A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

[KG]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

It’s fine how it is IMO, a free DLC.

Women’s footy isn’t popular enough worldwide to warrant a standalone game or even a DLC with full qualifying. A lot of the teams in this most recent WC were fielding semi-pro, even amateur players. That would be a nightmare to try and license.

EA definitely needs to step up their World Cup offerings but they need to acquire more international licenses first and because most major tournaments are two years apart there might be enough interest to offer fully licensed national sides annually.

I have to wonder if the USWNT wasn’t as good as they are would people care as much? I say no but that’s just my opinion.


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[jct32]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

I think a better idea would be to integrate them into FUT.

A stand-alone women’s FUT would make more sense to me. Especially because FIFA doesn’t allow men and women’s teams to play against each other currently.

However, I don’t see integrating them into current FUT as a huge issue. FUT isn’t a highly realistic experience so I don’t see an issue with a 99 rated Alex Morgan TOTWC card running through a defense of silver premier league players. Is it the most realistic? No, but it gives good marketing and adds more to FUT for FIFA to make money off.

[jrnlgrn]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

At this point a standalone game isn't necessary but I don't see anything wrong with adding women's teams to the game. Nobody is forcing you to use them. There are hundreds of men's teams in FIFA that get ignored by the majority, should they be taken out because they aren't popular. Everyone wants to feel represented which seems to be a hard thing for some people to understand. It's not about being pc, a snowflake or any other way you want to phrase it. It's about recognizing a portion of the population that wants to see themselves represented in a game they love.

Let's not act like EA is a struggling game publisher. They have the money and resources to not only add womens teams to the game but can make all their games massively better but they do the minimum to get by so they can show huge earnings statements to shareholders.

TL;DR version: If it's not hurting you why be so against it.

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[HenryClay1844]

We'll be lucky if EA bothers to fix the scheduling bugs in career mode, let alone do anything more for women's national teams. They only care about ultimate team and the women aren't in FUT. 

[TJ Henderson]

Good feedback here (mostly). 

I do want to reiterate though that there wasn't advocating for FIFA 19: Women's Edition. 
It's advocating for the full World Cup experience for both men and women...most likely to work within the same game. 
As for eating its own market share, FIFA World Cup games traditionally released as standalone titles. They're more of a bonus game rather than "should i buy this or that one". 
Solution imo...create a free DLC for those that want the bare minimum to add to FIFA 18 let's say...and create a premium DLC that adds the qualifiers and the rest of the national teams for both men and women.
It cannot be underestimated how the tide has changed on this and why WNBA is starting to make appearances. 
Ubisoft dubbed an entire game twice in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for no discernable reason....except representation. 
And Kassandra is the more popular character. 

[loveinanelevator]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

I doubt any soccer fans, myself included, would have an issue with Free DLC for future World Cups for both Men and Women, adding more National teams and qualifying. Paid DLC might be a bit touchy seeing how much EA makes on FUT microtransactions.



Most of the disagreement is that you clearly stated.

However, I’ve realized in recent weeks that there was a big flaw in my messages, and I should have been asking myself “where is the representation for women’s soccer? Where was their 2015 edition? Where is their standalone title for 2019?”

So you were actually suggesting a standalone Women's Soccer game and I understood it as you were referring to a World Cup Edition for the Women. No clue how you would incorporate a standalone World Cup game that includes both Men and Women. It would have to be every two years and would only cover one Cup.



EA just needs to keep adding to the Women's feature set and possibly add the NWSL down the road. Same with the WNBA in basketball. There are a few of us old enough to remember a time when EA added 16 Women's College Basketball teams in NCAA March Madness 99. It only lasted a year, so the good news is EA has improved in keeping the Women's National teams in the game.



Not really getting the Assassins Creed mention in regards to Women in sports games? I stopped playing the series after III. Tide changing because they added a female character option to the series? Assassin's Creed III: Liberation had a Black Female lead for the Vita and I am pretty sure it has been remastered for most consoles.

[KG]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

I think the AC correlation was/is that they just made it playable as a man or woman to appease all of their fans, men and women alike.

I’m a big AC fan and I definitely used Kassandra in the Odyssey but that’s because her voice acting was much better.

The problem with attempting to add the NWSL is that the league isn’t stable enough. Sure new franchises are being added but between television deals being cancelled (A&E dropped out this year) and clubs folding (Boston & KC) it doesn’t make much sense to add such a volatile product.

FIFAs such a global game that basing interest in a Women’s game off US ratings is a tricky endeavor. There’s only a handful of countries that even have professional women’s leagues and international tournaments are dominated by the same 3-4 countries that it’s worth it IMO to sit back and hope that the women’s game picks up popularity globally. I think it will and I really enjoyed this last summers tournament but I don’t feel an independent title would get the kind of sales needed to keep it afloat.


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[ImmortalMindz]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

A dev off the record at an EA play event said that their internal metrics showed that hardly anyone was playing the women's mode. And that I think was the year after it was first introduced.

There's just no enough demand. The WWC is an event sport, a special occasion every four years that most forget about in between.

And no way the women will be included in FUT. People would riot if the women were given inflated ratings to allow them to compete.

[loveinanelevator]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

The EA team also left metrics for anyone to see by looking at the women's team achievements. This is only for the Xbox One. This is based on every Xbox One account, since I have the games and pulled up the totals straight from my Xbox. Not Achievement hunters, true achievements, etc.


Don't have a PS4 anymore so if the trophies have percentages, feel free and post them.

FIFA 16 - First year they added Women to the game. I do not think I had made the move to next gen and/or was a PES year for me. Should be the most people to play a game with Women. If someone had the game on the Xbox One, look it up and post results.

FIFA 17
Play a Women's football game - 12.63%
Win the Women's International Cup - 1.46%
Score 5 goals in a women's football match - 4.05%
Score a goal with a Flair Shot in a women's football match - 0.59%

FIFA 18 - Took a break from FIFA for PES so if someone else has the data post away.

FIFA 19
Play a Women's football game - 17.61%
Win the FIFA Women's World Cup™ in The Journey - 4.67%
Score a goal with a Flair Shot in a women's football match - 0.78%


Numbers are pretty poor, especially for FIFA 19, a year of the World Cup and the popularity of the Women's team. Only 17.61% of gamers played a single game with them. Also this is based of the numbers as of today, so it includes the timeframe of the World Cup and the weeks after it.

[TJ Henderson]

Part of what you're posting is due to a lack of content as well. 
For instance, I would use women but I barely ever play Play Now. What do I do ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

[loveinanelevator]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

Really, that is the best you got. Those numbers are inflated when you factor in the people who do those things because they are trophy/achievement hunters. Sometimes you just need to take the "L."

[jrnlgrn]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

Really, that is the best you got. Those numbers are inflated when you factor in the people who do those things because they are trophy/achievement hunters. Sometimes you just need to take the "L."

You're numbers aren't a good metric to use for the very reason tjayhawk32 stated though. The option for using women's teams is basically kickoff mode and a tournament mode that you can't customize. If you want to use the men's teams you have: kickoff, tournament, fut, player cm, manager cm. There's no way to know what the numbers would be without the women's teams having similar modes. The numbers could be vastly different if just the Women's Super League and the Women's Championship from England were playable as a CM or FUT. Would the usage outpace the guys of course not but would it go up definitely to some degree.

Again there doesn't need to be a standalone women's game at this point but is there anything wrong with adding the teams with proper game modes into existing FIFA. There are already men's leagues/teams that 90% of the player base doesn't use what would be the difference.

[loveinanelevator]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

there anything wrong with adding the teams with proper game modes into existing FIFA.

I never said otherwise. All for the growth of the Women's game. Against what the article was trying to make a case for as it would not be a financially wise decision.


Those are the numbers we have to work with and let's be honest here. If you have any interest in the Women's game you are at the very least going to play an exhibition match or the tourney mode to try it out.

[ImmortalMindz]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

You're numbers aren't a good metric to use for the very reason tjayhawk32 stated though. The option for using women's teams is basically kickoff mode and a tournament mode that you can't customize. If you want to use the men's teams you have: kickoff, tournament, fut, player cm, manager cm. There's no way to know what the numbers would be without the women's teams having similar modes. The numbers could be vastly different if just the Women's Super League and the Women's Championship from England were playable as a CM or FUT. Would the usage outpace the guys of course not but would it go up definitely to some degree.

Again there doesn't need to be a standalone women's game at this point but is there anything wrong with adding the teams with proper game modes into existing FIFA. There are already men's leagues/teams that 90% of the player base doesn't use what would be the difference.

The trophy/achievement numbers might not be conclusive but they surely are a solid indicator of interest.

I'm fine with whatever they do. Doesn't bother me, and in fact I kinda think the women's gameplay is actually better.

That said, where's the demand? On social media, reddit, the EA forums... I see no one asking for it. Combine that with the low numbers of people who actually have played it, and no surprise they haven't really touched it since it was added.

Also, have they added any new face scans, players, and teams since it was added to the game?

[BROman]

Re: A Case For Women's Soccer in Video Games

Also, have they added any new face scans, players, and teams since it was added to the game?

EA updates the squads every year and of course had a WWC update this year too. A few scans were added for US at least in ‘18 (Horan, Pugh) but it doesn’t look like any were added for ‘19. I’d guess that we’ll see a few in this year’s game like Rose Lavelle, Dahlkemper, or some of France’s younger players.