Is EA's Answer to the O'Bannon Suit to Just Use Fake Names? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Is EA's Answer to the O'Bannon Suit to Just Use Fake Names? Stuck

Posted on June 19, 2013 at 01:34 PM.

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Ever since the Ed O'Bannon/Sam Keller lawsuit was introduced, there has been much discussion amongst sports gamers as to the eventual fate of NCAA Football. Theories ranging from whether the series will be outright cancelled to completely generic rosters appearing in the game have been floated by consumers.

A month ago, EA did something strange: they admitted via a sponsored study they have used at least some college likenesses in their game.

This year, NCAA appears from both the E3 demo and the actual demo, to have dropped the numbers convention and instead will be shipping with generic names on the roster instead. While we haven't gotten any word (and likely won't) on if this is a response to that lawsuit or not officially, the timing and break from a decades old tradition seems suspect on the surface.

In previous years, NCAA has given users the option to generate generic names at the beginning of the game or use the old numbers. This year, NCAA seems to possibly have removed that feature to instead offer players a generic named roster with the old numbers as names system dropped entirely.

Regardless, I have opted to use generic names in the game ever since that option was introduced and I'm sure many others have as well. So this could just be a move that's in step with popular consumer sentiment and nothing more.

Comments

# 1 colkilla @ Jun 19

has anyone confirmed that we can actually edit the rosters in NCAA '14?

# 2 chi_hawks @ Jun 19

i was wondering the same thing colkilla. that seems to be the only thing that could ruin this game (no player editing) as the gameplay in the demo seems soild.

# 3 ponderguy @ Jun 19

names have never been a huge deal in ncaa. I know who the stars are and will normally name the big name guys. Once you're 4-5 years in they'll all be gone anyways so it's not that big of a deal to me

# 4 lil_marcio @ Jun 19

Besides ppl always have or can get and download the rosters with ppl actual names and numbers!

# 5 khaliib @ Jun 19

To be honest Chris, it's the answer to getting around the need to fork out millions just to use anything dealing with NCAA.

Build the foundation of the game with generic visual skins (logo's, stadiums, banners, broadcast teams etc...)and provide an uniform/logo editor (Backbreaker Style) and the community will create the teams they want.

I never understood why this concept has not hit home yet.

Provide an editor that allows the injection of certain artwork onto the games visual skins, and there's no money to pay for likeness, use or anything.

It's the gamer that created that college team/player through the editor, not EA.

Just my thought on the subject.

# 6 The_Wise_One @ Jun 20

Didn't even think about this. Valid points.

# 7 pjburrage @ Jun 20

It certainly was interesting seeing the names when playing the demo, one thing though, the loading screen still had the players as QB #2.

# 8 The JareBear @ Jun 23

Ben even made a point without even being asked about it to say something about "totally generic rosters" in that interview posted on the forum recently.

Interesting stuff