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Flav
06-15-2010, 11:15 AM
Another NCAA Football 11 blog has been posted, this one by Designer Ben Haumiller discussing Dynasty Wire (http://ncaafootball.easports.com/blog.action?blogId=DynastyWire).

From the official NCAA Football 11 website:

Pull up a chair; I want to tell you a story.

Well, E3 is here, and if you haven't downloaded the demo yet, what are you waiting for? Now that we've got that out of the way I want to go in depth on the new Dynasty Wire and StoryBuilder features that were recently announced. We've got another blog in the works to talk about everything you can do on the new Dynasty website (dynasty.easports.com), but there's so much to talk about we wanted to split these up into two parts.

Before I get into the details of Dynasty Wire and StoryBuilder I want to start off with why we felt it was so important to the evolution of Online Dynasty to add a feature like this. Since Online Dynasty was first introduced on NCAA Football 09 I've been a member of a lot of different dynasties. Because of this, I have talked to a ton of people about their Online Dynasty experiences and there has been one common theme that separates average Dynasties from the kinds of Dynasties where you cannot wait for the week to advance. That common theme is the communication between the members of the Dynasty. When there's little to no communication, people often feel as if they are basically in a single user dynasty where they can't control the speed of advancing, while those that are in Dynasties where there's a lot of communication going on the line between fantasy and reality has been blurred to the point where people are having conversations about their Dynasty as if it's happening in real life. I've seen emails, heard voice mails, and been involved in enough conversations to know that people want to talk about their Dynasty, but they didn't have the proper tools to do it easily and effectively.

This is the reason we created the Dynasty Wire, and this is why StoryBuilder was so important to us. We were tired of composing mass emails and having to click links to see a highlight; we were sick of having to wade through huge email threads to catch up on what everyone was saying; we wanted it all delivered to us; and we wanted to be able to let everyone know just how good of a time we were having. Even though we were doing all of the legwork, these were the things that immersed us so much in our Dynasties, and these were the things we wanted to provide so that everyone could have the same type of experience.

Now that we've talked about why we created the Dynasty Wire and StoryBuilder, let's get into how it works.

Dynasty Wire

In its most basic terms, the Dynasty Wire is your central source for the stories in your Online Dynasty. The latest story is the first thing you see when you enter the dynasty or access the Dynasty website, which helps keep the Dynasty fresh since that lead story can be different every time you get into your Dynasty. There are three basic types of stories: Weekly Updates, Game Recaps, and User generated stories - and I'll get into each of these in a bit. First I wanted to give a quick example of what you might be greeted with when you access your Dynasty from both the console and the web:

Console:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/1.jpg

Web:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/2.jpg

The first thing you see when you enter your Dynasty is an image from the story, the headline and caption for the story, and on the web you can see the body of the story and the comments right from the front page. On the console you have the ability to shuffle through the 5 most recent stories from the main Dynasty hub. From here you can access the actual Dynasty Wire, which is the list of available stories from your dynasty, broken up by week (including a list of the latest stories no matter what week they are from), and segmented out by the Dynasty Season. This allows you to quickly and easily find the story you want and get update on what's hit the Dynasty Wire since you last checked:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/3.jpg

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/4.jpg

From here you can select any available story to get all of the details. As I mentioned above, this is a complete archive of the stories from the length of your Dynasty. So if you are in week 7 of year 10 you can go back and see the stories that were created in week 2 of year 3 if you want. I'll get to the best part about what this allows you to do a little later in this blog.

Comments

Each story allows you, the members of the Dynasty, to participate in an active discussion by using the comment system. Members can comment from both the web and the console, so no matter where you are you can be a part of the discussion. Comments are all tied to the story they were created in, and you can see how many comments a story has from the Dynasty Wire view, as well as know when the last comment was posted so you will always be able to find where the hot topic is located. Here's a screenshot of the comments from the console:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/5.jpg

So now that you know the basic structure of how stories are viewed, let's dive in to how these stories are created.

Weekly Updates

Every time the week advances, a Weekly Update story will be created that recaps the events from the previous week and sets up the news for the current week for each human controlled team. These recaps show the results of last week's game, who each team is playing in the current week, and for you recruitniks, which prospects from your recruiting board have committed in the past week. The best part of this is that the recap shows anyone from your board that's committed, even if it was to another school. I'm a fan of this because I always want to know when a prospect I was after has made their commitment, even if it wasn't to my school. This same recap is displayed on the web, and is one of the emails alerts you can sign up for to help keep you connected to your dynasty.

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/6.jpg

Since these updates are a central point for all members of the Dynasty, this is a great place to try and coordinate a game time for a head to head game. Use the comments to tell your opponent when you want to play to help move the scheduling along. Or if you are controlling Oklahoma in the scenario above, you can taunt Texas about how you are absolutely crushing it in recruiting.

Game Recaps

After every human controlled game is played, the recap of that game is created and posted to the Dynasty Wire for everyone to see. This recap contains the stats from your game (Scoring Summary, Team Stats, and Player Stats) as well as the highlights from your game. Five photos from your game are automatically created and uploaded, and you have the ability to create up to five additional photos and save off up to five video highlights from your game that will be uploaded for you. In total, each game played can have up to 15 highlights showing off the action from your game. Since we automatically create and upload those photos, even if you don't feel like adding additional highlights to your recap, every game will have some media attached to it for everyone to view. Each recap has a headline and caption automatically generated for you, which you can then edit from the web to say exactly what you want. The cherry on top of all of this is the ability to go to the web and write up your own text recap of what happened in the game. This is your blank slate to tell everyone just what happened in your game. Since it's never fun to type using a controller, the headline, caption, and story body are editable on the web instead of the console. Here's a look at what the full story details look like on the console:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/7.jpg

All of the highlights are inside of this screen, so you can shuffle through highlights, read the story, check out the stats, and view/add a comment all from this one screen. The web is structured in the same way so that all of the contents of that story are located in one spot.

User Generated Stories

Where the stories really take on a life of their own are in the User Generated stories. Here, Dynasty members can create a story about anything they want. Absolutely anything (as long as it passes the profanity filters) can be a subject for your story. Sign the top prospect in the nation? Let them hear all about it. Win the Heisman? What better way to rub it in than to create a story with that player's greatest highlights. About to play your biggest rival? Create a preview story filled with highlights from previous contests. The beauty of these stories is that you have every highlight that's ever been uploaded in your dynasty available for use when creating a new story. Did the greatest player in your dynasty just graduate? Create a story about their career where you pull in highlights from their freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years. As I said earlier, Dynasty Wire is your archive for every human game played in the Dynasty. If you have a 12 man Dynasty, with a 13 game a year schedule, and every game has 15 highlights saved, for all 60 years of a Dynasty you would have 140,400 highlights at your fingertips when going to create a story. While this is the absolute extreme scenario, the fact still remains, if you want to write a story, there's a great shot that you will have the visuals to support that story.
The user generated stories are laid out exactly like the game recaps in the same, easy to digest format. Here's an example of a user generated story from the web:

http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/8.jpg

On the left side you will see that the stories about USC are all grouped together for quick access so you can jump from story to story about the same school.

StoryBuilder

Now that we've shown you what the stories look like as finished pieces, let's go into the actual creation process using the StoryBuilder. When you want to create a story from scratch, or edit your game recap you will need to head to the website to utilize the StoryBuilder feature. Here you will be able to edit all of your text and add/remove highlights as well as update the order that those highlights are displayed.

Here's a screenshot of the StoryBuilder:
http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/9.jpg

And let's take a look at that same story once it hits the Dynasty Wire:
http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/wireBlog/10.jpg

Facebook and Twitter

If it's not enough for you to share your stories with the other members of your Dynasty, you can publish stories out to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. The world is your audience, and you can let them in on all the fun you are having. If you beat a good friend in your Dynasty, why should the other members be the only ones that can enjoy your ridicule? You've got to embarrass them in a true public forum. Since each story has its own unique URL, people outside of your Dynasty will be able to directly link to the story you want them to see. What's the point of telling your story if everyone can't listen?

Well, that about wraps up this blog entry. Everyone on the NCAA team is very excited about the Dynasty Wire and StoryBuilder and can't wait until July 13th so that we can start writing our stories for real.

Before I end this blog I wanted to let everyone know, even though the Dynasty Wire and StoryBuilder are only applicable to Online Dynasties, that does not mean you are forced to play in a Dynasty with other people if you don't want to. You can create a single user Online Dynasty which will allow you to continue playing the Dynasty at your own pace, while still enjoying all of the benefits of the Dynasty Wire, StoryBuilder and Dynasty Website. Don't think of Online Dynasty as just a Multiplayer Dynasty, think of it as a Connected Dynasty.

Until next time.

-Ben

skipwondah33
06-15-2010, 11:23 AM
Gotta admit that all sounds really exciting, I'll play around with the demo some more later

cdj
06-15-2010, 11:39 AM
The Dynasty Wire site is up (http://www.easports.com/dynasty), so set your bookmarks now.

Jcoop9
06-15-2010, 11:48 AM
Sounds good! After playing the demo I'm ready for July 13th now

Kwizzy
06-15-2010, 11:51 AM
Yeah this all sounds awesome! Can't wait til i can mess around with it all.

CLW
06-15-2010, 12:04 PM
This really is amazing. To nitpik a bit, IMO it would be great, if we could also "share" our dynasty progress at forums like the TGT and other community sites. While I suppose you can simply start a thread and link people and keep "bumping" the thread here when you have an update, I think it would be much better to be able to just do a "copy"/"paste" type deal into the forums/blogs here.

AustinWolv
06-15-2010, 12:10 PM
That is some pretty detailed stuff there. Making all of that streamlined is a huge help, especially for those of us who have kids, etc.

iBrandon
06-15-2010, 12:38 PM
This is going to be a blast to use if everything works correctly. I can't wait to do a Baylor dynasty using this.

iBrandon
06-15-2010, 01:04 PM
I wonder when reading recaps, player stats etc... if the player names we have on our dynasty roster file show up or will they just be the jersey number?

gschwendt
06-15-2010, 01:07 PM
I wonder when reading recaps, player stats etc... if the player names we have on our dynasty roster file show up or will they just be the jersey number?
The names will show up... take a look at the screenshots and you should see names scattered. They wouldn't go through the trouble to differentiate whether it's the original roster base or year 55 rosters.

beartide06
06-15-2010, 01:17 PM
This is all just so in depth. They did a great job by adding this feature. Dynasties are going to hit the 60 year mark a lot more often now.

I am hosting, as it stands, an 11 man dynasty (probably adding 1 more person, but don't know who yet) and this is really going to be fun reading and posting stories. Everyone is there own journalist in a sense. Maybe I should start putting people on payroll to write mine :D

One thing I do wish they had was a Co-Captain for an OD so that if the commissioner can't do certain things then he could pass it to the Co if something came up.

JHeb
06-15-2010, 01:23 PM
This sounds amazing! I can't wait to get started using it b/c this is right up my alley. I had a blog for my Online Dynasty team (Oklahoma) for NCAA 10 and it was fun but it got really annoying having to do soooooo much work to get photos and videos to my blog from photobucket, youtube, etc. :)

CLW
06-15-2010, 01:45 PM
The names will show up... take a look at the screenshots and you should see names scattered. They wouldn't go through the trouble to differentiate whether it's the original roster base or year 55 rosters.

Wow that is somewhat surprising given the state of the lawsuits against EA for "invasion of privacy"/"likeness" torts.

Flav
06-15-2010, 01:46 PM
Wow that is somewhat surprising given the state of the lawsuits against EA for "invasion of privacy"/"likeness" torts.

Why is that? The future recruits they invented are totally made up so once you get in like year 5+ it won't just be QB # 3.

CLW
06-15-2010, 01:51 PM
Why is that? The future recruits they invented are totally made up so once you get in like year 5+ it won't just be QB # 3.

Agreed. However, in years 1-4 of the dynasty it will read things like, "Pryor/Real Player torches Canes." (assuming someone uses a named roster file) Arguably, that gives Pryor/Real Player another claim against EA for "invasion of his prviacy"/"unauthorized use of his likeness".

I really just need to bite the bullet and write an article on this. I did all the research and have a stack of papers on my desk at home all highlighted and tabbed up.

morsdraconis
06-15-2010, 02:34 PM
Agreed. However, in years 1-4 of the dynasty it will read things like, "Pryor/Real Player torches Canes." (assuming someone uses a named roster file) Arguably, that gives Pryor/Real Player another claim against EA for "invasion of his prviacy"/"unauthorized use of his likeness".

I really just need to bite the bullet and write an article on this. I did all the research and have a stack of papers on my desk at home all highlighted and tabbed up.

But it's not EA's fault that someone decided to change the rosters to the real people.

All EA is doing is giving you the tools to do what you want with the players. It's up to us to make those changes.

It's like torrent websites. It's not their fault that people are putting illegal things there.

CLW
06-15-2010, 02:41 PM
But it's not EA's fault that someone decided to change the rosters to the real people.

All EA is doing is giving you the tools to do what you want with the players. It's up to us to make those changes.

It's like torrent websites. It's not their fault that people are putting illegal things there.

That would in essence be EA's argument. However, the law doesn't always see issues that way (see Napster).

I'm not an expert on this particular area of the law (noone is really b/c its still somewhat cutting edge being determined). My understanding is that these torrent sites get away with it b/c: #1 they are "small"; #2 the industry knows if they go after them they have no $ and 10 more will pop up as soon as they shut one down and #3 I believe it was the Canada Supreme Court that ruled they were not liable/responsible so allot of those programs are developed and hosted in Canada protecting them from American courts jurisdiction.

Also don't forget EA would be making images of the Real Player's "likeness" and posting them online for every online dynasty game.

I.e. If I play an online dynasty as Miami (or any team) there will be game photos of "Harris" at QB.

Then Harris could come back and sue EA saying, you used my "likeness" (legal term) without my permission.

morsdraconis
06-15-2010, 02:51 PM
No, the reason why torrent sites are safe is because they never HOST the actual files. The torrents are simply links to a hash file (in binary or whatever obviously). It's the hash file that directs the download software across the internet to the seeders.

That plus the freeware things that are released via torrents continue to thwart any hope these companies have of taking down these websites.

EA's situation applies exactly the same. Basically EA is giving you the tools to do whatever you want but they aren't doing it themselves and everything they are giving us to use can simply be pointed to the fact that they are using those tools to make players NOT look like real players (which they definitely do with recruits and such).

CLW
06-15-2010, 03:04 PM
No, the reason why torrent sites are safe is because they never HOST the actual files. The torrents are simply links to a hash file (in binary or whatever obviously). It's the hash file that directs the download software across the internet to the seeders.

That plus the freeware things that are released via torrents continue to thwart any hope these companies have of taking down these websites.

EA's situation applies exactly the same. Basically EA is giving you the tools to do whatever you want but they aren't doing it themselves and everything they are giving us to use can simply be pointed to the fact that they are using those tools to make players NOT look like real players (which they definitely do with recruits and such).

Actually, EA's situation is not exactly the same.

EA (not its consumers/users) creates the "players" in the game for each team (I.E. QB #7). Keller/Plaintiffs lawyers argue that those video game players (QB #7) constitute and unauthorized use of each players' "likeness". Keller/Plaintiffs arguments in these cases are two fold: (1) EA shouldn't allow their consumers to violate their privacy by putting their real names in the game without their permission (2) EA itself is violating Keller's/Others' privacy by putting their "likeness" (QB#7) in the game without permission.

My problem with Plaintiffs' argument is two fold. First, I don't consider QB #7 to be a "likeness". Second, even if their creation of QB#7 is a "likeness" EA has a 1st Amendment right to do so.

Sorry to derail the topic. If anyone has any further questions about the Keller lawsuit we should probably handle this via PM/AIM instead.

lilheavy
06-15-2010, 03:49 PM
One thing I do wish they had was a Co-Captain for an OD so that if the commissioner can't do certain things then he could pass it to the Co if something came up.

I was hoping this would be added to OD also. :( It sucks when the commish is out of town for the weekend.

gschwendt
06-15-2010, 04:01 PM
I was hoping this would be added to OD also. :( It sucks when the commish is out of town for the weekend.
Apparently EA isn't done with the news of this game so wonder if maybe that's something they still have available to offer...

CLW
06-15-2010, 04:04 PM
For any of you "Game Changers" "Community Day" guys among us, can you confirm/deny whether a Commish of a dynasty can advance the dynasty from the net (PC/MAC/Smart Phone)?

gschwendt
06-15-2010, 04:06 PM
For any of you "Game Changers" "Community Day" guys among us, can you confirm/deny whether a Commish of a dynasty can advance the dynasty from the net (PC/MAC/Smart Phone)?
You cannot advance from the web... it has to be done from the console.

I imagine the biggest reason behind that is all of the simulation that has to be processed at week's change. They're processing upto 60+ games along with stats, news articles, etc. I'm sure they COULD do it via pc but it would all have to be processed on their servers and the overhead for that would become huge.

lilheavy
06-15-2010, 04:07 PM
Apparently EA isn't done with the news of this game so wonder if maybe that's something they still have available to offer...

I have my fingers crossed...

CLW
06-15-2010, 04:11 PM
You cannot advance from the web... it has to be done from the console.

I imagine the biggest reason behind that is all of the simulation that has to be processed at week's change. They're processing upto 60+ games along with stats, news articles, etc. I'm sure they COULD do it via pc but it would all have to be processed on their servers and the overhead for that would become huge.

Thanks! That seems like a logical reason. Just sort of hampers the ability to advance in a quicker fashion if the Commish could get an e-mail saying all games are complete, click the link and then click advance.

Another issue seeking confirmation/denial on that is related to this topic is, can a person run more than one online dynasty at a time?

I run an OD but also want to use the Dynasty Wire to keep the progress of my own "by myself dynasty" (formerly known as an offline dynasty). Can you do both? I believe in the past you were limited to being the Commish of only 1 OD.

gschwendt
06-15-2010, 04:12 PM
Another issue seeking confirmation/denial on that is related to this topic is, can a person run more than one online dynasty at a time?

I run an OD but also want to use the Dynasty Wire to keep the progress of my own "by myself dynasty" (formerly known as an offline dynasty). Can you do both? I believe in the past you were limited to being the Commish of only 1 OD.
Apparently EA isn't done with the news of this game so wonder if maybe that's something they still have available to offer...

CLW
06-15-2010, 04:16 PM
Apparently EA isn't done with the news of this game so wonder if maybe that's something they still have available to offer...

It is something to ponder. Hopefully, it won't keep me up at night.

ebin
06-15-2010, 05:35 PM
I'm really impressed by how in depth it looks like this is going to be. My dynasties are going to last at least twice as long now, if for no other reason than I won't spend half my time manually entering stats, etc. Still crossing my fingers that there will be some way to export/save all of this information outside the EA servers (other than the incredibly cumbersome screencaps idea).

JeffHCross
06-15-2010, 07:05 PM
CLW, to follow up to your earlier question, we should keep in mind that one reason Online Franchise had that feature (advancing from the web) last year was that they built Online Franchise from scratch to run on the web. This meant that everything was running off of their servers, including all the simulations. I think this is one reason Online Franchise lacked (and still lacks, as far as I can tell) offseason logic.

Rudy
06-15-2010, 07:19 PM
This is great. Madden fans can only hope the NCAA goodness happens in Madden 12 or 13!

CLW
06-16-2010, 11:33 AM
CLW, to follow up to your earlier question, we should keep in mind that one reason Online Franchise had that feature (advancing from the web) last year was that they built Online Franchise from scratch to run on the web. This meant that everything was running off of their servers, including all the simulations. I think this is one reason Online Franchise lacked (and still lacks, as far as I can tell) offseason logic.

That is another good point. Many things in life are trade offs. I would much rather have Online Dynasty as it is (advance from the console and off-season stuff) than have Online Dynasty like Madden's (no FA, salary cap, etc....).

skipwondah33
06-16-2010, 11:45 AM
This is great. Madden fans can only hope the NCAA goodness happens in Madden 12 or 13!

I don't know man..this game isn't getting that great of impressions off the demo from a gameplay standpoint. The dynasty features by the sounds of it are fantastic but I have found in the past that they can't compensate for the gameplay aspect of it.

CLW
06-16-2010, 11:54 AM
I don't know man..this game isn't getting that great of impressions off the demo from a gameplay standpoint. The dynasty features by the sounds of it are fantastic but I have found in the past that they can't compensate for the gameplay aspect of it.

After torching Clemson last night in the demo I went to Madden 10 and played a quick game and some of the same secondary issues are in Madden 10 as well. In fact, thinking about the demo and Madden 10 now the games feel quite a bit alike. Right now, the NCAA 11 Demo to me feels like a tweaked version (new blocking, locomotion) version of Madden 10. I'm afraid the problem is that the locomotion (in particular) may have made some of the issues in Madden 10 slightly more glaring in favor of the offense. (which may have been EA's goal)

skipwondah33
06-16-2010, 12:09 PM
What I was hinting to is that I seen a big jump from Madden 09 to Madden 10 in regards to gameplay. I didn't see such from NCAA 10 to NCAA 11 thus far with only playing the demo. If you played 09 pretty hardcore, then 10 was a breath of fresh air

JeffHCross
06-16-2010, 06:32 PM
Madden 10 was a disaster for me. So I can only imagine what Madden 09 felt like.

iBrandon
06-16-2010, 07:57 PM
I wonder what big news is left...

gschwendt
06-17-2010, 08:51 AM
Another issue seeking confirmation/denial on that is related to this topic is, can a person run more than one online dynasty at a time?

I run an OD but also want to use the Dynasty Wire to keep the progress of my own "by myself dynasty" (formerly known as an offline dynasty). Can you do both? I believe in the past you were limited to being the Commish of only 1 OD.
From the latest TraditionFootball posting (http://www.traditionfootball.com/index.php/2010/06/e3-updates-more-ncaa-football-2011-information-coming-at-ya/):

Also, Ben Haumiller has confirmed functionality to host multiple dynasties up to a total of five per person. This feature will be offered as downloadable content. As far as I understand it, this will be a flat rate to host multiple dynasties up to five (5).

CLW
06-17-2010, 09:42 AM
From the latest TraditionFootball posting (http://www.traditionfootball.com/index.php/2010/06/e3-updates-more-ncaa-football-2011-information-coming-at-ya/):

Does "downloadable content" = pay to run more than one online dynasty? If so, how much coin are we talking about? Maybe its just me, but I find all this "nickle and dime" stuff quite annoying.

gschwendt
06-17-2010, 09:44 AM
Does "downloadable content" = pay to run more than one online dynasty? If so, how much coin are we talking about? Maybe its just me, but I find all this "nickle and dime" stuff quite annoying.
Most likely, yes it sounds like that will be paid DLC. And I understand the complaint about the nickel & diming but at the same time, for every OD, that increases the amount of data that is stored on their servers. It's disappointing yes, but also understandable from their standpoint.

As well, from the data standpoint, the size of the files stored on their servers will be essentially the same whether you're running a 1 team OD or a 12 team OD.

CLW
06-17-2010, 09:50 AM
Most likely, yes it sounds like that will be paid DLC. And I understand the complaint about the nickel & diming but at the same time, for every OD, that increases the amount of data that is stored on their servers. It's disappointing yes, but also understandable from their standpoint.

As well, from the data standpoint, the size of the files stored on their servers will be essentially the same whether you're running a 1 team OD or a 12 team OD.

I know that allot of people are going to pay for this. I cannot imagine the "rage" that will occur should the EA servers crash/lose the data. EA better have their servers ready to handle this massive amount of users/data.

JBHuskers
06-17-2010, 10:11 AM
Does "downloadable content" = pay to run more than one online dynasty? If so, how much coin are we talking about? Maybe its just me, but I find all this "nickle and dime" stuff quite annoying.

This is pure speculation...don't have any inside info. But I'd guess $5.

I understand the annoyance of nickel and diming, but as gaming evolves so does the business model. Not just for EA, it's the business model for a lot of gaming companies.

morsdraconis
06-17-2010, 11:20 AM
This is pure speculation...don't have any inside info. But I'd guess $5.

I understand the annoyance of nickel and diming, but as gaming evolves so does the business model. Not just for EA, it's the business model for a lot of gaming companies.

Absolutely. Modern Warfare has KILLED with their DLC mappacks ($30 for 10 additional maps is a fuckin' ripoff but I stupidly paid for them both...)

As much as it sucks to have to pay that amount, it's definitely understandable, especially if people want to do singleplayer online dynasties because of the new Dynasty Wire stuff.

Solidice
06-29-2010, 08:41 PM
the site is back up again. who know for how long this time. ;)

http://www.easports.com/dynasty

Flav
06-29-2010, 08:44 PM
I was just about to post this :) Nice call Solidice

Rudy
06-30-2010, 04:41 AM
I checked out a couple dynasties and this will be cool. But I think people need to load at least one video highlight for each game.

Videos >>>>>>>>>>>>> screenshots.

HawkFan
06-30-2010, 08:24 AM
I checked out a couple dynasties and this will be cool. But I think people need to load at least one video highlight for each game.

Videos >>>>>>>>>>>>> screenshots.

Which ones have you checked out the only ones I can find have very little on them.

HawkFan
06-30-2010, 08:26 AM
I have a question about this feature and maybe it would be better to put it in the impression question thread but I thought I would give it a shot here.

When it comes to dynasty reports on this site, how are we going to be able to transfer our info from dynasty wire to this site? Are we going to just have to post teaser info in a short post here with links, or is there a way that maybe a person with limited knowledge of html and such will be able to bring those screens and videos and such to a post over here?

Kwizzy
06-30-2010, 08:52 AM
Which ones have you checked out the only ones I can find have very little on them.

Pastapadre has 2 linked, here's one of em http://www.easports.com/dynasty#module=moduleDynastyLanding&dynid=8&sku=662A0001

Seems to be some issues with stats displaying correctly & adding up.

JBHuskers
06-30-2010, 09:32 AM
Pastapadre has 2 linked, here's one of em http://www.easports.com/dynasty#module=moduleDynastyLanding&dynid=8&sku=662A0001

Seems to be some issues with stats displaying correctly & adding up.

I can't wait for work to finally join the 21st century and get IE8. Dynasty Wire doesn't work well at all on IE6.

morsdraconis
06-30-2010, 09:45 AM
I can't wait for work to finally join the 21st century and get IE8. Dynasty Wire doesn't work well at all on IE6.

They do that for a reason you know... ;)

AustinWolv
06-30-2010, 10:58 AM
Neeeeeeat.

Deuce
06-30-2010, 08:51 PM
Another thing that's cool about this feature..the educational aspect. Anything that gets people writing can only help. Can you imagine your english teacher giving you 'dynasty wire' as homework? Very cool. You get graded on how well you write your stories. EA should have a contest for high school students to see who is the best writer. Give'm a $500 scholarship...what the hell. :D

Be a great PR move.

JeffHCross
06-30-2010, 08:56 PM
I can't wait for work to finally join the 21st century and get IE8. Dynasty Wire doesn't work well at all on IE6.That actually shocks me. IE6 has so many known problems that it's quickly becoming looked at as a security concern.

Then again, your work might not care about security. Other than your night job I don't think I know where you work.

BPHusker
06-30-2010, 09:11 PM
I can't wait for work to finally join the 21st century and get IE8. Dynasty Wire doesn't work well at all on IE6.

You could get Firefox. ;)

Anyway, about the Dynasty Wire... Am I just blind or do they not have the players' numbers anywhere? I went to the roster and all I am seeing is names. Maybe someone could talk to the EA guys and ask if that can be added.

morsdraconis
06-30-2010, 09:15 PM
That actually shocks me. IE6 has so many known problems that it's quickly becoming looked at as a security concern.

Then again, your work might not care about security. Other than your night job I don't think I know where you work.

The reason why they aren't worried about security issues with IE6 is because you're SUPPOSED to only go to websites that they know have no security risks and I can guarantee you the reason why the tech guys at his work haven't updated to the latest version of IE or put Firefox on there or even Google Chrome is because they were asked what would be the simplest way to prevent people from going to most websites at work. The answer, IE6 with no Flash installed. Gets rid of QUITE a few websites.

Rudy
06-30-2010, 09:52 PM
Yeah, we still have IE6 at work and it blows. But like morsdraconis said, it's supposed to be used for work and their Websense blocks virtually everything. I can't get on here or any gaming website or forum. I'm shocked I can still access Twitter. They found this site within a week and blocked it so I only post early in the morning or at night.

JeffHCross
06-30-2010, 10:33 PM
The reason why they aren't worried about security issues with IE6 is because you're SUPPOSED to only go to websites that they know have no security risksIE6 is such a security nightmare that even this isn't a guarantee. Without knowing where JB works, I'd be slightly surprised if his workplace website restrictions were any more restrictive than mine, and we specifically upgraded past IE6 because of the security issues.

They found this site within a week and blocked it so I only post early in the morning or at night.Yeah, I don't know whose palms cdj et al greased, but I've never seen a new website categorized as quickly as this one was. Maybe the domain name is what did it.

JBHuskers
06-30-2010, 11:23 PM
That actually shocks me. IE6 has so many known problems that it's quickly becoming looked at as a security concern.

Then again, your work might not care about security. Other than your night job I don't think I know where you work.

Well the problem is getting existing programs that are web based to be compatible with IE8. That's why they're so far behind the times....we still have XP on our now 6 year old computers.

JeffHCross
06-30-2010, 11:26 PM
Well the problem is getting existing programs that are web based to be compatible with IE8. That's why they're so far behind the times....we still have XP on our now 6 year old computers.Ah. That is true. We have the same problem at our work. Most of our back-end applications still don't officially support anything but IE 6 and 7. Also still on XP (though that's true in most corporations thanks to Vista being all-but-rejected in the enterprise).

Kingpin32
06-30-2010, 11:40 PM
Ah. That is true. We have the same problem at our work. Most of our back-end applications still don't officially support anything but IE 6 and 7. Also still on XP (though that's true in most corporations thanks to Vista being all-but-rejected in the enterprise).

Yeah we still use XP on the computers that most of the staff at the library use, but some of the computers for public use have Vista and some still have XP. But all of them have Firefox on it.

JeffHCross
07-01-2010, 12:11 AM
Oh, we have a lot of Firefox ... just our software doesn't officially support it. You know, pop-up messages telling you things might be wrong, etc. Nothing major.

Chrome is just out right banned from using our software though :D

JBHuskers
07-01-2010, 12:22 AM
Oh, we have a lot of Firefox ... just our software doesn't officially support it. You know, pop-up messages telling you things might be wrong, etc. Nothing major.

Chrome is just out right banned from using our software though :D

I have admin rights to my computer (they forgot to take them off :D). I tried installing Chrome, but it won't connect to the internet :( --- I really don't see myself doing the recruiting from the web anyways, I'd still rather do it on a console. But if the OD is waiting on me, it's definitely handy, and it's also handy to kill time surfing through the stats and such.

JeffHCross
07-01-2010, 12:26 AM
I think I'm going to find a way to set my computer up so that the Dynasty Wire is blocked. Otherwise I am going to want to use it allllllllllllll the time.

Rudy
07-01-2010, 06:23 AM
Our IT person at work is a computer nutjob. She goes searching for software of any kind not allowed on the system. No chance I try installing anything on my computer to browse better.

morsdraconis
07-01-2010, 09:12 AM
Our IT person at work is a computer nutjob. She goes searching for software of any kind not allowed on the system. No chance I try installing anything on my computer to browse better.

That's why I LOVED my old job (before I got laid off :( ). I was a IT Tech and my boss was my uncle (who's only 7 years older than me; big family on my mom's side) so we basically goofed off at any point that we weren't supposed to be doing something. I was constantly playing various videos games, surfing the internet, etc. It was GREAT. Damn I miss that job...

HuskerBlitz
07-01-2010, 11:48 AM
Another thing that's cool about this feature..the educational aspect. Anything that gets people writing can only help. Can you imagine your english teacher giving you 'dynasty wire' as homework? Very cool. You get graded on how well you write your stories. EA should have a contest for high school students to see who is the best writer. Give'm a $500 scholarship...what the hell. :D

Be a great PR move.
Yeah, as a teacher....I don't think so. :D

steelerfan
07-01-2010, 01:13 PM
That's why I LOVED my old job (before I got laid off :( ). I was a IT Tech and my boss was my uncle (who's only 7 years older than me; big family on my mom's side) so we basically goofed off at any point that we weren't supposed to be doing something. I was constantly playing various videos games, surfing the internet, etc. It was GREAT. Damn I miss that job...

You got laid off by your uncle? Yikes!

morsdraconis
07-01-2010, 01:30 PM
You got laid off by your uncle? Yikes!

Yes and no. He was the office manager (my boss) but, obviously, there were higher ups.

What was worse was I was sharing an apartment with him and his wife at the time.

CLW
07-12-2010, 04:13 PM
Sort of a last minute question, is there any character limitations on how long of a story/recap/article you can put into a Dynasty Wire headline? I know allot of guys like to get very detailed with their dynasty reports and write full length articles recapping their dynasty progress.

JBHuskers
07-12-2010, 04:25 PM
Sort of a last minute question, is there any character limitations on how long of a story/recap/article you can put into a Dynasty Wire headline? I know allot of guys like to get very detailed with their dynasty reports and write full length articles recapping their dynasty progress.

Not that I have seen.