• 17Nov 04

  features that drive me insane

  another open letter to the game industry

  this one is about the crappy game elements in sports titles:

  to the gaming industry
  from a gamer

  
  why do you release games with the code and features that fustrate us?
  i have ea sports ncaa footbal 2004 and madden 2004
  and nba live 2004 and ncaa basketball 2004 and nhl 2004;
  and i'd like to know:
  WHY DOESN'T THE COMPUTER EVER REJECT A PENALTY??
  and another thing can you please explain how the prestige system works?
  I FIND IT STRANGE THAT I CAN GO TO A BOWL GAME AND HAVE MY PRESTIGE DROP
  this also brings up some concerns i have in ncaa basketball
  most notably why can i create recruits in the footbal game but
  i can't create recruits in the basketball game?
  and another thing you need to fix the prestige system in the
  basketball game as well
  I'VE ACTUALLY BEEN FIRED AFTER GUIDEING A TEAM TO THE FINAL FOUR
  now in the real college game something like that would be a
  huge accomplishment and would earn the coach a reward
  BUT INSTEAD I WAS THROWN OFF CAMPUS
  i have yet to hear of a coach going to the final four and
  being fired before the start of the next season
  when i say this i'm excluding anything that happens off-campus
  which brings up another problem the contract system
  WHY DO I HAVE TO MEET EVERY SINGLE OBJECTIVE ON MY CONTRACT??
  most college basketball coaches are happy to meet half of
  their objectives for any given year i think the contract
  system needs to reflect what college athletics is really like
  what i would do with the system is put in a gage if at least 50%
  of the objectives are met the coach stays anything below that the
  coach is looking for a new campus i'd also put in a reward system
  if a coach wins the conference he gets an amount of points and
  for going to the ncaa tournament an amount of points and
  for each level you go in the "big dance" you get more points if
  get enough rewards points your coach gets an extension
  i'd also change it so that if you go to
  the sweet 16, eltie 8, final four, or the title game your
  prestige level can not drop it can only stay the same or increase
  ANOTHER THING TO ALL THE SPORTS GAME DEVELOPERS:
  PLAYERS HAVE THEIR NUMBERS RETIRED FOR A REASON
  I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO SEND A PLAYER WITH THE NUMBER 3
  TO THE YANKEES AND NOT HAVE HIS NUMBER CHANGED!!!!
  ON THE SAME TOKEN THEIR SHOULDN'T BE A POWER FORWARD WEARING
  NUMBER 23 FOR THE CHICAGO BULLS
  AND I SHOULDN'T BE ABLE TO HAVE A TIGHT END PLAYING FOR THE
  MIAMI DOLPHINS WEARING NUMBER 13
  the hockey game does a good job with this considering i have to create
  wayne gretzky in order to use the number 99 but
  their is room for improvement
  while i'm on the subject we also need a hall of fame and/or
  a system to have jerseys retired you'd think that
  winning 8 superbowls over a 16 year carreer would get your number
  retired but no the next year some no name player comes in
  and takes the old number that was worn by the qb who lead the team
  to 8 super bowl titles or in the baseball game when i go on a tear
  and hit 84 homeruns in a season or manage to break
  joe dimaggio's record with a 64 game hitting streak or
  win 12 world series titles in a 20 year career you'd think my
  number would be retired but no the best i can hope for is to
  get into the in game hall of fame that even that is hard because
  you never have an idea what will get you in
  oh well nothing i can do, i don't know video game programming so
  there is little i can do. these are just somethings to keep in mind.

  
  yours
  B. A. Wood
  gamer

  • Posted Nov 17, 2004 12:08 pm PT
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• 17Nov 04

  the release calendar

  It seems to me that the gaming industry operates on a calendar that runs from OCT. 1 TO JAN. 1

  i'm going to post an open letter to the industry:

  to the gaming industry
  from a gamer

  
  can you please tell me why do you miss a prime
  opportunity to release games in short:
  WHY ARE THERE NO GAMES RELEASED IN THE MONTHS OF JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST?
  you would think that an industry whose core audeince needs to be inside
  or outdoors would release games during summer months, when most people
  under 25 are out of school and sitting in their homes all summer.
  also, it is a period when they have the money to get more than one game.

  the most perplexing thing is this:
  WHY, OUT OF A 12 MONTH CALENDAR, DO 75% TO 95% OF ALL GAME RELEASES COME
  IN A FOUR MONTH PERIOD?

  this is one of MANY trends in the gaming industry that i as a gamer am
  fed up with. summer is a perfect time to release games for many reasons
  including:
  1 there is nothing else to do
  2 when it's 95 degrees outside there is nothing better than a video game
  to pass the time
  3 by the second week of june we've become very bored with our
  gaming libraries and want something new
  4 people spend a lot of money during the summer months so why not take
  advantage of this

  now i understand the importance of the holiday season and fourth quarter
  numbers but IT STILL implies that there are another three quarters of the year
  that are perfect times for game releases but no if a game has a june
  release date it some how becomes victim to my least favorite indusrty trend
  THE DELAYED RELEASE
  case in point the sims 2 had an intial release date of march 14th but
  game don't sell during march so the date was moved to septemember 9th
  and yet again it becomes another one of the many games coming out
  during the same four month period.
  i wish somebody in charge would do us gamers a favor and mandate
  that at least 20 games be realeased during the summer months.
  however at the present time everything comes out at the end of the year
  and it appears that the game compaines don't want to help out the
  cusumers who purchase their products when we are in a prepetual waiting game.
  at some point the cycle has to stop. i am sick and tried of the same
  thing every year; game annouced, release date end of the year,
  then waiting the 1-12 months for its release. now i can't blame everyone
  in the industry for this horrible trend; rockstar has been sticking to
  it's release dates everytime they release a game. they are the one
  commendable company in the industry. so in short game companies do
  yourselves and us a favor:
  START RELEASING GAMES IN THE SUMMER!

  
  yours
  B.A.Wood
  gamer

  • Posted Nov 17, 2004 12:00 pm PT
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