Fixing the Off-Season Problem in Online Dynasty - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Fixing the Off-Season Problem in Online Dynasty Stuck

Posted on April 7, 2010 at 06:05 PM.

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As many of you may know, I'm a huge NCAA Football (the sport) fan. Likewise, one of the games in our genre I take the biggest interest in is EA Sports' NCAA Football simply because I live in the heart of College Football country. I want to see the game succeed, and I likewise spend a bit more time than most on the game in the offseason than most would.

I was chatting with a friend today about NCAA Football's online dynasty and the improvements made to Bowl Week. While he praised the move -- as do I -- the bigger problem with Online Dynasty is the mind-numbingly long offseason.

It takes way too long to finish the offseason in my opinion, and for those running online dynasties, you are offered nothing more than a huge delay in the mode when most want to get back on the field ASAP. In my opinion, the whole off-season could be simplified in a much more user-friendly -- and online dynasty friendly -- way.

First off on my list would be making the offseason a two step process. First you would have recruiting and transfers and then you would have everything else. So on a basic level, you'd have additions and subtractions to your roster and then you'd have roster and schedule management. I see no reason to require players to step through each individual process when you could simply have players mark they are ready in order to advance as they do each process.

Recruiting is fine as-is, but it definitely needs to be streamlined. As-is, the recruiting process can take forever to complete since online dynasties have to step through each week and someone who is a slacker can slow things down hardcore. Other than completely revamping how the mode looks (which I think needs to be done to streamline info) I think recruiting should also be changed in implementation.

While that is an article all to itself, I think time should be only a part of an overall equation which includes a budget based on your school size and success. Regardless, recruiting needs to work where players can dynamically complete it on their own pace while not waiting on other players to finish each week. Look for a series on sports gaming off-season's coming soon!

What do you think about the off-season in NCAA Football's dynasty mode? What would you do to improve it?

Comments

# 1 RynoAid @ Apr 7

at Tradition Football most of our leagues bang out the offseason in 1 night.. takes about 2-3 hours. We set time limits on each round of recruiting and advance on schedule to insure a timely get together. Not everyone can make it all the time, so we allow for other community members to sub in for coaches if there's a conflict and the whole system works pretty good.

I can't imagine being in a OD that lacks a forum or set of communication tools outside of the game and having to wait week after week for the commish to advance through offseason recruiting.... booooo..

i think the experience really depends on the league you are apart of.