NBA Live 13 Advisory Council Diary – Entry #1

April 15, 2012 - CoreySA - 9 Comments

CoreySA outside of EA SPORTS Tiburon Studios in Orlando.

 

On April 10th, the selected members of the Advisory Council got to take their first trip down to Orlando to attend the first NBA Live 13 community event. Taking place at EA SPORTS’ Tiburon Studios, the road to NBA Live’s return finally began. I wanted to use this diary as a chance to update the community as best as I can and show everyone what is taking place at these events. Although I am under very strick NDA from EA (NDA = Non Disclosure Agreement), which basically means I can not shed light on any actual NBA Live info until granted permission, it doesn’t hinder my ability to tell you about the trips and explain the events in general terms however; so I’ll do my best.

My flight from Toronto to Orlando lasted a little over 2 1/2 hours and I arrived on Tuesday at approx 12:45pm. The first arrivals alongside of me included Don Thompson and Steve Bascombe – who lives literally 25 minutes away from me in Ontario, which is crazy! After a shuttle took us to the hotel, we all unpacked and headed down to the lobby to await the arrival of the other Ad Council members.

All of Tuesday was spent at the hotel. As other Ad Council members showed up, we all introduced ourselves and filled our afternoon with NBA Live 13 talk and comparing notes and feedback. Right around supper time, EA SPORTS’ Tiger/NBA Live community manager – John Coleman came down after work to check up on us and hand out our NDA’s. We all had some dinner together and talked about our various backgrounds in gaming.

To be honest, I was a little worried with so many newer faces heading down to the event. I believe NBA Live needs really honest and intelligent feedback moving forward due to what has transpired over the past few years. Within one day, any worry I had quickly vanished. Let me say that the dev team and John Coleman really did a great job picking the squad. There were a few guys selected who have never been to an event before, and have no affiliations to the gaming industry. Scott O’Gallagher, Steve Bascombe, Don Thompson and Harold Biscocho are all very intelligent and passionate gamers. Not only did they all bring something different to the table, but their openness, creative thinking and personalities have made them great selections and people I would consider friends.

Your NBA Live 13 Advisory Council -- (L-R) Steve Bascombe, Mario 'Patron' Drake, Dougie Veney, Scott 'OG' O'Gallagher, Corey 'CoreySA' Andress, Don 'Hustle & Flow' Thompson, Harold Biscocho, Shawn Drotar

Wednesday was the day we were all waiting for and our chance to finally see NBA Live 13 and meet the team. What I can tell you about NBA Live and our trip is this – the team assembled to work on Live is amazing. I was incredibly impressed on how passionate and smart the guys are. Each and every one of them WANTED to work on NBA Live and look at it as a big moment in Tiburon’s history to deliver this product successfully. We got to see the game in many different ways and learn the direction and focus for not only this year, but for where they wanted to take NBA Live in the years to come. The most impressive thing that I noticed personally, was that many of the team had been listening to feedback and ideas prior to the event. Many had been listening in to some of my podcasts and regularly tune into shows like Da Czar’s and the Game Changer Radio Show. That alone was a sign of dedication. I’m positive that this passion and hard work will show up on the final product.

So Wednesday was an exciting day and in the late afternoon we finally got to get our hands on the game. Obviously this is where I have to stay silent, but again, I love this team and love the direction they’re taking so think positive people!

For those who haven’t visited EA Tiburon in Orlando before – the place is gorgeous. I really can’t put into words what type of working environment these guys have. I have been there before, but every time I go my jaw drops. I even got to go upstairs and congratulate the Tiger Woods team I worked with in September on a successful release! It sounds cliche, but I seriously haven’t met a bad person at Tiburon yet. All of these guys love talking to the community and talking games in general.

EA Tiburon Studios - Heaven

My work station for play testing!

One of the most exciting parts of the trip was early on Thursday morning, when we all went to RDV Sportsplex to play ball with the rest of the dev team. Now for those who don’t know, fellow Game Changer Dougie Veney has played a ton of basketball in his lifetime, and Scott O’Gallagher…he’s a pro baller. Scott plays over in Europe and let me tell you this – that dude can ball. Hesitations, crossovers, deadly accurate aim…that man has it all. There were numerous broken ankles after the 2 1/2 or so hours we spent at the gym. There were a ton of great ballers and there are some devs on Live 13 who can really light up the hoop. They take it very seriously and play competitively too…there weren’t many easy moments in that gym.

Another great experience, at least for me personally, was that Kotaku’s sports writer – Owen Good was in the building looking at various EA titles. Although I’ve had conversations with Owen over Twitter, I’ve never had the chance to meet him. I’ve been following Owen’s writing for quite some time and I’ve always loved his opinions, thoughts and writing style. With so many writers in the industry these days, Owen is one of few I trust and look up to as a writer. Owen spent some time with us and also came out to ball with us which was great. It’s always amazing to meet people you never thought you’d have a chance to meet.

RDV Sportsplex, Orlando. Great facility!

So after some ball we went back to Tiburon to continue work. We had a lot more play testing time on Thursday and the devs were right there with us taking notes and asking opinions. That’s the great thing about these trips. When we are in there playing the game, there are numerous dev members there with us – playing with us, asking us opinions and helping us. It’s very hands-on and it’s nice to see them being able to take feedback directly from us. They took a survey that all of us had to fill out that basically asked us for our feedback on what we saw and what we wanted moving forward. It was very detailed and I was informed that all of the dev team would see and read reports on this feedback – a very comforting feeling. At the very end of the day, we went up to a meeting room and looked at a prototype of something they’re working on. Being that I can’t say anything, lets just say this – it blew my mind. There are very few times in sports games where my jaw drops, but this was one of them. The future for NBA Live is very bright indeed.

I’d like to thank everyone at Tiburon for their hospitality and time throughout the week. From John, to the dev team, to all of my fellow Ad Council members – it was a week I’ll always remember and I’m honored and blessed to be a part of it. At the end of the trip I felt very confident with NBA Live in the hands of the Tiburon devs. I know there is a long process ahead of us and still a ton of work to do, but I feel positive after my week in Orlando that the direction is moving forward and making great strides. The team is solid, the committee they selected put in a ton of work and will continue to do so, and I can’t wait until I can share my thoughts with you and show you where NBA Live 13 is going. If you haven’t begun to start anticipating NBA Live 13 – you might want to now. Live’s back baby!

 

–CoreySA

 

  • Shopmaster

    Good stuff CoreySA, very excited to hear things went well.

  • http://twitter.com/CedDTP Cedric Veazie

    My anticipation for NBA Live 13 is steady increasing as the days go by lol.

  • http://wwwcscsportswithjayhoward.com/ Magikist49

     you guys need to check this guy  . video’s out  awesome . he may help you guys out http://blip.tv/spontaneouscooking/nba-live-13-easports-5987947

  • OneEighth

    Awesome write up Corey! 

  • teebone

    need more infor. 5 months from release

  • GT=AIR LEBRON 23 o

    Man, I’m curious to know if you guys will be having another meeting. I think it’s a key essential to have CLUBS ONLINE integrated with  NBA Live 13 here’s a few reasons why.

    1.Competitive: If you look at how many matches are played in clubs throughout all EA titles its quite amazing such as, NBA Live 09,FIFA 10, FIFA 11, FIFA 12, Fight Night Champion, NHL 12. Most of these titles have registered over 250,000+ club matches.(250,000 matches x 30mins. per match=7,500,000minutes/60mins=125000 hours/24hours=5208 days/365 days=14 years at least of gametime and that’s per title now imagine that number being multiplied 6 or so more times.) That’s a lot of gametime invested. There was a few titles that go unmentioned. Such as NBA Live 10 the Adidas live run was highly abused everyone would use Mo Williams or Steve Nash and shoot three’s from the arc. I’ve been a teamplayer since I was 8 playing games like sonic with my older cousin now, I’m 19 and things haven’t changed besides what I see now regarding cheating *boosting*. Everyone does get a little upset to see boosters we need to diminish those who boost by making Club mode work so that you can only play a team once every 2 hours to prevent people from boosting clubs I also would be satisfied if we can only create new clubs every 12 hours by the same account. I know everyone’s scratching their heads, about my ideals when it comes to opportunities for making a new club but, look at the benefit out of it when all the top teams aren’t boosting.

    Good News: I know for a fact this will be a popular game mode if NBA Live 13 can make a efficient CLUB MODE *NOT* TEAMPLAY but, CLUB MODE that will set a difficulty standard that will not be abused meaning the user will be able to score casually, but at the same time what we really don’t want is computers making every three or out-rebounding a user. The box out system has to be simple when human vs. CPU are going up for the rebound.

    2.Customization: It was kind of nice to see 2k give an attempt of what customization would be like. In 2k11 they introduced team logos and changing your virtual pro gear. I know EA has what it takes to go the extra step. For example, we could Customize the logo,gear, and even more important unlock courts that we can ball in & modify.

    Charcter Customization: My pro player, should actually be used somewhere instead of single player mode. I am part of a generation that doesn’t even play single player games anymore because its not competitive and that being said if I’m not going to be able to use my pro online I’m not going to play that game mode. Making your pro unique is key. Tattoos also really mean something when it comes to customization if we had a customizable tool that we could free draw with or get template designs to create patterns would be awesome. Then with the designs created we could imprint those on our gear etc.

    Court Customization: Everyone in Franchise mode on 2K wants the NY stadium because it dims the lights and it looks really awesome. I think we could incorporate a court system into 2k that works like the FIFA series yet, let the players incorporate some of the settings as well. The bonuses would work like a mascot that gives your team +3 dunking -2 layups or a coach that gives you +5 defense -3 stamina. These simple projects have been done in the past and being innovative for the future is what’s going to build the Live series. Crowd Motivation should help give clutch stats if your home. If your on the away team. A huge run should give you a bonus on Field Goal %.

    3. Matchmaking: Allow a CLUB to have 5 GM’s and up to 25 members would be a high enough cap. Allow multi-room matchmaking so that you can split teams if you got 4+ because, it’s difficult to keep everyone happy playing a 5v5. Make it so that their must be at least two members in the match. If only one member is left in game and other(s) lag out its an auto-loss. A more distinctive matchmaking process with incorporating advanced options such as (Random Teams, Pick teams, No top 5, No top 10, No top 20,etc.).

    4. Gameplay: It is also important to know if there will be an “ANY” position and if so I think along with the advanced options you should be allowed to choose “NO ANY” in matchmaking settings, because anys’; tend to frustrate alot of players and for those who don’t like to play against anys’ it usually takes a while for them to find a match. So at least I think it would be nice if we had the common courtesy to incorporate the “NO ANY” ideal. If we could have Charles Barkley as an announcer I think this would end all who ever opposed commentator lines. It doesn’t matter if he says the same line over and over again and whoever disagrees “that’s a turrible idea” Charles Barkly.

    5. Playcalling & Practice: If EA could beat 2k to the punch on this it may be one of the simplest forms of content to put in the game that would boost the morale of the Live series greatly. Let’s start with playcalling having the rundown simulation of where everyone needs to go on the court is nice but it would also be cool if you could hear what your teamates were saying on your side of the ball like for example on offense you would hear boozer saying “I’m setting up a screen”and D-Rose running up the court calling plays. Meanwhile, on defense you would hear Marion shouting “I got your help” as the double team is being set or transistion from one defender to the next it makes the game more LIVE. The opposing team shouldn’t be able to hear whats going on the other side of the ball and this should be an online feature only. Most Club members like to practice before they go into a game it would be nice if they could make a enough ranking points to get new practice gyms as well where you can “invite a player” and practice with your team instead of sitting in the practice arena all alone.
    ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————-IIf anyone would like to contact me at:stephenbowersjr92@gmail.com or on XBOX LIVE GT:AIR LEBRON 23 o      I’d appreciate it. Also if you would like to post this on other forums go right ahead the idea of TEAM is back! 

    • Corey Andress

      Thanks for the info. We will definitely be meeting more than once. No more news as of yet, but I’m sure we won’t have to wait long. Thanks for your feedback!

  • Tnantor25

    I can’t wait for NBA live 13 to come out. I hope there’s no more glitches like the other games have, and I hope y’all can add in where if we wanna invite our friends or someone from the lobby watch us play we can, and let us have a choice to play Kobe Bryant with or without his mask, and some hot music by Jay z and kanye, lil Wayne and drake, or rick ross

  • Ronaldo 956

    lieve better have ultimate team and clubs! please!