A year of Rush. A success - With major issues.

So. First of all - As always - A big congratulations to the EA Teams involved with the FC 25 project. A huge year which introduced many QOL elements and new additional features to the ever-growing nature of football.

A year of changes. FC 25 felt like a project that was liked by the Developers. That they wanted to improve aspects of gameplay over the year. I felt the communication was better via the social channels. The Fifa/FC Franchise has been in our lives(for alot of us), for a decade, 2 decades. From the early roots of Fifa International Soccer, to Fifa 97. To today's new franchise. FC. A franchise which should absolutely be applauded for having yearly projects flourish. And be the best Football Game there is. 

Rush

A risk - absolutely. When you introduce a new gamemode to the public. It can usually be hit 'n' miss. Rush, with a new set of rules to understand, an arcade experience. Fun. Definitely succeeded in areas. But definitely failed in some.

It succeeded in the fun aspect. fast-paced football. It succeeded in bringing together fun, as well as in-game rewards at decent game time. Companies are only really now beginning to think about "Oh. This individual works full-time. How can we make this gamemode rewarding and accessible". We saw this with "Moments". We now see it in Rush. A quick gamemode that rewards players. Even if they don't enter any other Gamemode. Even if players only want to trade - Rush is a gamemode that allows that - Which is great.

Commentary - A positive addition. Added relatable commentary which I hope will continue. Football is a universal sport. To hear different commentary, introduce different slang/spanish etc. It just adds something vibrant. Fun. 

A few things that failed - The Community. Despite the positive gamemode. Much like most gamemodes in FC. Players are motivated for the first few months. Adore the game. The hype is there. Mid-season comes along. Boom. It's almost as if collectively, most of the playerbase have lost interest. Standing still. Quitting matches. Trolling. Abusing the game. Not helping each other. We saw EA come in with a few improvements for Rush. Decreasing the timer to disconnect players. Still - Players will seemingly find ways to try to ruin other player's experiences. It's definitely a "new age" mentality which has affected Games in recent years. We call it the "Social Media Generation". The generation of Gamers who's mentality is based on Social Media. That negative outlook. Years ago, you could play Call of Duty, Fifa, Racing Games. You could be losing heavily. Yet, you'd stay. Finish the match. Finish the race. You'd do this out of respect to the other players. That mentality has unfortunately been lost - There are ways to mitigate this(I'll suggest a few ideas below).

What also failed was the different Events throughout the year. I can see what the Devs wanted to implement. However, players were only interested in one thing "Rating". If the Rating was high, players rushed to the event. If the event was based around Defenders with a lower rating, players lost interest. You see this in Clubs(a very low % of players play Defender). Lack of interest. Events could be absolutely more rewarding. Both in what is being rewarded, and also visually. Alot of us felt the Events needed a more visually appealing Modal. It was very uninteresting to see the same Modal being used for each event.

Mitigation Ideas 

1. From the very first match you play Online. Any in Gamemode. You will start with 0% next to your name. This is your "Forced Disconnect %". Or. "FD". Your FD is calculated by each match you forcefully quit before a match is finished. If you play 1 Online match and quit - Your FD is 100%. This is publicly seen when you enter a Match, and will be connected to your Profile. The idea of FD is to minimise players from forcefully quitting and introduce a stronger mentality for fair gameplay. EA can absolutely add mitigation factors - Such as - If you are losing by more than 4 goals by half time, you can quit, while not gaining any FD %. It is highly probably that should you be losing by 4 goals at half time, you are more likely to lose than win. So your FD would not be effected should you wish to forcefully quit.
2. Very much like Rocket League - Add a 5 minute timer if you have recently forcefully quit a match. There are many reasons someone may forcefully quit, a 5 minute delay to reenter an online match gives that individual the time to adjust, grab a drink, calm down(if they need to lol), and reenter their next match after 5 minutes. Far too often, players will play another online match straight away, be fueled with their online rage, and continue that throughout their session. Giving players a 5 minute break can mitigate this and give players a chance to settle down.
3. In MMO's(not all), they have positive messaging that may say something like "You've been playing awhile. Take a break and come back". I'd like to see this introduced within FC 26, Rush and all Gamemodes. A simple notification modal which reminds the player it's okay to take breaks. This ensures players have a healthy balance and if they're having a bad session(Football is competitive afterall), they can take a break, come back refreshed and hopefully have a better gaming session.

Onto FC 26

The introduction of Goalkeepers is a welcome one for Rush. But just like Clubs, it can be taken advantage of by bad actors. And those bad actors often ruin entire matches. It's important that players who play by the rules are rewarded and that players who troll, abuse the system, are punished accordingly.

Rush is, by definition. A fantastic Gamemode. A great addition to the FC Franchise. My hope is that the community has a much more positive outlook when playing football and will support each other throughout the whole season.

Thanks for listening.

Have a great FC 26 Launch 💥⚽⚽⚽