Dynasties Past and Present - Operation Sports

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Dynasties Past and Present

Submitted on: 06/30/2008 by Noah Weber

By now most of us have played the NCAA Football 09 demo, and know a little bit about what to expect gameplay-wise from EA’s latest college football offering. However, there is little indication that the dynasty mode has changed much since last year (aside of course from being able to run a dynasty online with 11 of your friends).

If you’re reading this, you’re probably the type who takes their dynasties a bit more seriously than the next man; more power to you. Let’s take a quick look back at how far dynasty mode has come, and think about where it needs to go in the future.

It all started with NCAA ’98, featuring the great Danny Wuerffel. That was the first year EA implemented a multi-season “dynasty” mode, which allowed players to play consecutive seasons while recruiting to replace graduating players at the end of every season. It was quite a bare bones system, as I recall, and offered little more than continuity to the traditional single-season system.

NCAA ’99, which featured my personal hero Charles Woodson on the cover, expanded upon the dynasty concept by adding more teams, more bowls, and a new recruiting system which was really more like a draft than anything else. These additions helped make dynasties a little more dynamic. Perhaps the biggest addition, however, was the ability to export draft classes to Madden '99 - a huge feature to this day.

Dynasty Mode has evolved over the years to include in-depth features.

NCAA 2000 added even more teams and bowls, plus the coveted Heisman trophy. Having the opportunity for one of your players to win the award gave new incentive for playing through dynasties and offered a reward for those who excelled at the game. This allowed for true legends to emerge, and again went a long way towards capturing the true allure of building up a powerhouse.

The 2001 edition added customizable schedules, helping to disrupt the monotony of playing the same teams year after year. However, ’03 is where the game took one of its biggest leaps to date, implementing redshirting, non-conference schedules, countless new trophies and awards, and a trophy room to show them all of in. With ’03, we were able to start earning keepsakes of our various successes, and had a place to keep them all and show them off.

This is where dynasty mode went from just playing season after season, to really allowing each experience to be unique. You could see which random stud recruit you had win the Heisman, or could recount each time you beat a rival. NCAA ’03 was the year dynasty mode became a real obsession for me.

"Dynasty mode has slowly evolved into a complex and dynamic gaming experience, but what’s next?"

NCAA ’06 added in-season recruiting - the last major change to dynasty mode. This was crucial for immersing ourselves in the long-haul workings of our team, forcing us to think about where we would be in a few years versus where we were. This was also a lot more realistic, and allowed our in-season performance to more directly affect recruiting.

Lastly, ’08 added the new calling system which was in my opinion tedious. I loved having to take time on each recruit, but once I figured out what he liked I didn’t want to have to do the same thing over and over week after week. Hopefully that will be addressed this year with the “quick-calling” feature, but only time will tell.

So that’s where we stand. Dynasty mode has slowly evolved into a complex and dynamic gaming experience, but what’s next? Personally, what keeps me coming back to dynasty mode is the specific teams and players I have developed over the years.

In NCAA 05, my friend and I built Arizona into a powerhouse that by 2030 had the most dominant defense the game had ever seen. We had two 6' 8" outside linebackers name Bob Sanders (like the safety) and Khaled Curry, and a 99 overall defensive end named Ramon Lucas. Offensively we had a 6' 9" tight end named Alonzo Charles who was unstoppable. The thing I always remember about that team is that they were never knocked backwards on tackles, offensively or defensively.

In ’06, we ran a dynasty with Army that we will always remember for one wideout – LatTroy Allison. He was only a four star, 6' 2" with a 4.40, but something about him made him an absolute animal. With me controlling him, and my friend as quarterback, we could accumulate 400 yards a game easy. It was cheesing, but goodness was it fun.

NCAA Football 09 Videos

Member Comments

# 1 mudtiger @ 06/30/08 06:47 PM

Biggest dynasty improvement needed - make it harder. Turning a 1 star school into a bcs winner should be downright hard if not a shade under impossible. Every year I have to use self imposed house rules to keep dynasties even remotely challenging.

# 2 Village Idiot @ 06/30/08 06:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mudtiger


	Biggest dynasty improvement needed - make it harder.

Yup, and part of that process involves tweaking the prestige system so that the big boys don't fall off the map in three years. If a six-star program doesn't finish in the top ten, they drop to five-stars. Well riddle me this, EA: Why is Notre Dame still a six-star program every single year? Obviously even YOU don't agree with how your system works.

# 3 auburntigersfan @ 06/30/08 07:06 PM

it's way too easy for me to get national championships after national championships, so I agree also. It needs to be harder.

# 4 ronaldc33 @ 06/30/08 08:31 PM

well if you really want a challenge we have online dynasties now, with 12 active members somebody's bound to be at the bottom of the barrel.

# 5 ohyeahbaby123 @ 06/30/08 09:03 PM

Does anyone know if they made the dynasties harder this year? If dynasties are harder this year, then I might be in heaven lol.

# 6 Freezer Boy @ 06/30/08 10:07 PM

I also hope they made dynasty harder this year. When you play as a good team it just gets to easy to recruit anyone you want. Like someone else said I generally have to set some rules for my self.

# 7 bofa @ 06/30/08 11:52 PM

This is my first post, and this is a subject near and dear. I have been a fan of this site for a while. I agree with the whole movement to make it harder. I can never seem to find the correct balance with the sliders and difficulty levels. However, here is my Dynasty dream.. I want to be able to build a university from absolutely nothing and play the role of coach and athletic director. You have a budget to spend each year and how you spend it effects your schools growth. Everything from building the Stadium, recruiting players, to the team uniforms should come at a cost. You should be able to earn money through attendance (dynamic attendance is essential), bowl appearances, and boosters, ect.. I want to be able to create my very own university, and watch the team get better with players, the stadium get bigger, and the fan base grow year to year� and so on. Also, the more I spend on my weight room will help my current roster players become stronger next year, and will help me better recruit an athlete who wants good workout facilities.. The more I spend on academics would increase my players awareness / intelligence year to year, but also allow me to sign smarter athletes. I want to start as a non conference independent school and hand pick scrub schools in hopes of squeaking out a few wins in the first couple seasons, then getting invited to join a mid-major conference (i.e. MAC), to eventually being invited to join a BCS Conference. I want to be able to go from watching my team playing in a farm field with a single bleacher holding barley 100 people.. No scoreboard, nothing.. To playing in front of 100k plus in a state of the art stadium I designed.. That is my dream Dynasty..

# 8 StayPlation82 @ 07/01/08 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bofa


	I agree with the whole movement to make it harder. ...play the role of coach and athletic director... That is my dream Dynasty..

you make some good points, but making the franchise harder will only create post from people saying that the AI is whacked or the computer cheated, when you're good a year of games is not challenging therefore you win all of your games. you should make it harder on yourself by any means necessary. Or simply give the dynasty mode itself a difficulty level different from the gameplay level.
But Bofa makes some good points, i've been saying for past couple of years (with no one of real importance to listen) that you have to add an A.D. Mode (Athletic Director Mode). it took Madden to an all new high when Owner mode was implemented and it'll do the same for college. you have to add the ability to change uniforms, improve or rebuild stadiums and have it to where its visually different, every bowl appearance makes more money for the school, improve the work out facility which helps in recruiting and player progression, add tv contracts, uniform contracts, start fresh with a created school(as an option) or just pick any existing school, if D1-AA schools are on there, import one of those and also add the ability to export the dynasty team for regular games and online. cause when you say you have a 6'9" tight end that can't be stopped i want that challenge!

# 9 carlhungis @ 07/01/08 04:06 AM

I am with Bofa and I have been wishing for it for MANY years now. I know that EA wants to trickle the features in to keep us coming back for more, but something like dynamic attendance has been around since baseball-stars on the NES, so I know they can do it.

To me, I would really like the offseason to be deeper. Stadium expansions and facility upgrades are a really big deal in the real world. Many recruits are swayed by a school having world class facilities. It is hard to imagine making a 1 star school into a National Champion and always being forced to play in the same dumpy stadium year after year.

I had high hopes that at least the facility upgrades would make it into this year, especially in light of NCAA March Madness having that feature this time.

It is kind of depressing to see all of the effort and change that went in to the upcoming versions of Madden and (for now) Live, but currently my favorite game NCAA Football is looking like a roster update with a few tweaks for us offline dynasty dwellers.

The lack of info on the dynasty features is not inspiring.

# 10 saylab 33 @ 07/01/08 04:19 AM

I would like to see all those things. The stadium improvements, and the facility improvements. But the thing I would like to see the most, personally, is the ability to change the uniforms and sign deals with the different companies. A feature that would have to go along with this to make making new uniforms better, is a better uniform creator. Not like the one from create a team on Madden, but a whole new dynamic uniform creator.

I also like the idea of being able to create-a-school or take a FCS team and import them into the FBS.

# 11 labguy @ 07/01/08 10:55 AM

"The lack of info on the dynasty features is not inspiring. "

Granted they did not give offline dynasty people a lot of new features. Quick call is the only thing I believe. With that being said though the addition of the online dynasty feature is HUGE. That had to be a big undertaking. I like the ideas of upgrading facilities and whatnot, but if I had to choose I think online dynasties are WAY more important. I give the NCAA team a big pat on the back this year. Maybe next year they can focus on the offline dynasty suggestions mentioned above, but ripping them this year seems unfair IMO.

# 12 StayPlation82 @ 07/01/08 03:00 PM

yeah i agree, no reason to rip them this year for dynasty, i'm looking forward to this, it better live up!

# 13 carlhungis @ 07/02/08 12:19 AM

I'm not ripping them. I am just saying that there is not much to get excited about if you are not playing online.

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