Dear EA Sports,
I’m one of your many, many fans who’re disappointed that you are no longer making NCAA College Football. That being said, I certainly understand why you’re discontinuing the brand. The ironic part in all of this is that some of the people who are suing you over their likenesses being used on your product also played your game. I would argue that some high school kids actually looked forward to working hard enough to making their way into college and actually being in your game.
Living in Tallahassee, I cannot tell you the number of college football players I’ve come across who either went to FSU or FAMU and bragged about being in your game. They took pride in it. That being said, they will also suffer the loss of there no longer being an NCAA College Football game to play. That doesn’t mean however that you should stop making the game. As a matter of fact, you should be working on a college football game for 2014. Maybe you could call it EA Sports College Football. You’re pretty good at being ingenious when it comes to this product…so do so again.
One of the ideas to fall back on is the original game that started it all…Bill Walsh College Football. I remember owning it on the Sega Genesis and how I and my friends from Camilla, Georgia would play that game for hours. Since I was then living in Tallahassee, Florida…of course I played with the team from Tallahassee. Here’s the thing. There were no “Official Teams” in the game but that didn’t take away from the game play. It didn’t take away from the excitement. You had such original bowls as the Maple Bowl, Palm Bowl, Pecan Bowl, and Redwood Bowl. As a matter of fact, one of the things I loved most about those early games was the near empty stadiums for teams that performed badly. That was as real as it got to me.
That being said don’t be daunted. One of the best things about this particular generation of your College Sports Franchise is being able to create your own team. I don’t know if you’ve ever went to “Team Builder” but people spend hours, maybe days creating their own teams. I and my friends had 11 “Atari” League teams that we’d created back during the Atari 2600 days. I put all those teams on Team Builder. I guess what I’m saying is that you or rather we don’t need the NCAA or their teams to enjoy your product. Your game is good enough to not require their services any longer.
If I had to make a few suggestions, bring back the realistic crowds. Keep your affiliation with Nike, Addidas, Under Armor and Russell Athletics. Allow teams to have to win enough games to get the Sponsor that they like. Update the “Team Builder” mode to allow people to be able to create more than 2 helmets and more than 2 pair of pants for their teams. On your Playstation 2 model, a created team can have 4 helmets, jerseys and pants. Just update the site to allow for the same thing. This increases the in game experience and trust me; you won’t see a drop in sales. If anything, your fans (including myself) will snatch them off the shelves because this will finally be a game for us, made for us, brought to us by the creators at EA Sports that we’ve learned to appreciate over the years.
Sincerely,
One of Your Biggest Fans
(Hopefully this blog falls into the right hands)
HARD IN THE PAINT 