We recently had an opportunity to interview David Rutter, Producer of FIFA Soccer 11.

Operation Sports: I know gameplay has always been the focus for this group of FIFA developers, but is there something more specific within the broad "gameplay" world that you folks want to hone in on this year?

David Rutter: Yep. This year we wanted to continue to refine the experience – and also respond to as much feedback as we could – within the gameplay and outside of it too – but I would say the biggest thing we wanted to achieve was a more realistic simulation of Personality of all the players – and that’s how Personality+ was born :)

OS: Was the idea of Personality+ first kicked around in FIFA 10 Ultimate Team? To be more specific, is it built on the idea of chemistry that was introduced in that mode or is that just an element of it?

DR: I think the concept of personality has been there for a long time. But I don’t think we achieved it as well as we wanted to. When you look at FIFA 09 and 10 you get the sense that speed, acceleration and strength were the only attributes that mattered. They weren’t – but because of the way the game played they were the most ‘useful’ ones to have….

FIFA 11 approaches the game in a much more holistic way. Every facet of player performance, on and off the ball, has been re-examined and engineered to support attributes and traits more fully. We’ve also worked hard on the look, movement and feedback about players, so you really get a much better, rounded complete personality system. Hence the + :)

OS: With Personality+ being introduced this year, will this affect Manager Mode as well random online games and quick matches?

DR:We’ve been certain to ensure all modes are more fully governed by the effects of Personality – yes.

OS: Is this the year some "sliders" are introduced so gamers can tweak the game a bit more to their liking?

DR: We’re continuing to innovate in the area of user generated ‘stuff’ – and whilst I can’t comment on everything, one of the cool things we are letting people do this year is assign ‘anthem tracks’ to teams from their console playlists, and also assign chants to individual teams/leagues too. It’s pretty cool!

OS: Tweaked run styles and player bodies are being implemented this year, so how will this change the physics within the game? Or will it not?

DR: I can’t really talk to much about that at the moment – but we have some very cool stuff indeed that we’ll be talking about later in the year.

OS: In World Cup 2010, some gamers were not crazy about the speed/pressure settings of the AI in terms of how ferociously they would come after you on defense. Is this something that will be looked at and changed more as FIFA 11 continues to be developed?

DR: The AI can only do what a human can – we mimic user pad control – so the AI truly can only press with one or two players. However we have introduced the concept of ‘reading the tragectory’ that will potentially allow attacking players to gain a yard as the defender tries to determine an intercept point. This will effect the pad controlled player you are asking to press – and naturally AI players doing the same. In addition we’ve done a lot of work this year on our shielding system – which will definitely help with protecting the ball, and combat rushing defenders.

OS: When user-created anything comes into play, there are always concerns about the content. So what's going on with user-created chants in this area? Can we really say anything our minds dream up, or will there be a filter effect to some degree?

DR: You can put WHATEVER you want into the game as a chant – assuming you have the hardware to support recording something, putting it onto a disc and putting it into a playlist on your console. And we can let you do this because you wont be able to ‘broadcast’ this to other players. You get what YOU put in :)

OS: Is there more of a focus on real-time presentation this year? It seemed to be a little more of a focus last year since the camera did not always cut away between the foul and free kick, but are you guys going further with staying "in the game" at all times this year?

DR: Not at all times – but it continues to be a focus. We have implemented a new version of user controlled celebrations though – which allow users to interact with other players during celebrations, as well as easily triggering players real life celebration, as part of Personalitty +. We’ve also followed and acted on a lot of feedback regarding presentation within the game – so we’ll be showing that off later in the year…:)