How EA Can Bring Fans Back to NHL's Franchise Mode

[Nickflyers]

100% Agreed! Allow us to customize OUR BAGMs.

• Allow us to edit ANYONE's ratings during a BAGM
• Allow us to CREATE OUR OWN DRAFT CLASSES(and share them) ala 2k Series
• Dynamic Rivalries
• Coaches(NHL 2k5 had this, geez)

Basically combine NHL's gameplay w/ 2ks Franchise mode = Happy hockey fans

[Vikes1]

Yep, great list!

[Money99]

Fantastic article Chris!
Not sure where to begin as you basically hit every nail on the head. I’m not even sure there’s anything to add really.
(The one thing I’d love to see is separate ratings for each position. Several NHLers play more than 1).

Perhaps the best way to add to this list is to simply agree and highlight the areas that I feel need the most work.
And certainly, in my mind, the biggest issue this series faces (and has faced for decades) is the lack of real player separation and differential.
Playing an 82-game season feels like playing 82 exhibition games against the same team and players.
Admittingly, I didn’t purchase NHL16 this year, but it sounds like it’s no different than NHL15, 14, 13… which I did own.

The sad part is, the list you provided has basically been the same wishlist NHL fans have been clamoring for, for over a decade now.
I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
This series is what it is. It won’t matter how many new and powerful consoles hit the market. It won’t matter how often these points are raised.
You can set your watch in what you can expect from the NHL series;
- No player separation
- Dumb AI
- No neutral zone pressure
- CPU cheats/boosts/tilt – whatever you want to call it.
- Super shallow franchise mode/options
- Limited sliders

It’s really sad to think that at one time, the NHL series outsold Madden.
Contrary to what the developers and producers believe, you CAN make a realistic hockey game and make it fun for the masses (see NHL2K5 - which outsold NHL2005).
At the very least, with the proper sliders, you should be able to provide a game that fits everyone’s tastes.
But it all starts with player separation (which affects the CPU too!!!!!) and a deep, robust and engaging Franchise mode.

[jake19ny]

This article is spot on sadly my personal feeling is EA does not care about offline gamers nearly as much as online and HUT. The lingering offline issues, remaining bugs from last year in offline mode, lack of attention to detail in the offline modes, and the recent tuner debacle, all support my theory.

[Vikes1]

I agree with Money99. Imo too, NHL is what it is....take it or leave it. I'm guessing this is pretty much the way of things for possibly the next several years. On-line play seems to carry the greatness attention. Sadly, at the expense of off-line.

[brandon27]

Spot on writeup. I don't necessarily agree with adding Legends to the Franchise mode. I guess if it's an option, then sure. Why not?

I'd also want to see the sliders completely changed, on the 0-100 scale, broken down more like the list in a reply here previously.

Season length is a big one too. Now that the period by period sim feature is back though, I'm not too concerned, sometimes I enjoy simming through to the 3rd period, then joining the game to try and have a big comeback win or something like that.

I think NHL 16 is my last EA NHL until the AI is completely overhauled for all the reasons mentioned in this piece though. The AI's offense is the same thing over and over, and as much as they want to deny it, the ice definitely tilts at times. It's just not enjoyable to play in its current state, there's too many things that happen in hockey every shift, that aren't even close to replicated properly in the game.

To me, the AI is the biggest step to revitalizing franchise mode, simply because it will actually make people want to play through a season.

[GlennN]

Agree completely with drastically increasing player separation. Also agree with other folks that we need to be able to edit within BeAGM, including incoming draft classes, and they need to make the sliders work better. I would add to that list, the player search feature has to come back (and improve). We need much better stat tracking (so the player card has year by year stats for the entire careers, how obtain, all-star teams made, cups and awards won, etc.).

[desperado462]

I agree about editing player attributes during a season. There is NO REASON to not have this. Too many times players that are a 74 in the game should be up around 78-80 by the middle of the real NHL season as they may begin to "break out" in real life. We should be able to adjust these ourselves to keep up with the real world without having to start BEAGM all over again.