Topic: NBALive.Org addresses EA w/ a letter; they're fed up w/ EA

[MysterD]

Link:
http://www.nbalive.org/letter.htm

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)

ADDENDUM: On the NLSC Forum (largest NBA Live Community Forum) there have been petitions started for a patch for the PC version (http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic42262.php) and bringing the 2K series to the PC (http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic41939.php)

Community members have also been compiling videos of some bugs some of which can be found on YouTube, here is a sample:

October 3, 2006

[Quemaqua]

An interesting thing, but I wonder why these people were dumb enough to be EA fans in the first place.  EA's sports titles have *always* been inferior to those of their competitors in my opinion, and EA's been pulling this kind of shit for years.  I can understand them being fed up, but this seems to have come a little late.

That said, cool.  More people need to do things like this, especially when it comes to huge publishers that *do* throw titles out the door just because they know people will buy it.  And I think publications need to start marking titles down for being broken out the door (like Battlefield 2), and stop continuing to sing a game's praises when the publisher does little to fix it.  PCG still angers me with their blind support of BF2.  They need to stop talking about how great it is and start getting outraged at how the publisher is treating it, or nothing will ever change.

[Xessive]

I've pretty much had the same gripes with FIFA ever since FIFA 2003. When I saw FIFA 2004 (one of the shittiest games ever created, and not just in terms of sports games) I switched to Pro Evolution Soccer (a.k.a. Winning Eleven). Gameplay is more fun, the interface is coherent, and they seem to pay a lot mroe attention to their fans.

In my memory the good days of EA were back in the days of Lotus, Skitchin', and the original FIFA Soccer. It's been a downhill spiral ever since.

[MysterD]

I've pretty much had the same gripes with FIFA ever since FIFA 2003. When I saw FIFA 2004 (one of the shittiest games ever created, and not just in terms of sports games) I switched to Pro Evolution Soccer (a.k.a. Winning Eleven). Gameplay is more fun, the interface is coherent, and they seem to pay a lot mroe attention to their fans.

In my memory the good days of EA were back in the days of Lotus, Skitchin', and the original FIFA Soccer. It's been a downhill spiral ever since.

My great memory of EA goes back to Mutant League Football.

[scottws]

It's nice to see a community stand up to them, but at the same time they should have found a different writer.  It is extremely poorly written.

In any case, I of course I agree. The last EA game I bought was Battlefield: Vietnam.  The game was a pile of poo.  Even at the lowest settings in 640x480 resolution, it would frequently hitch.  Even games like DOOM III and Prey rarely did that, and they were running at much higher resolutions with many more bells and whistles.  And it just didn't feel solid.  You'd be going up stairs and it seemed like you were sliding around in mud or something.

[MysterD]

It's nice to see a community stand up to them, but at the same time they should have found a different writer.  It is extremely poorly written.

In any case, I of course I agree. The last EA game I bought was Battlefield: Vietnam.  The game was a pile of poo.  Even at the lowest settings in 640x480 resolution, it would frequently hitch.  Even games like DOOM III and Prey rarely did that, and they were running at much higher resolutions with many more bells and whistles.  And it just didn't feel solid.  You'd be going up stairs and it seemed like you were sliding around in mud or something.

DICE and EA belong together. It sounds like a match made in Heaven, for them two.

EA likes to let loose games too early and DICE seems to always make buggy games. See all their BF's for how high/stiff their game requirements are for a new released game for its time and how bad they often run; namely w/ the framerate and amounts of bugs.