Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

[grunt]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

EA = Lazy. They want a pretty shallow game.

[Marinerss]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Once again EA blows.When will us hardcore boxing fans get a real good game equal to Madden?

[Marinerss]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

The fact that they dropped RANKINGS is what lost me. Losing Rankings in a boxing game is like taking out standings in a football or hockey game. Inexcusable, but not surprising when we're talking about Kudo.

yea rankings killed it for me too, WTF were they thinking?I should punch every single EA person who worked on the fight night series in the face and show them how to MAKE A REAL BOXING SIM.

[Marinerss]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

The way this game sold with FN3, I'm not sure we'll see any changes like you speak of. I think it'll be more of the same. As it stands, the game is very much an arcade boxer, and I just don't see things getting better.

Depressing ,really depressing.

[Mason81Ballin!!!]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Maybe the producers and the people who make the game should have to go see amateur fights, pro fights and go to the gym and even box themselves so they at least realize how boxing works...because I have never seen a parried punch make the other drop his hands unless hes dead tired, Time does not slow down when your going to get knocked out(nor do you have to weaken a guy to the point of exhaustion to knock him out)

I swear they dont even watch boxing...

[BezO]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Get In the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank
INTERVIEW by Gabriel Montoya (Feb 9, 2007) Doghouse Boxing...

GM: Why was there a decision to not put the ref in the ring?

MG: We made a conscious decision. The ref does play into the experience without being seen. The ref will stop fights or deduct points. When you have a confined space like in a boxing match, the ref was in the way. We made a decision to not spend time working on ref AI and we put those efforts towards boxer AI. I think if you out the ref in there it wouldn’t add to the experience. It would be different but I don’t think it would add…

Huh? Warnings? Breaking up clinches? Asking fighters if they're OK? Sending fighters to the corner? Counting? Wiping off gloves?

And the boxing AI sucks, so where did this time really go?

And I think if we truly recreate the sport of boxing and use fatigue in a way to make a guy clinch more or use the ropes might be fun. But the clinching aspect and when you aren’t throwing punches in a video game just isn’t fun. We had to take what is best in boxing and recreate that and downplay the stuff that makes the sport a little more mundane. In every sport there’s aspects that aren’ t as fun as the action part of it. That is another reason we believe that the ref [doesn’t need to be seen]. (How is it that the smackdown series has a referee in it and still maintains it's fun this guy is full off it!)

Does he watch boxing? Fighters punch and clinch at the same time!!! Oh yeah, not in this game.

GM: At this point, compared to Madden, for example, it’s like comparing an infant to a teenager. You guys still have a lot of room and time to grow and develop.

MB: Absolutely. Absolutely. But you know, they are different experiences. They are different kinds of games. Will Fight Night ever be as complex or deep as Madden? That is a good question to ask but I am not sure our goal is to be as complex as Madden. Madden is a game where there are millions of people out there that know and understand football. They understand the teams; they understand the people. A lot of that lends to why Madden has become such a deep and complex experience. I think the consumers expect that.

Boxing is a different sport. There are a lot of people out there who will buy Fight Night who don’t necessarily watch the sport of boxing. What they want to have, though, is a real and fun fighting experience. And one that feels and looks like boxing.

LOL at both these guys for saying/implying Madden is complex. And this EA rep is nuts. Madden's fan base is just as casual as Fight Night's. And both games cater to them religously and all but ignore those looking for a more realistic experience. Other than punching, this game feels nothing like boxing... not professional boxing any way.

GM: Can you talk about how you put together the roster? I noticed in earlier versions you had Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Tito Trinidad and then the next year you didn’t. Do you just try and keep relevant to the moment boxers as well as legends or is it simply a case of having to renegotiate every time you make the game?

...MB: Signing boxers is also a challenge. That also impacts each version of Fight Night. Because… [laughing] boxers are interesting guys, they are interesting people. It’s always an exciting challenge trying to sign a good boxer for the game.

For a second, I thought this guy was going to skip over the financial issue as though he thought they actually signed the most popular fighters.

GM: I think the main complaint from fans of the game is the career. With Madden doing the whole Superstar mode thing boxing fans are looking for that for their game.

MB: Absolutely. We get that. I think a lot of our users don’t think we read the forums but we do read the forums. We read them religiously we know what people like and dislike. We know that with the career mode there is a desire for us to blow up and make it be an amazing experience. Bring in things like promoters, belonging to a gym, expand training...

I guess he's just admitting they ignore what they read on the forums.

[springs]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

1. champs need to come out with belts.
2. more boxers, quit taking people out like mayweather
3. boxers can wear robes
4. more room for last names it pisses me off to no end that my last name does not fit in any sports game.
5. more knock out animations, like knocking a guy out of the ring but make it very rare to see
6. more create a boxer options, like a ****load more hairstlyes and tattoos and tattoos that people would actully have, that way you have more options to create legends.
7. more realistic fake fighters in career mode, instead of just randomizing guys to fight they should create all of them, that way i don't have to fight some fat white dude with pink hair and a chinese persons name

[Money99]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Huh? Warnings? Breaking up clinches? Asking fighters if they're OK? Sending fighters to the corner? Counting? Wiping off gloves?

And the boxing AI sucks, so where did this time really go?

Does he watch boxing? Fighters punch and clinch at the same time!!! Oh yeah, not in this game.

LOL at both these guys for saying/implying Madden is complex. And this EA rep is nuts. Madden's fan base is just as casual as Fight Night's. And both games cater to them religously and all but ignore those looking for a more realistic experience. Other than punching, this game feels nothing like boxing... not professional boxing any way.

For a second, I thought this guy was going to skip over the financial issue as though he thought they actually signed the most popular fighters.

I guess he's just admitting they ignore what they read on the forums.

Excellent post. Couldn't agree more.
Only until another company makes a realistic boxing game that sells well will EA cater to realism. Untill then they'll continue to give us over-the-top garbage dripping with arcade features.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Excellent post. Couldn't agree more.
Only until another company makes a realistic boxing game that sells well will EA cater to realism. Untill then they'll continue to give us over-the-top garbage dripping with arcade features.

Yeah, great post. Very frustrating though. You can see by his comments that their philospohy is to make a game that is "fun" out of the box with heavy hitting and putting things in a boxing match that happen a bazillion times, but in reality may happen 2-3 times in a fight.

What really gets me is the comments about and analogy in reference to Madden. They act like by creating these games they are so deep and full of realism, when in reality both games favor to a shallow arcade representation of their respective sports.

Another thing that's interesting is, the average Joe isn't going to read that interview. People like us will, which makes it even more patronizing.

[Money99]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

Yeah, great post. Very frustrating though. You can see by his comments that their philospohy is to make a game that is "fun" out of the box with heavy hitting and putting things in a boxing match that happen a bazillion times, but in reality may happen 2-3 times in a fight.

What really gets me is the comments about and analogy in reference to Madden. They act like by creating these games they are so deep and full of realism, when in reality both games favor to a shallow arcade representation of their respective sports.

Another thing that's interesting is, the average Joe isn't going to read that interview. People like us will, which makes it even more patronizing.

That is an excellent point! I never thought of that before. Screw you EA.

[koolbubbaice]

Re: Get in the Ring with EA Sports Fight Night Producer Michael Blank-Interview

EA shouldn't butcher a sport just to appeal to non boxing fans.. 5inning online ranked games ring a bell? (MVP 05)