NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

[Solidice]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

Hey, genius: Ubi doesn't come out with a Rainbow 6 game every year, do they? And when they do make a new one, they have to build new levels, new environments, new music, etc. It's a new game. Not like EA's recycled football games that have the same stadiums, same commentary, same player models, same everything. So if Ubi wants to make a little extra money out of product placement, that's alright by me because they're actually working for it. Besides, their product placement is integrated into the game, such as a Dodge Ram sitting on the street for you to blow up. They don't say "This game is brought to you by Dodge: Moving Forward" like EA does with their Coke or Old Spice ads.

It's not surprising to me that a simple minded fool like you would counter my previous post with your predictably feeble "They're a company that looks to make a profit". A person with an intelligence quotient higher than that of a walnut would know that there are degrees to things. Hence, you can have a hospital that can turn a nice profit while still taking good care of its patients. You can have a game company that makes a nice profit while still keeping their main focus on great game innovation and fresh ideas instead of their main focus being their marketing campaigns and their stock price.

Until you become a less stupid person than you currently are, feel free to avoid addressing me any further.

"simple minded fool", you know nothing about me. do you always take posts on a forum so seriously?

and for this "They don't say "This game is brought to you by Dodge: Moving Forward" like EA does with their Coke or Old Spice ads." they do this is real life TV broadcast of football, why not a video game based on it?

and Vegas 2 is a rehash of Vegas 1, with new "Features" and "redesigned" maps from older Rainbow Six games. its the same engine in the background.
next time I'll use !'s $'s to make my post look more attractive like yours. and yes i know there are exceptions, I'm not dumb.

and using your "A person with an intelligence quotient higher than that of a walnut" would know that not everyone that works for EA is the same way, you are just generalizing, just like those hospitals that "care" but still make profit, i bet you not everyone there cares.

[kcooper47]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

I appreciate what OMT does. But let's not forget a few things.

1. He is paid to do this. We are here on our own dime talking about sports video games (something we are passionate about) and while I'm sure Adam shares our passion, he's supposed to be concerned about the massive failure that is Online Dynasty and Roster Management. It's his freaking job. To expect anything less would be asinine.

2. There's nothing that OS or EA can say or do, outside of fixing the game or refunding their customers money, that matters. Many of us were burned by the abortion that was NCAA 08 (next-gen). The only reason we bought this new version was because we stupidly hoped that EA would deliver with online dynasty (a feature that has been clamored for for years). Of course, it fails and we are left $60 dollars lighter. No amount of listening and interacting changes that simple fact.

3. OS is completely full of manure when they say that EA stepped up to the plate. That's a great way to destroy a community that you've spent years building up. I come here for unbiased (as far as that's humanly possible) consideration of sports games. I don't come here to hear tripe about how great EA is because they are doing their job. I don't say that the garbage stepped up to the plate when he takes away my trash. He supposed to do that. If he didn't, he'd be...well he'd be like EA Sports.

[PlyrzNumber1]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

Kcooper,

I agree with most of your points, however, I think the EA developers are coming to the boards on their own time.

[vegaas]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

3. OS is completely full of manure when they say that EA stepped up to the plate. That's a great way to destroy a community that you've spent years building up. I come here for unbiased (as far as that's humanly possible) consideration of sports games. I don't come here to hear tripe about how great EA is because they are doing their job. I don't say that the garbage stepped up to the plate when he takes away my trash. He supposed to do that. If he didn't, he'd be...well he'd be like EA Sports.

OS has changed and not for the better when they entered the aggreement with whatever Madden site it was that they merged with. It has become nothing more than an EA advertisement since that happened. The preview articles they have run about how excited they were about NCAA and Madden were laughable. Especially the Fact Or Fiction article about this seasons football games. They all claimed this would be the best year ever for football games, they all said they had faith that EA was stepping it up and would deliver. My question to them was what has EA done recently to give you that faith? Every football game they have made for the 360 and PS3 has been a disaster.

[indycolts727]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

These designers need to be thankful that we're a bunch of sheep. We'll keep getting in line for their products year after year, regardless of what they sold us the year prior. I bought last year's disaster for the PS3, but there I was in line at midnight when this year's game came out, as were about 40 other people at my local store.

In the Real World, consumers aren't as hopeful or blindly-loyal as we are. I'm in sales, and the company I work for has global sales in the multiple billions of dollars annually. Product branding is one of our highest priorities, so we're constantly staying on top of issues and working towards keeping the image of our various brands spotless. The consumers I interact with will hold grudges against this brand or that brand for things that happened to them 20 years ago.

Look in the mirror if you want to see part of who is to blame. We're the ones that keep putting up with this. As long as they can keep getting away with releasing games full of problems do you blame them for not changing things? Process improvement isn't something you can implement overnight - it takes an investment of time and money. As long as the guys running the show see their sales going up and to the right on the chart (i.e. sales growth) why invest in change? Apparently things are working just right.

Indy

[867-5309]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

To be fair to the devs and those who work on the game, there are two key groups that have caused more havoc on next gen games than the devs/testing teams ever could.


Corporate/Management: These are the guys buying up the licenses. They are not free and the money spent is not something that EA is going to eat out of it's pocket. It gets passed on/offset in many different ways. The one that hurts the consumer most is how much manpower is used making/testing games. They are the ones who set the deadlines and budgets for each game.

EA Stockholders: People want a good return on your investment. Reality is that EA has always placed a premium on their stockholders in comparison to their customer.

So the people really getting squeezed are not only the consumer but the employees working on the games. Neither would ever be willing to go the two year plan to play catchup on these feature crippled games. They would miss that large revenue stream that covers these costs and pleases the stockholders.

What really pisses me off most is over the years we keep hearing about how everything costs so much more to make "next-gen" games. Yet, they are also working bigger deals with advertising companies to get more revenue. Also the marketplace has been yet another source of extra income for publishers that was not available last year.

What does the consumer get in return? A higher retail price, less features, buggy products and more ad's in their games.


* A third, smaller group that tends to be at fault would be the gaming media. Could someone ever ask the hard questions to these groups? Is someone willing to ask Peter Moore some tough questions and do so until we get answers?

Hey Petah, why are you charging $59.99 for these broken games? Why is Tiburon constantly releasing buggy products? See Tiger Woods 08 which had just as many online issues and bugs. Why is it EA Canada does so well lately with the NHL and Fifa series, both online and offline? How can we get some of that magic passed over to the Tiburon teams? Why are 3-4 years into this generation and still playing football games without numerous features that can be seen in the last gen games? What exactly do you think the issues are (lack of staff/poor management/not enough talent)?

[rp71284]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

Hey you guys know when you go to the main page, the first 4 games in the webpage title are EA made, with the last being NBA 2K9.

I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

(Waits to be censored)

OS is just the EA forums with smarter posters, but same amount of hush hush as the EA boards.

[PlyrzNumber1]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

To be fair to the devs and those who work on the game, there are two key groups that have caused more havoc on next gen games than the devs/testing teams ever could.


Corporate/Management: These are the guys buying up the licenses. They are not free and the money spent is not something that EA is going to eat out of it's pocket. It gets passed on/offset in many different ways. The one that hurts the consumer most is how much manpower is used making/testing games. They are the ones who set the deadlines and budgets for each game.

EA Stockholders: People want a good return on your investment. Reality is that EA has always placed a premium on their stockholders in comparison to their customer.

So the people really getting squeezed are not only the consumer but the employees working on the games. Neither would ever be willing to go the two year plan to play catchup on these feature crippled games. They would miss that large revenue stream that covers these costs and pleases the stockholders.

What really pisses me off most is over the years we keep hearing about how everything costs so much more to make "next-gen" games. Yet, they are also working bigger deals with advertising companies to get more revenue. Also the marketplace has been yet another source of extra income for publishers that was not available last year.

What does the consumer get in return? A higher retail price, less features, buggy products and more ad's in their games.


* A third, smaller group that tends to be at fault would be the gaming media. Could someone ever ask the hard questions to these groups? Is someone willing to ask Peter Moore some tough questions and do so until we get answers?

Hey Petah, why are you charging $59.99 for these broken games? Why is Tiburon constantly releasing buggy products? See Tiger Woods 08 which had just as many online issues and bugs. Why is it EA Canada does so well lately with the NHL and Fifa series, both online and offline? How can we get some of that magic passed over to the Tiburon teams?

Very well said.

I have nothing against Adam and the rest of the EA reps/devs who come here. The problem is with the executives who makes budgeting decisions in favor of massive profits at the expense of the consumer.

[fishepa]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

LOL. It's a no win situation no matter what the hell anyone does.

[Dudd]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

Very well said.

I have nothing against Adam and the rest of the EA reps/devs who come here. The problem is with the executives who makes budgeting decisions in favor of massive profits at the expense of the consumer.

I don't even have a problem with that, after all, they do have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders to maximize profits. I blame everyone who rushes out and buys the latest game and then act all shocked when it doesn't work. NCAA stopped being a day one purchase for me after last year's abortion of a game, so I waited this year to see if it was improved, and apparently it's not, so I won't be buying it. If enough people take a wait and see approach instead of just giving them their money and then complaining, they'll have to create a good game before they get our sale.

[ChubbyBanana]

This is a great article. Although there are definitely things wrong with the game, it's great to see the designers are so available to answer questions about the product. I'm sure that even though they catch some flack, they enjoy it as well.

[kwanchangkang]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

LOL. It's a no win situation no matter what the hell anyone does.

You guys barely stopped short of saying this EA developer was on the OS staff.

-Almost 200 words saying how great it is to have him? Check
-Not one, not two, but three links to the forums where this mouthpiece has posted? Check
-Fawning, brown-nosing prose? Check

"Despite this being his first foray into the Operation Sports forums, Mr. Thompson is holding his own and not cracking under the pressure. Sure there are of course questions he won’t be able to answer, but by and large he’s made a concerted effort to answer as many questions as possible in a way that will help those in need."

Who the hell wrote that? A EA P.R. hack? They could not have said it better if it came off a computer at EA HQ.

We're not asking for OS to be biased against EA. If you guys just placed a sticky on the NCAA Football forum telling us who this guy was, nobody would have tripped. But damn, it looks like OS is bending over with no vaseline, quick style for anyone EA sends over here.

What's up with that?

[bkrich83]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

I love it. For years, people constantly complained about no interaction with EA devs, like we had with SCEA and 2k devs. Now we FINALLY get some EA devs and get some input, and now people are complaining about that.

[janglar]

Hey, programming video games isn't an exact science. I'm pissed about the roster bug, but I love this year's fast and fluid gameplay. Does anybody have the latest info on the release of the roster patch? Thanks for all the info, peops!

[fishepa]

Re: NCAA Designers Step Up to the Plate

I love it. For years, people constantly complained about no interaction with EA devs, like we had with SCEA and 2k devs. Now we FINALLY get some EA devs and get some input, and now people are complaining about that.

Exactly, it's a no win situation. It's pathetic how obsessed people are.