Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

I don't understand you guys. You want a quality game but you EA to pick people fast so they can have people that know nothing about basketball to make the game. Not just you but a lot of people are contradicting themself.

1. There are some GOOD people out there looking for jobs.
2. There are some GOOD people at Tiburon already.
3. Convincing good people to go to EA is not as easy as people think, but EA CAN attract the talent if they feel it's important enough. You should have heard the blitz they put on to improve Madden 2001 and the other one after 2K5 hit the shelves. It was crazy. If they want people, the pull out all of the stops to get them.

[NoTiCe_O]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

You got to understand something though - in the industry, the ONLY think EA has going for them in terms of attracting talent is compensation. Devs that have a choice and don't care about the money as much actually AVOID that place. On the whole, that is...

Your talking about devs that have a choice and that don't care about the money as much avoid EA. Well maybe that's the reason it took them until this November to actually put together a full team. They had to find the people who cared more about the game and genre more than a title or money; not to mention the developers they hired had to want to work for EA (voted Americas worst company).

There are people who DO care about the money, and have the credentials but don't really have a connection with the game their creating, they'll just punch codes because that's where the money is. That's who EA could easily get, but avoided this time around.

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Your talking about devs that have a choice and that don't care about the money as much avoid EA. Well maybe that's the reason it took them until this November to actually put together a full team. They had to find the people who cared more about the game and genre more than a title or money; not to mention the developers they hired had to want to work for EA (voted Americas worst company).

There are people who DO care about the money, and have the credentials but don't really have a connection with the game their creating, they'll just punch codes because that's where the money is. That's who EA could easily get, but avoided this time around.

You may not want to hear this, but there are MANY more devs that care more about the money. So, for EA, that makes it easy. However, again, the good ones do normally have a choice and many do choose to avoid EA (if they are not there getting paid well already). Frankly, based on my experiences with EA, I don't think the guys that make the final decisions care as much about the *game* as they do about the bottom line. And that's fine if it's their job. Most of them know that a good game is good for the bottom line.

[NoTiCe_O]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

You may not want to hear this, but there are MANY more devs that care more about the money. So, for EA, that makes it easy. However, again, the good ones do normally have a choice and many do choose to avoid EA (if they are not there getting paid well already). Frankly, based on my experiences with EA, I don't think the guys that make the final decisions care as much about the *game* as they do about the bottom line. And that's fine if it's their job. Most of them know that a good game is good for the bottom line.

I know that, but the question was "why did it take EA more than a year to put a team together, they've had 3 years" etc.

What I'm simply saying is, the reason it might have taken them until last November to put a team together is because of the process it takes to hire talent that actually knows the game of basketball, is dedicated to quality work, and want to see the game succeed.

My point was if EA wanted to hire some top developers who only cared about money it would be no hassle, and wouldn't have taken them until last November to do. The fact that their team was fully completed last November tells me that the team is choosing Quality over Quantity.

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

I know that, but the question was "why did it take EA more than a year to put a team together, they've had 3 years" etc.

What I'm simply saying is, the reason it might have taken them until last November to put a team together is because of the process it takes to hire talent that actually knows the game of basketball, is dedicated to quality work, and want to see the game succeed.

My point was if EA wanted to hire some top developers who only cared about money it would be no hassle, and wouldn't have taken them until last November to do. The fact that their team was fully completed last November tells me that the team is choosing Quality over Quantity.

I would like to believe that, but history speak otherwise. I've said it before - the NBA Live/Elite team had MANY guys on that staff that knew the game and LOVED the game. Yet, they were handcuffed by the wrong people. And I have no reason whatsoever to believe that this dynamic is no different at Tiburon. It's not being negative. I'm just saying that there have been plenty of good ideas floating around Tiburon, yet Madden is still stagnant as a football game. Good tech demo, but not the best game.

[NoTiCe_O]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

I would like to believe that, but history speak otherwise. I've said it before - the NBA Live/Elite team had MANY guys on that staff that knew the game and LOVED the game. Yet, they were handcuffed by the wrong people. And I have no reason whatsoever to believe that this dynamic is no different at Tiburon. It's not being negative. I'm just saying that there have been plenty of good ideas floating around Tiburon, yet Madden is still stagnant as a football game. Good tech demo, but not the best game.

Well the Elite team may have had "many" guys that knew basketball, but the head man was the creator of a Hockey game, those guys were only gonna be as good as their leader.

This time around the head guy is a man who actually played basketball at the college level and who grew up around basketball. I'm sure he knows the game, and that's the type of person you need to run a game like this. To me it seems they wanted to hire like-minded developers who not only know basketball but actually enjoy it. That's enough reason for me to have some optimism about the games dynamics

[Boilerbuzz]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Well the Elite team may have had "many" guys that knew basketball, but the head man was the creator of a Hockey game, those guys were only gonna be as good as their leader.

This time around the head guy is a man who actually played basketball at the college level and who grew up around basketball. I'm sure he knows the game, and that's the type of person you need to run a game like this. To me it seems they wanted to hire like-minded developers who not only know basketball but actually enjoy it. That's enough reason for me to have some optimism about the games dynamics

Only problem with that is that the true "head man" may not be the person you hope. We will see.

[liberaluser]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

I'm sick of buzzwords like "innovation" or "never before seen in a basketball video game." EA is all hype, no bite.

We don't need any "innovation" from Live at all, just good basketball fundamentals to begin with.

Meanwhile 2K is giving us straight talk about fixing any lingering animation hitches, improving the passing and making defense stronger. All important for gameplay not gimmicks for the back of the box.

2K's still evolving play calling system is a more interesting feature than anything EA is proposing with Elite or Live 13.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Didn't they also say that they spent a large chunk of time in that first year going through the Elite code for things to salvage from it?

[liberaluser]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Didn't they also say that they spent a large chunk of time in that first year going through the Elite code for things to salvage from it?

Which begs the question, why didn't they start from where Live 10 was and work on the fundamentals for two years? Have the sales pitch be, "this is real basketball, obess fanboys over minute details we added cause it's in the game!"

What was worth saving about Elite exactly?

[22cedric]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Which begs the question, why didn't they start from where Live 10 was and work on the fundamentals for two years? Have the sales pitch be, "this is real basketball, obess fanboys over minute details we added cause it's in the game!"

What was worth saving about Elite exactly?

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2012/06/18/In-Depth/EA-NBA.aspx

Not everything from the aborted “NBA Elite 11” was scrapped. Among the saved and subsequently enhanced elements was a deep integration with ESPN announcers, including the network’s lead NBA team of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, and graphics to provide a more realistic feel to the game.

[liberaluser]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...th/EA-NBA.aspx

Not everything from the aborted “NBA Elite 11” was scrapped. Among the saved and subsequently enhanced elements was a deep integration with ESPN announcers, including the network’s lead NBA team of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, and graphics to provide a more realistic feel to the game.

The presentation package sounds good, but it seems like gameplay has suffered big time. It's not up to "consumers to adjust," as the EA Sports head exec Wilson says, it's up to them to delivery a good product.

And I can't believe EA continues talking about having a 3 year plan that won't be followed. In truth how the game does in sales will determine what next year's three year plan will be!

[23]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Didn't they also say that they spent a large chunk of time in that first year going through the Elite code for things to salvage from it?

Is that before or after they spent 100 hours on faces instead of gameplay?

[©roke]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

Is that before or after they spent 100 hours on faces instead of gameplay?

You know that a coder can work on gameplay while a graphic designer works on faces, right?

[Muzyk23]

Re: Interview: NBA LIVE 13 Features Gameplay Never Seen Before In Basketball

You know that a coder can work on gameplay while a graphic designer works on faces, right?

right, but why would they emphasize the latter?