How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

[canucksss]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

For me its a simple answe: replace RAMJ and totally revamp their approach in this game. FOCUS on what is important in HOCKEY and not on the mascots and other much less important features.

[schlitz73]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

It really shouldn't be that hard to get franchise mode up to snuff. IMO gameplay is already pretty decent and just needs a few tweaks, namely your AI defensemen playing keystone cops around your net and turning the puck over way too frequently.

After that, fix the clunky and spread out menus. This is a sports game, not a huge sprawling RPG. Simplify the menus please, we shouldn't have to scroll back and forth constantly to find what we need or to save a game.

UPgrade the celebrations. Everyone is clamoring for this because these are basically the same dull goal celebrations we've had for years. Get some crowd shots and 5 man celebrations in there to up the excitement.

Fix the stat tracking. When someone scores it should show their season goal total not game total. Add in more player focused overlays showing season or career info to up the presentation. ANd what happened to the goalie stats? Wins and losses are totally borked. This needs a patch ASAP.

Trade AI needs a major overhaul. This could be the toughest part but when i hear stories about Crosby and OVechkin being traded early in the first season of a franchise... that's just messed up.

Finally, I would really like to see more career focused highlights and a hall of fame. Give us special milestone replays when someone scores their 50th goal of the season, or their 100th career goal/point... and all multiples of 100. Player and team trophy cases to put these milestone game pucks and trophies in would also be cool.

It shouldn't take much to really up the atmosphere in franchise mode and coupled with a few gameplay adjustments it could be really great.

[Taku]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/10374002.page

[capnbuh]

Let's be honest, EA doesn't want people playing GM mode, unless they can come up with a way to work in microtransactions.

[actionhank]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

Let's be honest, EA doesn't want people playing GM mode, unless they can come up with a way to work in microtransactions.

Sadly, I think you're right. The focus on getting features right in the offline modes has been painfully absent.

I keep saying "Oh, maybe next year" but so far every year's just the same bit of surface work. NHL16 is way better than 15, don't get me wrong, but 15 was such a trainwreck that that wasn't hard to do. NHL16 literally seems like NHL14 on Next-Gen with better presentation (in some areas. The stat issue is unforgivable, and the fact that Doc and Edzo repeat so much of their dialogue gets old quick. If I hear "Being the top scorer means you'll get a lot of attention" once more, I might lose it).

NHL16 still plays the same to me. I don't see enough of a difference in NHL16 to differentiate it from NHL11-14. The players move pretty much the same, the skating is just as frustrating. I would even argue that when they made L2 the backskate, they made doing simple things more frustrating. Before, I could easily face the play on defense by holding L2, and my player would stay facing the puck. Now I'm stuck making tons of micro movements to get my guy accurately facing the right way, because half the time I have to start actually skating backwards to get him to face the play. Throw in the fact that I have no real control over my poke check, and the fine movements required for decent defense are all but impossible. Getting into the right position is tough, but even harder is doing anything once you're there.

[CubFan23]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

I am an offline only player and this game is the shortest time I've ever owned a game. I just bought this a week or so ago and already traded it in. I think I am finally done with this series.

[RBUDD88]

This article is spot on sadly my personal feeling is EA does not care about offline gamers nearly as much as online and HUT. The lingering offline issues, remaining bugs from last year in offline mode, lack of attention to detail in the offline modes, and the recent tuner debacle, all support my theory.

HUT is their main source of money from customers that is why so much goes into it

[actionhank]

Re: How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

HUT is their main source of money from customers that is why so much goes into it

I think most everyone understands why HUT gets the attention it does in development, but even that doesn't excuse the years of issues that have remained unchanged. I think NHL 15 showed what poor offline gameplay gets you...record numbers of people simply not buying the game. I don't think I've ever seen as many frustrated people as I did when NHL 15 was released. I've purchased every year since NHL 07, despite saying for the past few years "This is the last time I buy this. They're just not improving".

EA has to realize that if they want to exclusively focus on one part of the game, they're going to lose people from the other. Offline gamers might not generate the constant purchases or ad revenue from online play, but at $60 a pop, it's still not a market EA can continue to ignore like they have.