EA Exec Says Its Games Are "Too Hard to Learn" For New Players

Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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EA Exec Says Its Games Are "Too Hard to Learn" For New Players


Electronic Arts' chief creative officer Richard Hilleman reckons that most people don't want to spend two hours learning how to play a game.

Are games "too hard?" Sometimes, yes. Some games, like Dark Souls and Hotline Miami are actually famous for being hard. How about Electronic Arts games? Most of us gaming enthusiasts would scoff at the idea of Battlefield or The Sims being too difficult for anyone to grasp, but according to Electronic Arts' chief creative officer Richard Hilleman, most of its games are still "too hard to learn" for the average player.

"Our games are actually still too hard to learn," Hilleman said during during an on-stage interview at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas. "The average player probably spends two hours to learn how to play the most basic game."

Again, while most of us gaming enthusiasts would not be fazed by a two-hour long tutorial, Hilleman explains that "asking for two hours of somebody's time--most of our customers, between their normal family lives...to find two contiguous hours to concentrate on learning how to play a video game is a big ask."

In the same interview, Shadow of Mordor design director Michael de Plater chipped in that in the future, we will be seeing more and more RPG elements in non-RPG games. "Every game is an RPG now," he said. "You wouldn't make a game without progression and levels and XP."

He also added that "And I think every game is going to be a social game...good ideas propagate."

So, if EA was to follow along the lines of Hilleman and de Plater's comments, every game coming out of the company should have a tutorial no longer than a few minutes, be packed full of RPG elements, and reward you for sharing every aspect of your progress on as many social media outlets as possible.

How does that sound to you guys?

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-exec-our-games-are-too-hard-to-learn/1100-6425141/]

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Aerosteam

Get out while you still can
Sep 22, 2011
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Who the hell takes two hours to learn how to play a game?

Edit: Excluding things like Paradox games of course.
 

Carrots_macduff

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Jul 13, 2011
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games taking a long time to learn is not a problem, if youre learning while playing. actually i would say a well designed game has new things to learn throughout.

also when developers and pr people make a statement that includes the words "every game should have/be/etc" i just shake my fucking head.
 

Erttheking

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If it's too hard for new players to learn how to play, how come you keep pissing off your veteran players EA?
 

EHKOS

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Feb 28, 2010
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I'll give them Sims, just because of how many menus and text and mechanics there are. But the rest of this is laughable. Also,
Steven Bogos said:
He also added that "And I think every game is going to be a social game...good ideas propagate."
You shut the fuck up and put your phone away dammit. Then pick it up, use the dictionary app, and look up "good ideas".
 

Norix596

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Nov 2, 2010
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Once again people unhelpfully conflating difficulty and applicability; games of all qualities can be difficulty or easy -- better games are approachable.
 

Vendor-Lazarus

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Mar 1, 2009
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Ugh, I can't stand this constant need to share everything with everyone and the world.
I want my gaming to be for me. I don't need or want Facebook in all my games.

As Carrots_macduff said, learning while playing should get more focus and thus learning new things can be much more spaced out.
 

Ragsnstitches

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Dec 2, 2009
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It doesn't sound to good steven... it doesn't sound too good at all.

I can't help but feel this is an imaginary problem they are weaving to account for some shady change in practice.

I'm trying to think of an EA game that would require 2 hours to grasp for me. If I was to pick up one of their sports games I would probably need a good hour to familiarise myself with the control layout and the rules of the game itself (I'm not a sports fan) with some other stuff I learn as I play.

To be completely honest, if your game is boring as shit to learn to play, then it's just boring as shit regardless. Learning to play should be fun in and of itself.

I fear the future...

Coming to a console near you, PRESS X TO CONTINUE: THE GAME!
 

vagabondwillsmile

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Aug 20, 2013
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Sounds like complete and utter garbage. If the game is "basic" as stated, and requires two hours for the gamer of average experience (in the targeted age range) just to "learn", then something is horribly wrong with that game's design.

I mean, he isn't talking about stuff like Eve, or Flight Sim.

And Michael de Plater's assertion is ludicrous. Racing games, beat'em ups, shoot'em ups, arcade fighters, puzzle games, platformers, none of these are known to frequently or consistantly impliment RGP elements as he has described them.

And we all know where he's going with social media and all that sweet always online, ad and microtransaction revenue it implies.

Thanks EA, for once again proving your offices are full clueless corporate shills.
 

circularlogic88

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Oct 9, 2010
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So let me get this straight: Instead of designing your game's tutorials throughout natural progression of gameplay, it's better to just dumb it down so that any drooling mongoloid can smack a controller against the wall and feel accomplished? I may be taking huge liberties in interpreting what was said, but it sounds remarkably lazy on the developer's part to just assume that you can't make tutorials seamlessly integrated into gameplay, especially seeing as how games like MegaMan have been doing that shit since 1987.

Also, to hell with all of this socialization bullshit.
 

JagermanXcell

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Oct 1, 2012
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Ok thank god. That was quite the span of time it took for an EA exec to say something stupid, they had me worried sick there.

But for real though, he would totally have a point about the subject of certain levels of hand holding if his suggestions for a fix didn't consist of including social aspects to F***ING EVERYTHING with the assumption that we all have the brain capacity of Brick Tamland.

Did you know that you can learn the more about a game through well designed gameplay with almost 0 tutorials?
Games by Platinum do a great job a-
N-No?... you want to integrate a Facebook app instead?
Ok, slow down, think about what you said, stop assuming we're all idiots in need of buddies 24/7, and find a new career please, thank you.
 

jayzz911

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Nov 9, 2010
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You mean the people who spend 10 minutes a day playing candy crush won't spend hours on a game in one sitting? Gee who knew there wouldn't be much overlap between those two demographics. oh right everybody that actually plays games. They are also the people that won't pay ~$60 for your games as they want em free.

Ragsnstitches said:
Coming to a console near you, PRESS X TO CONTINUE: THE GAME!
CONGRATULATIONS YOU PRESSED X! SHARE THIS ON FACEBOOK/TWITTER/GOOGLE+ FOR AN EXTRA LIFE AND 2 EXTRA LIVES IF YOU DO IT ON ALL 3!!!
 

Pyrian

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Sounds like they're going to have to spend all the tutorial time teaching the RPG and social mechanics, and the games will henceforth consist of Chutes and Ladders gameplay.
 

Asuterisuku

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Jul 10, 2011
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circularlogic88 said:
(...) assume that you can't make tutorials seamlessly integrated into gameplay, especially seeing as how games like MegaMan have been doing that shit since 1987.
Longer than that. Super Mario Bros. World 1 says hi.
 

Kameburger

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Apr 7, 2012
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I've always subscribed to idea that I don't really want to play games with other people. Other people suck. Other people ruin games. But other people buying games is what makes the industry a feasible one, and also most people aren't like me. I think people are awesome except for well... most people... So telling me everything is going to be social means that soon games are going to be awesome... except most games...

Which is already true I suppose, but he's right about RPG elements. Leveling up and what not, experience, these sort of concepts that make game progression easy to quantify are not going to disappear, and we're going to see more and more of them from now on.
 

Fox12

AccursedT- see you space cowboy
Jun 6, 2013
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There goes EA saying something stupid again. It's not the worst thing they've ever said, though. They really need a guy on staff who gives their execs a good kick in the crotch every time they open their mouth at a public function. It would save their company a lot of grief.

Meanwhile, Atlus's idea of "more accessible" is to make a Virtual Novel dating simulator based on the collective psychological work of Carl Gustav Jung, and fill it with obscure mythological figures, including a giant penis monster riding a chariot.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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Aerosteam said:
Who the hell takes two hours to learn how to play a game?
have you played crusader kings II? or your first trek into playing kerbal space program?

lots of menu's/UI and lots of vocab to understand what the game is talking about, if you go into the games not watching any tutorials or anything, you'll be there for a while to learn it all.

laughably, I have yet to play an EA game that takes even close to an hour to learn, so idk what the fuck he is babbling about. It's been a while since EA had some horrible PR, so I suppose it was about that time.