Pucking Ridiculous (The OBG Chronicles): Developer Dialogue

[Bama83]

Quote: Originally Posted by ms24forever

If $65 hurts a persons pocketbook too much, then video games is not a hobbie for people to invest in.

It's not that $65 hurts my pocketbook. In the least. My question to you then, is if $65 doesn't let me purchase what I want -- at what price point am I allowed to actually get what I want when I pay for something?

Let's take the scenario:

I go into the local convenience store and I buy a Dr. Pepper for $1.25. I open my Dr. Pepper and to my surprise it's Pepsi. Should I heed your "hurt my pocketbook principle" and not return it?

Am I wrong to think I should go back and get my Dr. Pepper because that's what I paid for?

Quote:

I hate the arguement about it's their hard earned money. People like to complain and they use this as a reason to do so.

As rightly they should.

Every person on the planet, regardless of wealth, has a set disposable income. Everyone. Wealth is finite. These people can spend it on whatever they wish. Getting that dollar from the workers is competitive as there are so many options.

If I purchase something I have every right to expect the product I bought to live up to my expectation. If it does not, it is my right (and the sellers obligation) to listen to why I felt it did not live up to the expectation. Sometimes it's realistic, sometimes not.

Quote:

The best part about those who constantly complain about sport games, is they have no idea about what goes into making a video game.

Correction - I don't rightly care. It's not my problem. (BTW, I do know)

I don't know what goes into making Chicken Tikka Masala, but I know when I bite into it whether or not it's good.

The same principle can be applied to my iPhone, my Infiniti FX50 or recent construction on my home.

Quote:

Entitlement is a huge problem, however hopefully with the new rules at OS, these people will be banned and we will not have to read what they think.

What is your solution?

We go back to the stone age and disregard the tool called the internet as it may allow people to voice their opinions. Which in turn help drive the development cycle. Which in turn drives sales. Which in turn drives opinions.

Or perhaps we'll have a love-in wherein we all espouse the virtues of the NHL series. Anyone that says anything disruptive to our love-in will be banned from the group? Fun times ahead.

If you don't think all the criticism (and love) heaped upon the NHL series isn't a valuable tool to the developers than think again.

[allstar3970]

I agree to an extent with the article. No matter what they fix it's either A) "good, should've been done already" or B) "well what about this next minute detail i thought of now that the other one is in there"

[Vikes1]

First off, I didn't realize there was a problem with how the NHL devs were being treated here on our board. I certainly can't claim to have read every single post...but I do follow the board nearly on a daily basis. And at least to my memory, I can't recall a post that I would have considered rude or nasty.

I don't mean to blow off Stephen's article...but again, to my knowledge..the interaction has gone extremely well between us and the devs. Of course just my opinion.

It's been my belief from the start, that the interaction has been handled very well. The devs that have been here haven't to my knowledge, made any pie in the sky claims about what to expect from the game. That they have been much more factual than hype ridden on whats to be expected from the game. And it seemed to me...that most people here have appreciated the frankness.

I sure hope that Stephen doesn't take offense to this post. I certainty don't mean for it to offend. But myself...I just haven't really seen a problem.

[onlybygrace]

Looks like the range of feedback I expected...

Some who believe I'm wrong, some who agree, and those who believe there is no reason for the subject to be considered.

I'm quite sure the truth is somewhere in between.

As far as offending me goes, its pretty hard to do. I know what I'm in for with you guys.

[b3organ]

I'll say good read. People must remember that although this forum represents very small section of gamers there is quite a variation even among us. People come with different backgrounds, age, etc. and these things affect how we value this "community involvement"-thing. And I must also say that I haven't seen bad attitude towards Jason in the NHL section. I can't say if the things have changed but those bad messages I've seen were in the Madden section where the devs are also very active (or at least were). And I also think that because our minds have been open and respectful it has been an easy task for Jason to come and interact. I feel that this involvement is special (no other games have such a strong involvement, imo) and we must keep it so that both sides are satisfied. And those who claim that it's their job. True but still no other dev team have made it so good. Jason even answers to private messages quickly. And because Bama83 likes examples. For me it's same as you would have an entitled repair person for your new car. Just give a call and he'll come as Jason answers.

[slapdinger69]

I have to say that the NHL dev team has definitely beefed up their user interaction and listened to us the last few years. In the old days somewhere between 96 and 2005'ish they would just add gimmicky features and never listened to what we really wanted. They have stepped it up recently by updating the rosters more frequently and releasing a patch here and there.

Now with any product everyone has different expectations. Some people are thrilled with the final product and there's some that you will never ever satisfy even if ovechkin came out of the screen and gave you personal celebration lessons. BUT, theres always a butt... I understand that some things are just how they are and can't be fixed, but the one thing that really pissed me off is the GM bug where if you play as your AHL team and save it you can't go back to your NHL team. I think that is something that needs to be fixed. Thats like putting your car in reverse and not being able to put it back into drive. The salary cap issues with star players getting stuck as free agents and crappy trades going on really need to get fixed as well. They really shouldn't half *** things, Either do it right or don't include that feature until its been fully tested.

[quietcool72]

To some extent, I can agree. But I think the fundamental problem is that defensive AI on both hockey products has not progressed to the point that the rest of the game has. EA's way to compensate for that was super-human netminders who can rarely if ever be beaten on a good, quick, open shot. 2K's answer for bad defensive AI was to give a speed cheat to the AI skaters on D. Both issues make the game feel contrived (especially in the EA product- when you can outshoot the CPU team by such drastic shot numbers and still lose regularly..as the AI can score contrived garbage goals that the AI netminder on their side would almost never let in.)

But, to a bigger issue, I see a curious shift of how site admin runs forums on OS, ever since the EA devs started coming here. So there's this new attitude from OS writers of "many complain too much".

An interesting shift, and, dare I say, curious. Then we have things like the NCAA 10 review score...among others...

[Winnipeg59]

Great thread.

Obviously you will not be able to satisfy all the people, all the time. For some gameplay is a priority, for others it's stats, realistic simming, better drafting and yet others want a realistic avatar black-eye when they finish a fight. And there are passionate people who trumpet each of those things as "live or die" features they need and voice their passion accordingly.

From a business standpoint, I'm sure the developers are either concerned with or guided in specific directions to develop and expand their brand. They have to walk the precarious tightrope of keeping the core users (and hardcore users) happy and excited each release, yet also find a way to bring more people to the party that is EA NHL. And that may mean totally casual users who may not even have a clue about hockey...and putting things in the game that a hardcore user simply can't imagine spending precious development time on!

The internet gives everyone a relatively equal voice and sometimes the vocal minority take better advantage of that.

Constructive criticsm and well thought out suggestions from one side should be balanced with communication and response (while maintaining the intergrity of the business) from the other side.

Making sure whatever the developers/EA do decide to put into the game works as flawlessly as possible, either out-of-the-box or via timely patches, so that both hardcore and newcomer are impressed (even blown away) goes long and hard to keeping any/all EA NHL fans thrilled!

Ultimately it's probably better to have even rigorous debate than to have users simply go elsewhere with whatever disposable income they have...

That too is always the fine line the developers walk!

Either way, I am excited about what NHL11 will have for me when it arrives!!!