EA Sports Will Not Publish College Football Game Next Year, Future Plans in Doubt

[phenom2311]

EA, the NCAA, and the schools that ran scared of this lawsuit should be ashamed of themselves. Does any of them have any critical, creative thinkers among their ranks? If they did, they wouldn't even be in this mess. EA should have went with complete, and I mean complete, randomization right out of the box for the NCAA game, while allowing FULL customization once the game was in the hands of the consumers. So instead of shipping a game with Texas A&M quarterback #2, with Johnny Manziel's measurements, class, and attributes... You ship the game with Texas A&M quarterback #18, 6'5" 230 and random attributes and class. Then allow FULL customization for users to go in and change things to make everything accurate as they see fit, if they chose to do so. I have no doubts that a ton hardcore NCAA fans would have swept through each roster doing this and then sharing them. Me personally, I don't even need accurate players. Just give me the teams.

Much needed and requested improvements to Teambuilder could have helped as well. Using Teambuilder, if it were worth a damn, you wouldn't have to be concerned with schools dropping out because TB would be sufficient enough to recreate those schools right down to the socks, while having EVERY uniform combination that school has, meaning more logo slots and more than 4 jerseys, 2 helmets, and 2 pants. However, EA sat back and did nothing, and in my opinion, allowed this to happen by being stale, lazy thinkers.

[superxero27]

The news sucks to hear, but what's worse is the "I told you so's" strutting about proclaiming their foresight. Did they turn out to be right, yes; BUT that does not mean the assertions were justified at the beginning, when there were options available for continuing the series. Supporting evidence available at the time is what's important in this instance, not what hindsight tells us.

If the resolution to the issue was going to come down to either changing the NCAA structure to allow paying players or simply cancelling the game, with no other choices; cancelling the game is easy and allows the NCAA to not really have to do the heavy thinking required to do the other option.

I wonder if EA will just shut down and lay off the team right away, wait for the real season to end, or keep a small team to work on as many customization options as possible? As much as I want to be optimistic about what the developers want (I suspect many of the devs would favor the last option if for no other reason than pride), I realize that what the "ground-level" people want is most often entirely irrelevant to management so I have to think layoffs/shutdown happen sooner rather than later.

[loccdogg26]

That "players are getting a free education" argument is getting old. Nothing in the world is free.

[superxero27]

Quote: Originally Posted by phenom2311

EA, the NCAA, and the schools that ran scared of this lawsuit should be ashamed of themselves. Does any of them have any critical, creative thinkers among their ranks? If they did, they wouldn't even be in this mess. EA should have went with complete, and I mean complete, randomization right out of the box for the NCAA game, while allowing FULL customization once the game was in the hands of the consumers. So instead of shipping a game with Texas A&M quarterback #2, with Johnny Manziel's measurements, class, and attributes... You ship the game with Texas A&M quarterback #18, 6'5" 230 and random attributes and class. Then allow FULL customization for users to go in and change things to make everything accurate as they see fit, if they chose to do so. I have no doubts that a ton hardcore NCAA fans would have swept through each roster doing this and then sharing them. Me personally, I don't even need accurate players. Just give me the teams. Much needed and requested improvements to Teambuilder could have helped as well. Using Teambuilder, if it were worth a damn, you wouldn't have to be concerned with schools dropping out because TB would be sufficient enough to recreate those schools right down to the socks, while having EVERY uniform combination that school has, meaning more logo slots and more than 4 jerseys, 2 helmets, and 2 pants. However, EA sat back and did nothing, and in my opinion, allowed this to happen by being stale, lazy thinkers.

For all we know, the actual developers had great ideas; the problem is developers can only work within the constraints (financial, man-hours, etc) place upon them by management. Does EA the company have a history of resting on its laurels instead of innovating, indeed, but I think we go too far by labeling the entire developer-force as lazy and uncritical.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

I normally avoid this silly, imo, debate but I absolutely love this post. It's filled which such common sense and it's funny how it seemed to get glossed over. How on Earth agreeing to a scholarship should suddenly mean a school owns the rights to a person is quite absurd, no matter how well intentioned it may be. If I'm not mistaken, a student athlete has to maintain a certain GPA in order to be eligible to play sports, similar to how an academic scholarship works and that should be the end of it, none of this asinine "we own you" garbage. Again, this post pretty much should put this nonsense to rest. On topic, LMAO at people mad/blaming the lawsuit for this instead of EA for using player likenesses. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though, lol. EDIT- Even more hilarious, EA won't even admit to any wrong doing, in spite of everything but those in the lawsuit are the scumbags. smdh For its part, EA Sports -- which will not admit any wrongdoing as part of the settlement agreement -- said in a statement Thursday that "we follow rules that are set by the NCAA -- but those rules are being challenged by some student-athletes." http://espn.go.com/college-football/...-football-game

Good post. One of the problems with sports culture is that it makes chattel of people. I think student-athletes should be able to negotiate for compensation if someone other than the university wants to use their likeness. And they should certainly be able to leverage their popularity for profit in the ways you suggest.

Perhaps I'm cold, but I also think it's great that EA is being forced off of NCAA. I don't bear anyone ill-will by any stretch, but I'd love to see one of two things happen as a result of this hiatus: 1) someone else come in, re-imagine what a sim college football game could look and play like and deliver a better product, or 2) have EA revisit the series in a couple of years with new talent and a fresh approach.

Not having an NCAA game at all is obviously the most immediate outcome, but if we aren't getting one because there are legitimate legal issues with the way players' likenesses were used to market the game, then I'm okay not having a game until those legal issues are settled. I don't want to play a game that's potentially exploitative of individuals and is therefore legally and ethically questionable that bad; I'll play something else.

[goillini03]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

Good post. One of the problems with sports culture is that it makes chattel of people. I think student-athletes should be able to negotiate for compensation if someone other than the university wants to use their likeness. And they should certainly be able to leverage their popularity for profit in the ways you suggest. Perhaps I'm cold, but I also think it's great that EA is being forced off of NCAA. I don't bear anyone ill-will by any stretch, but I'd love to see one of two things happen as a result of this hiatus: 1) someone else come in, re-imagine what a sim college football game could look and play like and deliver a better product, or 2) have EA revisit the series in a couple of years with new talent and a fresh approach. Not having an NCAA game at all is obviously the most immediate outcome, but if we aren't getting one because there are legitimate legal issues with the way players' likenesses were used to market the game, then I'm okay not having a game until those legal issues are settled. I don't want to play a game that's potentially exploitative of individuals and is therefore legally and ethically questionable that bad; I'll play something else.

Legally and ethically questionable comment being used from a guy with an R. Kelly signature.

[roadman]

Life goes on for me, but when people lose jobs with families to support, that's the bad end of the deal for anyone in that situation.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by goillini03

Legally and ethically questionable comment being used from a guy with an R. Kelly signature.

Ha! Well, irony is one of life's genuine joys. I like that line because it's vapid, so it's not really a ringing endorsement for Mr. Kelly.