EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

[poopoop]

Dynasty mode isn't bad as is, but there's a lot of areas where it could improve. But I don't think it's ever going to get there because dynasties don't last long enough.

When i was in Florida at EA Tiburon they told me that the average length of any online dynasty for 2010 was less than a month.

http://www.osatwork.com/RynoAid/blog...-sim-dynastys/)

So the average OD lasts less than a month. I've been in several that have died less than a month after starting. If you assume a two day advance schedule it takes about a month to get through a year. So the majority of online dynasties don't even make it out of the first year. I'm guessing offline dynasties fair a little better, but not by much.

Basically dynasty just becomes season mode because people quit them so quickly. What happens in year 4 or year 5 doesn't really matter because almost no one makes it that far anyway. I think EA realizes this and it influences the way they approach this mode.

Things like:

-Recruits not matching up the original rosters. Recruits having weird rankings like speed/acceleration that don't match up. Who cares, people rarely get to the point where the game is all CPU-generated recruits. Same thing goes for CPU teams recruiting like 7 QBs and weaker teams becoming worse than FCS schools.

-Being able to turn bad teams around almost instantly. Why make a mode where it takes 10 years to turn Eastern Michigan into a good program. It makes much more sense to make a mode where you can have success with them right off the bat.

Every year it's apparent to me that the dynasty deteriorates the deeper you get into it because EA has no reason to care about anything past the first few years. It's not an attack on EA or NCAA devs either because I see the same thing in other games too. I even see it in NBA 2k and Choops 2k8.

[Cusefan]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

-Counterpoint: The Best year (arguably) for Madden is 2005. This year is the year that Madden totally revamped their Franchise mode and added depth.

If you build a badA** Dynasty mode, People will play it.

[whitner20]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

i just don't think they test dynasty very well if at all past maybe 2-3 years, if they did things like recruits, wacky depth charts and the 5 or 6 undefeated teams each year would be obviously noticed.


i think the reason the average online dynasty doesn't last past year one is that it takes so long to wait for other users to advance the week, by the time the first season is over the interest isn't there or most people have moved on to different games

either way, if this is the reason EA uses to not test dynasty mode 5-10 years deep is laughable, and just an excuse

there is no reason why penn state should win the big ten championship 8 years in a row.

[poopoop]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

-Counterpoint: The Best year (arguably) for Madden is 2005. This year is the year that Madden totally revamped their Franchise mode and added depth.

If you build a badA** Dynasty mode, People will play it.

I think a better counterpoint would be a game like Football Manager that is def built for the long haul and sells a ton of copies. Only issue is it's not a fair comparison because that's a completely different kind of game.

I think when EA is deciding what to spend time on they don't see the rewards of dumping resources into making a dynasty mode that's still realistic in 2020.

[poopoop]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

i just don't think they test dynasty very well if at all past maybe 2-3 years, if they did things like recruits, wacky depth charts and the 5 or 6 undefeated teams each year would be obviously noticed.

I agree but why bother? What % of people actually make it past the third year in online or offline dynasties?

either way, if this is the reason EA uses to not test dynasty mode 5-10 years deep is laughable, and just an excuse

there is no reason why penn state should win the big ten championship 8 years in a row.

I agree it's a poor excuse, but I suspect this is a significant part of the reason dynasty mode makes no sense after a few years.

[Hooe]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

Your premise is misleading and potentially flawed because the quote you reference refers to the NCAA 2010 game. 2010's online dynasty didn't have any of the social media integration that 2011 did (Dynasty Wire, Facebook sharing, etc). I'd be interested to see how Online Dynasty fared for 2011 with the more robust feature set.

On top of that, I'd argue that EA knows that in order to continue selling their games, and particularly annual titles such as any of their EA Sports games, they have to improve them across the board. That's the industry expectation nowadays; they can't just ignore dynasty mode and expect their consumer base to simply accept it.

I'd also argue that the men and women who comprise EA Tiburon have an internal motivation to make the best game they can in whatever capacity they work on the project. The people who get paid by Tiburon to work on Dynasty mode each year aren't going to be satisfied in their jobs by doing nothing; I'm sure that wouldn't reflect well on their performance reviews either, heh.

[whitner20]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

sometimes i like to build up a small school and sim and recruit for 3-4 years and then start playing, and im pretty sure im not the only one, so all these issues are front and center when i start playing there are teams that cant field a starting o-line because the recruiting logic is so flawed it's sort of frustrating

[poopoop]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

Your premise is misleading and potentially flawed because the quote you reference refers to the NCAA 2010 game. 2010's online dynasty didn't have any of the social media integration that 2011 did (Dynasty Wire, Facebook sharing, etc). I'd be interested to see how Online Dynasty fared for 2011 with the more robust feature set.

I agree it'd be interesting to see the data but...

It's pretty obvious though that the same thing is going to be true for 2011. If you don't believe me go to the Online Dynasty site and browse for openings. The vast majority of the ones you'll find are failed dynasties stuck in year one. And thats before you account for all of the failed dynasties that have been retired. I'm sure there's a lot of successful dynasties that are full of members and several years in (I'm in one myself) but these are the exception. Same is going to be true for offline dynasties just to a lesser extent.




^ Looks like a graveyard.

On top of that, I'd argue that EA knows that in order to continue selling their games, and particularly annual titles such as any of their EA Sports games, they have to improve them across the board. That's the industry expectation nowadays; they can't just ignore dynasty mode and expect their consumer base to simply accept it.

I'd also argue that the men and women who comprise EA Tiburon have an internal motivation to make the best game they can in whatever capacity they work on the project. The people who get paid by Tiburon to work on Dynasty mode each year aren't going to be satisfied in their jobs by doing nothing; I'm sure that wouldn't reflect well on their performance reviews either, heh.

They can't ignore dynasty completely but they do get to choose how much effort they put into it. I think they do the minimum when it comes to testing/structuring their dynasty mode for the long term. It's amazing how many errors were found by people on sites like these just by simming a few years into the future. It doesn't take much effort to sim through a few years and look at what happens, so why isn't EA doing a better job of it?

It's low on the priority list. Making sure the dynasty still functions well after 6 years is probably down there with improving mascot mode. I don't really think it has to do with making the best game possible either, just choosing what to focus on.

[GoToledo]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

I can see this as a "chicken and the egg" predicament. On one hand you can say EA doesn't test dynasties for the long haul because most people don't play them past year one. You can also say that most people don't play dynasties for the long haul due to the diminishing quality of the game in long-term dynasties.

Either way, I do hope that creating a more robust and balanced long-term dynasty is a goal at EA.

[Michgantown]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

I finished my college hoops dynasties.

[TDenverFan]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

I can see this as a "chicken and the egg" predicament. On one hand you can say EA doesn't test dynasties for the long haul because most people don't play them past year one. You can also say that most people don't play dynasties for the long haul due to the diminishing quality of the game in long-term dynasties.

Either way, I do hope that creating a more robust and balanced long-term dynasty is a goal at EA.

That was my thoght exactly. After 2-3 years, thegame becomes flawed, so why play it past 2-3 years?

[Hellisan]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

To your point.... Given that we (hardcore guys who would be interested in a long-term dynasty) make up so little of the game's audience, it's quite pleasing all they have done on our behalf.

I have one dynasty that's in 2016 with all human users and another that's in 2025 with just my team.... Both have pretty realistic rosters, although the one with just my team is obviously much better with no human recruiting competition.

Also, in my solo and 12-man dynasties the cpu has done a pretty decent job of competing for recruits. Ohio State, Alabama, and teams like that routinely give our guys problems in games, sometimes beating them, and have A- or better rosters.

[poopoop]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

To your point.... Given that we (hardcore guys who would be interested in a long-term dynasty) make up so little of the game's audience, it's quite pleasing all they have done on our behalf.

I have one dynasty that's in 2016 with all human users and another that's in 2025 with just my team.... Both have pretty realistic rosters, although the one with just my team is obviously much better with no human recruiting competition.

Also, in my solo and 12-man dynasties the cpu has done a pretty decent job of competing for recruits. Ohio State, Alabama, and teams like that routinely give our guys problems in games, sometimes beating them, and have A- or better rosters.

I just played a team in year 4 that was unable to kick extra points or field goals, things only get magnified the deeper you get into an OD. Just out of curiosity I joined an OD I found that was in year 26.

I found things like a bunch of teams being rated D overall.
4 in the Big 10, 3 in the Big 12. 8 in the MAC. Every conference had at least one.

One of these D rated BCS teams had 10 QBs and 12 WRs. That's over 1/4th of the roster dedicated to those two positions.

Now this is nothing new, these are known issues with the game. The issue is that even though the CPU teams can pull in highly ranked classes, they do a poor job of addressing needs. So a team might pull in a top 10 recruiting classes but when their top 3 recruits all play QB it doesn't matter.

The computer's poor recruiting, and the flawed recruit engine are apparent in year one, and it doesn't take much to predict what the eventual outcome is gonna be. Poorly structured teams that make no sense at all.

It's just the little things like this EA doesn't really seem to care about because they realize people are going to quit after one or two years anyway.

[canes21]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

If they gave us a great dynasty that wasn't broken in 4 years, then I would easily play past 4 years an so would many others. It also gets hard to play more than one season when nothing, but the layout has changed in dynasty mode since this gen started.

[LambertandHam]

Re: EA has no reason to create a realistic long dynasty mode

Why does everyone seem to forget that people, myself included, will spend years in their own offline dynasty?