EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not

[GROGtheNailer]

EA's Hockey designers need to decide if they like hockey or not. They try for a mix of a hockey brand that caters to casual fans and hockey fans as well. Business model aside as it is obvious they squeeze that extra money from catering to casual fans, they should decide if they (EA) like the game of hockey or not.

"If it's in the game, it's in the game" motto should probably be changed to "If it's in the game, we might bastardize it a bit for that extra buck".

Yes, I bought the game. It is ok, it's mediocrely fun, sometimes even really fun but the majority of the time, just frustrating.

It starts from the top down. For some reason, the top believes "real" hockey isn't fun and will not sell copies. I am just saying, I call bull**** on that.

When was the last time EA really tried to base this game's design on realism. It's the casual fan hanging over their shoulder, it's the lure of doing what is safe for the sure buck.

I do not think we can get an exceptional game until the views from the top change.

I think that in sports games, realism will sell. To get to exceptional, EA needs to change their views and if they do that, success will follow. That should be a theme going forward into the next-gen.

[speels]

While I agree that I would love to have a simulation game, I absolutely get where EA is coming from. The casual gamer is probably 80% of the market place. I get many people watch hockey, but how many actually follow hockey.

I look at it this way, sports hi-lite shows show that "hi-lites" of a game which are , goals, saves, fights, and big hits. That is what the average person enjoys watching. You don't see these shows showing 5 minutes of cycling in the opponents zone with nothing to show for it, or multiple board battles that have nothing haooening in them.

EA is in a business to make money, that is it. If 80% of the people that bought your games wanted goals, fights, saves, and big hits, I would totally cater to them. EA has no responsibilty to us as consumers to put out a game that caters to the few. As consumers we have the ability to not purcahse these games and maybe eventually EA will be forced to change the way they think, but until they start losing money they have no reason to change.

That being said, I don't like the fact they use the slogan "If it's in the game....", because really it's not. Just like McDonald's 100 pure beef slogan.......really??

[GROGtheNailer]

I totally get what you saying, I get the points and it is the safe bet.

I believe having a great representation based off realism can keep the casual market if done well. They are playing it safe though, which holds them back from an exceptional game. I doubt you believe the game is exceptional, maybe you do but probably not. Doing the same thing year after year will get the same results to a point, nothing changes, no one moves no one gets hurt.

The downside, the game is not exceptional and average is the status quo.

[Fiddy]

GROG, so you are telling me you dont like guys being able to hold the puck out on a deke, skate through 4 players sticks, legs, poke checks, etc, and get off a shot from 40 feet, and have it go top shelf far side 99% of the time?

LOL..

[Majingir]

They've already admitted the default settings on the game are designed for casual fans.

I know there's options to adjust the game to diff play settings, but they don't even work that well. NBA 2K for example, their sliders range from 0-100, and you can tell the difference between a slider set at 45 or one set at 50. NHL sliders there seems to be almost 0 difference between some sliders on 1, or on max.

I don't mind the NHL games having the option to have arcade type feel to it, but at least give the hardcore fans more options to have the game they want. Make sliders have so much impact that you can manually change sliders to either make it crazy like NHL Hitz(so almost like street version of NHL) or change sliders to make it like real life.

NHL games from several years ago and before were all real good, only negative was the cheap goals(drag puck to one side,then the other,then shoot),but other than that, those games were great. EA says that the game feels wrong to people because people play video games different then what they see in real life, but that's what sliders should be for, to adjust all of this. It is what sports video game players have been doing for decades, so why suddenly act like this is a problem when it clearly isn't.

[GROGtheNailer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

GROG, so you are telling me you dont like guys being able to hold the puck out on a deke, skate through 4 players sticks, legs, poke checks, etc, and get off a shot from 40 feet, and have it go top shelf far side 99% of the time? LOL..

Haha, that is definitely part of it.

[GROGtheNailer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

They've already admitted the default settings on the game are designed for casual fans. I know there's options to adjust the game to diff play settings, but they don't even work that well. NBA 2K for example, their sliders range from 0-100, and you can tell the difference between a slider set at 45 or one set at 50. NHL sliders there seems to be almost 0 difference between some sliders on 1, or on max. I don't mind the NHL games having the option to have arcade type feel to it, but at least give the hardcore fans more options to have the game they want. Make sliders have so much impact that you can manually change sliders to either make it crazy like NHL Hitz(so almost like street version of NHL) or change sliders to make it like real life. NHL games from several years ago and before were all real good, only negative was the cheap goals(drag puck to one side,then the other,then shoot),but other than that, those games were great. EA says that the game feels wrong to people because people play video games different then what they see in real life, but that's what sliders should be for, to adjust all of this. It is what sports video game players have been doing for decades, so why suddenly act like this is a problem when it clearly isn't.

Here is the main issue as I see it. The game core is based from a casual/arcade base and it should be from a simulation base then have modifiers that can change to casual/arcade.

They should have the presets which they are starting to do but the glaring problem is the core base. The very root of it's base should be this in it's simplest terms:

Defense should be easier to play than offense. Currently the game is geared to offense. Presets can change this but if the core game is solid it will be fine. The modifiers currently are there to appease actual hockey fans, this is backwards. It should be:

Core is for actual fans - modifiers for the casual fan. Because if you screw up the modifiers for the casual fan, they will not notice or even care in most cases.

Let's face it, hockey is fun, the focus should be on stuff for the core fans and the fluff should be secondary. This way you avoid the pitfalls of pissing off the core fans of hockey every year. It insults their intelligence.

[GROGtheNailer]

Also please do not get me wrong, I am not hating on this years game. I am frustrated on the directions they (EA) choose and glaring game play issues and features that should not be missing in todays gaming market.