EA_Aljo
Community Manager
Community ManagerNHL 24 Presentation Deep Dive
Hey, NHL Fans! Today we have released the Presentation Deep Dive. Check it out below!
Forum Discussion
EA_AljoCommunity Manager
Community ManagerI don't know that I'd call the return of the old True Broadcast camera being mentioned as a selling point. It's more being stated as part of our focus on listening to the community. We've been told many times that we're ignoring community feedback and are working to turn that around.
As far as the flex cam goes, we're trying some new presentation features. Again, one of the big pieces of feedback we get is that the game is a copy and paste with updated rosters. Leaving everything the same as it's been previously doesn't help with that. I agree we should highlight the milestone goals better though.
Appreciate the feedback. Thank you.
@EA_Aljo wrote:I don't know that I'd call the return of the old True Broadcast camera being mentioned as a selling point. It's more being stated as part of our focus on listening to the community. We've been told many times that we're ignoring community feedback and are working to turn that around.
Don’t get me wrong I do appreciate the fact that EA is communicating and listening to feedback more. I don’t want to sound overly negative here either, but hopefully this team is able to listen to all feedback, not just remove or change features and bring them back based on backlash to prove that they listen.
Part of the statement about “ignoring the community” includes making major changes just for the sake of making changes without any data proving it will result in a positive change and not having to deal with that backlash in the first place.
There have been so many questionable changes and removals to the offline world the last few years, I think step one to listening would be find out what we want in the first place. Offline players often feel ignored because they don’t feel EA has a good pulse on what they want, having to reintroduce so many features kinda justifies their complaints.
- EA_Aljo
@Beauts90 wrote:
@EA_Aljo wrote:
I don't know that I'd call the return of the old True Broadcast camera being mentioned as a selling point. It's more being stated as part of our focus on listening to the community. We've been told many times that we're ignoring community feedback and are working to turn that around.
Part of the statement about “ignoring the community” includes making major changes just for the sake of making changes without any data proving it will result in a positive change and not having to deal with that backlash in the first place.
We make changes with the intent to improve the game for you all. Obviously, we're not going to make everyone happy. We have acted on a lot of the community feedback and we're also adding our own design presentation elements. I really don't think we're ever going to add everything that's being requested. In no way does that mean we're ignoring you. There are a ton of requests and it's impossible to make everyone happy. Gameplay is always going to take priority over presentation. As I mentioned before, with most people wanting to play the game rather than watch it, we have to have that as the bigger focus. That doesn't mean we can't achieve both, but it means those finer details with presentation have to wait.
Personally, what I am wondering about though is, do you want a game where everything looks the same as you see on TV? This is just a personal curiosity. For me, I already watch a ton of hockey on TV. I guess I want the game to offer something a bit different that gets me more immersed in an activity that I'll never play out in the real world such as playing hockey on TV, on the NHL level, being a superstar, etc. I already know what it's like to sit on the couch and watch a game. I'm more interested in trying to live out the on-ice action. Adding something like the flex cam amps up that excitement and adds another layer of immersion.
I'm not saying an authentic, true to life broadcast wouldn't be cool though. I really dug the intros with Doc and Eddie with the arena fly-bys. I'd love to see teams coming out of the tunnel and taking the ice as well as goalie stats, real on-ice projections, etc. We'll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming years.
- @EA_Aljo The flex came is the complete opposite of immersion, What NHL arena dims the lights, turns on a spotlight, has someone skate out onto the ice with a camera, for every goal celebration home or away?
Make it for GWG's or milestones, like how you get the extended celebration in 22 for milestones. It'd feel more fresh. Although an option to turn it off/ remove any pressure meter presentation from the ice/ boards would work just as well lol it's probably allot easier to implement. - EA_Aljo
@bg0vzeyqov1y wrote:
@EA_Aljo The flex came is the complete opposite of immersion, What NHL arena dims the lights, turns on a spotlight, has someone skate out onto the ice with a camera, for every goal celebration home or away?
Make it for GWG's or milestones, like how you get the extended celebration in 22 for milestones. It'd feel more fresh. Although an option to turn it off/ remove any pressure meter presentation from the ice/ boards would work just as well lol it's probably allot easier to implement.That's my point. Not everyone has the same requirements for immersion. Also, I'm just saying what works for me personally, as a longtime fan of this game. I've been playing it for the better part of the last 30 years. I don't mind changes to the formula that provide an experience that I can already get by watching games on TV. That said, my main interest is gameplay. I'm already very focused on the on-ice action and controlling my player/team so presentation isn't really something I'm too concerned with since I'm very focused on strategy, how my opponent is playing, what habits they have with faceoffs, where they're taking their shots from, etc. Again, not knocking how cool it would be to have a totally authentic representation of what you see on TV though.
@EA_AljoGameplay is the core of the game offline or online so I agree that the main focus should be gameplay, I want the CPU to shoot the puck more/ the players to not skate into the boards or into to each other, etc.
The biggest reason why people are up in arms about the presentation I think is cause you see this kind of replay every game, after every goal, like how in franchise mode your players will all keep their hair the same exact length their entire careers. Or how Carrlyn would keep talking about the exact same x-factors, every game. The only way to turn off x-factor replays/ her dialogue in 22 was to remove every single x-factor from every player, that's horrible game design.
People want the visuals/ presentation to feel as fresh, variable for as long as possible, options in videogames (gameplay/ hiding UI elements, settings etc.) should be included as much as possible in any game made nowadays, It's the best way to tailor a game towards as many people as possible.- EA_Aljo
@bg0vzeyqov1y wrote:
@EA_Aljo Gameplay is the core of the game offline or online so I agree that the main focus should be gameplay, I want the CPU to shoot the puck more/ the players to not skate into the boards or into to each other, etc.
The biggest reason why people are up in arms about the presentation I think is cause you see this kind of replay every game, after every goal, like how in franchise mode your players will all keep their hair the same exact length their entire careers.
People want the visuals/ presentation to feel as fresh, variable for as long as possible, options in videogames (gameplay/ hiding UI elements, settings etc.) should be included as much as possible in any game made nowadays, It's the best way to tailor a game towards as many people as possible.That's fair. I get seeing presentation elements over and over again can get stale. Especially with how much many of us play this game. It would be cool if the players could age up over their careers or try out different looks. That would probably not be too high a priority though as there are much bigger requests.
I would really love a UI with customizable elements though. Turning on and off various elements would certainly be great. Hopefully, we'll see this happen. - @EA_Aljo The listening to feedback (ex. hybrid controls returning) the focus on gameplay itself, even giving us offline players a future plan of any sort has been a great welcome change!
I so badly want to see the entire community, offline and online, enjoying these regardless. Hope as many changes as possible can come to these games, that makes me want to spend even close to 90$CAD again like I did for 22 lol I very much want to not fall out of love with hockey games!
@EA_Aljo wrote:We make changes with the intent to improve the game for you all. Obviously, we're not going to make everyone happy. We have acted on a lot of the community feedback and we're also adding our own design presentation elements. I really don't think we're ever going to add everything that's being requested. In no way does that mean we're ignoring you. There are a ton of requests and it's impossible to make everyone happy. Gameplay is always going to take priority over presentation. As I mentioned before, with most people wanting to play the game rather than watch it, we have to have that as the bigger focus. That doesn't mean we can't achieve both, but it means those finer details with presentation have to wait.
Personally, what I am wondering about though is, do you want a game where everything looks the same as you see on TV? This is just a personal curiosity. For me, I already watch a ton of hockey on TV. I guess I want the game to offer something a bit different that gets me more immersed in an activity that I'll never play out in the real world such as playing hockey on TV, on the NHL level, being a superstar, etc. I already know what it's like to sit on the couch and watch a game. I'm more interested in trying to live out the on-ice action. Adding something like the flex cam amps up that excitement and adds another layer of immersion.
I'm not saying an authentic, true to life broadcast wouldn't be cool though. I really dug the intros with Doc and Eddie with the arena fly-bys. I'd love to see teams coming out of the tunnel and taking the ice as well as goalie stats, real on-ice projections, etc. We'll just have to wait and see what happens in the coming years.
I won’t comment on what I want from presentation as it’s not a feature I personally care about. I watch it once or twice and hammer the skip button every time after that.
I just have a bit of a sour taste as this years theme of listening to feedback is a lot of just reinstalling features that either should have never been removed in the first place or should have been reintroduced in last years $90 game.
Using ignore in my statement was incorrect and misleading, so I apologize for that, I know it’s not possible to add everything or please everybody. This year is probably the best example of trying new things that some will love and others will hate and I am 100% ok with that even if I would have liked to see a different direction myself. I'm not looking for an authentic version of the game like I see on TV, but I also don't want the features that make it look like an arcade game being overpowering either. So when I said ignored it was meant as not everyone wants to play this one way and keeping in as many options as possible should be the way to go.
The goalie tethering addition is a good example of the team trying to improve something and maybe missing the mark a little with its players.
Removing hybrid controls, true broadcast camera (I don’t use either of these) and locking out customizable settings in offline modes are examples of features that had no reason to be removed and I cannot see how they were intended as “trying to improve the game”.
- @bg0vzeyqov1y But see that is how you view it. I see it as I'm the star so acknowledge me. Especially for online gaming it's rubbing salt in the wounds. Don't be shocked to see future presentation not just with offline modes in mind.
"Personally, what I am wondering about though is, do you want a game where everything looks the same as you see on TV? This is just a personal curiosity. For me, I already watch a ton of hockey on TV. I guess I want the game to offer something a bit different that gets me more immersed in an activity that I'll never play out in the real world such as playing hockey on TV, on the NHL level, being a superstar, etc. I already know what it's like to sit on the couch and watch a game. I'm more interested in trying to live out the on-ice action. Adding something like the flex cam amps up that excitement and adds another layer of immersion."
This hits a lot of the nail on the head.Its seen as the same game over and over because each one of our preferred views (however it is we like to play) has stayed the same. Sure we change around each year and see what the others have to offer, but ultimately choose how we each view "NHLxx", which in turn looks a lot like last years version. There may be a lot of different engine and gameplay tweaks under the hood, but if that core all looks the same each year... then really what's different? It's a more realistic version of the "TV mode" you describe.
There are elements in the Be a Pro mode that give a different angle of the game. More of a "From the bench, over the boards and back" view, that thousands of youth & adult recreational players experience each week/weekend, is what we want to see. Put me in that world and now those engine and gameplay tweaks are making THAT experience more realistic. Instead of tracking the player from the TV mode...How does the player track every spot in the arena as they skate up and down the ice? Dynamically. Which means a LOT of data.
Take that Flex Cam idea from both extremes... on one end is zoomed all the way out to "TV mode" and on the other is the view from the players eyes on the ice. Now give us the ability to dynamically zoom the view to any point we each like in between. Some may like it "10 ft above player head to see more of the ice". Some may like the player cam. Some may like seeing all three zones on the screen at the same time. To me that would make things more on par with the current EA line offering game experience champs (Madden/FIFA).It will be a lot of work, but ultimately that's the game we've been hoping for each year since we hopped on board with NHL '93 back on Sega/SNES.
