The thought of key players dropping out of the union

[NovaStar]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

Damn Nova... calm down bro... Why is it such a ***** move? What if Sega won? The NFL made the auction public. It's kinda like A-Rod going to the Rangers... The Rangers put all the stops out (and checks) to get A-Rod... and he just wanted $. That's all.

Yeah Pared, I need to calm down a bit, I just don't like the way NMSU started this whole discussion (what planet am i from) I apologize to him as well.

The thing that is ultimately getting me is this, ea did not do this above board. As many have stated there is no doubt who would win a bidding war over any sports license..ea. So to say the nfl made it public is a smoke screen for ea. Again, that is a pr move for ea to put the ultimate decision on the nfl, I am not mad at the nfl for this only ea. They felt the heat and didn't fight fair.

To answer your hypo, I would say that if Boston, the Yankees (my home team, I used to work for them) and the Rangers all went after A-rod and Arod chose whoever, then that is fine because it doesn't alter the spirit of competition because you still have to go out a play the game and beat your opponent ( as we saw, because everyone had pretty much given the yankees the title). In the ea case, they could have went out and bought VC's developers or went to japan and got the best developers in the world that is cool, why? because they would still have to compete to get the crown. What they did was not in the spirit of good business, because they knew that could not compete ultimately above board. That whole bidding thing actually is an attempt to play on peoples intelligence. That is what gets me they don't think people can see that. If what I and others say are true, that they infact went behind the doors to get the nfl to put it up for bid at their request, then that very act defines bad business and speaks volumes to what I and others are saying. Sega or any one else for that matter had no way of ever winning that fake bidding proposition it was set up from the beginning. Trust me, I just went through a helluvah deal with my company some of the things they come up with in the board rooms would make your head spin.

[NovaStar]

NMSU, I apologize for bringing up the whole degree nonsense. It just kills me to see this type of thing go on in a hobby that I like a lot. I mean we won't even have the usual which game is best wars anymore. That was fun time around here, sometimes brutal, but fun.

[NMSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaStar

Some of you guys are really funny. First off, since you want to get into a degree p*ssing contest. I have 3 of them, one in business, one in political science, and one in law. I currently do marketing and some antitrust law for the number 2 manufacturer of the product in question in the world. Therefore you need to put your little package back in your pants. But I do apologize to you for bringing it up in the first place. Moving on. Correct me if I am wrong but didn't levar arrington's name not appear in football games until this year because he was not in the union? Hmmm seems to me that if he could do it others could. As a matter of fact if I am the VC thinking machine I go after Ricky williams and put him on the cover with a spliff in his mouth (kidding). Serioulsy, they could get a coach or whoever. The bottom line is like you said money rules the game, if you pay someone enough you can get em. I seriously don't think a player would do it, but if the unions gave MJ a pass based upon the reasons you gave, you mean to tell me a T.O or Big Ben Roth that have won the super bowl wont be in the same position to do so? The reasons you stated for ea's decision I don't agree with at all. ea b*tched up because VC had the most powerful sports license on the market, ESPN. Madden was fading and is not the choice of the new generation. ea knew that it was just a matter of time before that advantage disappeared completely. It was a good business move for VC to cut their price to get die hard maddens fans and the fans of nfl fever and gameday to try their product, it was a good business move when ea countered and sponsored the nfl show on ESPN, it was a b*tch move to alter the landscape of video games and video game competition to go back door and snake the nfl license. I thought you would have seen all of this based on your stated educational pedigree.

Three degrees here too. Top universities. One in business, one in sport business. Undergrad at one of the best schools in the world, sport business at the best program in the country for sport business. Now what? What does any of this prove?

You're right, Arrington's name didn't appear because he isn't in the union. That's my point. If he's not in the union, he can't appear in games and he doesn't get the money from this deal that the union gives him, in addition to various other (sizeable) perks for being in the union.

Thus, if you wanted to get a player to break away from the union to endorse your game, you would have to pony up enough money to make it worthwhile for that player to give up his union status. And what would be the purpose of that, when the game isn't NFL-licensed?

ESPN and NFL are the two most powerful licenses in sport. EA couldn't have one, so they got the other. Now Sega has ESPN exclusively, and EA has NFL exclusively. Turns out that EA's exclusive license is better than Sega's. EA wins.

Madden was fading. Madden as in John Madden, the guy that none of us can stand. Madden the game gets stronger and stronger every year. ESPN football just plays like crap. The presentation is incredible, VC did a wonderful job with a lot of that game. But on the field, Madden blows it out of the water.

Add that to the mystique that surrounds the Madden brand, and the first mover advantage that Madden enjoys, and Madden was not really facing much challenge from anyone. The only thing Sega could do to compete was to undercut Madden. I am betting that more casual fans probably gave ESPN a chance over Madden, causing EA to drop their price (and cut into their profit), so they did the smartest thing they could do...they castrated their competition.

If Sega/VC/etc. want to come back and compete with EA, they should team up with 989 and perhaps Microsoft to create the best gameplay engines. At this point, EA is the big dog in this genre, have been for a long time. Competitors come and go, yet EA still reigns supreme.

They need VC's front end talent, along with Sega, Sony and Microsoft's money to create a brand that can compete with EA. Then they need to lure away programmers from EA to make the on-the-field game good enough to compete with EA. And given the environment within EA, I don't think it would be THAT difficult to lure them away.

Seriously, EA castrated Sega by getting the NFL license. Sega could castrate EA by taking away the people who make EA games the best. Sure, they have non-competes, but the goal would be to trash EA, and losing their programmers would kill their business. Five years from now, if EA were putting out games of the quality of GameDay instead of Madden, the NFL would not re-up with EA, and the market would be competitive again.

Bottom line, this is business. It was a great deal for EA, great deal for the NFL. The people who don't like it are the people who liked ESPN. Well, tough titty. I liked the ESPN games, I don't think NHL 2005 can hold 2k5's jockstrap, but for the most part, the better team won.

Whining about it, calling EA "communists," calling this a "monopoly," sending letters to senators, boycotts, etc. are not going to accomplish anything. There's nothing you or anyone else here can do about it. Period.

[NMSU]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaStar

NMSU, I apologize for bringing up the whole degree nonsense. It just kills me to see this type of thing go on in a hobby that I like a lot. I mean we won't even have the usual which game is best wars anymore. That was fun time around here, sometimes brutal, but fun.

I have never understood the "which game is best wars" thing myself. Or "system wars." This year, I own NHL 2k5, March Madness, ESPN College Hoops, NBA Live, NBA 2k5, ESPN NHL2k5, NCAA Football 2005 and NBA Street 2. I know, I know, I don't have Madden, but that's because I bought another XBox, while the games I was buying before November were for my PS2 (which I don't touch...I had a bad experience with Sony and no longer use their products...not trying to kill the company or petition or protest...they just won't get any more of my money if I can help it).

I have PS2, XBox and GameCube.

My point is why should you fight over which game is better or which system is better? Just get all of them, and perhaps point out the parts that you like best in both games and systems. There are games on PS2 that XBox cannot compete with and vice versa. There is nothing for PS2 or XBox that can compete with Mario games on GameCube (not that I care...my girlfriend goes nuts for them though).

Madden cannot compete with ESPN in terms of presentation, front end, and the downright cool things that ESPN does like allowing you to customize arena/field music. Then again, ESPN cannot compete on-field nor in the marketplace.

But why be one of those people who ONLY buys ESPN or ONLY EA? All that does is makes sure that you don't enjoy the finer points of the other company's games.