Appsolutely Mayhem

This article isn’t about the basics of the Web App failure, if you don’t know anything about the Fifa 12 Ultimate Team Web App, you may as well not read the rest of this. Firstly, I want to put this in a positive light so I’ll start with a negative first, better to end on a positive, isn’t it?

After being a loyal customer for all these years now, I’m going to defend EA as I can honestly I’ve overall had an enjoyable experience playing EA Sports games, there may have been moments where I didn’t enjoy it but I can honestly say I’ve never said the words “EA IS JUST S***.” (Something a few of the community love to say.)

The only negative I will point out is the irony on how the EA Servers will be reliable this year. We all know there have been problems but with the lack of new features for the online modes, and first impressions indicate that the servers won’t be in tip-top shape, doubts are creeping in. I’m not a server expert but surely the game servers are different to the ones on the app, I’m sure someone will correct me on that and can elaborate on the server issue. A positive from this is that the Fifa community is clearly growing as well as the amount of people working on the game.

You may say people are doing a bad job but put yourself in their shoes, can you do what they do? No, I don’t think the majority can. Without them, Fifa wouldn’t be what it is today (waits for sarcastic comments about how “S***” it is,) the awards Fifa get speaks for itself and to doubt the staff, the people who work for your entertainment is just idiotic. If you can prove that you can do better, hand in your CV to them and see how far it gets you.

I’ve been seeking many more questions than answers so I found myself using the EA forums again. The only answer I got was the average age of a Fifa player must be about 9. This takes me back to the Fifa community is clearly growing, well I don’t necessarily see that being solely being from the game being as good as it is. I’m not going to name names but I am going to blame some of the Youtube Stars for this. You know who they are, who do that type of thing, some are great and have a great understanding, and the others are simply jumping on the bandwagon, bringing their clueless, immature subscribers with them.

Now I move onto how we can fix the predicament we’re in. Firstly, I think bringing some of the more mature Fifa community (some of the bloggers like FifaSoccerBlog etc) more control. Not necessarily saying they should make the game but I feel they could bring a whole new dimension to Fifa as they know what we want. I know some of them are “gamechangers” but they could do more if allowed?

Secondly, I wouldn’t give a release day to the app. Sounds strange I know but the problem was the amount of people that tried to get on the app, so why don’t they just make sure it is 100% complete before release? Gamechangers could get exclusive access and give their feedback, increasing the chances of an app being released on time. The initial rush of people on there won’t be as high but the news the app being open would spread like wildfire, just a suggestion.

Lastly, to complete the trinity of renovations, I would also charge. This may sound again stupid but to get rid of the idiots, charge a small sum. If you have the season ticket then you can get it for free, it’s just another way to get rid of the immaturity and probably a fair bit of the scams that involve UT. I’m not going to mention how I’d improve the app anymore; you’re probably thinking “what an idiot.”

I now move onto on what I’d do in the next few days before release. Starting with the daily gifts, I’d scrap the bid tokens. All web app users should be given 100 bid tokens from the start; the gifts should be the mini packs or a small amount of coins, nothing major but a nice addition. Talking about packs, I’d also reduce the price of them until release. This is only due to the amount of players on the market and also, it is another incentive to use the app.

Putting both together, I know it is a free app and the moaning is completely idiotic but it would nice if we could get maybe a bit of a prize for being patient about the delay. I’m going to suggest an extra free players pack but take away the free daily gifts. My initial thoughts is that would be a good idea but again, someone will probably correct me.

Overall, I’m honestly not fussed on the state of the web app; I’m more bothered about the community. I actually hate using the word community but you kind of have to in this situation. I hope you’ve enjoyed my suggestions as well as a positive way of looking at things.

 

Thanks for reading,

Brad Harper.