Thoughts - Demos, Patches, and an Announcement!

[Anti Honor]

Yeah. Congrats!

I just hope all the sliders actually work in this game.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by arseniotall

Its already done. Why can't they tell us what the issues were that they fixed? And why do you post every time i post? LOL

This is a pretty easy answer...we won't say because there is always an off chance that something doesn't work out and has to be removed or reverted from the patch. It's a much smarter approach to wait until everything is officially approved to actually talk about it...so you don't get stuck like Peter Molyneux did with Fable. The backlash from these forums would be beyond belief if we talked about a feature or improvement in a patch that never showed up...I think you'd agree with that.

Quote:

Lauded as one of the world's most brilliant and inventive game developers, Molyneux has nevertheless acquired a reputation for issuing over-enthusiastic descriptions of games under development, which are found to be somewhat less ambitious when released. The most well-known case of this was with the game Fable, released in 2004 without many of the features talked about by Molyneux in press interviews during development. After the release, Molyneux publicly apologized for overhyping the game.

[rhombic21]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheFuture15

No, we can't explain it...we don't have anything to do with that. That would be better suited for Adam (OMT) in the NCAA forum. Thanks.

That confuses me though, because I've been told that the two games share a central gameplay team. Adam (OMT) has said several times that he doesn't work on gameplay and is not part of that team, so he cannot really address issues as they relate to the gameplay patch.

[SkinsBoYee]

Boys...good work and glad that there is a proactive approach going on by you guys with regards to needs you have already seen before the public gets their hands on your game. Even if the game does not live up to some our standards...its nice to hear you guys are working and listening to us and giving us feedback. Its something we have not had before, and something you guys can continue to do to keep us glued to this mega hit of a game....

With all the love and adoration we can bestow upon you...and you may of heard this before, it all means nothing with out multiple camera angles being placed into one of the these early patch issues.

Signed...Sincerely with all the love we can....

The Antagonists from the Multiple Camera Angle Threads....
(You maybe be able to kick us when we are down, but you simply can't keep us down.)

PPS: All seriousness....good work guys.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhombic21

That confuses me though, because I've been told that the two games share a central gameplay team. Adam (OMT) has said several times that he doesn't work on gameplay and is not part of that team, so he cannot really address issues as they relate to the gameplay patch.

He's correct, the team is shared, but the code lines are totally separate. The patch doesn't come through the central gameplay code line, it comes from the game team. In respect to NCAA's patch, I'd assume Adam's team is working alongside the central gameplay team to get all the fixes implemented to the NCAA branch. The speed, timeline, and feature set is all handled by the NCAA team.

[rhombic21]

Ok, well I guess my question would then be, why does Madden take a pro-active approach to correcting gameplay issues while NCAA doesn't? You're implying that it's a difference in management approaches/priorities.

I am sorry to hi-jack the Madden thread here, but in the NCAA forum, Adam directs us to ask you about gameplay issues, but there has not been very much luck getting any response to gameplay concerns that have been posted in the NCAA section. I don't know if you're the person that we need to talk to, or if there's some "Ian" equivalent on the NCAA team that would be better, but it's frustrating when we can't get in contact with anybody that can address with our concerns about NCAA gameplay issues. I know that a significant number of people only purchase NCAA to tide them over until Madden comes out, but for many of us, NCAA is actually our main game, and it's frustrating when we see Madden getting fixes/attention/interaction with no such luck on NCAA, especially given that the games are made by the same studio. If interaction is good/useful on Madden (as you've said several times that it is), then it ought to be good for NCAA as well. And as much as we appreciate Adam participating, the bulk of the problems with NCAA are not art issues, but are gameplay issues, so there is only so much that he can do in terms of accomplishing substantive improvements in the game or interacting with the community.

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhombic21

Ok, well I guess my question would then be, why does Madden take a pro-active approach to correcting gameplay issues while NCAA doesn't? You're implying that it's a difference in management approaches/priorities. I am sorry to hi-jack the Madden thread here, but in the NCAA forum, Adam directs us to ask you about gameplay issues, but there has not been very much luck getting any response to gameplay concerns that have been posted in the NCAA section. I don't know if you're the person that we need to talk to, or if there's some "Ian" equivalent on the NCAA team that would be better, but it's frustrating when we can't get in contact with anybody that can address with our concerns about NCAA gameplay issues. I know that a significant number of people only purchase NCAA to tide them over until Madden comes out, but for many of us, NCAA is actually our main game, and it's frustrating when we see Madden getting fixes/attention/interaction with no such luck on NCAA, especially given that the games are made by the same studio. If interaction is good/useful on Madden (as you've said several times that it is), then it ought to be good for NCAA as well. And as much as we appreciate Adam participating, the bulk of the problems with NCAA are not art issues, but are gameplay issues, so there is only so much that he can do in terms of accomplishing substantive improvements in the game or interacting with the community.

Even if there's no NCAA-Bizarro-Ian on the forums, Adam should be your contact point. He can get you answers, regardless of whether it's his department or not. I refused non-gameplay questions for so long because I wasn't actually on the team and I didn't want to interrupt anyone while they were finaling. Adam should be able to get any answer you need by asking the folks on his team from this point forward.

It's up to him though on whether he chooses to answer or address it I guess. I wish I could help you more, but one of our main mantras on these forums is to stay focused only on our own games. Good luck. PS I miss the PSX screenshot avatar.

Ian

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhombic21

Ok, well I guess my question would then be, why does Madden take a pro-active approach to correcting gameplay issues while NCAA doesn't? You're implying that it's a difference in management approaches/priorities. I am sorry to hi-jack the Madden thread here, but in the NCAA forum, Adam directs us to ask you about gameplay issues, but there has not been very much luck getting any response to gameplay concerns that have been posted in the NCAA section. I don't know if you're the person that we need to talk to, or if there's some "Ian" equivalent on the NCAA team that would be better, but it's frustrating when we can't get in contact with anybody that can address with our concerns about NCAA gameplay issues. I know that a significant number of people only purchase NCAA to tide them over until Madden comes out, but for many of us, NCAA is actually our main game, and it's frustrating when we see Madden getting fixes/attention/interaction with no such luck on NCAA, especially given that the games are made by the same studio. If interaction is good/useful on Madden (as you've said several times that it is), then it ought to be good for NCAA as well. And as much as we appreciate Adam participating, the bulk of the problems with NCAA are not art issues, but are gameplay issues, so there is only so much that he can do in terms of accomplishing substantive improvements in the game or interacting with the community.

Its does appear from the outside that there are fundamental differences in the way the two games are managed. I don't think we're ever going to be privy to the how's, what's and why's, of those differences, but I think the best that we can hope for is that in the next few months something changes and we can get a gameplay/A.I. liaison who we can dialogue with throughout the making of NCAA 2010.

Edit: After reading Ian's response, I guess we're going to be raking Adam over the coals for the foreseeable future.