Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

[Darkleaf]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

Please remember without the community, even the ones who recycle "absolute ignorance", there is no Operation Sports. If you don't know who Adam or OMT is you have not spent enough times on the NCAA boards to have such an angry response to criticisms logged regarding the increased restrictions of certain moderators as of late. One need not look far to find devs requesting threads locked and such. OS is a top notch website for unbiased sports gaming news and conversations, lets keep it that way with limited censorship.

Great points.
To say you dont know who Adam and OMT are, how in touch are you with OS in general? Hard to find a thread where they are not saying something not to mention the pair of stickys.

[JRod]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

I think the solution is simple. Columnists/Writers shouldn't have mod abilities. And mod shouldn't write articles.

The reason is simple, when I did a few reviews for OS back in the day, I would get ripped apart for a few. I also had mod powers. Like anything, sometimes it gets personal, when someone writes a post saying you didn't play the game, you don't understand a sport, or you a fanboy. How can you not get defensive?

[JRod]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

Great points.
To say you dont know who Adam and OMT are, how in touch are you with OS in general? Hard to find a thread where they are not saying something not to mention the pair of stickys.

He said he doesn't know them personally.

[Darkleaf]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

He said he doesn't know them personally.

My mistake, Sorry! did seem odd everyone knows of EA being here...

[vegaas]

OK, I'm back and these are well written responses so obviously I'll comment. PS Pixel Junk Eden is good stuff, DL it if you're into new experiences.



OK so the first thing is what EA does as its site, we don't control obviously.

As for the part about being neutral and fair, obviously we still strive for that at every turn. As the content and the site has evolved over the past few months there's been some growing pains, and this is one right here. We're definitely still learning how to handle the extra content and relationships as we continue to grow and become more involved in terms of covering various games and pursuing more content. Seldom are things perfect and that's never truer. Perhaps in the future we'll start to put op-ed in somewhere so people know what they're getting in for.

I definitely see this more as the tipping point like you said as well. This is the first time I've noticed the unrest because of what I was doing previously, but I'm aware now and I think we'll straighten this stuff out moving forward. If we talk about you guys in a general sense within an article we'll try to make sure it doesn't misrepresent you all. So I think while people are reading way too far into the article still, it's still a valid complaint in the overall sense. Also the moderation thing is not something I deal with, but I assume the mods are noticing all this as well and can only assume they might pow-wow and decide if they're handling this correctly or not -- I'm not going to say if they are or aren't doing this the right way because it's not my job to do that, that's their job.

I don't like to compare reviews because it's apples and oranges to me. Like I said before it's not the job of a reviewer to make sure the masses are happy: he has an opinion and he'll try to back it up etc. I didn't really like College Hoops 2K8 (so I guess I don't represent the general consensus on OS) all that much, but I loved NBA 2K8 -- the point is it's still opinions and I hate to say one opinion is wrong but another is right.

The article itself is an opinion piece once again, but he even says in the article that the outrage was even greater than usual. Patrick states he's been through many releases, and once again I think it's important to mention that he factors MM into his thoughts because it's the same network after all.

Sales and all that I won't get into because it doesn't have much to do with what we're doing here, plus you're not really analyzing them to a deep extent (for example your 48% number wasn't a final total and only accounts for PS2 sales). I know Madden had huge sales figures for the 2007 version. Then for the 2008 version Riccitiello came out and said the game shouldn't have launched at $50 on last gen, which hurt overall sales. But again I don't have the exact final overall numbers since I'm not looking at NPD numbers (and VGChartz doesn't count for obvious reasons).

But bottom line is there's nothing fishy going on between us and EA -- this just seems to be bad timing and us not realizing there was an issue quickly enough. And I know some like to say, "well you're partially owned by someone who works for EA!" While I'm not going to throw anyone's business completely out there -- Matt (bronco92) can talk about it when he wants to -- I know I can say that Matt doesn't work for EA anymore and therefore we have no direct ties at all, though even when he was working for them we didn't have ties either. Matt can talk about his business when he wants to though, so that's all I'll say on that subject.



And I think the people who write football content realize this now and will be more focused on how they handle things. If they genuinely like the game though I can't make them hate it, you know. If in their op-ed pieces they talk about why they like the game despite flaws, that's their doing -- but maybe it just needs to be more spaced out etc. in terms of the flow of content.

I don't think this article tried to say people just can't be satisfied with '09 though, so I don't think the insinuation point has much merit.

The problem is Chase that OS has not posted one article that has been critical of NCAA, Madden or EA.

[Pared]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

I think the solution is simple. Columnists/Writers shouldn't have mod abilities. And mod shouldn't write articles.

The reason is simple, when I did a few reviews for OS back in the day, I would get ripped apart for a few. I also had mod powers. Like anything, sometimes it gets personal, when someone writes a post saying you didn't play the game, you don't understand a sport, or you a fanboy. How can you not get defensive?

As far as I know they are separate "entities" right now as well. I don't believe any coincide with the other.

The problem is Chase that OS has not posted one article that has been critical of NCAA, Madden or EA.

Which brings up a good point. Perhaps no one has taken the time to write one? If that's the case, I still think it's up to the site to decide to hold off on positive or light-hearted articles until you find a sense of balance. I agree with you... but if no one wants to write a negative article but simply post in the forums... what can you do?

[aholbert32]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

the thread is in the ncaa football section.

Just saw that. My bad.

[ColumbusKilled]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

I'll write 5 articles right now if they will publish them. I've been to graduate school, I'd like to think I can produce a pretty swell article.

[ChaseB]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

I'll write 5 articles right now if they will publish them. I've been to graduate school, I'd like to think I can produce a pretty swell article.

I worked with Pared on an article before, so there's nothing saying you can't. At this time we just don't have a proper outlet to push all user generated stuff, but I think we'll be able to do it in the coming months.

But if you have ideas, much like with any writing, go to the editors (aka PM me) and discuss your idea for an article, lay it out there, then write it up for editing etc. -- assuming the editor thinks the idea is solid and all that. That's what I did with Pared.

[janglar]

If anyone here is done having their grudge-fu*k with EA on par with Marsha getting smashed in the nose by a football, could they provide the latest up to the minute expert scoop on the release date of the roster patch?
Thanks everyone!
"My Nooosssse!!!!!!!"

[ColumbusKilled]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

If anyone here is done having their grudge-fu*k with EA on par with Marsha getting smashed in the nose by a football, could they provide the latest up to the minute expert scoop on the release date of the roster patch?
Thanks everyone!
"My Nooosssse!!!!!!!"

Sir, if everyone one of your 46 posts is this ingenious and well thought out, please point me to them. There are 45 pieces of sheer gold out there that I've missed out on reading.

[Spanky]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

If anyone here is done having their grudge-fu*k with EA on par with Marsha getting smashed in the nose by a football, could they provide the latest up to the minute expert scoop on the release date of the roster patch?
Thanks everyone!
"My Nooosssse!!!!!!!"

Yes, we all know the details and all the information of not only the first patch, which fixes rosters, but also the second patch, which addresses gameplay and other issues. EA has secretly sent each of us this information and we have decided not to share it with anybody else.

[kiddlex]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

"I don't know who Adam is...I don't know who OMT is. I've never had a conversation nor have most of the other mods had a conversation with him as far as I know. And he nor anyone else has never told me to lock or close a negative thread."

We know you don't know them personally. No one implied you do. However it is obvious some mods cater to the devs which is ok to a certain extent as long as it doesn't change the way you treat the community. The part about them never asking for threads to be locked is blatantly untrue. They may not have asked him personally to do it but he is a moderator and the call was for any mods to lock them. This has happened on multiple occasions. Ive even seen where the mods were engaging in conversation with people who were complaining and then the mods abruptly (without any visual to the public messages from devs) shut the thread down. Pm anyone?? However that last part is complete speculation on my part.

In the end it is just a sports game, and this is just a sports gaming website. We all need to relax, myself included. Its not like this is Call of Duty 5 were talking about people!!

[janglar]

Sir, if everyone one of your 46 posts is this ingenious and well thought out, please point me to them. There are 45 pieces of sheer gold out there that I've missed out on reading.

What graduate school did you go to, the Opie Taylor Mannorisms Prep Society? The last time someone said "swell" in a serious sentence was back before Elvis knew how much fun pills were. As for sheer gold, you should pull the cord on a See-N-Say to provide yourself with valuable phrases like "This is a pig...Oink, Oink, Oink" then you can raise up a level on the human interaction scale from the "Uses big, articulate words to show intelligence that will hide social shortcommings" level where you preside now. As far as missing out on things, you should cut out a hole in the bottom of your popcorn box next time your at the movies so you can recreate Pee Wee's "Big Adventure" with the "extra salty butter", then maybe you could relieve the stress that causes you to reply to my simple comments with the pent up anger of a priest in exile

[McLite]

Re: Summer Storms: The NCAA Release Story

Please remember without the community, even the ones who recycle "absolute ignorance", there is no Operation Sports. If you don't know who Adam or OMT is you have not spent enough times on the NCAA boards to have such an angry response to criticisms logged regarding the increased restrictions of certain moderators as of late. One need not look far to find devs requesting threads locked and such. OS is a top notch website for unbiased sports gaming news and conversations, lets keep it that way with limited censorship.

Ignorance was about the poster saying dev's get mod's to lock threads...and I suppose towards you as well now. Please show me since I "need not look far to find devs requesting threads locked and such."

I don't know Adam or OMT means I've never spoken with them and they have never instructed me on mod duties.

Angry response...where was there any anger in my post? I'm as cool as the other side of the pillow.

Edit...and everyone please take a look at the previous few messages and now the one below. Once again this is why threads get locked on NCAA and this one will be too if it continues.