Adam Thompson (NCAA Designer) Q&A Thread

[servo75]

HI Adam,

I'm real glad you and others are here to answer our questions. There has been a perception in the past that the management at EA sports really doesn't give a hoot what the gamers want, but at least your presence goes a way toward mitigating that feeling. Thanks.

My question is that it sometimes seems with sports titles, that there are a lot of things that need fixing, as mentioned in this thread. Yet every year it seems as though the focus is on some "new feature of the year." I suppose from a marketing view it's better for EA to say, "Now with home field advantage" than "last year's problems fixed." But do you get the impression that sometimes the focus is more on putting in a "new feature of the year" or in patching up old issues?

[Craigsca]

The two posts before servo are case in point as to why this game will never live up to xslim502xx's standards. As he wants real features repeated from old gen, others are asking for multiple arm bands and leg bands. Good grief. Maybe EA will introduce a college football Colorforms set so everyone can play football fashion to their heart's content.

Oh, and yes EA could solve all these issues if they wanted to - while others think that an engineering team is some kind of finite set of people it's not true. If you have a deadline you need to hit with a specific feature set, you need a certain amount of man-hours. There's two ways to do so - extend the deadline (not an option), or throw more engineers at it. The problem is, we (and I'm including myself because I buy the game every year) buy the game in the state it is, and therefore there's no reason to throw $$$ at a problem when the payback isn't going to pay for the initial costs.

[servo75]

Agreed. I used to be a developer myself (not video games), and I can say that developers are often perfectionists. It's like a chef working on that new dish - he has a lot of pride in it and wants it to be perfect. I think the developers and programmers and artists really want a superior product. Forget about exclusivity or deadlines - I think that maybe they expect even more out of the game than we do. But I also agree that this passion is probably not shared by EA management. The decisions on how many resources there are and how they're allocated are often not up to the ground floor developers - they're up to suit-and-tie executives who have either would not know a line of C++ code if it were in front of them, or are FORMER developers who have to play the company line and forget where they came from. And therein lies the problem. An old professor of mine put it best - the reason that the software industry is so crappy is that good developers often get kicked up to management or laid off after 2 years or so, so the ones who are left are either inexperienced or incompetent. If I were to ever start a gaming company, it would be small and owned by the developers, that way you know that the people making the game are empowered to do what they do best. The other problem is that you're tied by affiliation with the real-life sport. The reason, say, Madden is less customizable than NHL or NBA series is because the "No Fun LEague" puts in all sorts of quid-pro-quos in return for exclusivity. There's a company, Wintervalley software that makes a totally customizable football game - because they're not tied to the NFL or any major league, and owned by the programmers, they have so much more freedom and the company heads have their own message board and converse with users. IT seems like apart from a few people like Adam, that isn't possible with a giant like EA.

Quote: Originally Posted by Craigsca

The two posts before servo are case in point as to why this game will never live up to xslim502xx's standards. As he wants real features repeated from old gen, others are asking for multiple arm bands and leg bands. Good grief. Maybe EA will introduce a college football Colorforms set so everyone can play football fashion to their heart's content. Oh, and yes EA could solve all these issues if they wanted to - while others think that an engineering team is some kind of finite set of people it's not true. If you have a deadline you need to hit with a specific feature set, you need a certain amount of man-hours. There's two ways to do so - extend the deadline (not an option), or throw more engineers at it. The problem is, we (and I'm including myself because I buy the game every year) buy the game in the state it is, and therefore there's no reason to throw $$$ at a problem when the payback isn't going to pay for the initial costs.

[countryboy]

maybe its just me, but this thread is quickly becoming an embarassment. It may be worth some people's while to read the ENTIRE Q&A thread before posting some of their questions and/or concerns. Maybe then they'll get an understanding as to why things are the way they are and what direction Adam and the team are going instead of pulling out the same ol' tired criticism and the saying "EA is lazy" or "EA doesn't because there is no competition." "I'm tired of wasting my hard earned money" etc..etc...

The fact is, no matter how lame this may sound, but if the game doesn't meet your standards then don't buy it and wait for it to meet your standards. Why continue to "waste your money on the same ol crap"?

[Craigsca]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

maybe its just me, but this thread is quickly becoming an embarassment. It may be worth some people's while to read the ENTIRE Q&A thread before posting some of their questions and/or concerns. Maybe then they'll get an understanding as to why things are the way they are and what direction Adam and the team are going instead of pulling out the same ol' tired criticism and the saying "EA is lazy" or "EA doesn't because there is no competition." "I'm tired of wasting my hard earned money" etc..etc... The fact is, no matter how lame this may sound, but if the game doesn't meet your standards then don't buy it and wait for it to meet your standards. Why continue to "waste your money on the same ol crap"?

You answered your own question - because of the same ol' tired "there's no competition" and because of that NCAA is as close we we're going to get a realistic college football simulation for the console.

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Craigsca

You answered your own question - because of the same ol' tired "there's no competition" and because of that NCAA is as close we we're going to get a realistic college football simulation for the console.

How does that make any sense?? If you are disappointed year in and year out, then why continue to buy it? I am sorry but that may be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

[Craigsca]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

How does that make any sense?? If you are disappointed year in and year out, then why continue to buy it? I am sorry but that may be the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Because I'm only into sports games, namely baseball, college football, college basketball and hockey. Those are 4 games I buy every year. I need to get my fix somehow, so I buy NCAA, and to varying degrees I've been pleasantly surprised on some points and disappointed on others. It's not a black and white world, and you can knock off the hyperbole (dumbest thing you've EVER heard?! Amazing!).

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by Craigsca

Because I'm only into sports games, namely baseball, college football, college basketball and hockey. Those are 4 games I buy every year. I need to get my fix somehow, so I buy NCAA, and to varying degrees I've been pleasantly surprised on some points and disappointed on others. It's not a black and white world, and you can knock off the hyperbole (dumbest thing you've EVER heard?! Amazing!).

I'm sorry, but if you feel that NCAA isn't worth the selling price, but yet continue to buy it, then yes I think thats pretty dumb. Maybe you don't fit into this category, maybe the game is worth in some ways $60 to you, but after my post about "wasting money on the same ol crap" and your response, I thought maybe you did fall into this category.

But when someone citicizes EA saying they will never improve the game to a level of one's expectations because the game will sell no matter what, but yet said person buys the game no matter what then.....

[servo75]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

It may be worth some people's while to read the ENTIRE Q&A thread before posting some of their questions and/or concerns.

Only problem with that is that the search feature will tell you what THREADS your keywords are in, but won't display individual posts and with 134 pages you still have to search manually.

[countryboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by servo75

Only problem with that is that the search feature will tell you what THREADS your keywords are in, but won't display individual posts and with 134 pages you still have to search manually.

its not a problem if you just read the entire Q&A thread.