EA Putting Effort Toward NCAA

There are many sports video game enthusiasts who have a clear disdain for EA Sports. These individuals claim that the company no longer goes above and beyond with its product from year-to-year, specifically its football titles. Instead, it is said that EA is comfortable simply taking a tweaked version of last year's title, slapping some new overdone features on it, marketing the heck out of it and watch it sell at a high volume rate. Thanks in large part to a perceived monopoly the company has in the football gaming market, according to the aforementioned angry gamers.

Do these arguments have some level of credibility? On some level they probably do. However, information that has come out regarding NCAA Football over the past week or so suggests that EA is listening to its customer and making an attempt to not just take his or her money, but actually follow through on at least some of the consumer's wishes.

Before any gets all upset, of course no one has had an opportunity to play the final product yet, but there have been some who have been fortunate enough to see a version of the game in action and their reports coupled with the surprising comparison videos EA released this week would make even the biggest skeptic at least consider the thought that EA is making strides with its college football product in a fairly substantial fashion.

Consider the short videos EA put up on the NCAA Football section of its website. True, these were created by EA for the benefit of EA, but it is hard to argue with the video. The clips comparing last year's title to the upcoming game in regards to defensive awareness, dynamic running, and player models illustrated improvement. The gang-tackling video was not only awesome looking, but it put to bed many of those throughout the internet who had been claiming they had not seen any gang-tackling in any of the previous video clips.

Does this mean the game is going to be perfect? No it does not. In fact, if a person hated NCAA, or Madden for that matter because of the basic engine of the game then it would be difficult to imagine that same person being swayed by the updated title of 2008. However, it is very promising to see these improvements and even more refreshing to see that EA as a company is showing some effort to listen to its customers and trying to show us all that they are doing so.

This space has been used to push for improvements of certain aspects of the NCAA title. One of the articles spoke directly to improving defensive back play. The video regarding defensive awareness is an answer to this from EA. Many others have talked at length about what they do not like about the way players run and ultimately the feel of the running game. The dynamic running video, along with information regarding improved blocking from impressions of NCAA from those who were at the Community Day are a response to this issue.

Gamers spend a lot of time attacking companies when they do not deliver certain aspects of a game we think should be in there. This is in fact a good thing as the consumer should have the ability to speak his or her mind and get results. When a company attempts to listen and shows that it is trying to meet the customer's wants and needs it deserves praise as well.