Some thoughts on the new "online dynasty" video released by EA Sports. - Hellisan's Blog

Hellisan's Blog

Some thoughts on the new "online dynasty" video released by EA Sports.

Posted on April 11, 2009 at 05:54 PM.

(1)

First of all, I haven't read any of the threads or the entire comment section (on the main OS Page) so please forgive me if some of these takes, ideas, points, or whatever have already been made.

People have already pointed out the "Team Builder" and "Road to Glory" menus and guesstimated what those might be all about.

Just watching the initial moments of the video, I have to say the menus look more responsive and inviting. These are reputedly "small" things about a game, but what about freaks like me and many of you reading? We'll be in these menus all year long. I see they'll still be using the shoulder button drop down menus, but I'm finally over that. At first I hated it. The sounds you hear while clicking through the menus could even be called "satisfying."

The custom conferences thing is something I thought I wouldn't have any interest in. I still have somewhat limited interest, but at least the interface for switching teams around is very well done and easy to use. And it could be fun to be in an online dynasty that recreates the conferences and rivalries of yore.

It looks like some work might have been done on the "Players Leaving" section of the off season. Most of the players are transferring to inferior schools where they will receive playing time. Much like "real life," where even elite prospects have to sometimes transfer to a much smaller football school in order to get the promise of playing time. Another thing you notice here is that you can look at "All" players that are leaving (from all teams) rather than just one school.

If you watch the section where they are recruiting Paul Turner... You can see that it appears as though you can gain a player's interest while finding a pitch. As if just talking to them increases the interest level. That might be an improvement from last year, where sometimes you'd go an hour and never be able to make anything happen.

Now, on to the subject of "recruit against."

It looks as though you can simply "find" pitches whether you're recruiting for your school or against another team's. I'm glad that a recruit's most important items are still locked. In this video, they didn't actually downplay a pitch. It looks like if you do that, the meter might actually go down from right to left a little.

In my opinion, if you are able to directly decrease a player's interest in another school by doing this, it could end up being a recipe for disaster. I could see players colluding against certain players if they are too close to signing a player, etc. As one respondent to the front-page story on OS noted, this is negative recruiting. I think it should come with all of the connotations that negative recruiting has in real life: turning off many recruits to YOUR school, making your coach look petty, and eventually hurting your coach integrity.

Last but not least, I see we still have a deranged smiley face to let us know how we're doing, but thank god that the Football face is gone.

Comments

# 1 Fetter21 @ Apr 11

I agree that the new menus look very nice. I really like seeing the picture of the recruit without the helmet. I know most people were complaining that they all have the same hair, but I'm sure that's something that they'll work out. I can't imagine that's gonna be something that slips past them especially since it's already being pointed out to them.

I think custom conference is huge, obviously it's amazing for the online dynasties, but I think I'll have to consider taking USC independent. Then I can schedule as many difficult opponents as I want, sometimes I get bored playing the down schools that are just going to be a blowout. What I want to know is if you can start in a conference, and then move after it has begun. Could I play a couple seasons in the Pac 10 and then make them an independent team in the offseason.

I'm also not sure at this point what to think about the recruiting against teams, I suppose it'll have to be something I have to try for myself to really form an opinion. That or have more detail on it than we have at this point.