FIFA: Time to Improve the MLS Experience

[RaychelSnr]

Playing career mode with an MLS team in FIFA is like that nagging feeling you get when you're watching Man City play–everything looks good on the surface, but there's an undercurrent of inauthenticity running through it.

In real life, the biggest soccer league in the continent is an interesting hybrid of Europe and North America: While the action on the pitch mirrors a match you’d find on the other side of the Atlantic, off the field things are more North American—there’s a players draft, trading instead of buying and selling, and a salary cap (along with which comes a slew of special player quotas). But in the FIFA series, the MLS is just another league in the Career Mode, still stuck with the European management system. The MLS experience in FIFA needs improving, this much is obvious.

Read More - FIFA: Time to Improve the MLS Experience

[Big_Mig_11]

Great read. I agree with most of the article, that there needs to be an MLS specific software for the platforms in order to capture MLS stadiums, atmospheres, rules, playoff seeding, etc. The appetite for MLS fans can be had with a "MLS Mode" moving forward with FIFA, but down the line, there should be a revamped version of FIFA, like the World Cup games and Champions League.

[DukesofHazzard]

I agree with everything in this article. You know they used to have a fifa euro edition game why can't they come out with an MLS version of fifa. Everything MLS with the game.

[Blublub]

Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

[Blublub]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blublub

Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

Not to mention there actually was a dedicated Konami MLS game many years back that was actually pretty good yet sold miserably. I doubt EA wants to go there.

[illaim]

Sans the shot at City, I salute this very good post

[js3512]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blublub

Hmmm...wouldn't the easier solution be for the MLS to drop the silly rules that try to shoehorn soccer into "the American sporting experience"? I mean you'd think twenty years into the league they would stop trying to cater to "casual fans" and make the league conform with the international game. Hell, get rid of the centralized player allocation, add promotion/relegation with the other US leagues and you'd see a huge interest in the league from hardcore fans.

If MLS only caters to hardcore fans then it will fail miserably because there's just not enough of those on this side of the pond. As for the casual fans, they're engrained into the way American sports do things and the European way doesn't make sense to us. It'd be like us switching to the metric system for everything. I hate the way European fans think they know what's best for us.

Back to the OP, I agree with pretty much everything you said, if I could have a more MLS type of game I'd be more inclined to buy because I have 0 interest in following a European league or team. I don't care if their players are more talented, I simply can't connect with a team or league that's so far away.

All this may be moot though with the PS4 arriving later in the year as there should be no reason they can't include all of the MLS stuff without it messing with the rest of the game.

[JJT]

Ya on the next gen systems there will be no excuse to not make this league great.