Back in 1995 I played Madden 3 hours a night, 7 nights a week. I was frustrated with the ratings for Terrell Davis, the Broncos second year running back who I knew was due for a breakout season. But in the game he was as slow as an offensive lineman, I think Dan Marino’s speed rating was higher. That year’s Madden was one of the first games to offer a create-a-player and it was a grueling process. I don’t remember all of the button mashing activities I was forced to endure but I do remember one, the forty yard dash. My poor SNES controller took a serious beating as I tried over and over again to get my 40 time under five seconds but it just wasn’t happening. Not a good time for a running back and not a fun way to create a player.
.
.
Over the last 12 years making your own player has been a huge part of gaming, sports games in particular. The chance to star for your favorite team is one of the greatest things about playing a sports title. Unfortunately, the create-a-player feature has been on a very long roller coaster ride. First the options were minimal and painstakingly difficult. Think mindless button mashing so bad not even Neo could move fast enough to earn a good rating. Then create-a-player gradually moved to overly easy, yet microscopically detailed. Any kind of body style you can think of and enough options to consider that it gave the average gamer a God complex. Now, depending on the game, they’re a crappy mix of both. Its time somebody made an executive decision. And since I’m on the subject, let me make a few suggestions.
.
Be consistent – Look gaming companies, either make us work for our created player ratings or allow us to have God-like powers, not both, its too damn confusing. We shouldn’t play one game with stupid button mashing drills (“Madden 07”) and then another where we can make a player with stats and an appearance as wild as we can imagine (“NBA 07”). And one company makes both of these games! Make it one way or another, across the board. You’re messing with people’s heads, especially mine. And one last thing, don’t allow me to make a created player and do nothing with him. After making a player in “UEFA”, I quickly realized I could only use him in the games Play Now mode. I was so angry, I flew out to Chicago and threw my copy of “UEFA” through an EA office window. Or at least I would have if I wasn’t so lazy.
.
Give us the best of both worlds – Everybody wants to be able to create a player on their own terms but many gamers, including myself, do get a kick out of the button mashing skill tests – if they didn’t matter so much. Since you guys took so much time to come up with some of these ideas, why not make them an optional way to create a player but still allow gamers to adjust their created players rankings. Or better yet, why not make them into mini-games? Sports titles tend to have a short shelf life, a mini-game full of combine activities or workout drills might lengthen it.
.
Don’t charge us any frickin’ money! – I hate to pick on EA because I absolutely love the company but no developer has taken greater advantage of paying for downloads to improve a created player than them. “Tiger Woods 07” is a perfect example. You could either make a great created player by earning skill points through victories, or cheat and go to Xbox Live Marketplace and buy points to max yourself out. Why should I pay for something I’ve been able to do for free for years?!? I shouldn’t, that’s the point.
.
So lets review. The customer is always right! Allow gamers to choose how to best use the create-a-player feature, give us choices. We just paid big bucks for your game so we should be the one who makes the decision on what we want, not you.
.
Be consistent – Look gaming companies, either make us work for our created player ratings or allow us to have God-like powers, not both, its too damn confusing. We shouldn’t play one game with stupid button mashing drills (“Madden 07”) and then another where we can make a player with stats and an appearance as wild as we can imagine (“NBA 07”). And one company makes both of these games! Make it one way or another, across the board. You’re messing with people’s heads, especially mine. And one last thing, don’t allow me to make a created player and do nothing with him. After making a player in “UEFA”, I quickly realized I could only use him in the games Play Now mode. I was so angry, I flew out to Chicago and threw my copy of “UEFA” through an EA office window. Or at least I would have if I wasn’t so lazy.
.
Give us the best of both worlds – Everybody wants to be able to create a player on their own terms but many gamers, including myself, do get a kick out of the button mashing skill tests – if they didn’t matter so much. Since you guys took so much time to come up with some of these ideas, why not make them an optional way to create a player but still allow gamers to adjust their created players rankings. Or better yet, why not make them into mini-games? Sports titles tend to have a short shelf life, a mini-game full of combine activities or workout drills might lengthen it.
.
Don’t charge us any frickin’ money! – I hate to pick on EA because I absolutely love the company but no developer has taken greater advantage of paying for downloads to improve a created player than them. “Tiger Woods 07” is a perfect example. You could either make a great created player by earning skill points through victories, or cheat and go to Xbox Live Marketplace and buy points to max yourself out. Why should I pay for something I’ve been able to do for free for years?!? I shouldn’t, that’s the point.
.
So lets review. The customer is always right! Allow gamers to choose how to best use the create-a-player feature, give us choices. We just paid big bucks for your game so we should be the one who makes the decision on what we want, not you.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment