NHL GameChangers Event Recap: "You Should Be Excited"

[jyoung]

Quote: Originally Posted by SVCbearcat10

We are extremely impatient and have unrealistic expectations.

Madden 25, FIFA 14, MLB 14, and NBA 2K14 all shipped with most of their features from the previous console generation.

NHL 15 came out a year after all of those games, and at its launch, had maybe 33% of the features from the previous console generation.

Even Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, which debuted on next-gen the same year as NHL 15, and was allegedly "rebuilt from the ground up," like EA claims NHL 15 was, managed to included most of its features from the previous console generation.

Blaming the fans for being impatient (after they already waited an extra year) and unrealistically demanding makes no sense, when you consider that every other sports franchise (besides NBA Live) was able to achieve feature parity by the time (and in most cases, a year before) NHL 15 released.

[Smirkin Dirk]

I disagree with you about NBA2K14. It was a shell of a game. The gameplay was so good, most us chose to ignore what was missing.

[canucksss]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigwill33

What "Gamechanger", "Community Leader", etc. in history has ever come back from a community event that a developer has flown them to and come away from it with a less than positive outlook? This is the huge grain of salt that needs to be taken with these types of things. When companies bring these people in they do all the right things, just like a recruitment trip for a college athlete. You don't see the flaws and problems because the focus is on the positives. But what really can be accomplished over 8 hours of sitting down and discussing the game? Was there hands-on with a current build of the game in which the group of visitors got to test the game out? What legacy issues are still prevalent. When a company just talks about what was wrong and what they are hoping to fix or what will be different they aren't showing anyone anything that may still be wrong or that is broken. It isn't until extensive time with a game that most major flaws come to light. And with 8 hours of sit down what really can be gathered and changed in the development cycle for the next iteration of a game? These programs can be good in that there is some interaction between a fan base and a developer, but overall what the rest of us are left with is hope and hype. And every year each game has a hope and a hype factor. I can tell you this, if we get into August without major media of NHL 16 or without a list of game modes again what are we to believe will be great about this game? Basically all we have at this point is a handful of people that were super stoked to have been "selected" to go on a free trip to play video games. They were wined and dined and made to feel as though they were important for a day or two. In the end we hear "The game is gonna be awesome! Oh, but I can't tell you why or anything about that for quite some time. When? Well until EA gets ahead of the official hype train and spins everything in a manner that won't negatively impact sales." To EA it is important to get the most "popular" members that can influence others into believing the hype being sold. If I trust joeyoutube's assessment that the game will be awesome because he said so and I agree with other things he says about the game then I can't be lead down the wrong path. Where is the tangible evidence? What is being done that is different? There are things that can be said that wouldn't violate an NDA. Furthermore, the fact that people are so afraid to even tread on the grounds of the grey area surrounding an NDA because the main fear isn't that they would face legal repercussions, but rather they worry that they will have blown the privileges that accompany the position they have gotten to. When would we ever get the person that flies back home after one of these events and says to the general audience of a game "You know, they just aren't where I think they should be given how bad recent versions of the product are."? Because with every event like this we see nothing but positives being brought back, but then somehow we still get games that have bugs, legacy issues, horrific game play, glitch or money plays, and features that have been removed for some reason. And if any of it is brought up all we get are excuses. Well there wasn't enough time, but we hope to fix it one day. The damn thing has been that way for 5 years! When is 'one day'? Why should I care how hard it is to program something? It is hard to do a lot of things at most jobs, yet somehow they still get done. Other game developers manage to do more with less even. These are excuses! And I am tired of them! Nobody at a site like this is asking for a reinvention of the wheel. IN FACT, most of us are just asking for things that have already been accomplished in a hockey or sports video game, if not by another developer by the very company that is making this current game now, but in the past. There is a whole wishlist thread in our NHL forum and 95% of that is just asking for stuff that has somehow disappeared from the NHL series. These are things that were in the game already, some of them 10 or 20 years ago! EA used to do things that others didn't because they felt they had to. Now they don't do things that others are doing or even things that they have done in the past because they no longer have to. And for someone to come in and tell us that this next game is really going to be awesome when the past 4 or 5 have trended downward towards a near pitiful level, what right minded person would jump aboard that boat? Let's hope that someone all the hype is true, but let's take this for what it is at the same time, people.

Words are so chEAp with EA that their words or promises meant NOTHING for me now UNTIL I see it in the final product.

I cant agree more to your write up bigwill33...again

[Vikes1]

Must say that imo too, bigwill nailed it. If you want the real lowdown on any future NHL game, only trust yourself. Myself, i'm expecting it to be a long road back.

[GROGtheNailer]

Three things, get back all our features that we lost. Make the game play like hockey again. Give us some meaningful tools so users can tune the game they want and share it.

[s_mkheidze]

I aint buying it. Them douches tried to pull one over on me with NHL 15...but I am not a fool and put my wallet back into my pocket. If I am to shell out the money for NHL 16, they better show me that it is worth it. None of that crap that they pulled last year; "look everyone...it's so new and shiny". I need to see the value. This year was the first one since 1994 that I did not purchase and EA NHL game. Let's see it they are going to make it 2 years running.

[Devilsfan3026]

I'm excited to be saving my 80 bucks this year by not buying the game.

[Sick_McQuick]

I cannot stand when they say that GM Connected is not worth our time since not enough people played it. I love the concept I loved off-line be a GM. The reason no one played GM Connected was because it lacked a fantasy draft and a prospect draft that would go round by round. My friends love building teams but were drawn away by the lacking features and incompleteness to the game mode. Please EA I beg you to not leave GM Connected you see how successful similiar features are in games like Madden. It is not the concept that revolted people but it was more so the lacking feature that revolted people.