Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

[sroz39]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

In terms of what is wrong with this game, that certainly isn't anywhere near the top of most offensive.

However, the fact that such a basic thing can be omitted, while fantasy courses and cheesy arcade modes can be added shows how far EA is from "getting" what golf fans actually want in a video game.

There's more than one type of golf fan and although I don't see the appeal of the Night Club challenge or things like that, there is a market for it. Why would EA waste time on it if there wasn't? You can call EA whatever you want but one thing I think everyone can agree on is they know how to make money. So if there was no money to be made including some of the more "arcadey" elements, they wouldn't dedicate resources to doing so.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[JODYE]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

There's more than one type of golf fan and although I don't see the appeal of the Night Club challenge or things like that, there is a market for it. Why would EA waste time on it if there wasn't? You can call EA whatever you want but one thing I think everyone can agree on is they know how to make money. So if there was no money to be made including some of the more "arcadey" elements, they wouldn't dedicate resources to doing so.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Judging by the severely declining sales of the series, I would say they have no idea what the market wants in regards to a golf game and they are certainly treating the fan base with the same regard that they have for the game itself.

[pietasterp]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

There's more than one type of golf fan and although I don't see the appeal of the Night Club challenge or things like that, there is a market for it. Why would EA waste time on it if there wasn't?

I have no idea, but my personal belief is that they're just mis-reading the market. Or it's backwards-to-forwards corporate strategy: figure out what you want (younger/wider demographic) and then come up with some way to get there (night club, arcade elements, etc.). The problem with that strategy is it presumes that there is a way to get from point A to point B, and that the people in charge of the production know the right way to get there.

You can call EA whatever you want but one thing I think everyone can agree on is they know how to make money. So if there was no money to be made including some of the more "arcadey" elements, they wouldn't dedicate resources to doing so.

They know how to make money as a company, sometimes...their share price is all over the map. But it's not clear they know how to monetize each and every one of their individual properties. To me, the fact that their golf series has taken a several year hiatus and is now coming back with all these features that are all over the map suggests to me that their golf titles are not particularly profitable. If it were a cash-cow, they'd never be able to afford taking a few years off between releases (imagine if there was a 2-3 year hiatus between Madden or FIFA games...).

[sroz39]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

You can criticize how they went about it, but they tried to go more "sim" with 13 and 14 especially. Did they follow through? Was their presentation up to par? Could their Career mode have been better? The answers are somewhat, definitely not and probably. But they tried to make a more sim experience and the sales were worse than ever.

It's easy to see why they would market the arcade aspects as heavily as they have but if we're gonna be fair, let's remember that one of the first few blogs they released focused on the different types of swings in the game making this a game for everybody.

So yes, they're leaning a little more on the arcadey aspects now but it wasn't that way from the get go and it needs to be understood that the golf game genre is nowhere near lucrative enough to focus on just sim or just casual...it needs to have a little bit for everyone. Which it seems this one will.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

Judging by the severely declining sales of the series, I would say they have no idea what the market wants in regards to a golf game and they are certainly treating the fan base with the same regard that they have for the game itself.

They went full bore with a Simulation mode in TW14 and sales tanked the worst they have seen in the Tiger series. They spent the most they ever have in licensing for TW14 and what did it get them....a commercial failure. So I disagree with yours and others comments that they don't know what the market wants. RM has features that WE don't want, but that is hardly representative of what "the Golf videogame market" wants.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

They know how to make money as a company, sometimes...their share price is all over the map. But it's not clear they know how to monetize each and every one of their individual properties. To me, the fact that their golf series has taken a several year hiatus and is now coming back with all these features that are all over the map suggests to me that their golf titles are not particularly profitable. If it were a cash-cow, they'd never be able to afford taking a few years off between releases (imagine if there was a 2-3 year hiatus between Madden or FIFA games...).

Golf games are a niche' market and not very profitable TODAY. Ten to fifteen years ago, they were, but only because they reached a very wide audience and well before other titles took up the mainstream mindset of what to play. IMO, if I were in charge of RM, I would make the game with two very distinct interfaces. Arcade in one. Simulation in the other and flesh out the very best features for both. Then again, who knows what the budget is for RM and what is doable and what is not.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

Your implication was that due to the scheduling issues, that they would object to the process. Even though most these guys spend the time with EA for player modeling/photography etc. You know how many of these guys live and practice in Florida? It isn't as difficult as your making it out to be, especially when they are getting compensated for marginal work and are spreading that out over a years time or in this particular case, 2 years time.



Lol at this. First of all, no one said anything about assigning things to anyone. Also, to imply that for some reason or another the pros would be outraged about an imitated swing representing them in a video game, when assigning this generic BS to them now is much more egregious, is hilarious. EA is already called way worse things as it stands, so I'm sure they won't be too upset about being called liars.



This is an excuse for shoddy work. User control should effect the foundation that is put in place for each golfers swing, which as it stands currently, doesn't exist whatsoever.

Since we can't seem to reach a consensus on anything without taking things out of context completely, I'll simply agree to disagree with you. One question for you....have you ever worked with or spoken with anyone at Tiburon regarding their Golf titles?

[JODYE]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

They went full bore with a Simulation mode in TW14 and sales tanked the worst they have seen in the Tiger series. They spent the most they ever have in licensing for TW14 and what did it get them....a commercial failure. So I disagree with yours and others comments that they don't know what the market wants. RM has features that WE don't want, but that is hardly representative of what "the Golf videogame market" wants.

You don't think this had anything to do with the fact that they already alienated their fanbase by creating an asinine DLC strucutre for content that would have previously been included for free and charging an arm and a leg for it?

I think that is quite naive if you actually believe the above.

When you are trying to bring consumers back to your game, you don't gouge them for every dollar you can get. Just as you don't raise taxes in a recession. Simple economics.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

You don't think this had anything to do with the fact that they already alienated their fanbase by creating an asinine DLC strucutre for content that would have previously been included for free and charging an arm and a leg for it?

I think that is quite naive if you actually believe the above.

When you are trying to bring consumers back to your game, you don't gouge them for every dollar you can get. Just as you don't raise taxes in a recession. Simple economics.

Never mind, I am done here. Pretty obvious your disdain for EA is so ingrained that having an objective conversation is going to be out of the question. Carry on with your criticisms as we obviously see things VERY differently.

[JODYE]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

So they didn't do that to people who bought the game the last 3 years?

But I always love the ole, "I have nothing legitimate to contribute so I'm going to point to your hidden agenda as the reason that we can't discuss further" angle, even though I bought this game faithfully from 2001 until 2 years ago. Only rented the last 2.

You're right. I'll live in reality, and you live in a fantasy land where EA actually has the gamers best interest in mind. That is rich indeed.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

So they didn't do that to people who bought the game the last 3 years?

But I always love the ole, "I have nothing legitimate to contribute so I'm going to point to your hidden agenda as the reason that we can't discuss further" angle, even though I bought this game faithfully from 2001 until 2 years ago. Only rented the last 2.

You're right. I'll live in reality, and you live in a fantasy land where EA actually has the gamers best interest in mind. That is rich indeed.

Like I said, carry on with your agenda. I don't care if you flame EA and their decisions with their Golf franchise, but some of your comments are wildly speculative and not at all based in fact. I also fail to see how attacking me personally with your last comment validates your POV whatsoever. Not once have I said that EA has the gamers best interest in mind. They could improve mightily on this and if you ever want to have an objective, yet constructive conversation, I'm game. Based on the above, I'll pass.

Take Care.

Back on Topic....

Chambers Bay........

[pietasterp]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

Well, I think we can all agree we basically want a more sim-like golf game (or at least one that focuses more heavily on those aspects of the game). Maybe we disagree on how to get there.

Re: EA's latter 360/PS3 offerings, I tend to think that by that point, players had already given up on the series and weren't inclined to give any more benefits of the doubt (at least that was the case for me; can't speak for others). Sales lag performance a lot of times, by at least a year or two. In the case of NBA2K, it took at least 5-6 years of being the better game by far (starting on Dreamcast) before it finally started to pull even w/ NBA Live. Such is the power of branding, and it cuts both ways.

I do agree that the golf game niche is probably smaller than before, but the overall gaming audience is probably much bigger than 10-15 years ago. I feel like a game that was of the quality of an NBA2k or Links (way back in the day) would still be very successful today (very possible I could be wrong), but the quality has to be there consistently and for a duration of time before it gets acknowledged with sales. Will EA be patient enough? Or keep changing tack every year when they don't see instant results?

Anyway, I re-watched that gameplay video and I still don't like the swing animations. There has to be a way to smooth out the backswing/downswing transition even if you're using analog swing mode. That freeze/hitch-at-the-top part just kills the realism for me.

[DivotMaker]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

The "freeze/hitch" you describe is classic evidence that the user is controlling the animation and paused at the top of the swing. None of the earlier swing videos exhibited this phenomena.

[pietasterp]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

The "freeze/hitch" you describe is classic evidence that the user is controlling the animation and paused at the top of the swing. None of the earlier swing videos exhibited this phenomena.

Yeah, that's what I figured. I'm hoping they can still smooth it out, though, either via the animation itself or via the 'preferred' input - aka the game doesn't encourage you to stop but rather make one continuous back-forward motion w/ the right stick. Or something to that extent.

[kehlis]

Re: Rory McIlroy PGA Tour Trailer - Chambers Bay

You're right. I'll live in reality, and you live in a fantasy land where EA actually has the gamers best interest in mind. That is rich indeed.

This is a completely unnecessary comment.

I expect posts like this in the Madden forum but not here.



I'm also still waiting for your answer to this question because I know for a fact one of the two of you has and it's not you:

One question for you....have you ever worked with or spoken with anyone at Tiburon regarding their Golf titles?