Fifa 11 Xbox 360/PS3

[klashman69]

Online is a mess. UT is full of cheaters. CM is feature-less and broken.

The state of FIFA is bad. Really really bad.

The FIFA forums have always been relatively poor but right now it's at an all time low - it's hardly worth the effort sifting through all the anger and complaining to find decent posts.

The sad thing is it's not so much the game that's the issue - it's that EA's bullshit gets tiresome. I started playing more FIFA than PES in 08 when the future looked bright for FIFA but while the gameplay has made definite improvements the overall EA package is close to becoming too much of a bother to put up with. This stuff is meant to be fun after all and yet all three of my CM careers died an early, frustrating death. Like Placebo said, we're now into our second month post-release and nothing's been fixed.

The funny yet sad thing is that since release all that EA have done is roll out another game mode... which has its own massive problems that need to be fixed!

Really wish EA would man up and get their goddamn shit together.

I've been using those forums since 2004! It's never even been this bad, it's almost eerily similar to how PES forums were with PES 2008 hit!

even back in the shit years people never really took fifa seriously and were content on having fun. It was a decent forum really, everyone knew PES was better but people enjoyed their fifa, for what it did well. Just since FIFA got good back in 08 is when the arrogant baffons started to really invade!

Even then, for the last 2-3 years there were a lot of good member about, even with the majority of complete morons. Those good members seemingly have ALL dismembered now and again it's a horde of zombie like trolls!

EA biggest problem is those gamers ho were addicted to FIFA now have COD to play

 

[mfmaxpower]

They just announced the patch release date and a "list" of its contents:

http://forum.ea.com/uk/posts/list/56764.page

Can't say I'm particularly impressed TBH:

So this:

CAREER MODE
There are a lot of improvements you’ll notice here, which will all further boost the realism of the mode, but in summary: Your match fixtures during the season for cups and leagues, as well as the time of day they all happen, should now be much more realistic. We’ve also improved how accurately player ratings and growth are displayed, as well as making sure the players get the awards they deserve, when they deserve them. Using an odd exploit to secure a whopping $2 billion budget has now gone away, while the emails you receive as a manager will be more appropriate and players you’ve loaned out will now be easier to see and manage

Is what we get for all this:

cem_ea_id.asjnasjnajn wrote:
Unfortunately, it seems there are so many issues that I think it might actually be helpful/necessary to compile a list of known issues with Career Mode. Though it would be very optimistic to expect EA to act on these, at the very least we can hope there aren't a bunch of new threads created every day about the same problems.

1) Virtual Pro's Name Changes (more info on this one would be good)
Occasionally, the VP's name will change to a generic name, despite commentator's still referring to the player with the originally selected name.

2) March 20th-30th/Scheduling Freeze
Very often, the game will enter an infinite loading screen at the 'Warming Up' screen before a game in late March. This can be bypassed by going to the calendar and selecting a date in the near future to simulate to.

3a) Unlimited Money
By allocating the club's funds 0:100 then canceling a loan, the club goes into debt. Manipulating the budget then results in a massive amount of money becoming available.
3b) Massive Debt
If the user is affected by the previous glitch, and earns above the theoretical maximum amount of money (ie. by setting the max transfer budget then earning some money) the budget is made negative, placing the club in over 2 billion debt.

4) Lower Wages Demanded
If offering players extravagant wages, occasionally they will counter offer with the conditions they request, with a wage much lower than that originally offered. Agreeing to their conditions seems to always result in denial.

5) Board Expectation 'Achieved'
After ending a season where the league goal was not achieved (ie. finishing lower than expected), the board very often seems pleased with the result, explicitly and falsely stating that you have fulfilled the expectation. This also has a positive effect on the manager's reputation.

6) Fired Despite Playing Fewer Games
The board does not seem able to consider the number of games played when evaluating league performance. Thus, especially early in the season when the schedule is busy, successful managers may be fired as the board deems their league position too low despite having more than enough games in hand to account for the deficit. This seems very common, especially at teams with high expectations, and the only known way to prevent this is to set the board difficulty much lower than desired at the start of your career.

7) Team Changes After Buying Player(unconfirmed)
Signing a player from another team will result in the entire squad changing to that of his previous team, despite retaining your club's kit.

8) Perennial Cup Opponents
Every season, the same opponents are drawn in cup competitions. Opponents in further rounds are predictable based on results of other games, where they should be random. Though its effect on the game is minimal, this has significant implications for the realism of cup fixtures.

9) Loan Players Returning
Loaned players may randomly leave the club at any point, with no notification. They return to their parent club without any notification, despite having a contract til the end of the season.

10) Wages Fluctuating
Players may, for no apparent reason, suddenly have their wages increase or decrease by any amount. Renegotiating a player's contract to a longer duration with a higher wage may result in a successful contract extension however the wage remains the same. Others may increase/decrease without any contract negotiations, perhaps in relation to their performance.

11) Unrealistic Rising League Expectations
The board will frequently expect a ridiculously high finishing position, increasing the expectation in successive years. This occurs particularly with newly promoted teams. The board may expect a mid-table finish, top 6, top 4, then expect to win the league in as many seasons immediately after promotion. This is despite minimal transfer and wage budget increases.

12) AI's Restricted Spending
It is almost impossible to sell expensive players, as the AI seems reluctant to even make a low offer on transfer-listed players. Even free transfers are apparently too expensive for the AI teams, even if that player is a mid-20s Rooney or Fabregas.

13) AI Making Subs
If appointed Manager in Player Mode, the AI will continue to control substitutions in games without the player's input.

14) Player Growth (or lack thereof)
I don't know where to begin. This is a mess. Players in the form of their life decreasing; being informed via email that someone has improved when their stats suggest otherwise; young players with high potential remaining stagnant for years; uncontracted players steadily improving, etc

15) SPL Split-Format Games
The five league games added to the end of the SPL season as part of the split-league format have no bearing on the league ladder. These are essentially friendlies.

16) CM Team Changes
Occasionally, after playing a game in an alternative mode, returning to Career Mode will reveal that the controlled team in CM has bizarrely permanently changed to the one selected in the other mode. (specifics requested if anyone knows which game modes do this, etc)

17) 'Out of Funds'
Paradoxically, when a player sale is canceled because the AI team ran out of funds so cannot complete the transfer, the transfer fee is still received.

18) Kit Numbers
When assigning kit numbers, particularly when assigning a kit number (eg. to Player A) already selected for another player (Player B), the game may occasionally try to correct this by assigning Player B a number already assigned to Player C. In other words, it tries to correct duplications by inadvertently creating another.

19) Dot Colours on Scouting Screen
At the pre-match scouting screen, the colours of the 'dots' representing opposition players on the mini-map appear to be referenced from the player's team, not the AI team. For example, if the player uses a 352, but the AI uses a 433, then the opposition team will be represented by 3 yellow defenders, 5 green midfielders and just 2 blue forwards (though arranged correctly in a 433).

20) League Cup Seeding
If the player-controlled club has qualified for the UEFA Champions League or Europa League, they will still incorrectly join the English League Cup in Round 2. However, it appears that AI teams in the same situation correctly enter in Round 3.

21) Budget Allocation
After manually setting the budget, some players report that the game sets it back to something impractical, always and instantly. Often this is 100:0, making it impossible to sign anyone because wages cannot be paid.

22) VP Never Substituted
Self-explanatory, really. He could be gasping for breath with a pair of fractured legs and the manager will still insist on leaving him out there. Also never used as a sub (ie. impossible to be named on the bench).

23) VP Plays Every Game
If the VP's squad status is particularly high (eg. key player or captain), then the manager will select him to play every match, even when his condition makes it such that choosing a slightly lower OVR player would be logical. Combined with 22, this makes for some exhausted VPs!

24) Commentary
This deserves a thread for itself, and is something FIFA has always struggled with. Specifically in terms of CM though, commentators can often be heard calling a VP midfielder the "best forward" or discussing a player who has apparently been bought in the mid-season transfer window despite it being at the start of the season.

25) Cup Wins Ignored
In 'My Career', domestic cup wins are not counted.

26) ECL Missing First Season
Apparently a licensing issue, though I'm skeptical of this excuse, there is no European Champions League in the first season.

27) Missing Icons in Simmed Matches
In particular, the 'ball' icon for scorers often does not appear next to the name of the goal-scorer as it should.

28) Glitched Players & Incomplete Teams
Seems to occur after loading a saved game. Some players may have their name removed (blank) with a nonsensical OVR such as 360714, and often shown to be goalkeepers. Attempting to play a game with these players in the lineup may result in an incomplete team (<11 players) and it appears impossible to remove them from the squad entirely.

29) Loaned Players Un-Signable
It is impossible to make an offer to purchase a player listed for loan, currently on loan, or recently returned from loan. What makes this particularly 'buggy' is that once a player returns to his original club at the end of a loan move, the game recognises this as a recent transfer, and thus it is impossible to sign him within the next year as the club believes they have only recently bought him and are unwilling to sell him so soon.

30) Released Players' Wages Still Paid
After terminating a player's loan (unconfirmed if this also occurs when releasing a player), there is no change in the wage budget. Despite paying the termination fee, taken from the transfer budget, their wages apparently continue to be paid.

31) Starting CM Consistent Freezing
Starting a new CM may invariably result in freezing, if the user chooses to use the latest downloaded or default squads. Though the cause of this is unknown, as it appears to randomly affect people attempting to start a new game, choosing 'Current Customised' squads bypasses the issue (though invalidates the career from online leaderboards).

32) Suspensions
A red card in any competition applies to every competition. For example, receiving a red card in a Champions League match will render the player unavailable for the next league fixture, after which they will be eligible again even if the next game is another Champions League tie.

33) Fluctuating Points in Simulated Leagues
Those who pay attention to ladders of leagues in which they are not active may note bizarre points tallies. Specifically, teams may experience a decrease in points after a number of rounds, though this is clearly impossible in real life (excepting bankruptcy, etc). To quote one player: "With 36 games played Arsenal were sitting comfortably on 86 points, 5 clear of Chelsea. Once the season ended, I looked again and Arsenal were 5th with 72 points".

Please post in here with any more to add to the list or to confirm and add info to current ones! The more evidence/info, the better.

Great, thanks EA.

 

[Rodelero]

What a pathetic list of gameplay improvements. Wow that live patching was a waste of time so far. Please say that EA didn't implement that to shut us up.

 

[Placebo]

So this:



Is what we get for all this:



Great, thanks EA.

It is yes apparently, and when we all raised these issues in the thread this is the response we got from EA_FLT to one of the questions posted whilst ignoring the rest:

Yay, a constructive post!

I just posted a response:

I'm sorry to disappoint you EA_FLT but it's not our job to be constructive/non-constructive, we are your customers, we have paid for your game, in essence we pay your wages, to respond with contemptuously arrogant comments to ignore numerous genuine concerns about the state of the product we've paid for is highly unprofessional.

 

[glen]

I don't know what was more disappointing, the responses from EA or the posts from 99% of the community acting like petulant children.

Sorry state of affairs from both sides.

 

[glen]

What a pathetic list of gameplay improvements. Wow that live patching was a waste of time so far. Please say that EA didn't implement that to shut us up.

"live patching" only effects value based gameplay changes and uses a system like squad updates which sends an updated file to use.

It's also the first iteration.

 

[Placebo]

I don't know what was more disappointing, the responses from EA or the posts from 99% of the community acting like petulant children.

Sorry state of affairs from both sides.

EA are paid nice salaries to apparently treat their customers with contempt, the community pay £50 to be treated contemptuously, I know which side I'm on. As someone who is paid to interact with a community I'd be ashamed if I acted how certain EA personnel have over the patch issue.

 

[glen]

EA are paid nice salaries to apparently treat their customers with contempt, the community pay £50 to be treated contemptuously, I know which side I'm on. As someone who is paid to interact with a community I'd be ashamed if I acted how certain EA personnel have over the patch issue.

It was a poor response I agree. But I won't grab my pitch fork just yet until the community takes some responsibility for its aggressive and overtly rude posts either.

I get "frustration" and I get "we paid for this etc" but if they went to a shop and spoke like some of them do they would be removed by security.

I just find it all so counter productive to be so openly rude or aggressive and the oxymoron of it all is when the dev's shy away everyone is back up in arms saying they don't talk to us.

Its a rather depressing trend as I noticed Jon Murphy on twitter was asking people not to be rude....It almost seems like mob mentality and rudeness is endemic yet its not the behaviour that gets the most out of the devs.

FLT needs to be less tongue in cheek and more tactful in his replies. They just seem to stoke the fire.

 

[drekkard]

If they really worked in a better product they would need less investment and "rudeness" in the forums... That patch is a complete joke.

 

[Placebo]

It was a poor response I agree. But I won't grab my pitch fork just yet until the community takes some responsibility for its aggressive and overtly rude posts either.

I'm sorry Glen but you're hardly an objective regular joe when it comes to your thoughts and opinions on EA, you unlike the majority of us go on paid trips to visit EA do you not? You're certainly not going to bite the hand that feeds you, same as you never criticise EA, ever, despite the shockingly buggy release of 10 which they never fixed, for example.

I just find it all so counter productive to be so openly rude or aggressive and the oxymoron of it all is when the dev's shy away everyone is back up in arms saying they don't talk to us.

FLT needs to be less tongue in cheek and more tactful in his replies. They just seem to stoke the fire.

The EA forums are full of kids, EA know that so they should be prepared for that in how they respond and inform the community on their forums.

 

[hitmanuk]

I must be the only one enjoying this game looking at all the moaning go on. I really dont know what the real problem is with the game I think it plays well, is fun and etertaining which is what video games are supposed to be?

For all the others if you don't like it or dont like the upcomming patch either dont buy it or if you already have sell it (I sold PES and overal lost a fiver).

Im guessing that the majority of people complaining are the same ones who complained about FIFA 10 and the patches. Does common sense not say to these people hold of until all the patches are released and read what people think before you go out and buy. Or even try the game first for a week?

That way all the frustration would be eliminated or is that just too simple.

Oh well kids these days eh? I used to be over the moon with Kick Off 2 back in the day

 

[glen]

I'm sorry Glen but you're hardly an objective regular joe when it comes to your thoughts and opinions on EA, you unlike the majority of us go on paid trips to visit EA do you not? You're certainly not going to bite the hand that feeds you, same as you never criticise EA, ever, despite the shockingly buggy release of 10 which they never fixed, for example.

It was because I was highly critical of FIFA but in a constructive way. The Same as why Rom was asked to go.

I am very very critical of the game just ask Rom. What I am not going to do is be overtly rude to people because its clear that doesnt work. Again I was critical of FIFA 10 and really wasn't happy with it at all, but what more can you do when you ask the Lead Producer when are they going to fix it and they say they can't do any more that iteration. They know I wasn't happy, they weren't happy and a lot of the core fans weren't happy but bitching doesn't fix it if the can't for what ever reasons.

It was the problems in FIFA 10 that innovated the gameplay patching system that's yet to be used for example.

I was recently at a working group with Rom and Nick, going through issues, poor gameplay and how utterly repetitive and broken CM is.

I find I get a better response from the EA team when I am not swearing at them or being aggressive or just plainly confrontational or rude.

The reason I got invited was because of this thread http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-09-sony-playstation-3-microsoft-xbox-360/366349-online-changes.html At times I was embarrassingly rude, swearing and shouting and look back and frown on some of my posts.

I have issues with the game just like everyone else. I have been able to meet, Nick, Rom etc and discuss the game with them and their thoughts. Feel free to ask them whether I am not objective or and some sort of EA corporate whore....

 

[Placebo]

I was recently at a working group with Rom and Nick, going through issues, poor gameplay and how utterly repetitive and broken CM is.

And yet based on their patch "list" their answer was to fix about 3 things out of the countless known and reported CM bugs?

 

[Placebo]

Phil Wride EAUK_FIFA
#FIFA11 Updates notes released as well as planned release dates; http://bit.ly/bfCKOb

Placebo_obecalP
@EAUK_FIFA we were told it would be a list, that's just a summary, are they the only CM bugs being fixed? There are lots more bugs reported.

EAUK_FIFA
@Placebo_obecalP I've seen a list version of what was posted, there are a number of Career Mode things being addressed.

Placebo_obecalP
@EAUK_FIFA errr ok, so why weren't these things listed last night? Is the SPL points bug fixed? Board unrealistic rising expectations?

Really don't understand what they're playing at, they promise a list, keep us waiting for a list, write a list, share the list around internally, release a summary, I mean, WTF?

 

[nerf]

I must be the only one enjoying this game looking at all the moaning go on. I really dont know what the real problem is with the game I think it plays well, is fun and etertaining which is what video games are supposed to be?

I'm enjoying it too, in my offline-only, at-my-own-pace, by-my-own-rules way. Manual+Legendary with no pressure buttons gives me a challenge to get my teeth into, and they fixed some of the main problems that spoiled 10/WC for me (defensive positioning, player selection, etc).

I suspect that if I wanted to play online or with assisted controls and so on, I'd find more stuff that gets in the way. CM remains disappointingly shallow, the gameplay has flaws and stuff that is not balanced well, these things could/should be better, but I'm not expending much energy stressing over it so I must be having enough fun regardless.

EA don't exactly help themselves with their terrible communication. Were the Game Changers involved at all in the patch process? And do they have any plans to use this Squad Update patching thing they put in?

 

[TikTikTikTikTik]

I've stopped playing both games (FIFA/PES). Will give it another go when / if they do a decent gameplay update.

 

[Nick Cave]

Oh dear, how are EA ever going to make the game anywhere near where we want when they have 3 million of these as their core base...

using a team such as accrington, you dont have much funds. but in previous fifa's you got sponsored. you dont get that in fifa 11 so how am i meant to buy players? sell my good players? even that wouldnt be enough. it's really frustrating. im considering bringing the game back and getting my money back. i love fifa but it's just not what i read it would be this yr. also anyone know when the "patch" is being released? is it on the patch to fix the problem i just descirbed. any help would be great
thanks guys

 

[Rodelero]

"live patching" only effects value based gameplay changes and uses a system like squad updates which sends an updated file to use.

It's also the first iteration.

Glen, let me explain what gets to me about you, and certain other gamechangers' attitude. It's the "everyone calm down" attitude. It's the fact that while a large portion of the community gets justifiably very angry with things which are totally unacceptable - for instance, the situation with 360 Clubs.

I'm sure it's great for you - you are the insider with a much larger amount of information. It's a lot easier for you to be calm - but frankly - I don't appreciate it at all. The idea that we're being petulant children is utterly insulting. No-one doubts that you are capable of criticising EA - but at the end of the day Glen, what results have we seen from your softly softly approach?

Frankly, EA are not reacting acceptably - and the truth is YOU are treating them like children. It's not a question of politeness. People complaining about a totally unacceptable level of service are unlikely to be polite. EA aren't going to want to read it. I just don't see how your approach helps. Maybe the softly softly approach works from you - but it doesn't from us. I/we are lucky if EA listens to a single thing we say - no idea whether they listen to you lot.

Maybe they talk to you more this way - but it's not like it's achieved much for this game. At the end of the day, Glen, I don't think it's condusive to this game improving when a number of gamechangers try to work out how "Pro Passing will be forced on online" could mean "Pro Passing won't be forced on online". That, is pathetic. That's not being polite - that's just being utterly biased - and that's why people get the feeling that some gamechangers are compromised.

Whether or not you feel your approach works - the results are highly debatable - and it's not your place to force your approach onto others. I am not content to just sit back and wait for the gamechangers to say what needs to be said - because I'm not sure they will.

 

[glen]

Xaor, I am calm because I am a married 31 year old man.

The 360 clubs thing is a real shame this year, I understand how they feel as last year on PS3 having more than 20 friends on your friends list caused you to disconnect from ANY of online game modes and it was painful to wait for the patch to fix it. But I survived, and then managed to get a good 10 months out of clubs there after.

I guess Xaor I am just a little more patient and understanding that they make games, not missile software, not auto pilot software. Games software. Its just not going to be tested to destruction because no lives depend on it.

Not saying its right but its just being realistic. Because in the grand scheme of things however important it feels to us it is just a £30 entertainment product that Corporate EA milk the hell out of.

Im sorry I rub you up the wrong way but I think its just a clash of personalities because I do admire what your trying to achieve just wish it was a little more approachable and less preachy sometimes.

 

[Placebo]

Glen, let me explain what gets to me about you, and certain other gamechangers' attitude. It's the "everyone calm down" attitude. It's the fact that while a large portion of the community gets justifiably very angry with things which are totally unacceptable - for instance, the situation with 360 Clubs.

I'm sure it's great for you - you are the insider with a much larger amount of information. It's a lot easier for you to be calm - but frankly - I don't appreciate it at all. The idea that we're being petulant children is utterly insulting. No-one doubts that you are capable of criticising EA - but at the end of the day Glen, what results have we seen from your softly softly approach?

Frankly, EA are not reacting acceptably - and the truth is YOU are treating them like children. It's not a question of politeness. People complaining about a totally unacceptable level of service are unlikely to be polite. EA aren't going to want to read it. I just don't see how your approach helps. Maybe the softly softly approach works from you - but it doesn't from us. I/we are lucky if EA listens to a single thing we say - no idea whether they listen to you lot.

Maybe they talk to you more this way - but it's not like it's achieved much for this game. At the end of the day, Glen, I don't think it's condusive to this game improving when a number of gamechangers try to work out how "Pro Passing will be forced on online" could mean "Pro Passing won't be forced on online". That, is pathetic. That's not being polite - that's just being utterly biased - and that's why people get the feeling that some gamechangers are compromised.

Whether or not you feel your approach works - the results are highly debatable - and it's not your place to force your approach onto others. I am not content to just sit back and wait for the gamechangers to say what needs to be said - because I'm not sure they will.

Well said and I completely agree 100%.

 

[Rodelero]

Xaor, I am calm because I am a married 31 year old man.

and I'm not calm because I'm a 19 year old man at university on his period? Or how about, I'm not calm because once again I've seen an entire community of people conned into buying a shoddy product, which doesn't really work and certainly doesn't live up to even a small percentage of the promises.

The 360 clubs thing is a real shame this year, I understand how they feel as last year on PS3 having more than 20 friends on your friends list caused you to disconnect from ANY of online game modes and it was painful to wait for the patch to fix it. But I survived, and then managed to get a good 10 months out of clubs there after.

At least that was fixable. The lengths most people on the 360 would go to to solve their problems would easily include removing all but 20 friends. The problem is EA still haven't strictly fixed it.

I guess Xaor I am just a little more patient and understanding that they make games, not missile software, not auto pilot software. Games software. Its just not going to be tested to destruction because no lives depend on it.

Not saying its right but its just being realistic. Because in the grand scheme of things however important it feels to us it is just a £30 entertainment product that Corporate EA milk the hell out of.

It's not like EA tested the game really well and there is one bug in it - EA tested the game poorly (year after year) and there are a multitude of really, really big problems every time.

You may call it realistic - but I call it defeatist.

Im sorry I rub you up the wrong way but I think its just a clash of personalities because I do admire what your trying to achieve just wish it was a little more approachable and less preachy sometimes.

The problem is Glen, that EA simply don't listen to people like us in the same way they listen to you. I'm trying to make progress on a thoroughly controversial issue - one which no-one else has made much headway with. Even with Lee and Tom, two pillars of the manual community, what's actually changed? Bugger all. We've got a leaderboard. Woop.

 

[OPM]

2 fixed kits? out of like a million wrong ones? and missing keeper kits? awesome!

ea are a joke.

 

[brunnoce]

Dunno, there were far less moaners about with FIFA 08,

defiantly 09 there weren't many moaners at all about the game actually not being up to standard. Everyone just moaned about Manchester United

10 there were moaners, but nowhere near as much as today, every thread is negative

Game sells have increased this year = more users = more moaners

2 fixed kits? out of like a million wrong ones? and missing keeper kits? awesome!

ea are a joke.

Completly agree about this... the kit situation is ridiculous this year, once again. To a point that Palmeiras have FAKE(mock) LICENSED kits!

 

[WILDSTER180774]

i cant believe that the AI is not being touched. Im bored of 1p mode already. Career Mode is once again shite.
Bored
Bored
Bored
And online still favours the assisted through ball using twat.
in over 10 years of playing footie games this is the most deflated ive ever felt.

 

[glen]

There is a new person in charge of kits for FIFA 12 and he is an avid authenticity fan and said he was pretty shocked at how many kits are wrong in FIFA 11 and that it doesnt have to be that way.

So fingers crossed we should see a large jump in quality for FIFA 12

 

[mfmaxpower]

What's a shame is that the discussion is no longer about FIFA, it's about EA. The reason why people are being so over the top and rude is because they feel hard done, not by the game, but by the people behind the game. People, whether children or adults, want to be heard, they want feedback, they want to feel as if they matter, as if they are important. EA over the last couple of years have steadily gotten worse in their relations with the community. EA, not FIFA, is totally deserving of the current criticisms.

My first professional job was in public relations and I can tell you that it doesn't matter if it's spoiled teenagers or grown married men, there is nothing that brings together a group of people and gets them spitting vitriol like a shared feeling of being taken advantage of by a multi-billion dollar corporation. Facts are NOT important; perception is everything. It's all part of the cost of doing business, and right now the perception of EA among the hardcore FIFA community is a poor one.

The sad reality is that while FIFA is overall a fantastic product, the service-side of the relationship is all sorts of screwed up. In 08/09 there generally was goodwill toward EA from the FIFA community. EA had finally produced a product worthy of its title, appeared intent on introducing a higher level of realism into gameplay, and had a multi-year plan for development that included some innovative new game modes. Turn the calendar to today and that goodwill is gone.

Why has this happened? I'd love to hear the inside story but my money is on a combination of over-extending with too many game modes at an unfortunate time of economic downturn. EA have been laying off loads of people in recent years and this game screams of a lack of attention to detail, which always happens when you have too few people working on a job with a tight deadline. I'd imagine part of this had to do with milking the cow of recent success. Added to this is probably that some of the people simply weren't up to the jobs/responsibilities assigned to them (I'm looking at you, whoever has been directing MM/CM's development!).

Those are just guesses but I can say with certainty that the excuse that the devs aren't communicating with the FIFA forums and the community anymore is because of the tone and absurdity of some people is total B.S. Dealing with angry customers is a part of doing business. It's called customer service. It's called good PR. Please, it's not as if the devs are getting all teary-eyed from reading posts in the forum. If you're serious about listening to your community then you man up and take the good with the bad. You don't open a customer services department only to not have anyone working the counter, just like you don't open a community forum and hardly show up. That's just poor business practices. Yeah EA aren't in danger of going out of business and sure the FIFA franchise isn't doomed, but all this adds up. Plus it's bad karma dammit.

Like I said, what a shame the conversation has to be about EA right now and not FIFA.

 

[mfmaxpower]

I must be the only one enjoying this game looking at all the moaning go on. I really dont know what the real problem is with the game I think it plays well, is fun and etertaining which is what video games are supposed to be?

You're not. I'm enjoying single player UT, scouting talent for my next CM (if I bother - depends on the fixes.).

Like I said above, it's less the game and more EA that's the issue. Gameplay overall is very good.

I'm enjoying it too, in my offline-only, at-my-own-pace, by-my-own-rules way. Manual+Legendary with no pressure buttons gives me a challenge to get my teeth into, and they fixed some of the main problems that spoiled 10/WC for me (defensive positioning, player selection, etc).

And do they have any plans to use this Squad Update patching thing they put in?

And that last part is what I'm dying to know. Did they ever plan to make substantial changes post-release or was it all B.S? My assumption is they didn't predict the amount of bugs and issues with the game they're having to deal with, so my hopes are not high for any real gameplay improvements.

Oh dear, how are EA ever going to make the game anywhere near where we want when they have 3 million of these as their core base...

I know what you're saying but I also know what he's saying too - I think the problem is people want different things out of CM but the mode has become so limited that it now meets hardly anyone's expectations.

Some people look to CM for a more realistic sim of managing a club. Others look for a more "fantasy-type" experience. I would guess that most people are between the extremes.

And this is why CM really needs more options, or sliders. (Somewhere around here we started making a list.) Just a few obvious ones: player growth speed, transfer ease, budget allocation, form difficulty, etc.

 

[Placebo]

There is a new person in charge of kits for FIFA 12 and he is an avid authenticity fan and said he was pretty shocked at how many kits are wrong in FIFA 11 and that it doesnt have to be that way.

So fingers crossed we should see a large jump in quality for FIFA 12

Orlando?

 

[Gab_]

The people in the gamechanger group should be people that really try to push EA to the limit, otherwise nothing will be changed (like with FIFA 10).

 

[glen]

Orlando?

Yeah. I had a chat with him in Guildford about kits and the player stats database.