Peter Moore Says EA Sports Games Are Too Fricking Hard

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Peter Moore Says EA Sports Games Are Too Fricking Hard


Peter Moore says increasing "approachability" is the name of the game at EA Sports [http://www.easports.com], because too many of its current titles are "too fricking hard to play."

Speaking to Nintendo Wii [http://wii.ign.com/articles/886/886328p1.html], aimed at making the company's top franchises more accessible to gamers of all skill levels.

The development teams on the Wii games are completely separate from those working on the PlayStation 3 [http://www.xbox.com] versions, Moore said, and then added that all EA Sports franchises, including non-Wii releases, could be reworked to open them up to a wider audience. "With the 360 and PS3 versions, the real movement you're going to see there is about approachability," Moore said. "Not dumbing it down - but stuff that feels more adaptive, helping you get through the game. Our games have been too hard - and even hardcore gamers will tell us at times it's just too fricking hard to play a game without having to revert back to the manual to find out what to do. We need to change that."

"We need to continue to bring people into the industry that are playing games for the first time - and not just with the Wii, but also with the PS3 and with the 360 as well," he continued. "For example, if I'm playing Madden [http://www.easports.com/madden08/] with my son, it's going to know that I'm not very good at Madden, and it will adapt and will put me through the holographic training system and will figure where I am. My son has been playing Madden for 15 years, so he'll do it and it will immediately say, you know what, you're fine, just go play. He won't need the help that I will need. But we don't dumb the game down for everybody, something which we're very, very careful about."

The All-Play games are also being marketed differently than standard EA Sports titles, Moore said, right down to differences in packaging for the games. "If you look at the PS3 version there's a very intense picture of Brett [Favre] throwing a football, whereas in the Wii version he's actually laughing - and I've seen him play for 20 years and that's who he is," Moore said. "But all the athletes have a different photograph on the Wii which is meant to really deliver a different message rather than simply [being] about intense gameplay and authenticity and the simulation of the real game, it's about having fun."



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Dectilon

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Sep 20, 2007
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If you simplify an already streamlined system it's going to get dumbed down. Who is he trying to fool : /
 

FistsOfTinsel

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Jun 23, 2008
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Who cares if it's dumb? My friends (all pushing 40 or past it, all been gaming since Space Invaders was the shit) get together online every Tuesday; we play CoD, Halo, Burnout, Splinter Cell, but we'd never EVER consider playing an online sports title. The games take too long, have too high a learning curve, and almost never allow more than 4 players.

We'd love to play online versions of some old-school, simple sports games. We'd had high hopes for Cyberball, but the retards who implemented it chose to make it not only 2-player only, but 2 players against the computer - unforgivable.

We look for games that can accommodate a wide range of player skill levels, as its pretty boring for the rest of us if the one uber-nerd always beats the rest. The current sports titles reward people who dedicate themselves to mastering the system, but at the expense of the n00bs who want to play as well. How much fun would it be to get into a boxing match with Mike Tyson?

Sports are supposed to be fun. Why can't sports video games be fun as well?
 

BallPtPenTheif

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Jun 11, 2008
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the control scheme for most EA games are an ever evolving dialogue. if you weren't part of earlier iterations of the title, than yes, it would seem insanely difficult to just jump in.

however, most of the controls are just multiple ways to do the same thing. like having 5 defensive move buttons instead of just one "evade" button. they did this because players wanted to decide wether to high step or juke.

offering dumbed down control schemes is fine, but if he thinks he can just roll in there and streamline everything, he'll bumb out a lot of the franchise fans.
 

bkd69

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Nov 23, 2007
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Ummm...duh?

You mean, one game doesn't appeal to every sort of player out there?

Yes EA, if you want to make *all* the sports games, you're going to need to make *all* the sports games.

That means:

1) a team management/fantasy league sim
2) a casual party/online game where people play different spots on the team
3) a star athlete career/rpg/action game, where the player traces a career arc

And I'm sure there are at least a few other game styles which would be appropriate.