EA Game Changers Program - Hurting or Helping or Neither - Gotmadskillzson's Blog

Gotmadskillzson's Blog

EA Game Changers Program - Hurting or Helping or Neither

Posted on September 26, 2011 at 11:32 AM.

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Is EA Sports game changers program hurting or helping EA Sports games ? I know when the program was 1st announced people were thinking oh wow, we finally have a voice. But do we really have a voice ?

Lets be honest here, majority if not all of the people in the program come from media. They either own a game review website, work for a website, writter for a website, moderator for a website or participated in an EA sponsored MAdden or NCAA tournament some where.

Also a good number of them were people who were going to the community days anyway. With that said, lets say their influence on EA Sports games been happening since 2009. They been involved with NCAA 10, Madden 10, etc and beyond.

I honestly think too many people in the community over estimate their power of influence. Yeah they have email access to the developers, know their gamer tags and PSN IDs, but that is about it. They really don't have that much say.

Because if they reallly did, I find it hard to believe most of the flaws of NCAA and Madden would still be in the game. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to point out obvious flaws. Hell just playing one game against the cpu and your average person could name 5 or 7 things that suppose to have happened that didn't happen.

With all the technology today of video capture cards, youtube, ustream......you would think it wouldn't be that hard to record obvious flaws, email it to the devs and they would fix it. I guess in the perfect world, that is how the EA Game Changers Program would work.

But in reality it doesn't seem to work that way. They seem to be more PR people then anything else. You see them flood the gaming websites from March to July. Saying they seen this, seen that, this going to blow you guys mind.

Game comes out.......they disappear for the most part. When you say hey what happened to this and that that you said you seen, you hear crickets. You point out stuff to them, they say well I don't see it. Really ? Or they will say well I guess we have something to add to our wishlist tournament for next year. Really ? You want to host a wishlist tournament for something that suppose to be in the game ANYWAY because it a part of the sport.

Over all I think the program has fallen well short of what the original goal was. Or I should say the original goal most consumers assumed what the program would be about. Sure you see them hosting online dynasties, online franchises, hosting radio shows......Spreading the word.

So I guess at the end of the day it is neither......They are just there.

Comments

# 1 DaggerSwagger @ Sep 26

GOOD WRITE UP

# 2 newefan @ Sep 26

it's a good idea but the wrong people are the game changers. i would like to know how ea picked these people . was it just random because it seems that way to me .

# 3 Dewiel @ Sep 27

Here some things to keep in mind about the program since I created it, work daily with the guys, and also make the decisions on who gets into the program. Everyone that is in the program is there because they applied are area active community members. Sure, some run fansites, host tournaments, are forum moderators, and things along those lines, but not everyone does. In fact, nearly half of the guys don't have their own site or any ties to a particular site. others have started their own sites after joining the program. The point being that they are out there being active and providing a lot of feedback to the team. These guys are constantly sending things to the team, but they just choose to do it in different ways. Another thing to consider is that these guys can't test issues that are going to come about post launch like the "No Huddle" issue that we've seen with NCAA after the title update.

I 100% disagree with the statement that we have the wrong guys. Guys like Derek Adams who runs leagueManager.net, Shopmaster who is everywhere in the community, ZFarls and SGibs from MaddenBible and authors of the start guides, AntonB who is constantly offering up lab sessions to help out new community members, CDJ and the guys at thegamingtailgate.com who organize the annual NCAA Football wish-list tournaments, and many others are exactly who we are looking for. These guys provide so much valuable feedback and while it may not always be actionable that year, it is always valued. These same guys also make it a point to always bring up every issue out there in the community even though I've already reported it.

We also bring in others to the community events that are not members of the Game Changers program and that's how we've gained several members as well. Many of the guys have had similar feelings to what you've stated until they're actually around the guys and see their level of knowledge and passion to make our games as good as they can be. We also have guys who are still not members of the program, but have enjoyed their time with the guys and the chance to come to the studio and provide feedback.

At the end of the day the program exists and will continue to exist to improve our games and make sure that the community voice is heard. While the Game Changers are always out there passing along what they hear, it's not their job to do that. They do it because they care and want to. We've also set up feedback emails for Madden ([email protected]) and NCAA ([email protected]) for anyone in the community to send their feedback to. I'm also around this forum and numerous others all the time so you can OM me directly if it's not something you want to email or post in the forum.

Btw, I've seen all of your feedback and passed it along. Really detailed and organized. That's the type of stuff that helps make the game better.

For those interested in becoming Game Changers, you can send us a note at [email protected] and let us know why you'd like to be in the program and what you have to offer. Also make sure you let us know who you are, what sites you post on, and any other information like that.

Thanks and let me know if you have any other questions about the program.