NCAA Football and Ultimate Team, The Ultimate Cultural Mismatch - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

NCAA Football and Ultimate Team, The Ultimate Cultural Mismatch Stuck

Posted on April 4, 2013 at 10:51 AM.

(16)

Name three things you think about when I say college football.

For me, it is tradition, pagentry, classic programs, classic coaches, the stadiums, the rivalries. Oh, yeah, and the great players.

Understandably so, when I heard NCAA Football 14 was getting Ultimate Team mode, I wasn't surprised. Digital revenues are a priority at Electronic Arts these days and ultimate team modes are how they seem to be driving digital revenues in their sports titles.

But Ultimate Team modes are built around players, and player cards.

College football is built around programs, tradition, rivalries, and pageantry.

Has there been a bigger mismatch in college athletics since Howard Schnellenberger became the coach at the University of Oklahoma? Or what about when San Diego State about joined a conference named the Big East?

Yeah, those were the days.

College football, at its heart, is not built around individual players. How can it be? Players are around for four years on average, five years at best, and in the case of two broken knees and a heck of an NCAA appeal later, six years.

Players don't define programs so much as seasons do. Rivalries versus other programs. Conferences, prime time games to decide the fate of an entire season across sixty minutes in the middle of September.

College football and ultimate team, at least how we know it, are such a mismatch you'd be better off putting Marshall Faulk into a golf game and calling it kosher -- oh wait.

I can understand the pressure the NCAA team faces -- I know those guys are incredibly passionate about college football. If you don't believe you are willfully blind to the great personalities making the game. Where the breakdown occurs is probably a step above developers, from people looking to push a revenue agenda, who have no idea what college football is all about.

In part I pity the NCAA team as much as I loathe the desire to push digital revenue in this manner to customers who probably don't care about it.

So color me skeptical about college football and ultimate team mixing, because I simply don't see how this is a marriage that could possibly work.

To me, the better way to push digital content for college football is to try to create a dynasty scenario mode and offer downloadables that way -- with historical teams and situations. Imagine trying to win two straight National Championships as Alabama the last two seasons, or having to win 47 straight games with the 1950s Oklahoma Sooners. What about dominating the competition like 1995 Nebraska did?

And perhaps digital content isn't a seller with NCAA -- that is fine as well. But dipping into nostalgia with classic players is the wrong approach to college football's history. People talk about teams and seasons and games just as quickly as they will talk players and performances.

The cultural mismatch of Ultimate Team in NCAA Football is staggering, so it will be interesting to see how NCAA Football 14 manages to bridge this gap.

Comments

# 1 ponderguy @ Apr 4

how can they even do a UT mode in NCAA? will it be all licensed legends or what? They can't use current players, so will we be getting QB #2 from Texas A&M?

# 2 khaliib @ Apr 4

This isn't Madden...

They need to get the game right 1st before trying to gauge even more money from gamers.

Madden had some added tidbits to it over the years that allow the guard of gamers to be down, that allowed them to slide some DLC Junk that some actually spent their money on.

NCAA "is not" Madden.

The game is far behind and needs to be developed at the level it should be at.

But some body will buy (for some unknown reason), that's why it's being added.

# 3 herropreese @ Apr 4

UT with best NCAA legends would be a lot of fun. Especially with all the different offenses you would be able to run. Lots of possibilities.

# 4 ggsimmonds @ Apr 4

EA is something else. At times it almost seems like they try to create a negative image for themselves. I would really like to meet the executives at EA.

# 5 believeinnow @ Apr 4

funny how there isn't college fantasy football, or at least that it's not that common. I think this could be an interesting idea. So what if it doesn't work, no one is putting a gun to our heads to play it. Let's reserve judgement until next month when details are revealed.

# 6 malky @ Apr 4

Unfortunately I'm not surprised by some of EAs moves they are becoming par for the course smh

# 7 Indyboy180 @ Apr 4

This is going to be a disaster.

# 8 Cletus @ Apr 4

This won't be a disaster, this will be a big seller for EA. People eat this stuff up. The more and more I play EA games, the more I realize they don't care about Operation Sports or sim players. The developers probably do and a lot of them want to implement ideas that we suggest, but the suits don't care.

# 9 Birdman18 @ Apr 4

You start off the column by asking what three things come to our minds, yet you list 7 that come to yours.

Nevertheless, Ultimate Team in NCAA will be bad. I'm not a fan of it in any game, really.

# 10 johnnyg713 @ Apr 5

UT is basically a hibrid of online play now matches and offline franchise. You build your team and take it online to play other people. I don't understand why they just dont have a online franchise built around play now games. Build your team, recruit, deal with player injuries, etc. while you play random games whenever you want. If someone gets hurt on the team then they can have it be 3 matches or w.e.

EA wants to generate revenue. Couple easy ways. Want an injuried player healthy instead of sitting 4 game? Then pay. Want a better scouting coach your first year as a head coach? Pay. Want a recruit to come to your school without doing the actual work. Pay! (guess that would set a bad example)

# 11 Feldman011teen @ Apr 5

G-I-M-M-I-C-K

# 12 drog1602 @ Apr 6

So they spend all of this development time on UT, while the core game still suffers. EA is killing their sports titles with their greed.
Put me down as " Not Purchasing" NCAA14