I agree, the attitude of the programmer was one of complacency and lazyness - he just didn't seem to care and skirted around the major questions.
Q: When do you think EA will begin to include linesmen, journalists and players' benches on the sidelines?
A: These items have always been on the wish-list but as they are low priority they've never been done because of the lack of time.
Right.....so you've been spending your time fine tuning the pinball gameplay....or the in depth stats engine......or ensuring that all the players look anorexic....
The pitch size explanation was pure bull.
But my favourite was;
Q: Do EA take notice of sites such as Soccer Gaming and FIFA 2000 Online? Do they read our wish forums and take in the suggestions of the fans that post there?
A: People in the team are aware of the success of the game, but the company tries to limit the interactions between the team and the public.
Now while they said they look at 'official feedback' that statement sums up EA Sports - they just don't care about the hardcore sports gamers. They're at the top of the mountain, they know it, and now they just want to relax and churn out pure cr@p because people will buy it because it has the EA Sports and Fifa symbols.
On the other hand, look at Sports Interactive (the guys that make CM 99/00) those guys actually answer posts on their messageboards. Look at Konami - they're a HUGE company, but the ISS series is excellent (I'm still playing 98 Pro), they really pay attention to detail, and you can tell from just playing the game that the Konami programmers love football - and their newest PS2 version looks to be even more incredible.
EA can churn out their mass market cr@p for the casual gamer, but I'm not buying it anymore.
Screw them, I'm waiting for May 16th.
Too bad there's no speech editor for the intro "EA Sports - it's in the game" animation, if there was I'd be the first to make the adjustment,
"E A Sports - it's a -" .....well you can figure out the rest....