Changing the Game - EA's New Approach for NHL 16

[AdamJones113]

Excellent article!

[Wiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by adayinthelife

First off, I really enjoyed the piece. Love seeing longer form stuff about the process. This right here is the key, to me. It's been repeated over and over that the series is small, the team is small, the budget is small. I can understand and appreciate all of that - but that is exactly why I feel like the team itself needs a serious shake up. The article even mentions that there is little to no turnover with this dev team, and I just feel like at this point that is contributing just as much to the series' stagnant state as are the budget and time constraints. I'm not necessarily calling for a culling of the dev team every year, but with a company that size, there must be some sort of way to shuffle the deck. Whether it's moving guys around to different teams, or having a small core group and using different contract devs, I don't know. It just really seems that part of the reason the series has begun to feel so one note, is simply because we're not getting enough fresh views on things from guys that can actually do the work (i.e. devs, not "game changers"). It actually fees like they're aware of this issue as well, given that we've seen/heard a lot more from Ben Ross this year rather than Rammer like the past __ years, but just passing the mic around the same circle doesn't feel like it's growing or expanding the series at all.

Yeah, I certainly agree that EA — and a lot of other studios — should really be evaluating the annualized development model and how games are made.

I think what does get lost here is that there is sharing between teams (UFC, FIFA, NHL, Madden), and that means people, tech, ideas, etc. Some of the leads are always going to take prominence, but like I mentioned in the article, you're starting to see a bit more accountability from other people involved in making the game. The whole new approach still feels like a series of small steps, but taken as a whole, it's about as drastic as the team can likely handle.

Ultimately, a game still has to be made each year (most of the time, anyway), and those people need jobs, etc. It's a tough situation, as fans are left sort of paralyzed by processes that they have no control over, and developers can only really work within the framework of the parent company.

The series doesn't have a lot of room for error, and it probably needs NHL 16 to stick the landing just to restore some of the faith of fans.

[turbineseaplane]

Do people reading here play on ps4 or XB1 ?

I'm always curious which is the better machine for the sports fan/gamer

[actionhank]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wiggy

Yeah, I certainly agree that EA — and a lot of other studios — should really be evaluating the annualized development model and how games are made. I think what does get lost here is that there is sharing between teams (UFC, FIFA, NHL, Madden), and that means people, tech, ideas, etc. Some of the leads are always going to take prominence, but like I mentioned in the article, you're starting to see a bit more accountability from other people involved in making the game. The whole new approach still feels like a series of small steps, but taken as a whole, it's about as drastic as the team can likely handle. Ultimately, a game still has to be made each year (most of the time, anyway), and those people need jobs, etc. It's a tough situation, as fans are left sort of paralyzed by processes that they have no control over, and developers can only really work within the framework of the parent company. The series doesn't have a lot of room for error, and it probably needs NHL 16 to stick the landing just to restore some of the faith of fans.

I can honestly say I'm a bit hesitant with NHL16, but from what I'm seeing, it at least looks like EA is trying, which couldn't be said at all last year.
NHL15 was surrounded with a complete lack of transparency, and while a majority of the answers from the EA team were the same ol' "we're hoping for next year" and "we're going to announce that later", it was still better than the near silent release of 15.

Despite all of that, my frustration with the offline gameplay, and complete lack of any real news of discussion by EA on that front is still my biggest obstacle. The only real attention Be a GM got was a sizzle trailer that touted 'new' features that, aside from the morale, were all just the adding back in of features that they left out.
It would be nice to see EA talk about what they plan to do moving forward with the offline side of the game, as it's just now gotten back to where NHL15 should have been, and for such a possibly huge addition, the morale system got way too little press time.

I can definitely say i see progress in the game, but I worry that it's too little, too late. The offline crowd got burned hard last year, and many of us were hoping NHL16 would make some big leaps forward. But, if the AI, morale system, and rosters work well, it could still draw some people, myself included, back to the game.

[Clarke99]

I fell asleep reading this, just give us the bullet points