Every Polynesian recruit in Dynasty looks like Justin Timberlake in 1999
I originally posted this on Reddit shortly after release, highlight EA's frequent shabby treatment of Polynesian players and fans. At the time, a bunch of the community encouraged me to post it here to make the feedback clearer to EA and the devs, but I didn't. I trusted that the dev team and community team would look at Reddit as much as any other source of feedback.
But as of today's patch, none of the issues raised in the post I made have even begun to be addressed, including ones that make Dynasty basically unplayable for Hawaii fans due to broken recruiting, so I figured maybe I should be posting it here after all.
--------
I've always been a huge fan of Polynesian football players in football. From when I first watched Troy Polamalu pulling off godlike moves on the turf, through to Mariota leading my Ducks, then my Titans, as their QB.
In CFB 25 that fandom has nudged me into playing Hawaii in dynasty and trying to get them a natty, with a team filled with Hawaiian players.
But despite the impact of Polynesian players at the College and NFL level, from Polamalu in the Hall of Fame, to 3% to 5% of NFL players being of Polynesian ancestry, to leading college QBs this coming season like Fifita, Iamaleava and DJ Uiagalelei, I'm once again finding EA has shafted this part of football fandom with their latest game and a lack of recognition for this part of the football community.
In Madden, this bias has been evident in the game for years. Each season of franchise mode in Madden generates new players to draft, but there are never any Polynesian names in there, they're simply not included, a pretty striking omission given how many Polynesian players there are in the league. The fact the Madden team drops in a couple of MUT cards during AANHPI month to make a bit more money, doesn't begin to offset this kind of omission, although the game at least offers some player editing that allows the gamer to address this themselves.
CFB25 has kept that legacy of predominantly ignoring this community it seems, despite generating some recruits in Dynasty with Polynesian names. Here's the current list of oversights in Dynasty mode that seem to exist simply because the dev team doesn't actually seem that keen to put in the effort to make the game as realistic as possible, where "every team is somebody's favorite team".
University of Hawaii always scores an F for 'proximity to home' for Hawaiian based recruits, I guess because the team is such an afterthought that nobody tested it. It means it's very hard for Hawaii to recruit any local players
University of Hawaii has a generic stadium taken from Madden, not Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex where the Rainbow Warriors actually play
University of Hawaii has no unique tunnel entrance sequence or mascot, despite them having one of the best run outs in college football as of recent years
Most recruits with Polynesian names seem to be generated in New York for some reason, rather than hot spots of Polynesian talent that exist in Utah, PNW, California and Hawaii, a slightly weird omission given the focus on unique recruiting areas rather than states
Most recruits with Polynesian names appear to be white skinned and, bizarrely in my dynasty, blonde haired. Like I'd say almost 80% of the recruits have blonde hair which makes it feel not random at all, but actually coded. Obviously, I don't want to stereotype here, Americans come from a broad and mixed range of ethnicities and people can very much look like they like, but aside from the pre-made real players, it feels like there's almost no Polynesian representation in the game when it comes to appearance and representation matters, especially in a game built on being authentic.
In most modes, especially RTG player creation, there seems a significant lack of Polynesian type hair (which even Madden has a couple of options for). Trying to make your own Siaki Ika or Marist Liufau is not possible.
Why am I posting this? Just to vent I guess and to ask EA, if anybody there even reads the feedback on here, to for once do better. If you're going to sell fans on the chance to be their team, to see it done right, if you're going to promise unprecedented realism in a football game (something we've all been crying out for for years as fans), if you're going to allow players to build their own star players that represent them, please don't cut corners. Don't ignore meaningful parts of the game of football, meaningful aspects of the big mix and showcase college football is, meaningful parts of the football community. Spend a tiny bit more time to get it right.
