Blair Herter and Producer Ben Haumiller turns their attention to next season with an early look at NCAA Football 13, with its explosion of uniforms, second-generation High Dynamic Range lighting, and true-to-life stadium atmosphere.
I think we've all probably just got our expectations wrong.
For EA, adding cheerleaders and chants IS making a new game.
A lot of us think that making movement realistic, or changing the core gameplay, etc, would be what constitutes a new game.
2 weeks on cheerleaders. THAT's the new game. New buttons in the passing game. THAT's the new game.
exactly. Ea's new game is updating the traditions/trophies etc the same gameplay they showed was the Gtech sack, which just gets sad after a while. i dont know if I'll be satisfied until physics/weight mean something to the game.
The bashing of the EA NCAA developers should come to an immediate halt. It is evident that the developers have a keen insight and desire to take NCAA to that next level; however, they are limited as a result of marketing executives who have the final input concerning what is featured in the game. Any person above the age of 18 realizes the mindset of marketing so called experts who constantly deliberate in board meetings concerning what will sell a product, in which, the said individuals (executives) have no first had experience of. Yes, the developers are limited. They are limited by the execs and limited by this generations game engine. Furthermore, until an immediate competitor can break through EA's monopoly on college football as well as Madden, no immediate changes will take place in order to immediately garner the attention of the executives...$$$
"These things have been spoken, so that those who hear, might believe"
Yes, I am quite certain the marketing executives within EA's sports division are specifically instructing the development team to leave the clunky animations, release the game with glitch after glitch and have entire sections of the game and playbooks simply not work.
Yes, I am quite certain the marketing executives within EA's sports division are specifically instructing the development team to leave the clunky animations, release the game with glitch after glitch and have entire sections of the game and playbooks simply not work.
Yep. I'm certain of it.
The point still stands, though, marketing has a great influence of what is implemented into the game.
I think everyone is so reactive to this because in the years past, since 2008, the gameplay does not look much different from what we see in these videos. I think we've earned the right to be skeptical. Now, there is no reason to be disrespectful, but everyone should be cautious of this game.
Ok I ain't expecting whole new game engine or anything. But this few seconds of gameplay is not showing much. Not going to jump the gun on this one. April 17 will be the deciding factor for me. This is my opinion right now. Hard to go on with just a few seconds of video. Waiting until the video live stream happens in 2 weeks.
The point still stands, though, marketing has a great influence of what is implemented into the game.
There is no point though. None of us care either way that there are cheerleaders and entrances and trophy presentations... we care that the game works and shows some semblance of improvement each year. That isn't at the whim of the marketing department, it is on the development team.
And I don't even accept the premise of the argument that the focus of EA's marketing department is cheerleaders and pre-game entrances. What executives do is give a general outline of the direction of the product and leave it to creative to interpret that as they wish. For the last two years, that general outline has been "capture of the pageantry of college football" (proven by back of box focus in NCAA 12 and 11). It is the development team that has and continues to spectacularly fail in interpreting that directive.
There is no point though. None of us care either way that there are cheerleaders and entrances and trophy presentations... we care that the game works and shows some semblance of improvement each year. That isn't at the whim of the marketing department, it is on the development team.
And I don't even accept the premise of the argument that the focus of EA's marketing department is cheerleaders and pre-game entrances. What executives do is give a general outline of the direction of the product and leave it to creative to interpret that as they wish. For the last two years, that general outline has been "capture of the pageantry of college football" (proven by back of box focus in NCAA 12 and 11). It is the development team that has and continues to spectacularly fail in interpreting that directive.
Back of box features is usually marketing ideas.
I'll end with you would be surprised at the influence marketing has on the football games.
It's very clear to me that EA could care less what fans of the game think. If laughable how these guys can go do these interviews with a straight face.
I'm ashamed I used to defend this game. True story....a co worker of mine says to me last year; hey you getting NCAA12, I said don't know! He says " it's gonna awesome with the new 3D grass" I almost punched him in the face.
EA knows people like this excist, and they will continue to roll out crappy upgrades as long as people continue to buy it.
I love OS when it comes to football games. Sane people become irrational. We havent even seen real gameplay footage. Just mashup clips that you guys overreact to. Wowzers. How about we wait and atleast see the new feature set before we criticize.
Like I said before if it said 2k instead of EA people would be lauding over this game.
People have been saying this since '08. Go back a ton of pages in the NCAA Forum and look at complaints from NCAA 09 and 10, you will find the exact same complaints as the ones we are bringing up here. THERE IS A REASON why people can look at MLB The Show and say it looks the same, but it is taken in a positive sense, because that gameplay is SOLID. It PLAYS like BASEBALL *almost* FLAWLESSLY. However, people look at NCAA and say it looks the same in a negative sense because the same issues since 07 are still here and these issues severely affect the game of football. A cornerback backpedling to the sidelines every option play? A Linebacker with the blocking ability of Dikembe Mutumbo? Every player on the field being able to turn on a dime? NO CHANGES TO SPECIAL TEAMS AT ALL?
The basics of football are hardly represented in this game. That is why we "overreact".
I had to stop after the stop on a dime and change directions sack. Did we do away with locomotion already? Oh wait, locomotion never applied to AI controlled players in the first place. EA would do well to stop posting videos of gameplay. They've never helped themselves with it. Just tell us about all the fluff for the entire spring and summer, and maybe they can trick more people into buying it if they don't show us how awful the gameplay is first.
He said "you've always done an incredibly job of being authentic" hahahaha oh man what a jokester and then " You have not let the fans down" man this guys a riot!
I'm waiting to make any judgements about gameplay until they actually specifically reveal gameplay on April 17th. Now I am not some gopher that will be like "just wait until the actual game drops maybe they will tune it better" but I am not declaring NCAA 13 a gameplay clone of NCAA 12 before even learning more about it.
There are so many things I would like to see EA football games represent better that I can't write the whole game off for 2012 just because some things appear not to be addressed in a few quick clips. For example, if the overall fluidity of player movement isn't or can not be fixed this year but more animations were added like WR's able to "become the defender" to breakup potential INTs, a passing game where the intended receiver is no longer tethered to the ball, a system where defenders don't magically gravitate towards the football, etc, I think that's progress.
That said, I guess everyone has there own benchmarks for purchasing NCAA 13 and that's cool.
I agree. I can't stand all the negativity and griping on this site most of the time. Like all the complaints about game play. While the devs are presenting and discussing sights and sounds. If on the 17th you don't like gameplay then lay in to them(EA). Many of you will anyway cause that seems like the popular thing to do. Seriously lay off gameplay til then. Just because unis presentation, cheerleaders are not important to you they are important to some people. We all accept and tolerate different things.
when you play as much ncaa12 as i do. and edited this game as much as i have you dont need more than 10 secs of gameplay footage to know nothing has changed.
i was never hoping for a change to be honest, i would gladly pay 60 for ncaa 13 minus 5 annoying animations from 12.....
lets say read and react is good its a shame only the D has it because on the sack and the back field RB blowup, neither offensive players READ OR REACTED at all.
this highlights people's frustrations, dont apply changes to one side of the ball then do the other side in 14...
I'll end with you would be surprised at the influence marketing has on the football games.
You're missing the entire point of that post. Marketing isn't the creative wing. What I am saying is, even IF the marketing department specifically wrote out:
DEAR NCAA DEVELOPMENT TEAM, THE EA MARKETED DEPARTMENT WANTS:
1) Custom team entrances
2) Cheerleaders on the field (and other assorted cut scenes)
3) 3D Menus
4) Dynamic real time lighting
It is STILL development and creative that takes that and puts it into code and most of these things do not work effectively. Cut scenes get X'ed through by everyone, entrances get X'ed through (and aren't even shown for online and OD user games, which is all some of us play). The new lighting system looks great, but if they don't fix it to where you can't play night games online or in OD's, what's the point? We don't need more of these things, we need them to be more effectively streamlined into the game itself.
So even IF I were to buy your premise that marketing is dictating specific features, someone still has to interpret those features into code and develop them into what we have in the game. That is where the problem lies.
It is pretty evident that the marketing direction the last few years is to simply "feature the pageantry of college football." You judge how well that has been done.
You'll have a hard time getting anyone here to buy the "marketing is what is causing these problems, not the development team" argument.
It's also a huge joke that they claim they focused so much on jerseys when in the screenshots Michigan State is still in the wrong color green. They changed it like 4 years ago. Really?
Did they really make that claim? LOL!!! MSU's jerseys haven't been that neon green color since about 2006. Even the numbers look wrong.
This is why games like FIFA and NHL 12 are so much better. For one, if you make a lousy soccer game, you have almost all of Europe to answer to; a much broader audience plays those games. And NHL 12 is created by the EA devs in hockey-crazed Canada, another instance where a shoddy product simply won't be tolerated. I just don't think there are enough people playing college football games to justify putting out a better product every year. I would guess that around 80% of the demand for football video games is with Madden and not NCAA Football.
This is why games like FIFA and NHL 12 are so much better. For one, if you make a lousy soccer game, you have almost all of Europe to answer to; a much broader audience plays those games. And NHL 12 is created by the EA devs in hockey-crazed Canada, another instance where a shoddy product simply won't be tolerated. I just don't think there are enough people playing college football games to justify putting out a better product every year. I would guess that around 80% of the demand for football video games is with Madden and not NCAA Football.
generally, you're right. But I think that the comparison with Madden is not so accurate.
The Madden and NCAA dev teams share more or less the same technologies, and as you said, Madden series attracts much more audience than NCAA. However, both Madden and NCAA have not upgraded thier technologies to a level that FIFA and NHL stand right now.
I think that Madden itself is popular as much as the FIFA series, and if we want NCAA to get to the next level, which means new physics engine, better commentary and true to life presentation, we have to wait untill Madden makes this move to the next level.
# I can not see it happens in this gaming consoles genertaion...
You're missing the entire point of that post. Marketing isn't the creative wing. What I am saying is, even IF the marketing department specifically wrote out:
DEAR NCAA DEVELOPMENT TEAM, THE EA MARKETED DEPARTMENT WANTS:
1) Custom team entrances
2) Cheerleaders on the field (and other assorted cut scenes)
3) 3D Menus
4) Dynamic real time lighting
It is STILL development and creative that takes that and puts it into code and most of these things do not work effectively. Cut scenes get X'ed through by everyone, entrances get X'ed through (and aren't even shown for online and OD user games, which is all some of us play). The new lighting system looks great, but if they don't fix it to where you can't play night games online or in OD's, what's the point? We don't need more of these things, we need them to be more effectively streamlined into the game itself.
So even IF I were to buy your premise that marketing is dictating specific features, someone still has to interpret those features into code and develop them into what we have in the game. That is where the problem lies.
It is pretty evident that the marketing direction the last few years is to simply "feature the pageantry of college football." You judge how well that has been done.
You'll have a hard time getting anyone here to buy the "marketing is what is causing these problems, not the development team" argument.
The only thing I'll agree with you on here is that the developers are the creators. It's our choice whether to x through the cut scenes of the entrances. I do it because I want to get to the game sooner, not because I think they are implemented incorrectly.
Also, don't most programmers do the coding? I'm not a whiz in IT, but that would be my best guess.
I guess I don't see the coding issues you do with the entrances and pageantry of the game, that's where the disagree is coming from. I play mostly offline.
I see big legacy issues continuing with the game play part of the game, that's where I feel the focus should be.
Hopefully, Cam Weber has addressed that issue by doubling the game play team.