Its not over yet: 2k Legends

[mjb2124]

Cool idea, but could be very costly and time consuming. They'd have to negotiate signing contracts with each individual Legend that they wanted to place in the game. Those guys don't come cheap by any means.

That is unless they only sign a few Legends (say 15 or so) and then give the user the ability to customize the rest.

[coogrfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by joeboo

Cool idea, but could be very costly and time consuming. They'd have to negotiate signing contracts with each individual Legend that they wanted to place in the game. Those guys don't come cheap by any means. That is unless they only sign a few Legends (say 15 or so) and then give the user the ability to customize the rest.

That's my problem with this. The fact that they have to negotiate with each individual makes me think that there won't be a lot of real life players. Personally, I would have no interest in a game with a couple of real guys per team playing with and against a bunch of generic fill-ins.

[VCdolphin]

Quote: Originally Posted by coogrfan

That's my problem with this. The fact that they have to negotiate with each individual makes me think that there won't be a lot of real life players. Personally, I would have no interest in a game with a couple of real guys per team playing with and against a bunch of generic fill-ins.

That is where the custom options are critical. We need to be able to create the legendary teams AND a version of the current NFL teams. Even if each team only starts with a handful or even a couple legendary players we can "fill in the details" so to speak.

The nice thing is that VC has millions to spend on retired players since there is no NFL license to pay for. Even EA will have a very hard time stopping this because for every player EA might try to sign, they must offer more than VC and promise to work the guys into the Madden game somehow.

There are just too many retired players/legends that could be signed to make it easy for EA to just buy them all up and stop VC. The downside, as has been noted, is that it will be a pain to get even a hundred or so retired players signed since it has to be done on a case-by-case basis.

It has never been done before since it was always easier to just buy the NFL license instead. One deal, one contract. It will be harder to do this Legends game, but it will be innovative, right? A new football experience?

[tmac2k3]

Hopefully, we don't get all excited over this for nothing. Take Two, don't dissappoint.... If they truly invest in this idea and sign a significant amount of retired legends, we could have a very good game on our hands. They'd probably have to work fast though because you know how desperate EA is, I bet they're already trying to figure out a way to stop this altogether. Hurry VC.

[oldpro]

If they make this game, would they use the city names such as Atlanta or Dallas? Remember Madden 64 on N64 didn't have the NFL logos. I hope they go forward on this project because Ea needs some competition.

[VCdolphin]

Yeah, just city names and no actual mention of team names or logos. No doubt a Dan Marino or Joe Montana would be in a uniform of VERY familiar color scheme though.

Again, this is where being able to customize the colors and logos comes in. Some will faithfully recreate the NFL teams as they are, but others will prefer to go back to old uniforms/logos or even change things completely. For example, I'd drop the Arizonal Cardinals and change them to the Arizona Coyotes. Probably a change in team colors too. I'd have to experiment. A coyote logo similar to what the NHL Phoenix Coyotes use, with that southwest art style would probably look good, except with football gear of course.

While all this might seem like a HUGE amount of work to some? I see it as a "labor of love". How many hours did you guys spend making custom plays on the old Madden or Dreamcast 2K games?

How many hours could you spend adjusting teams/players in a Legends game? How many would love to show off what they've created via a download? For those that don't want to do this work, they can download custom roster/team updates other people have done.

A customizable football game, along with legendary players seems to me to be the best of both worlds. I believe VC can make this work, though it may be 2-3 years before they get all the custom options into the game that people may want. Being able to customize the stadium down to every row of seats, or custom fans and signs, or being able to recreate a players face in great detail instead of 20 or so generic ones, etc.

I want to them to first concentrate on tweaking the 2K5 game engine to perfection (as close as it can get anyway) getting rid of the OL bugs and a few other issues, then worry about uniforms/logos, player names, and then all the rest.

I'm very excited by all this. First, to see that EA/Madden get some competition, and to be able to do things with a football game that have never been done before.

[slickdtc]

Quote: Originally Posted by VCdolphin

Yeah, just city names and no actual mention of team names or logos. No doubt a Dan Marino or Joe Montana would be in a uniform of VERY familiar color scheme though. Again, this is where being able to customize the colors and logos comes in. Some will faithfully recreate the NFL teams as they are, but others will prefer to go back to old uniforms/logos or even change things completely. For example, I'd drop the Arizonal Cardinals and change them to the Arizona Coyotes. Probably a change in team colors too. I'd have to experiment. A coyote logo similar to what the NHL Phoenix Coyotes use, with that southwest art style would probably look good, except with football gear of course. While all this might seem like a HUGE amount of work to some? I see it as a "labor of love". How many hours did you guys spend making custom plays on the old Madden or Dreamcast 2K games? How many hours could you spend adjusting teams/players in a Legends game? How many would love to show off what they've created via a download? For those that don't want to do this work, they can download custom roster/team updates other people have done. A customizable football game, along with legendary players seems to me to be the best of both worlds. I believe VC can make this work, though it may be 2-3 years before they get all the custom options into the game that people may want. Being able to customize the stadium down to every row of seats, or custom fans and signs, or being able to recreate a players face in great detail instead of 20 or so generic ones, etc. I want to them to first concentrate on tweaking the 2K5 game engine to perfection (as close as it can get anyway) getting rid of the OL bugs and a few other issues, then worry about uniforms/logos, player names, and then all the rest. I'm very excited by all this. First, to see that EA/Madden get some competition, and to be able to do things with a football game that have never been done before.

Excellent thoughts. Considering they aren't coming out with anything for the 2005 football season, they do have the extra time to tweak the engine and also add in customizable options.

*Perhaps they should allow logos from the other 3 sports (MLB, NHL, NBA) to be used as logos for a football team. Just thought of this after you brought up the Phoenix Coyotes logo.

[GinoG]

Aren't retired NFL players still in the players union? EA signed the NFLPA as well...If they sign 20 players at $1 million each, that's $20 million. Hardly worth it, the NFL license would be cheaper...