NBA Live Community Letter To EA

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:44 pm

Now the reason I post this is cos even though this forum isnt about EA sports - people are waiting for Warhammer Online. So this might still be of interest.

http://www.nbalive.org/letter.htm wrote:NBA LIVE COMMUNITY LETTER TO EA

As long time NBA Live fans, some of us even from when EA was putting "vs." in their titles, we have been around the block with EA many times. Most of us have gone beyond mere fans into "fanatics" spending countless man-hours on fan sites or making modifications or patches for the games. Even those of us who have not, have spent as many hours involving ourselves in an ever expanding community of other NBA Live fans. If anyone deserves the tag "hardcore fan" it's us. We have stuck by EA and NBA Live in the face of serious competition from the 2K series.

For us however, NBA Live 07 is the final straw. The one that broke the camel's back. The spark that set the field ablaze. Until this release we overlooked any flaws in the game, ones that some of us considered major even if others of us considered them minor. But this release has ignited feelings that EA doesn't care about its fans, which is the reason we are writing today.

Whether EA does or does not care about its fans, the bigger issue is perception, and the image that EA presents is that they don't care. Every year, we as a community submit one or more wishlists, often with the same wishes from year to year. A lack of implementation of the wishes sows seeds of belief that EA isn't paying attention. When EA releases a game in which the CPU won't even use its bench, and overrides user substitutions, it sows seeds that EA doesn't care and just wanted to cash in. When major online media do not recieve review copies, it leads to the belief that EA knew the product was defective but proceeded anyway. When community members contact EA and receive a response that seems to imply EA isn't too interested in fixing the problems, and telling us to wait until the next game, it does quite a bit of harm to our faith in the company.

While we'd love a patch to fix the major issues with the game, that is not the major focus of our letter, as we have a patch petition for that. Our focus is not simply on this release, but a sense that we also see in other EA-related communities whether it's the NFL gaming community or the people who play Battlefield 2.

At one time, EA was producing the best titles money could buy and one had little reason to look elsewhere. Now gamers have a sense that if you want the best, it's not EA. Whether it's looking at the NBA 2K series for our basketball game fix, users leaving Battlefield 2 because they feel the problems will never be addressed, or former FIFA players moving onto Pro Evolution/Winning Eleven, it's a sense that we are all sharing. We look at NBA Live over the last few years and we see the same basic game being re-released with new fancy features. The same elemental problems from the last few years are still there, some have been tweaked but the overall issues still exist. While there are plenty of new features, it gives the impression that EA is saying in response to the lingering issues "yeah, well, HEY! Look at this!" Be it All-Star Weekend (a long time wish that EA has in fact fulfilled), superstar moves or dynasty additions. While those additions are nice to have, it is piling on a base that cannot support it. Instead of addressing the underlying fractures, EA is just constructing a new structure on the old crumbling foundation.

As alluded to earlier, it's not just the practice of EA's actions as much as the perception. EA is often criticized for rushing out products, going back on its word and ignoring fans. While EA may or may not be doing that, when one hears these things, it's easy to fit what the company is doing into that mold. It doesn't help when we look at other communities, where the game developers openly participate on the forums and seem to be actively involved in the community. While EA has made overtures to the NBA Live community over the years, whether it was hiring Tim, holding Community Summit/Days, participating in interviews or sharing screenshots and videos, it still seems like EA is distant and uninvolved in the community. Even if we have an inkling EA is reading the forums daily, the impression is still there that they aren't paying attention at all. Some of us are looking for little more than EA explaining why they did or didn't do something in the game, for acknowledgement of issues or ideas presented, for assistance in greater understanding of the game.

When we find major issues in the game and hear nothing from EA. When we take the steps to contact EA and get a response that seems to do more to harm our opinion than satisfy us. And when we're told we shouldn't share what EA has told us. It all serves to reinforce our negative perceptions. If this continues it seems inevitable that more and more players will eventually give up on NBA Live.

The question that we're increasingly asking ourselves becomes, while we're willing to put in the effort to improve the game, is EA?

Signed,
Ben Bailey (nbalive.org founder/webmaster, fmr. Patchmaker, fmr. NLSC Forum moderator, community member 1998-present)
David Wells (Community entrepreneur, Patchmaker, fmr. nbalive.org webmaster, community member 1996-present)
Andreas Dahl (NLSC Team Member, Patchmaker, NLSC Forum Moderator, community member 2002-present)
Matthew Damian (NLSC Features Editor, NLSC Forum Moderator, fmr. NLSC webmaster, community member 1998-present)
Tony Huml (fmr. Patchmaker, nbalive.org founder, community member 1999-present)
Steve Miller (fmr. Patchmaker, fmr. nbalive.org webmaster, fmr. NLSC Forum and nbalive.org forum moderator, community member 2001-2004)
Jae Hatton (NLSC Team Member, NLSC Forum Moderator, community member 1999-present)
Yohance Bailey (NLSC Team Member, NLSC Fourm Moderator, fmr. Patchmaker, community member 2000-present)
Nick Barnshaw (Community member 2001-present, fmr. Patchmaker, fmr. nbalive.org forum moderator)
Kevin Choi (Patchmaker, fmr. nbalive.org Patching Director, nbalive.org forum moderator, community member 2003-present)
Cameron Forbes (NLSC Team Member, NLSC Forum Moderator, community member 2003-present)
Donatello (NLSC Team Member, NLSC Forum Moderator, community member 2004-present)
Alexboom (Patchmaker, community member 2003-present)
Joseph Papio (Community member 2001-present)
Joachim Lapiak (Community member 2003-present)
Sagar Sengupta (Community member 2003-present)
Tuomas/Finnboy (NLSC Team Member, Patchmaker, community member 2003-present)

/Ankh

Post by **Xest** » Thu Oct 05, 2006 10:04 pm

It's nothing new though, last PC game I brought was that DVD with all the Command and Conquer games on, frankly it was atrocious, they hadn't even updated them to work with XP properly so getting them to work was a nightmare. Bits were missing such as the movies, there were crashes that happened every single time at certain levels in different games making them uncompleteable and so on.

It's certainly no secret that EA sells the games then gives not the slightest shit about what happens after it's sold, even if the product is horribly defective. Nice to see people standing up and making a noise but it wont make a difference because EA owns like 90% of the major computer game companies so what does it matter if they suck? there's little other choice and their monopoly ensures that no matter how bad they perform, people have to keep going back if they want to play most games.

Frankly the best you can do is pirate EA games if you really want to play them, don't give them money until they deserve it.

Shi · Post by **Shi** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 12:58 pm

i was a huge fan of EA sports since fifa 95.
for a couple of years.
but then i developped a serious despise for that dev and it's money whoring release strategies.
/spit @ EA Sports

and i was so happy to discover ISS Pro Konami's series

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:16 pm

I was disapointed in the small difference between pga 2005-2007...really not worth the money.

Heta · Post by **Heta** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:32 pm

I just dont play game there games

Post by **Xest** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 1:42 pm

their!

Plus the rest of the sentence made no sense retard

Sharkith · Post by **Sharkith** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 2:09 pm

there could be a reason why I stopped buying PC games and just stick with the MMPORG's

Post by **Xest** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:16 pm

But most MMORPGs are PC games and the games in this thread are also mostly console games!

Yes I've declared this pedant day

<ankh> · Post by **<ankh>** » Mon Oct 09, 2006 3:20 pm

Xest wrote:But most MMORPGs are PC games and the games in this thread are also mostly console games!

Not so sure about that - I enjoy EA sport games on pc just as much as I do on console.

/Ankh

Shi · Post by **Shi** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 3:06 pm

after reading the reviews of clone release 07 serie i broke my vows and got NHL 07 for my xbox (classic).
I did that since I read the 07 release is coming back to the origins of couple of years ago releases, which means great fun.
And I'm so glad i did!

It's purely brilliant, awasome fun, I recommend you try it guys.
Even if u got no clue bout hockey u gonna like it, that is if u bear sport games ofc