Vague: A clear EA strategy.

[thbends]

This is not an NCAA Football or Madden rant. I actually love both games and really enjoy NCAA 13 this year, but....

I noticed today that there was an overall feel to some of the forum discussions... EA is VAGUE about so many features.

Be it AWR, Impact Player, or any number of ratings or features... EA keeps us very much in the dark about what is going on behind the code of a game or what things mean.

Mention AWR and you get 20 different ideas on what it means to people. These are the HARDCORE players too who are not sure what stuff means.

This same argument could be used on any number of ratings categories.

Same goes with Impact Players. Yes guys have stars under them... but what does it mean now? It use to mean something... does it still mean the same thing?

There is a storytelling rule that you don't need to explain everything to the audience. It's best to be vague and let their imagination do the work. Their brains will probably come up with a better answer then you would. (See Star Wars and Midi-chlorians).

EA is pulling one over on us half the time.

Am I alone in seeing this?

[mojodrums]

I have to agree with you. Wouldn't it be great to have a printed manual that gave a detailed description of all these things? Who remembers the manual that came with Front Page Sports Football?

[CRMosier_LM]

To me its more about protecting their IP. Not from you it me but from other companies that could be looking for info. Nearly all gaming companies do the same thing.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[kzdwfy]

Quote: Originally Posted by CRMosier_LM

To me its more about protecting their IP. Not from you it me but from other companies that could be looking for info. Nearly all gaming companies do the same thing. Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

It's unfortunate but what he said... You have to really got the lab and drop these ratings to 0 in practice mode to see what effect they truly have. Its like having another job lol

[Joobieo]

I would love to have a honest answer on these as well.

But I believe every company has their own niche that allows them to stay ahead of the competition maybe that's why they won't give all the details. Hell some people play the game like the guy above me posted said to the point of where its another job, if they took that aspect away they may lose player base they don't feel they have to lose just by telling a select few people the answer to all their attributes they put into the game.

[TimLawNYC]

Quote: Originally Posted by CRMosier_LM

To me its more about protecting their IP. Not from you it me but from other companies that could be looking for info. Nearly all gaming companies do the same thing. Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

Except no other companies can make a licensed football game right now, or for the past several years. So there really hasn't been much that a (non-existent) competitor could try to use.

And I'm not sure what IP secrets would be given away by EA explaining to its consumers exactly what the difference between a player's Acceleration rating and Speed rating is, or what Awareness actually means, or how Impact Players are treated in this year's game.

[thbends]

I like the IP idea HOWEVA.... take the 2k guys. (Did I just hear a loud moan?) The 2k guys who made 2k5 had a lot of ex-Madden programmers right. So would they just bring over ratings code as well?

There are a lot of protected receipts in restaurants and drink shops... (Smoothie King)... but once you work there you can make the stuff yourself.

[TimLawNYC]

Quote: Originally Posted by thbends

I like the IP idea HOWEVA.... take the 2k guys. (Did I just hear a loud moan?) The 2k guys who made 2k5 had a lot of ex-Madden programmers right. So would they just bring over ratings code as well? There are a lot of protected receipts in restaurants and drink shops... (Smoothie King)... but once you work there you can make the stuff yourself.

But there's also a big difference between Smoothie King giving out the actual recipe for its drinks and telling customers that the "Immune Builder" smoothie contains bananas, strawberries, and honey. You can know what's in it generally, but still be unable to make it yourself by using that information. What EA does is the equivalent of listing the "Immune Builder" smoothie on the menu but refusing to tell customers any of the ingredients that it contains. We're not asking to know everything that goes in to their programming decisions, we just want to know what the menu items mean.