NBA Live 14 Release Date Set For November 19th, New Gameplay Screenshot Included

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by knick9

So you know who the developers are but they aren't publicly available to answer questions? Or aren't allowed to? Like I said, EA can best 2K in that department by better communication with their customers which it sounds like (if you read a recent interview with their new CEO) is one of their priorities. Not the case with 2K.

LOL. One, EA will never do that. They dont even let their devs post on their OWN forums. The ones that are on twitter (like Josh Looman of Madden) pick and choose which answers they want to provide. Its rare they ever provide any real feedback and usually just retweets of posts that are praising the game.

Also if you buy CEO speak of better customer service as becoming a reality....you are going to be very disappointed. ****, have you seen one post from a Live dev in this forum? On EA's forum? Nope. Why? Because there is no benefit to it for EA.

We used to have one of the lead devs on Madden on OS all the time (Ian Cummings). What happened? People ran him off because he realized no matter what he improvements or changes he promised, people would still come here and bitch about the game and attack him. His presence didnt help sales of Madden and just raised his frustration level with the Madden community. So why would EA have their devs waste time responding to posts on a forum when thats not their job?

As for 2k, the devs communicate good enough for most of us. Its rare that I've seen a significant problem go unaddressed by them. Either thy confirm it will be in a patch or they provide a reason why it wasnt fixed.

Finally, their jobs arent to communicate with us. Their jobs are to work on the game. Its the PR guys job to communicate with the public.

[knick9]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Finally, their jobs arent to communicate with us. Their jobs are to work on the game. Its the PR guys job to communicate with the public.

I think all of the EA guys are on Twitter. The point is the 2K PR guys have done a crap job resolving issues and you often want to communicate with the people who actually work on the game. Will EA be better? Don't know, but the opportunity is there.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by knick9

I think all of the EA guys are on Twitter. The point is the 2K PR guys have done a crap job resolving issues and you often want to communicate with the people who actually work on the game. Will EA be better? Don't know, but the opportunity is there.

Not all EA guys are not on Twitter and most of them dont answer questions about their games on Twitter. The only person at EA who regularly responds is Haumiller with NCAA. Nobody for Fifa. Nobody for Live. Nobody for Madden (except Looman who ducks any question thats difficult to answer). Nobody for NHL.

You dont get it. The PR guys arent supposed to resolve issues. They are supposed to help communicate those issues to the devs. If the devs cant or wont fix them...thats not the PR guys fault.

And again, how does this affect sales? People buy the game they think is best. If Live is a better game than 2k with all the features I want, I wont give a **** about whether EA responds to an issue I have with the game. Also, I'm not gonna buy a game thats worse just because the dev team will answer questions about a game.

[knick9]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Not all EA guys are not on Twitter and most of them dont answer questions about their games on Twitter. The only person at EA who regularly responds is Haumiller with NCAA. Nobody for Fifa. Nobody for Live. Nobody for Madden (except Looman who ducks any question thats difficult to answer). Nobody for NHL. You dont get it. The PR guys arent supposed to resolve issues. They are supposed to help communicate those issues to the devs. If the devs cant or wont fix them...thats not the PR guys fault. And again, how does this affect sales? People buy the game they think is best. If Live is a better game than 2k with all the features I want, I wont give a **** about whether EA responds to an issue I have with the game. Also, I'm not gonna buy a game thats worse just because the dev team will answer questions about a game.

The game hasn't even been released yet, um, so who is having problems with the game and asking them questions? Let's see what happens.

I do get it. The PR guys are really busy with many games, activities, and events and they don't always receive, understand or communicate the issues to the developers in a timely way. You know they get a lot of messages about a lot of issues--how much time do you think they actually have to spend sorting through all that and figuring out what to tell the developers?

You can explain what 2K does all you want but the fact is they are really bad at resolving issues and communication.

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by knick9

The game hasn't even been released yet, um, so who is having problems with the game and asking them questions? Let's see what happens. I do get it. The PR guys are really busy with many games, activities, and events and they don't always receive, understand or communicate the issues to the developers in a timely way. You know they get a lot of messages about a lot of issues--how much time do you think they actually have to spend sorting through all that and figuring out what to tell the developers? You can explain what 2K does all you want but the fact is they are really bad at resolving issues and communication.

You have ZERO evidence that there is a communication issue. You assume that because you tweet Ronnie or LD and your issue doesnt get fixed that there is a communication issue when thats not the case. Have you ever heard a dev say "We didnt know X was an issue so thats why we didnt fix it"? No.

Just because it doesnt get fixed doesnt mean it wasnt communicated to the devs. Anyway, you keep holding out hope that Live will be this shining light of dev communication. Keep ignoring the fact that no Live devs seem to be answering questions about the game....that no live devs were present when Live 13 was going to be released...that EA devs are notoriously bad with responding to issues..and that EA's policies dont let them respond.

[knick9]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

You have ZERO evidence that there is a communication issue. You assume that because you tweet Ronnie or LD and your issue doesnt get fixed that there is a communication issue when thats not the case. Have you ever heard a dev say "We didnt know X was an issue so thats why we didnt fix it"? No. Just because it doesnt get fixed doesnt mean it wasnt communicated to the devs. Anyway, you keep holding out hope that Live will be this shining light of dev communication. Keep ignoring the fact that no Live devs seem to be answering questions about the game....that no live devs were present when Live 13 was going to be released...that EA devs are notoriously bad with responding to issues..and that EA's policies dont let them respond.

Sean O'Brien is the Executive Producer of LIVE 14: "My commitment to our fans is to be open, honest and transparent about what we're doing, how we're doing it as well as why we're doing it." You don't get this from 2K. He and his team have given a ton of info on the thinking behind and development behind the game: http://www.easports.com/nba-live/news-updates-gameplay

They are not hiding behind some PR guy...

[aholbert32]

Quote: Originally Posted by knick9

Sean O'Brien is the Executive Producer of LIVE 14: "My commitment to our fans is to be open, honest and transparent about what we're doing, how we're doing it as well as why we're doing it." You don't get this from 2K. He and his team have given a ton of info on the thinking behind and development behind the game: http://www.easports.com/nba-live/news-updates-gameplay They are not hiding behind some PR guy...

This is a blog. He isnt answering questions. He isnt visiting a forum. He isnt answering questions on Twitter. He wrote a blog like every other dev (including 2k) has done.

Also because of their track record, they have to give the appearance that its going to be transparent. Why?

BECAUSE THE LAST TWO VERSIONS OF THE GAME WERE GARBAGE AND THEY WERE GOING TO SELL THOSE VERSIONS TO THE PUBLIC!

Anyway, I let you keep your dream. Maybe I'll be wrong and Sean will be the most responsive dev ever. Maybe he will say "**** EA's policy, I'm going to actively respond to questions and issues in EA's forums and at OS." Or maybe he will be like every other dev and go underground once the game is released. I'm betting on the latter.

[ChaseB]

I'm not going in very far here as this isn't the topic of the thread, BUT as someone who works on Madden, I don't believe there's a policy that prevents people from talking anywhere in particular. It's just like with any other job where you just shouldn't be stupid.

I think a good rule of thumb though is that most guys do read, and issues do get back to them. Just because you're not hearing directly from them, doesn't mean they aren't very aware. Whether that's from their own reading, PR, etc. the sentiment does get around. I think it's rather unfair to judge any team based on public comments on forums etc. because it's just not the normal avenue.

Either way, again, as someone who worked for OS for many years and spoke with members from many development teams (and now works inside EA), people are generally VERY aware of what's being said about their game regardless of the public comments.

How can they not be?