Online Franchise question

[NoLittleBabies]

Donny Moore did a nice Q & A blog regarding this feature, and had this to say about importing draft classes:

Q: Does Online Franchise support the NCAA Import Draft Class feature?
A: No, unfortunately this did not make the final feature list this year. This is one of my absolute favorite features amongst all of our football games here at EA Sports, and we have some good ideas on how we can try to update this after the game launches based on community demand.

So it sounds hopeful that they can update the mode to include real NCAA imported draft classes at some point after release. And as a college football fan, this is extremely important to me. A few seasons into an online franchise and I want to see real players progressing into NFL stars... guys like Sam Bradford, Brandon Spikes, Ndamukong Suh, Dez Bryant, etc. and not just made up players.

So my questions to Ian or anyone in the know are:

1. What are the odds of this being put in, and how long after release do you anticipate it, if it does make it in?

2. If I'm in a online franchise that's already underway when the ability to import real classes is added, will I still be able to use it (like if I was in the middle of season one)? Or will it only work for franchises that begin after the feature is added?

[CaPtAiNcHaOs4747]

that would be awesome if they added that to the game! i hope they can add a salary cap and import draft classes. please EA add this

[skudplayr]

I wouldn't hold my breath. Don't they already know that the game is going to sell like hotcakes and that people are going to want it. It's the largest selling sports VG franchise in history. Why not just put it in? If they didn't even put in salary caps and contracts, why would they eventually put in imported drafts?

[NoLittleBabies]

Quote: Originally Posted by skudplayr

I wouldn't hold my breath. Don't they already know that the game is going to sell like hotcakes and that people are going to want it. It's the largest selling sports VG franchise in history. Why not just put it in? If they didn't even put in salary caps and contracts, why would they eventually put in imported drafts?

Having followed a lot of their blogs, I think Ian and the staff care about more than just sales. They really wanna make a great game, and they want to satisfy the customers, even after the $60 has been spent. Even financially speaking, it's in their long-term interests to keep the fans happy from year to year. Plus, the staff plays the game themselves, and clearly Donny loves NCAA imported classes ("This is one of my absolute favorite features amongst all of our football games here at EA Sports") so they have plenty of good reasons to add this feature after the game goes gold.

[CaPtAiNcHaOs4747]

id be surprise if they do add it though. i cant believe they didnt already have it in the game. they said it takes too long to add stuff like that but they had a whole year!!! if they cant add a cap and a imported draft class in a patch soon after the games launch then it will be very dissapointing. i like how they said during E3 that they were including a online franchise but soon after everyone found out that it had no cap, contracts, imported draft class, etc. all they could say was that they made human players be able to trade with the cpu. and what about online co-op? they made everyone think you could play 2vs2 online but all it turns out to be is an online playnow. i hope there not lying about the patch that there suppose to send out

[PantherBeast_OS]

Do hold your breath for import dradt part. That is something they got to look into for madden 11.

[NoLittleBabies]

It's been in Franchise mode for many years, and considering the dev team clearly likes the feature, I really hope they add it shortly after release. Since OF is all server-based, they should be able to pull it off. Online franchises will be twice as good with the real draft classes.

[tlc12576]

Quote: Originally Posted by CaPtAiNcHaOs4747

id be surprise if they do add it though. i cant believe they didnt already have it in the game. they said it takes too long to add stuff like that but they had a whole year!!! if they cant add a cap and a imported draft class in a patch soon after the games launch then it will be very dissapointing. i like how they said during E3 that they were including a online franchise but soon after everyone found out that it had no cap, contracts, imported draft class, etc. all they could say was that they made human players be able to trade with the cpu. and what about online co-op? they made everyone think you could play 2vs2 online but all it turns out to be is an online playnow. i hope there not lying about the patch that there suppose to send out

Imma die hard 2k5 fan who has been very critical of EA about Madden over the years but cut them some slack CaptChaos.You gotta at least give them credit for trying this year.They werent able to put everything in Madden 10 but based on the effort they have showed thus far,have some faith.Would you have been happier if they waited to release online franchise until 2011 with salary cap and NCAA draft rosters? Im glad to at least have a playable version of online franchise and to finally see EA making an effort for football fans. (even if it is 5yrs or so late)