@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:When it was winning sports game of the Year awards the population of people playing was at it's peak. They were constantly moving it towards hockey simulation every year. It kept the fans happy, people were genuinely in agreement the game was moving in a great direction, etc.
The fans were happy, but the forums were the same exact thing you see today; constant complaints from users who were dissatisfied that EA's representation of hockey did not match their expectations.
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:The Michigan isn't pulling in any new players. If anything it's hurting the amount of people playing the game.
Doubtful. And I don't recall saying that The Michigan alone was "bringing in new customers". Although I would argue that the freedom and ease of which one can attempt a Michigan DOES give players a sense of creativity that could make them come back for more, the change to the meta by way of the pressure system (which I'm not a fan of) was also an attempt to grab some new players or players who haven't upgraded in a while.
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:People want the sport it replicates otherwise they'd gravitate to the arcade games that emulate the sport. And all of these sports gaming companies are trending the same direction: aiming towards microtransactions to supplement their lost revenue because they are losing their bases.
I agree - microtransactions have ruined the effort put forth by developers to create unique and engaging experiences but I would argue that the pressure system and the changes to the controls are EA's attempt at changing this. Like I said, I personally despise the pressure system, but I can appreciate the effort in trying to give the player-base something different.
Does anyone here recall the days of The Breakaway Camera?
This was during the PEAK of EA NHL being regarded as the best hockey simulation ever made and it was poorly received by the community, I can assure you.
But what it showed was that when you're making a yearly game based on a sport that doesn't really go through any cosmetic and systemic changes, the game is going to become stale. As a producer under the gun to generate more interest, you need to take some chances. The Pressure system is just another chance EA has taken, along with making dekes more accessible and revamping the control scheme.
I'm not the biggest fan of some of the changes but like I said - you have to respect that some effort is being taken. These aren't just checkboxes they tick off either. These 'features' - if you want to call them that - go through MONTHS of producing, debugging, patching, etc. It's a huge effort that is lost on 99% of the community who still think adding something to the game is just a simple copy-paste.
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:Every year they add one of their terrible ideas they conjured up themselves we end up with the messes we get and people complain about it endlessly. Nobody asked for tunnel of doom celebrations. Nobody wanted the Michigan to come into the game because they knew it'd turn out like this, etc.
Yes, they need to take these risks to avoid stagnation. Quality of life improvements aside, they need something to market.
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:It's as if a 5 year old is deciding what he thinks is cool about hockey and getting a staff full of adults to implement it for him.
Not in the slightest.
Honestly, if we want to break down and look at things, some of the changes they have made are not bad. Pressure system and goalie fatigue are good additions, having glass cracking and hip checks back in the game are good as well. The main issue with this is these additions (pressure system and hip checks as the standouts) were just not implemented well. The time it takes to stop the pressure system is too long after you gain possession and break out of the zone. Also, it seems like each player during the pressure is skating in literal mud, even with a line that has full energy (making the endurance of that line completely useless), also once you do get it down and if you get the chance to "dump" it into the offensive zone that full energy line is now useless and has to be changed even if they were on the ice for 7 seconds. The hip checks are too OP and should be like the normal checking where you have to charge it up and not just a button press, doesn't make sense to have 2 different functions to just hit in an NHL game. Moving on to more of the presentation side of it. The new lighting on the faceoffs is a great touch along with the licensed music. Now with the new goal celebrations and hit cams, they are cool for an arcade game like NHL Hitz but do not give you the feel of an NHL game. Don't get me wrong for the right arcade-style game they would be amazing (minus the mindless AI players who have no idea what to do during that time and look lost), but it seems like there is a delay to the crowd reaction on the goal as prior years the moment the puck would enter the net you would see the fans start to react now it seems like there is a 3-4 second delay on it (this is very noticeable on replays). Sadly, all of these additions good or bad came at a cost as we lost full presentation, yes I do know minimal replays have been added back but I can go a few games without a goalie save replay and the hit replays seem to be sporadic (normal to highlighted ones) but doesn't replace the full in-game experience. More so from this, if we want to look at NHL games from the past few years it was promoted as "new" or mentioned as improved intros (not even all teams have a unique one yet) but when you look at intros and improvement or innovation this is sadly false cause you just need to look at prior EA NHL titles (NHL 14) that offer more of an intro in length and also animations (lights dimming in the arena, fans booing the opposition team as they skate onto the ice, home team players walk from the hallway, arena announcer introduces the team, players skate onto the ice (some used the props you can still select in create a team) has a light show with the team logo and have them skate before it goes to talking about players, and then to goalie intros. From what I listed it seems like this is a downgrade actually from what it should be. Innovation is based on growth but it seems like it is always 1 step forward and 4 steps back with this game franchise, It is a give and take and not just building a good foundation and improving on that without having so many removals year after year. I could easily go on further with what is missing or not improved (GM connected, an actual BAP mode - where the winning team will pull the goalie so you can get back in the game) - yes this has happened in multiple games, but my point has been made that the structure was there and they could have had a good offline and online experience if they hadn't found a need to strip down the game to begin with (NHL 15), release a tech demo - add in the NBC stuff and then remove them, to having no real intro to adding (limited intros) but removing all presentation. When will it just be here is the game we added this and this in, and oh hey we didn't take anything out. That is the real dream.....
