A Letter To EA on how to (Finally) Fix NCAA's Presentation Problem... - RaychelSnr's Blog

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A Letter To EA on how to (Finally) Fix NCAA's Presentation Problem... Stuck

Posted on July 11, 2012 at 11:23 AM.

(75)

I'm a broadcast guy. A film guy. A creative pro. Nothing gets past me when it comes to camera angles, bad audio mixing, and mistimed lines.

So imagine my horror when I play NCAA Football 13.

The presentation isn't bad. It's solid, or maybe merely ok for a game. But solid presentation in video game sports means it's actually quite terrible in comparison to broadcast TV. Several games in our genre do a pretty good job of mimicking broadcast style presentations -- I'm looking at you The Show, NBA 2K and even Madden.

But for some reason, across the hall from Madden's excellent presentational approach is the NCAA team and what is quickly becoming the worst presentation in major sports titles. In fact, it probably is.

Can you think of a game that's worse?

I think we can establish there is clearly a problem here. So what's the solution? I've got a simple list of goals for EA's crew down in Orlando to follow when assembling this year's game:

Define what your are presenting. This one should be easy. You are either presenting a game as from in the stadium or on TV. Every other game in our genre has chosen the broadcast route because most people see sports from that vantage point so it enhances realism -- regardless of what the gameplay does. So NCAA team: freaking decide you are actually mimicking a TV broadcast. Nail that down. Internalize it. Honestly go to the Himalayas like Bruce Wayne did before becoming Batman and find yourself. Then come back ready to rock and roll.
Study college football broadcasts. Get in the film room and don't watch football. Watch the camera angles. Watch the score tickers, stat boxes, the commentary team. Watch how college football is presented on a Saturday. NCAA Football does not do this experience justice. It just doesn't.
Implement real camera angles. Now that you have studied broadcasts, you no doubt have realized that your game does not use actual camera angles. College Football broadcasts don't have dynamic swooping cinematic crane shots in between plays. They show shots of players, coaches, fans. It's all emotion. It's all passion. It's not a Steven Spielberg film. If you are confused, go ask your Madden brothers, they'll help you get started down the right path.
Make commentary flow. The commentary in NCAA Football has a serious problem. *wait 10 seconds before reading on* There are serious breaks between lines of commentary. *wait 5 seconds before reading on* And we all know conversations flow with massive breaks in between people talking right? *wait 10 seconds before reading on* So maybe this should be a point to fix next year eh?
Mix the audio properly. The first thing I notice about NCAA is how messed up the audio levels are when I'm in a game. The bands overpower the crowd, the crowd chants sound like 500 people are chanting them with the band overpowering everyone. The crowd noise period sounds like a studio crowd -- despite all claims to the contrary. Simply put, bring in any actual broadcast audio guy and have him work on the game -- because whoever is doing it now overall just doesn't get how to mix audio. I do it as part of my living, and I could spend three hours and have the audio mixed at more acceptable levels.
Stadium crowds are more dynamic than that. Remember those college football broadcasts? Remember how the fans were loud on defense? Remember how the fans would roar to their feet when a deep ball was thrown and they'd either erupt or a big sigh would be let out depending on what happened down field? Now ask yourself: Do the crowds in the game even remotely begin to convey this type of passion?
Make the week a storyline, not a bunch of random cut scenes. I want to give the NCAA team plenty of credit for a good start. Seriously. The studio updates and score ticker were great beginnings. But a college football week is more than that. There are storylines, other games affect your game. Commentators should make note of that -- they should be able to adequately describe the implications of what exactly is at stake. Let's use our imaginations and ask ourselves if an exchange like this would be amazing in NCAA (yes it's simplified and cheesy but just go with it)...and ask yourself if it's technically feasible. *spoiler* It is.

Reece: Well guys it looks like a major upset is in store here with this one. The #1 team in the Nation is going down tonight.
Brad: Thanks for the update Reece. Boy Kirk, I don't know about you but that makes this game a whole lot more important.
Kirk: It sure does, that means the winner of this game is now definitely going to be playing for the National Championship.

I mean...this isn't rocket science. It's time to go beyond novelty and add some real depth to the presentation.
Players aren't zombies. When a play is blown dead, players shouldn't randomly and aimlessly begin walking in every direction, bumping into each other or walking through each other. Is it that hard to give players a post-play script to move back to a huddle or to hurry it up back onto the line?
Hire someone to insert the actual records from each school and the NCAA into the game. I swear if I break an NCAA all-time receiving record for a game with 200 yards again, I'm going to cry into a pillow for the audacity of it all.
Finally, those stat banners and overlays? Starting lineups? Yeah, there should be more of them and more relevant items popping up. Ever notice how broadcasts will artificially insert storylines into games? For instance, show a stat box with QB #12's all time stats compared to the top record holders at Oklahoma for passing? Or in another instance a stat box or overlay with an old storyline from an old rivalry game. I know for a lot of big games the broadcasts will hearken back to the old games and show a picture or some video with a story of that game. Because College Football isn't just about the now, it's about the then. And Broadcast pros get that, people experienced the then and they see how it makes the now bigger.

What if you saw these types of overlays and knew you were closing in on, say, the actual NCAA record for all-time passing yards set by Timmy Chang? Would knowing you are 430 yards away not add some intrigue to a game? Would seeing an old rivalry result from the 80s not add context to the rivalry game you are playing? There's just so much unexplored territory here.

What would you all change about the presentation in NCAA Football for the 14 edition of the game?

Comments

# 31 kingsofthevalley @ Jul 11

Oh yeah, and those sprinkler cams and walking dead players ARE horrendous.

# 32 jmo2278 @ Jul 11

Great write up! It's such a simple concept and with the trend in sports games these days, TV broadcast presentation seems like a no brainer. No creativity needed at all just make it look like it does on TV. NBA 2k is my favorite sports series right now and although it has gameplay issues that make me wanna pull my hair out sometimes, the grade A presentation covers up alot of issues I have with the series. I still to this day will hear Clark and Co. say things that I havnt heard. In franchise they talk about previous matchups, standings, hot streaks, all star voting etc. etc. We get halftime highlights, scores/updates from around the league, pre game highlights, overlays, wipes, etc. etc....

NCAA is even worse than nba2k when it comes to legacy gameplay issues but if everything in this list was implemented it would go a long way in covering up the stink from gameplay issues. Most developers realize that it may be impossible to deliver %100 authentic gameplay but it is possible to deliver true to life presentation. At this point there is no excuse for having mediocre gameplay AND mediocre presentation!

NCAA is still fun to me for the moment but in a couple months it will be long forgotten when I'm playing madden waiting for 2k and the other non sport fall releases. Which is sad because last gen we always played NCAA until the new one came out.

# 33 Brian_OS @ Jul 11

And what year did Madden have excellent presentation?

# 34 RUFFNREADY @ Jul 11

How can ONE man think of all these great things to easliy add to the game; but there are a dozen or so of them (EA dev team) sitting in a romm brainstorming on what to add and subtract for next years version? EA suits must be ready to sell all there stock! lol
this is just a crying shame; it actually is pathetic; because chris isnt even on their payroll, or testing team! lmao
You know the time has come to jump ship, when a team cant even present a product for the present times!
cheers, great write up Chris.

# 35 reignjah11 @ Jul 11

great article, what they should also do especially for the big games is use the abc saturday night theme/intro and have brent musberger do commentary. jus little stuff like that make a gm feel more special. also like mlb the show, real time camera cuts would be great! the current pre game intro gotta go and they should use the real intro and monolith of an espn broadcast.

# 36 bonannogiovanni @ Jul 11

Great article Chris, but I'm afraid you're gonna write another one very similar after reviewing NCAA 14....

# 37 SkillzKillz719 @ Jul 12

I'm statisfied with this game. Everyone always wants a revolution and that's not reasonable. But that being said, I will NOT buy 14 if it resembles 13 the way it did 12 and 11.

But for now I'm in the novelty stage

# 38 JohnDoe8865 @ Jul 12

Great piece.

# 39 JerzeyReign @ Jul 12

Great read -- gotta let 'em know -- this is OS -- don't be bringing Kool-Aid to a gin party lol

# 40 beeneeb @ Jul 12

I completely agree with everything you said, especially the post-play zombies. Also, I'm a big time "stats whore" and I love to see those overlays during broadcasts. They make each game "unique" and add some much needed differentiation from game to game. I think that the ticker and the Studio Updates should have been added years ago. However, I think that they're heading in the right direction.

I used to run a NCAA Football blog a few years ago and I just got sick of the lack of creativity from the dev team. So, I basically abandoned the site. However, as soon as I saw your article, I remembered that I wrote a similar article back in September of 2009. You can check it out here:

http://ncaafootballfreak.com/2009/09...a-football-11/

# 41 tril @ Jul 12

you shoudl be truthful,and just say that the presentaion is bad. This article clearly points that out.
If you said that the

# 42 Tide_Fan @ Jul 12

Excellent points Chris and 100% true. I have been a huge fan of the NCAA series for a long time now and the games commentary is a joke. I can tell what they are gonna say just from going by last years game although they did stick a few new lines in the game but the majority of the time they don't correspond with what is happening on the field. Until someone like 2K sports gets back into the football series and puts some competition into EA's *** EA sports will keep laughing all the way to the bank.

I read online that the NFL license EA has expires after this years NFL season's Super Bowl and pray to god it is true and hope it doesn't get renewed again. It sure is funny they wait until the final year to add a new engine and try to make major upgrades to it. Like someone else said if this was a $29.99 upgrade pack i wouldn't complain but this was not a $60 dollar upgrade in my opinion for what we got. Heck the $45 deal from Amazon is still pushing it.
The gameplay is solid in dynasty mode but other than that i cant say much for it. Glad to see this many people agree on this article.

# 43 jwilphl @ Jul 12

I applaud your list and agree with it 100%, but welcome to the last decade of NCAA football. It has been this way every year, and occasionally they will add something to mix it up (e.g. the ticket this year), but generally they do not get the big picture.

Perhaps they don't hear the voice of reason, or perhaps they just don't care. I imagine they are presenting the game the way they want, as there is not really any other reason for so little change over the decade. I had actually compiled a similar list to this years ago, so just like you, I feel the EA team lacks direction entirely (or just does not care).

Also I find the presentation in EA's NHL series to be equally poor, perhaps even worse, than NCAA. Madden only very recently started to get the picture, and FIFA does an adequate job but could still do so much better. I'd have to say NCAA Basketball '10 still has the most realistic presentation to date (in replicating a TV broadcast), but I have not seen much of 2K's NBA series. Hell 2K5's presentation still outdoes almost every game currently on the market. That to me is pathetic and sad.

# 44 geezmeister @ Jul 13

Agree 100%. Arkansas is a top 10 team and they got our %^*+*^%�� fight song wrong. I am so disappointed. I mean how do you miss that kind of stuff.

# 45 noplace @ Jul 13

Could not agree more. I just dont understand what the issue is with this dev team. Its like they purposely ignore this then sale they've worked on it year in and year out. Whats the problem EA?

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