Why Limit Gamers?

[jestep123]

Fair enough and maybe a book was a bad example based on that kind of reach but the fact is that there is all kinds of copyrighted material out there that you can not alter (legally). If what we are talking about is editing uniforms or creating a stadium or team names I am fine with that. That does not make the game cheap. As a matter of fact, those things are features and they add value. Sliders are the same way, they allow you to customize how the game plays to your playing style.

Editing attibutes is a whole different beast and would make the game cheaper perception wise if nothing else.

My general feeling is that OSer's sometimes need to remember that we arent the only gamers in the world.

Imagine a world where the majority gets what they want and we just let the community take over. EA says fine, forget attributes we are setting everyone to zero and you figure it out. The problem there is twofold, your still putting attributes in the hands of a select few (which I guess is better than one person) but I am pretty sure that person has statistics and research to back up what they put into the game. The depth of those stats and that research would not be something the community would want to engage in every year. The effort required would lead to a minnamal change in result anyway. Besides that could you imagine the chaos involved in trying to get folks to agree on ratings?

Second, if folks got on the boards and were constantly changing ratings around, the perception would be that EA has no real idea of what is doing. You would still have people complaining that EA didnt do right by the ratings and its ashame that the community had to step up and take care of it.

When you give people the ability to basically rewrite the game, you take away from its artistic integrety and its value. Perception wise, by giving consumers this much control you have taken a $60.00 game and turned it into a $30 game.

APF 2k8 and CH2k8 are good examples of this to me. These games have stood up for a long time because of the customization involved. We all still play them and that is great for us since we dont have to spend money on a new game.

My question is, how do the dev companies benefit by giving customers all this customization?

[ac-greasy]

This post brings to mind, for me anyway, the problem with the Madden game in general. And that is EA seems obsessed with manipulating and controlling how the game is played (or not played) to attain a certain outcome which they think is more realistic. It's gotten to the point where I don't feel like I'm even controlling the action on the field. Yes I can play a game, get relatively normal stats and a realistic outcome, but I had no fun playing it. In this pursuit they constantly take one step forward and and two steps back. For example, if they had a passing cone in the game, doesn't it take more effort to remove it for the next game than it does to just leave it in the game and continue to build in a different direction? Even if only 10% use the cone, it behooves them to leave it in the game rather than to remove it and anger that 10% (myself in included). The 3 click kicking meter is another example...why remove analog stick kicking? Why not have both? It makes no sense at all. I would agrue that this sort of behaviour from EA is ultimately the root cause of everyone's disappointment. We're stuck with the decisions THEY make...good or bad.

[GlennN]

Excellent article, Chris. I agree completely. I'm at the point where I could accept the inability to edit players (though idealy I would like that ability), if they would remove the artificial limitations in other areas. Stop saying I cannot have more than 10 draft picks. If I want to rebuild my team, why should I be limited? Stop saying I do not have a minimum number of tackles, or safeties, or whatever. Let me build my roster, my way. If ratings truly mean something, then I should be using players realistically. Maybe in my scheme (like in many NFL teams), I don't use a full back. Maybe I like CBs playing S. Maybe, like the Eagles, I draft mostly tackes and then use them as guards. Those are the kind of limits that bother me most, even above the inability to edit players.

[moneal2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by jestep123

My question is, how do the dev companies benefit by giving customers all this customization?

Improve on the game engine. If you wanted to play NBA 2k10 with updated rosters and new draft classes you could. The reason to buy 2k11 comes from the improvements to the game play and AI not the updated rosters.

Yea if devs just popped out a new game with updated rosters and now game or ai improvements. They would not get sales, but as long as they were working on improving the gameplay and AI they would still sell games.

[stlstudios189]

I understand some limitations to keep online cheeting etc.. but in an EA game I have to play a full 82 game NBA and NHL season why can't I have a 29 or 58 game season?

[rooney8]

A good example of not limiting gamers is in 2K11 with the option to overide trades. I would never touch it, I won't even do monthly training or send my players to off-season camps because I feel it's cheese but I am sure some love being able to overide trades and that's great for them.

[Exonerated]

In my dynasty, I get two free agents from another club to join my superstar.

I force them to sign with me for less than max.

And then, I proceed to start the season 8-6.

[michapop9]

Quote: Originally Posted by MMChrisS

The first reason wasn't listed as making the game unstable -- just it was 'cheesing'. That's not cool. The other problems are there because the design of the game has determined that there are limits which you cannot cross. It's a design flaw, not a software limitation.

You cant argue with this, MLB the show and MLB 2k allow you to do this as well as other games without crashing problems, The people that even try to argue that these abilities/options shouldnt be in there have no bearing whatsoever BECAUSE THEY WOULD NOT BE FORCED TO USE IT!!!! But they would prevent others from doing so if they had it there way.