I do not understand why there is not currently a track/Xc video game. I know that there isn’t much one could do with a running game where you actually run other than just pressing one or two buttons, but I am surprised that there is not at the very least a running simulation game.
For example, there could be an online game where one is the coach of a generic Xc and/or track program. You would start off by picking the school you want to coach at. The school you choose would decide how much funding or scholarship money that you would get. The coach would be responsible for recruiting athletes and would have a certain number of recruiting points that they could use to field their team. A coach could focus on recruiting top 10 @ NXN or Foot locker type athletes, focus on recruiting only in-state athletes, focus on recruiting athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia, etc. , or they could focus on trying to find diamond in the rough type athletes. Coaches would also be able to try to get athletes to transfer to their school.
Every athlete would have certain statistics like speed, endurance, heart, kick, durability, trainability, work ethic, etc. It would be up to the user to decide which events that the athlete’s specific talents would best translate to. From that point, the player would be able to prescribe certain types of training plans to their athletes. For example, the user could assign its athletes 100 miles a week or 70 miles a week, which would have obvious benefits or drawbacks. The training assigned would change the runners’ attributes and could lead to a runner getting injured if too much mileage is assigned too soon. The coach would be responsible for deciding the team’s varsity lineup and could also redshirt athletes. If a coach has a proven track record over time, then it would be easier for them to recruit than if they are a coach that seems to squander talented athletes. I also think that ethical dilemmas could be put into the game like deciding to run a foreign athlete after it is discovered they were much older than initially thought or whether or not to run in Vaporflys after an Xc race is moved to the roads(@Harvard).
I could also see a game like this being done on the high school level. The coach would decide which school to coach at, which would be very important as thing like SES status, funding and school size are very important in high school athletics. Instead of recruiting athletes from other schools, the coach would be able to do things like go to middle school meets to convince runners to keep running in high school, get a fast soccer player to run XC, or recruit athletes who aren’t doing a sport who ran a fast mile time in gym class. The coach would still decide on the varsity lineup, what events athletes would do, and the kind of training plan to use just like in the college game.
The game could even be done at the individual level. One would be in control of an athlete starting off in middle school or high school up to the professional ranks. The user would have a certain number of points they could use to increase an athlete’s attributes to start. After that, the athlete would improve through training and make decisions like deciding what event to specialize in, deciding what college to attend, deciding whether to go to that party or go to bed early, deciding about using PEDs or being clean, and more.
These games probably could not use real teams as I do not think real high schools or colleges would be allowed to be in the game. I think that a game like this would probably just be word based.
If one or all of these games could be created, then I think it would be a lot of fun for running enthusiasts like the ones on letsrun. If anyone knows how to make a game like this or thinks that they would be interested in making a game like this, then please contact me @