I was born into a family of 2 football freaks - One is my daddy, and the other is my elder brother.
When I was a very small kid, I often had big fights with my bro, solely because 2 TV shows clashed. My bro's favorite - "British Soccer highlights" was shown on channel A while my pick - "Masked Rider" (any Japs would know who he is) was on channel B, at the exact time before dinner during weekdays. If Law of Majority applied, you could easily tell who'd be the winner.
So you can imagine the "attraction" of football to me.
Time flies. I joined BBDO at my 30th. Everyday around 6pm, workplace got empty and occasional yelling was heard.
It was from the studio. You'd see a big crowd spectating 2 pals playing a video soccer game. But my first feeling was - "How boring! 2 people sitting in front of the TV for 20 mins with only a few goals in total. What a FXXKing waste of time!!"
However, peer group pressure seemed to be having kinda influence on me, a very very human being who didn't want to be left out.
I sat down and played.
But the game was extremely hard to pick-up, not only because it used all buttons (8 + 2 joysticks) of the controller, but it's interacting with a football-hater who was ignorant of all Dos of a typical football game.
Again, you could imagine the "normal" result of each game.
Yet, a Leo never gives up, for his mega-sized ego.
Hours of practice followed each lost match. As time passed, I began to grasp the tricks of the game. And the more tricks I learned, the more I appreciated the real football games for I could tell a good player from the bad ones.
Yes, I learn how to watch a real football game, from a video football game.
Because it's more than a game. It's a simulator. Not only simulating skin-deep things like the faces of players nor the ways they move. It's far more than that. The game is so human (Thanks to the powerful AI built-in!) that no 2 matches are the same. Be addicted to it and you'll know what I mean. It's something too grand to describe.
Heard from unverified source that coaches in real world do use the "spectator mode" of this game to test new formations.
It's one of the best-selling video game series in history.
It's developed by the Japanese game giant, Konami.
It's Winning Eleven.
Just when you think you've mastered all the controls, you'll always find more new tricks, either by chance or accident. Even at the off-line mode (which renders online updates impossible).
It's close to human (and maybe more than that).
It's a game ahead of our time.
It's phenomenal.
It's a godsend.
So This Happened...
9 years ago