EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

[GROGtheNailer]

EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not. They try for a mix of a hockey brand that caters to casual fans and hockey fans as well. Business model aside as it is obvious they squeeze that extra money from catering to casual fans, they should decide if they (EA) like the game of hockey or not.

"If it's in the game, it's in the game" motto should probably be changed to "If it's in the game, we might bastardize it a bit for that extra buck".

Yes, I bought the game. It is ok, it's mediocrely fun, sometimes even really fun but the majority of the time, just frustrating.

It starts from the top down. For some reason, the top believes "real" hockey isn't fun and will not sell copies. I am just saying, I call bull**** on that.

When was the last time EA really tried to base this game's design on realism. It's the casual fan hanging over their shoulder, it's the lure of doing what is safe for the sure buck.

I do not think we can get an exceptional game until the views from the top change.

I think that in sports games, realism will sell. To get to exceptional, EA needs to change their views and if they do that, success will follow. That should be a theme going forward into the next-gen.

[speels]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

While I agree that I would love to have a simulation game, I absolutely get where EA is coming from. The casual gamer is probably 80% of the market place. I get many people watch hockey, but how many actually follow hockey.

I look at it this way, sports hi-lite shows show that "hi-lites" of a game which are , goals, saves, fights, and big hits. That is what the average person enjoys watching. You don't see these shows showing 5 minutes of cycling in the opponents zone with nothing to show for it, or multiple board battles that have nothing haooening in them.

EA is in a business to make money, that is it. If 80% of the people that bought your games wanted goals, fights, saves, and big hits, I would totally cater to them. EA has no responsibilty to us as consumers to put out a game that caters to the few. As consumers we have the ability to not purcahse these games and maybe eventually EA will be forced to change the way they think, but until they start losing money they have no reason to change.

That being said, I don't like the fact they use the slogan "If it's in the game....", because really it's not. Just like McDonald's 100 pure beef slogan.......really??

[GROGtheNailer]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

I totally get what you saying, I get the points and it is the safe bet.

I believe having a great representation based off realism can keep the casual market if done well. They are playing it safe though, which holds them back from an exceptional game. I doubt you believe the game is exceptional, maybe you do but probably not. Doing the same thing year after year will get the same results to a point, nothing changes, no one moves no one gets hurt.

The downside, the game is not exceptional and average is the status quo.

[Fiddy]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

GROG, so you are telling me you dont like guys being able to hold the puck out on a deke, skate through 4 players sticks, legs, poke checks, etc, and get off a shot from 40 feet, and have it go top shelf far side 99% of the time?

LOL..

[Majingir]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

They've already admitted the default settings on the game are designed for casual fans.

I know there's options to adjust the game to diff play settings, but they don't even work that well. NBA 2K for example, their sliders range from 0-100, and you can tell the difference between a slider set at 45 or one set at 50. NHL sliders there seems to be almost 0 difference between some sliders on 1, or on max.

I don't mind the NHL games having the option to have arcade type feel to it, but at least give the hardcore fans more options to have the game they want. Make sliders have so much impact that you can manually change sliders to either make it crazy like NHL Hitz(so almost like street version of NHL) or change sliders to make it like real life.

NHL games from several years ago and before were all real good, only negative was the cheap goals(drag puck to one side,then the other,then shoot),but other than that, those games were great. EA says that the game feels wrong to people because people play video games different then what they see in real life, but that's what sliders should be for, to adjust all of this. It is what sports video game players have been doing for decades, so why suddenly act like this is a problem when it clearly isn't.

[GROGtheNailer]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

GROG, so you are telling me you dont like guys being able to hold the puck out on a deke, skate through 4 players sticks, legs, poke checks, etc, and get off a shot from 40 feet, and have it go top shelf far side 99% of the time?

LOL..

Haha, that is definitely part of it.

[GROGtheNailer]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

They've already admitted the default settings on the game are designed for casual fans.

I know there's options to adjust the game to diff play settings, but they don't even work that well. NBA 2K for example, their sliders range from 0-100, and you can tell the difference between a slider set at 45 or one set at 50. NHL sliders there seems to be almost 0 difference between some sliders on 1, or on max.

I don't mind the NHL games having the option to have arcade type feel to it, but at least give the hardcore fans more options to have the game they want. Make sliders have so much impact that you can manually change sliders to either make it crazy like NHL Hitz(so almost like street version of NHL) or change sliders to make it like real life.

NHL games from several years ago and before were all real good, only negative was the cheap goals(drag puck to one side,then the other,then shoot),but other than that, those games were great. EA says that the game feels wrong to people because people play video games different then what they see in real life, but that's what sliders should be for, to adjust all of this. It is what sports video game players have been doing for decades, so why suddenly act like this is a problem when it clearly isn't.

Here is the main issue as I see it. The game core is based from a casual/arcade base and it should be from a simulation base then have modifiers that can change to casual/arcade.

They should have the presets which they are starting to do but the glaring problem is the core base. The very root of it's base should be this in it's simplest terms:

Defense should be easier to play than offense. Currently the game is geared to offense. Presets can change this but if the core game is solid it will be fine. The modifiers currently are there to appease actual hockey fans, this is backwards. It should be:

Core is for actual fans - modifiers for the casual fan. Because if you screw up the modifiers for the casual fan, they will not notice or even care in most cases.

Let's face it, hockey is fun, the focus should be on stuff for the core fans and the fluff should be secondary. This way you avoid the pitfalls of pissing off the core fans of hockey every year. It insults their intelligence.

[GROGtheNailer]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

Also please do not get me wrong, I am not hating on this years game. I am frustrated on the directions they (EA) choose and glaring game play issues and features that should not be missing in todays gaming market.

[jyoung]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

There was a quote in a recent interview where one of the producers said the goal of the game is to "make people feel like an NHL superstar."

They certainly have achieved their goal, but it has come at the expense of NHL rules and basic laws of physics.

As was said above me, I don't mind the default settings being tuned like they are now, but the option should at least be included to play with accurate NHL rules, more aggressive AI and more realistic physics.

If you try to play against a division 1 or division 2 EASHL team right now, all 95% of these teams do is skate around the neutral zone in circles until they can line up an against-the-grain wrist shot from just inside the blue line that beats the goalie high an absurd percentage of the time.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

It's funny because when 07 launched they trumpeted a mission statement of "authenticity" and how they wanted the player to learn the joy of playing real hockey. Why deviate from this when the approach allowed them to badge the front of their box with "20+ sports game of the year awards" for years?

I never thought I would be less optimistic about the series next-gen.

[NYwRiter94]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

All of you people who are arguing that the game should be simulation out of the box really have no idea what you're talking about. You think casual fans are going to take the time to tinker with the settings and find what settings work for them? I know countless hockey players who play at a very competitive level who only play on the casual settings because, for a quick play now game against a real life opponent, the out-of-the-box settings blow realism out of the water. Do I think they should make it possible for us hardcore players to find the right level of realism? Absolutely. But always remember that for every one of you who wants ultimate realism, there are 50 casual players who want to have fun.

[canucksss]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

Great read OP.

The issue between Casual gamers vs SIM gamers could be easily solved by having a WORKING sliders and an option right from the beginning of the game: Casual Play or Sim Play.

Why EA cant implement this? IMO, i know everyone will have their own opinion about it, is pure lazyness. I mean why spend so much labor hours when they can rehash and improve a bit the past version and labeled it "new". They have the market and nothing competes against them.

You're right OP, EA must decide if they want to produce a game only for casual gamers or for both sim/casual. OR lets hope another company produce another NHL game.

[voodoo_magic]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

Here is the main issue as I see it. The game core is based from a casual/arcade base and it should be from a simulation base then have modifiers that can change to casual/arcade.

They should have the presets which they are starting to do but the glaring problem is the core base. The very root of it's base should be this in it's simplest terms:

Defense should be easier to play than offense. Currently the game is geared to offense. Presets can change this but if the core game is solid it will be fine. The modifiers currently are there to appease actual hockey fans, this is backwards. It should be:

Core is for actual fans - modifiers for the casual fan. Because if you screw up the modifiers for the casual fan, they will not notice or even care in most cases.

Let's face it, hockey is fun, the focus should be on stuff for the core fans and the fluff should be secondary. This way you avoid the pitfalls of pissing off the core fans of hockey every year. It insults their intelligence.

I think this is how it should be made. Actually how I feel all sports games should be made.
Super easy for them to have the sim/casual setting upon loading the game so casual players don't have to set anything up.
So it's not like they are forced to try to tinker with settings to make it easy or simple. You want them to be able to jump on and play.

Kind of like they have this year with setting your style or whatever it's called, casual, hardcore depending on how much you play, with the slider settings defaulting to represent that level.

[lVlAtlZiX]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

All sports games are designed this way, this is because most people only play the game online, or 2-3 games a day for a couple of hours.

Not many people, myself included, want to play a MLB video game and not see Miggy hit a 3-run homerun, play an NFL game and not see Adrian Petersen score on some crazy 80 yrd touchdown run or Desean Jackson catch one, not see some crazy dangles in the NHL, etc.

In the terms of hockey people want to have fun fighting, scoring goals, and laying on big hits. They want that movie like quality where its big plays in those 2-3 games not big plays in 10-15 of them. So the dev team focuses on games where the realistic amount of goals scored is there, but they are achieved on 5 minute periods and in Madden you still have 28-35 games with 6 minute periods.

Yes there are those people that want to have fun playing simulation style and thats why sliders do exist, but they let the community find that balance, because they are too busy making sure that highlight reel moments happen very often, so that casual joe isn't bored for his 2 hours a day.

[mkharsh33]

Re: EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

As someone who has worked hard on sliders for many years on the major sports, I would suggest that EA's NHL game is THE WORST game to create a slider set for. They have absolutely no comprehension of how to recreate what one sees in an NHL arena in their game. Every other sport (MLB, NFL, NCAA, NBA) I've been able to at least get a solid semblance of a recreation of a sim-like experience. Not with EA's NHL game - not even close. Loose pucks, gritty play, difficulty gaining the offensive zone, etc. - they just don't get this. And it's appalling to me as the game is the same iteration every year...just a roster update, and even that's up for debate. I'm not trolling here...simply stating the facts. EA should be embarrassed, especially since they come at this from a Canadian perspective on the game, which, in my opinion, makes it even more appalling...