II Reignmaka II's Blog
01-November-2010
reignmaka is an EA SPORTS Fight Night Moderator and invite to last weekfs Fight Night Champion Community Event. Look for blogs from him and other invites in the future discussing features and their impressions of Fight Night Champion.
First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the Team at EA Canada, for what can be best described as gthe opportunity of a life timeh. For the first time ever, I was able to meet and meld minds with the individuals whom created and innovated the Fight Night Franchise. It was an amazing experience which provided a better look, an improved understanding and profound appreciation of the work theyfve done and continue to do. I have a lot of things to address, so forgive me if this blog is long.
Ifve been a long time critic and fan of the series, and have an extensive background on the production of feature ideas, blogs and game play concepts that are written in vivid detail. It is through these experiences, that I wish to bring to you, the fans, my understanding of the development process in hopes to shed some light on how things work, and how you can improve your support in getting what we all want out of the franchise, boxing at its best, combined with depth, accuracy and realism.
I honestly feel that EA sent the best possible group to the Community Event:
Sports Gamer/Huge Sim fans
Derek gPhobiah and Rob gWepeelerh
Top Tournament players
Justin Aka gTerminaldh and Nick aka gC45hh
Boxing Gurufs
Anthony gIndigo72 and Q greignmakah
If I could describe the title in the only a couple of words, Ifd say gGround-Breakingh. Fight Night truly is looking to break the mold in how people view sports games and boxing games as well. Notice I said gSportsh Games. I chose those words intentionally because from what Ifve experience that is the best way to describe what Fight Night Champion has become and looks to build on.
EA has developed what I believe to be a perfect method to satisfying all fans, whilst creating new ones. Of course you all are aware that I cannot get into the specifics on game play or features. However, what I will do is provide a deeper understanding of the process EA has taken, and their rational behind the production process of Fight Night Champion.
Playing Fight Night champion for approximately 16 hours gave me one of the most realistic experiences Ifve had with boxing since I stepped away from the real ring five years ago. Now I know a lot of you will think, gOh man, here we go againc.h but Ifm serious.
I can tell you that if you have realistic expectations of what can be done within an 18 month development period, you will enjoy Fight Night Champion. I found the game to be refreshing, despite the fact that it was such an early build. While you may not find EVERYTHING youfve ever wanted in the title, I am fairly certain that even the most hardcore will find satisfaction in whatfs being offered in this installment and appreciate the great things to come in future installments.
An important thing to remember is that we brought everything to the table concerning all of your thoughts, wishes, issues and things you enjoyed. The game developers surprised all of us by presenting information that illustrated not only their awareness of what the fans want, but additional insight on how they plan to deliver the goods, and keep improving each installment.
TERM, c45h and Phobia did an excellent job of finding multiple exploits that were brought to the attention of the development team. Mike Mahar even inquired about how to perform hyper punching because he couldnft pull it off! Hahaha.
It was great shooting ideas, and raising new conceptual game play aspects with Brizzo, and showing him things he might not have considered. I was pleased to find out that Brizzo frequently gmimics/performsh a lot of the types of ideas he has when it presents itself to better illustrate his points, much like I do except hefs better at it!
gWe want the game to sell. What the hardcore guys need to realize is that the casual gamers help sell games, the casuals pay for the features that the hardcore fans want. We have to focus on increasing the market and growing in sales, to give the die-hard fans what they want. Casual gamers are essential, and we want to draw in fans that may have never picked up a boxing game before.h Mike Mahar
The words above essentially paraphrase EAfs strategy to create growth within the Combat sports genre and sports gaming genre. Fight Night Round 4 sold 2.5 Million copies, with 1.5 Million users online. EA wants to improve that number by attracting three types of gamers.
The Combat Sports gamers represent a few million people , this includes titles like Fight Night and UFC Undisputed. Sports-Center Gamers that own titles such as Madden, NBA2K, FIFA, etc, represent a larger number of gamers, with the remaining and largest group of what EA calls gComplete Gamersh. Complete Gamers buy the hottest titles out, and are known to support titles such as Fable, Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3 and Halo titles.
This may worry some of you, but please understand me when I say I have full confidence in EA pulling of what was once considered impossible. They just might be able to have something for everyone. Boxing fans will get boxing, Sports gamers will get depth and authenticity, and Complete gamers will get an interesting and engaging experience that is sure to bring them into the sport and hopefully create boxing fans out of them.
I can tell you, in talking to all the guys in attendance for the Community Day we all left with a feeling of hope, enthusiasm and excitement of the things to come. For me, Fight Night Champion feels like a brand new game, and I graciously await the opportunity to share all of the details with you in-depth.
But for now, I hope you approach this installment with realistic expectations. There are things that will surprise many of you, and if you donft find something you wanted or expected in the game, that doesnft mean they havenft considered it, or triedcbut they most likely want to bring it to you in a way, that they too can be proud of and satisfied with. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the future.
# 1
80tiesBaBy @ Nov 2
great read. but after all the BS ea has pulled off i refuse to be hooked like some fish. this game has to represent boxing if its going to be called a sim.2k has set the bar very high to the point if presentation,gameplay,aint up to par i wont even look at it.i hope u had a great time visiting ea.As a true boxing fan i really hope ea nails this one or be pretty darn close.80ties baby in da building....
# 2
II Reignmaka II @ Nov 8
Understandable, with time I think even you will be pleased with what they've offered this year.
II Reignmaka II
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