to 2014 a lack of game and platform evolution pushed PES to the brink of obscurity. This lack of evolution missed the growth of gaming in the late 2000’s and specifically people who didn’t follow football but wanted to play the game. When FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) landed those new players were hooked and the online football SIM was king. Konami's PES continued to focus on offline and they naturally fell away from the gamer’s consciousness.

However in 2015 Konami changed the landscape of football games by making a clearly flawed but brilliant title that mostly focused on user input. It also had a great FUT like feature called myClub. Buoyed by market dominance FIFA went the other way, introducing a heavier amount of scripting or momentum into the game and letting cash decide how competitive you were. 

What this meant was that one title felt more polished (FIFA) but one played better with a more satisfying overall experience (PES). By 2016 that gap had closed and after a decade of dominance FIFA was playing catch-up in the gameplay stakes. Even the myClub mode delivered vast sways of satisfaction for even the hungriest card collector.
Konami’s PES had finally returned to the consciousness of floating buyers, like myself, and it had enamoured the loyal customer base. Things were looking up.

When the 2017 football demo's landed it was clear that PES was the winner for gameplay alone. But as the full game moved into gamer's hands a few things became obvious. FIFA had not lost market share and perhaps actually increased it, myClub finally found the balance between ‘micro-transactions’ and ‘play’, and that Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 was not all it seemed when taken online.

What seemed to be a fantastic game based on user input turned out to be a FIFA concept clone without the execution to deliver a equal gaming experience. Momentum really did equal scripting.

FIFA’s momentum/scripting was always annoying but in 90mins it swung both ways and you were not locked out for a large majority of the game.
Like the 2000's where FIFA sought the steal ideas from PES, Konami have copied FIFA but tweaked the outcome. You get momentum it but it doesn’t swing, it swamps. It’s not momentum as such, your players either start the game as footballers or barely animated hate figures.

And it’s that animated hate figure that frustrates the most. Your players are ‘stuck in the mud’ as they run, your weighted pass player cannot move the ball 5 yards and your striker waits to shoot after he has been caught. Did your keeper just spike the ball backwards into the net? Why is my central defender walking back from the half way line while the ball is in my box?

Yet the scripting is not most obvious when you’re losing, but when you’re winning. When losing you question whether it’s form based, or maybe a connection issue. But when you’re winning you watch your players win all 50/50s and make perfect runs and passes you see in your head but can rarely execute. Goals are a one button press from any distance, without direction. Your opponents Lacina Troare misses every header and you trounce even the highest rated players!

As a fairly honest gamer I have offered more apologies for winning than ‘gg’ when beaten, a trait not embraced since my FIFA 15 days. But I am at the point I was in FIFA14, where high pressure was unbalanced and enjoyment ceased. All Konami’s good work designing a very fair approach to spend vs play is now wasted, because they felt the need to influence user input from behind the scenes.

My biggest gripe with FIFA was that user input was taken away from the player, AI did the work and momentum finished the job. That was never PES. With roles reversed I am left questioning whether I’d prefer a game that plays worse but I can control (FIFA) or the agony of literally rolling an enjoyment dice which could go against me for extended periods of time.

This is not to say the script cannot be broken. The time to shine is after any kick off because your players get a clear boost (very FIFA). And I have scored early/late and won games even when for 88 minutes I am not in the game. But it doesn’t really matter; the game is scripted to a degree that is not only uncomfortable but downright debilitating. Play a novice or 'rookie' to really experience this.

Gamers searching for the beautiful game created the momentum for PES to be competitive, but they’ve been rewarded with an ugly reminder of why we left Konami in the first place. FIFA won its crown by keeping FIFA true but taking the good gameplay from PES and leaving the bad design.
In 2017 we see PES taking the good design from FIFA's mode offerings but clambering to compete overall with the bad design model of equalising games. And this is a problem for Konami as well as the gamer.

EA aren’t worried about market share and will likely push out a tweaked version of FIFA17 next year. But Konami, well they have a lot to lose. Not just industry respect but the players who kept Konami’s only profitable game alive. Loyal fans are giving up or moving to FIFA, especially on the PlayStation. And there is a feeling that FIFA is much more likely to make something of note than PES.
But scripting is not the only issue, the list of problems overlooked by PES gamers is lengthy. Voided games, button lag, strange animations and an awful PC port are a few, but they stick with the game because it tries to make a football SIM and not arcade title.

Konami believed this title would build on PES2016 and cement themselves as competition, and to a degree they have. However bad press and obvious flaws have once again handed the initiative to EA's FIFA, a title who is very ready to evolve. In 2007, FIFA seized their opportunity and in 2017 the gap is open again. Things are not rosy in that Japanese garden.

Below I will start to collect examples of either scripting because players are designed to fail pre-match or awful coding. In my opinion neither is acceptable, especially when many players are expected fork out £50 annually for a title held together by loyalty.