Community Manager
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:
@RatedxPGxEnigma It didn't happen in NHL 22 either. All because the beta in 21 felt so amazing and then they changed stuff and people lost their minds and thus they decided to no longer make changes from the betas if people felt OK with things.
We also reverted the beta changes and then were told the game felt the same still. Every year the claim was that the beta was great and we shouldn't change anything. When an update was released, minimal changes were made after that didn't affect what was being claimed. This has led us to not have gameplay updates. It's possible they could return in the future though.
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@KlariskraysNHL wrote:
@RatedxPGxEnigmaIt didn't happen in NHL 22 either. All because the beta in 21 felt so amazing and then they changed stuff and people lost their minds and thus they decided to no longer make changes from the betas if people felt OK with things.We also reverted the beta changes and then were told the game felt the same still. Every year the claim was that the beta was great and we shouldn't change anything. When an update was released, minimal changes were made after that didn't affect what was being claimed. This has led us to not have gameplay updates. It's possible they could return in the future though.
The reason why people think the beta is great is because in the short time period that the beta is available, there isn't sufficient time for a proper META to develop. So during that time, people are actually trying new things, and making mistakes along the way, which makes the game feel incredibly open for those who are patient and skilled.
Then what happens - the game is released to the public - a META develops and then those on the losing-end of that META demand that it be changed back because they've romanticized beta-gameplay due to the lack of a META.
The problem with not releasing gameplay updates is that the META becomes incredibly stale after 2-3 months. No significant updates to gameplay means that the same tired BS like LTing just becomes more and more prolific across all gameplay modes.
Such an unrealistic yet effective way of playing ruins the experience for those players who are tired of defending the same unrealistic BS over-and-over ad infinitum.
We used to get tuners every now and then to combat unrealistic methods of scoring, skating, hitting, etc - a nice little refreshing change to the gameplay that resulted in people trying new things and thus - opening the gameplay up until a new META comes along.
Sure, it's a cat and mouse game that runs all year long, but the previous dedication to taking part in that cat&mouse game with exploitative mechanics by the developers showed everyone that EA was, in fact, agreeing that these things are unrealistic and ruining the experience for some players. That alone showed the team was empathetic to most users' issues.
Not saying the team isn't now - but whoever made the decision not to rock-the-boat of the fanbase with new tuners and gamepaly adjustments just because you'd get some heat from people who simply didn't 'like' things (and never took time to adjust).. it just kinda deflates the passion you used to see here.
@EA_Aljo do you realize how ridiculous that sounds from a professional software development team? You are basically stating that you are intentionally punishing the community because you didn't like the feedback you guys received with previous gameplay updates. This is childish. Maybe you guys need to do better job of explaining the changes and stop being so cryptic in the update messages. A huge part of the problem is the complete lack of transparency and communication. Nobody knows what is going on, how attributes work, etc. which just fuels speculation.
Instead of hiding in the corner with your ball, your team should be engaged with the community as well as providing gameplay updates that are sorely needed. All you are doing is pissing off your customers. You are losing trust, not only because of the lack of any sort of meaningful updates, but also because of features (specifically around presentation) that were promised and never delivered.
You can't keep treating your customers this way. Holding updates back because the team's feelings are hurt is just absurd. Really, this is a business, not a popularity contest. I don't know who is running the team over there, but they need to reassess their position on this matter. I've ran software teams over a broad spectrum of products for almost 30 years, and never have we held back updates because of past criticism. I can't believe this is what has come of the NHL team over there at EA.
Community ManagerThanks for the input. It's absolutely appreciated.
For multiple years in a row, the community specifically told us not to touch the game after the beta. I definitely get what you're saying, but this was a big request. I agree though that we need to communicate changes better and I hope to see that with future games. Again, I'm not saying there will be no more post-beta updates. I'm just explaining how this contributed to the lack of updates for 23.
We have gathered a ton of feedback since launch. While I don't have anything to share about what's coming, that input and sentiment we've received is very much taken in to consideration. Hopefully, we'll be seeing changes more in line with what the community wants in the future as a result of it.
