EA Interview - What do you think?

[Schumacher]

Well, I read it, and I really wasn't impressed. It struck me as being something like this -

Q. We have asked for all these changes from you, but you never implement them? Will these changes be in the next version?

A. Erm, yeah, we're working on it. Yeah, it's coming soon...

How soon is soon? I have a horrible feeling "soon" is 2002 or (gasp) never!
Or am I just too cynical?

 

[Zambrotta]

That was a scandal! I mean how can anybody talk so much ****. The linesmen take too much time to program...yeah, sure.

The answers to the pitch problem and internet play were pathetic as well.

Now I am sure that nothing good will come from EA sports in the near future...not with boners like that interview-dude.

 

[::shinji::]

Yeah, they gave us absolutly no info at all. The interview was a waste of time, we're left not knowing anything we didn't know already. Kinda looks like the same answers they gave for the interview for fifa 2000.

 

[greglato]

What a joke!!! "The company doesn't really encourage the progamers to read what gamers are thinking." How can they admit to being so stupid.

The question about why there is no stadium selection was not answered at all.

Then he complains that time pressure and making two games in one year are the reasons there are no major improvements in the game. So whyt are they making Euro 2000 and FIFA20001????

The reason the game has no passion or soul is because there are too many people working on it. Come on!!! I can't take any more BS.

What a worthless bunch of crap. I can't believe Mat thanked him for that.

 

[Blue Moon]

I always try to be nice, but EA needs to pull its head out. I have had ISS Pro Evolution for six weeks and I still can't put it down. With the exception of the commentary, it destroys FIFA in every way. The incestual way EA makes its games ("Our developers are shielded from the public") is becoming more and more obvious every year. Unfortunately, games are getting dumber-- look at Triple Play or other sports games where "excitement" is in and "realism" is an afterthought. I'd much rather struggle to beat Man U 2-1 with my custom team of superstars than beat Man U 9-7 in FIFA with Japan (no offense to Japan).

"EA, if its in the game, its in Konami."

 

[shez]

the answers were simply BS,and they reflected the attitude of our programers..


if it's in the game,it's Konami i agree !!

 

[Neutral]

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....

 

[Hunnter]

This line from neutrals post just about sums them up...."But the company tries to limit the interactions between the team and the public."........what a sad comment from them..

They DON'T care about the Gamers out here,they won't listen, they DON'T want to know..... and that is the bottom line...

 

[PolishPower]

I agree, that line about how they isolate the programmers from feed-back is something I thought I'd never hear. That is a huge insult to any person that puts any time/money into their game or that takes time to send them e-mails or post on their boards. Screw them!

I never, ever heard any company come out and say "we don't listen to our customer feedback", especially a computer games company. Sony, the biggest of them all, has people answering questions on their board and asking on how they can improve their games. And these little weenies at EA take a holier than thou attitude?

 

[Hunnter]

EA:> are taking advantage of the huge Global demand for Football games, and due to this demand thay can turn out sub standard products with virtuall impunity, i am still shaking my head in total frustration in regard to there "Public v Us" mentallity...it is beyond belief that anyone from that company could issue such a negative non caring statement...Lets hope that Konami can start to convert there football games over to the Pc...

 

[Paul]

I know why there's no time for lines men, they had to fine tune the bottle in the net and make the corner kick flags move realistically. These things take 'time' guys. Imagine if that wasted time was put to real use...

 

[::shinji::]

Well said Paul, that water bottle was the best thing those programming geniuses could come up with?? sad indeed

 

[Neutral]

No don't forget they spent all their time making sure all the motion captured players look like Sami Hyypia

 

[King Kenny]

There's only one way to let EA know that they've screwed up big time with their attitude and that is to "limit the interaction between EA and the public" ourselves. In short: stop buying the crap they release twice a year and start bombarding Konami with requests to release their excellent ISS-series for PC.
Nuff said.

King Kenny.

 

[Paul]

I bet I know how they 'limit the interaction between EA and the public,' they keep their programers in nice padded rooms and slide a tray in once daily. Those poor bastards, it's not their fault the code is 'below the belt'...

 

[interviewed]

Hi,

I am the interviewed person. I think there was a mis-understanding about the interview.

It is not an official EA interview, and the answers don't reflect the company's position, nor what they would tell you. They are my own personal views.

I'll address just a few points :

Everybody in the team wanted sideline elements but they've been rated as a low priority item. It makes sense because they're less important than many other features.
I agree that the water bottle is kinda stupid, but it was believed that people would remember that kind of things. Obviously it worked, but not for the right reasons

The last point I'd like to address is the pitch size : the answer I gave may sound pathetic, but... that's the real problem we got stuck with. It's not possible to develop a complete version of the game on each plateform because 1) it's duplicate work 2) more bugs 3) more people 4) higher costs.

now, I'd like to talk about the important stuff. Like I said it was not an official EA interview. I don't agree with the policy of the company to have only some people able to communicate with the players, through the press usually, etc. It has been this way for years and we all know it's not a good idea, but at the same time the company is pushing it. Don't ask me why... not my choice.
FIFA is very important for EA because it's has the largest revenue out of all projects. This has some drawbacks, such as not being able to add cool features, etc on the fly. Everything is planned and prioritized upfront and we try to fit as much as we can in the game. It has evolved in one of these huge projects you often see outside of the game industry.

Yes, the game has lost a bit of its soul... I wish it had stayed on a smaller scale

[This message has been edited by interviewed (edited 04-14-2000).]

 

[fifafanatic]

interviewed,

In the interview you said that,

"When the team started 2k, people believed there was plenty of time to do it and we had big plans for the game. The goal was to clean the
old code and start with the new architecture; Adding new people to the team helped to some extent as it was a pretty big task. 2k has a new architecture and while you can't see deep changes from the outside, it is ready for future release; The reason behind this choice
was to make the code easier to work with and have the team spend lots of time on the game itself instead of hacking things together to add a small feature."

In FIFA99, with fed99, we could add up to 64 jerseys, which was good. Now with fifa2000, it isn't possible? Does this mean that we can't use more than 53 kits in future FIFA games? This is a big disappointment for all of us who enjoy creating realistic kits, perhaps you could change this part of the code and make it possible to add more jerseys with an editor? More than the 64 kits that were possible in fifa99 would make just about all of us ecstatic if this were ever possible.

Were not asking that you create more than 53 kits, but that you make it possible for us to add kits by changing the hard code that limits the kits to 53.

Also, the kit clashing method for FIFA2000 isn't accurate with all jersey combinations, why can't we have the option of choosing what jersey to wear for a game? This way we can aviod the kit clashing bug the game has. Most teams have more than 2 jerseys available anyways.

Thank You

 

[Zambrotta]

As EA does it, we also should do it: The public should stop interacting with them, i.e. not buy their crap nomore.

 

[jabj]

I couldn't agree with you more Zambrotta!
If EA don't take notice of us, then we'll take no notice of them, and buy some other soccer game instead!
COME ON EA! The competition is getting better and you've got to get your act sorted and give the public what they deserve with FIFA 2001. We've asked for certain features for years, but you've either took no notice, or took notice and did the opposite!
Since FIFA 99, the FIFA series has really gone crap. FIFA 98, in my opinion, was brilliant, and WC98 even better. They had a load of features that are missing from the latest FIFA's.

So listen EA, get you act together, or lose your fanatics! I've always thought EA was a name of great quality - until now!

 

[Malinwa]

EA creates the game to sell as much as it can, right?

Why don't they create the game to attract more players, I mean they should create FEd (not the customer) for us, they should make it able to create as much kits as we like, as much teams as we like,etc... I would be much more happy if there was only 1 league (with the correct(!!!!!) rosters) and a game where EA payed more attention to AI and graphics then to the rosters. If EA includes a perfect editor, then we can create our own leagues, design our own tournaments (custom is really unsufficient like it is now), create our own kits,... That would sell!!!!