FIFA World Cup Fantasy Game

There are some things I avoid not because I don't like them but because I know I'd enjoy them so much that they'd eat up all my time. A prime example is (was) the video game FIFA World Cup 2002. After acquiring this game in early 02, I spent most of my free time that year engaging in furious soccer telecompetition. It really did eat up huge portions of my life. Worst of all, it's not clear that I had better options. But knowing that I needed to escape the clutches of my video game addiction/obsession, I ditched my PS1 in October and have never purchased another.

Related issue: fantasy sports leagues. These are right up my alley: they're for the sports obsessive who thinks he's smart enough to outwit other sports obsessives. And these I've made a practice of avoiding for just that reason: I can so easily see myself spending all my free time analyzing players, selecting lineups, and obsessing over results.

But that doesn't mean that others who are not equally incontinent (in the Aristotelian sense) should make the same choice. And if you're so inclined, I just got tipped off about a just-released WC fantasy game that looks to be the shizz for this go-round of the mundial.

Part of the reason I'm particularly enthused about this game is that I advised one of its developers about how to make the standard fantasy-game model track onto a stat-poor sport like soccer. The result seems promising: rather than previous versions that toted up goals, this one operates on the principle that the whole lineup is relevant, so it's a better test of whole-team performance and requires that you understand what defenders are quality (rather than just strikers, whose performance is more easily measured). It's got the DFinD seal of approval, so what else do you need to know? Y'all check it out now, y'hear?