Gamertell

Madden NFL 10. That’s the official name of this year’s edition of the now ubiquitous football game. For grammar snobs, professional media and a lot of uninitiated game-purchasing parents, it’s also a point of grand annoyance.

First, consider the grammatical aspects of the name. To properly abbreviate a year you place an apostrophe where numbers are missing. That’d be the “20” portion of 2010, making it ‘10 (instead of 10’ as many people seem to prefer). Otherwise, sans apostrophe, it’s the number after 9 and before 11, not after 2009 and before 2011. That’s a huge difference (by 2000 years). This is also the point that frustrates the bejesus out of non-gaming professional copy editors who either want to extend it to the full year or add the apostrophe. (Just ask any copy editor the endless annoyance and internal agita they experienced when the film title 40-Year Old Virgin was used sans a hyphen).

You could also argue that “NFL” requires periods after each letter because it is an abbreviation. The nice part about AP (Associated Press) style is that it does allow popular abbreviations to be used sans periods. English grammar snobs, however, would still cringe in terror and demand the dots. So, for journalistic circumstances, we can leave the “NFL” as is.

Next is the year. I suppose it’s much the same as automobiles where the 2010 models are available for purchase in 2009. I’ve always thought that was a bit silly but I don’t make the rules. That’s even stranger when you consider that the game begins with last year’s players and stats. Granted, updates now make that point a little shaky but there is no denying that, unless you know the numbering scheme, that 10 may appear to be the tenth Madden game, not the game for the year 2010 (that are probably being purchased in 2009).

This might cause parents who don’t know that this game follows a next-year naming scheme to become a bit confused and buy a less-than-recent version of the game.

We can hope that the person at the counter or the signage in the store will help prevent this problem.  If they are buying online, however, the price may be the only hint at the game’s recent release.

Finally, there’s the name in the game name.

Because “Madden” is referring to an actual person and the game is based on his input, the name of the game should be possessive. This would be in line with other games including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. Even better would be to include his first name but, much like Madonna, Elvis, Disney and Moses, some people are famous enough to be just one name. When you also consider that he doesn’t necessarily own the franchise, this one is a little forgivable.

So, to make everyone happy, the game title should really be John Madden’s N.F.L. 2010.

But, if you want to be a bit more journalistic, John Madden’s NFL ‘10 would suffice.

Considering the popularity of the game, only one letter and two properly placed apostrophes would really be enough, making the name the still short and much more correct than the actual name, Madden’s NFL ‘10.

Of course, as some more spiritual and less literal grammar snobs will point out, the name of any work is the name in itself and should be treated as such, making Madden NFL 10 the correct title of the game no matter how I dissect it.

So, becasue that is what is printed on the cover, no matter how grammatically or stylistically incorrect it is, Madden NFL 10 is how I use it regardless of how much it pains that little red-penned copy editor within me.

Site [Video Game Name Gernator] Site [AP Style]

Editor’s Note: it’s been years since I used actual paper copy editing marks so if I got it wrong, please let me know.