OD Issues

[Coach Kernzy]

1. First off about two weeks ago I can no longer get my game recaps or stats to upload.
2. None of the other guys in my OD can either and thus none of us can see the game recaps or stats on the OD site
3. Then yesterday and today myself and two other owners can't get past the coin toss in user vs user OD games.
4. Now today the OD site won't let me advance the damn week online which I've done many times. Says I have to do it on my console.
5. After advance an OD user had 0 recruiting time or scouting time and he was set to "Ready to Advance"
6. The situation where in a user vs cpu OD game the cpu offense just stays in the huddle.
7. Duplicate players in the depth charts of several teams including human and cpu teams.
8. Users can't even get into the OD currently.

I'm really getting fed up with EA's bs all the damn time. Can I do anything at all to voice my displeasure with EA or does anyone there even give a shit?

can any of the guys here that have the ear of some of the EA folks help us all get to the bottom of all these things. If it's not one thing, it's another with EA, year in and year out.

[gschwendt]

We've sent #1/#2 along.

For #3, I ran into that this past weekend and sent it on to EA... for your users, are they all User vs User games or are some vs CPU?


I've not ever heard of #4. I'd be curious once you advance from the console whether the next week you would be able to advance from the web or not.

[Coach Kernzy]

#1/#2 when you "send along" these issues does anyone ever get back to you or acknowledge the issues or do they just say "thanks a lot for your money but we aren't going to do shit about it"

#3 happened for the first time yesterday and then again today, both user vs user games, we're in season 3 and we've had user vs user games before with no issues

#4 I've had happen once before and I was able to advance from console fine and then then next week from web again but I'm just assuming all of these are somehow connected with EA server issues

It really gets old...

[gschwendt]

We send feedback and depending on whether they're aware or not, they might ask for more details. As IOU pointed out in the patch 2 thread, several of the key issues with Online lobby games were fixed in the last patch. Very likely, they were fixed as a direct result of him sending them to me and me passing them along. So it's not like they're out to ignore these things.

For #3, were any of these non-bowl games? Mine happened to be in the Fiesta Bowl against a user. As well, he said that the CPU was always picking his coin toss options... here's more details (http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/showthread.php?5712-Online-Dynasty-Bowl-Game-User-vs-User-DC-d-before-kickoff).

[Coach Kernzy]

I understand that some things get fixed and some don't but it's just a never ending battle. I love the game and I love this community here at TGT but EA/NCAA team just cannot get their shit together. I'm just beyond frustrated at having to fight this constant battle with this game I love.

#3 Neither of the games were bowl games, no coin toss issues except of course we couldn't get past it before we got disconnected

[Coach Kernzy]

So is there someone or somehow I can contact someone at EA besides their worthless support forums or support agents via phone or chat? I use the term support loosely.

I can see it now, Madden's coming out and NCAA will take a back seat and little to none of these issues will get addressed. OD's all over the place will be unplayable and leaving us all out in the cold/dark...

[BOSSMO X]

Coach Kernzy don't forget that one of the owners had his recruiting and scouting done by the cpu. I have been fed up with this since about week 2 of the first season. The first thing that I noticed was that whenever I would to

try edit one of my manually created stories ,on the dynasty web I would lose my highlights and the game recap would show all 0's for the stats. But the thing that pissed me off the most was that I stayed online with them via

the customer support online thing for over an hour. I did all this only to be told that they needed to forward my problem to a specialist. This specialist took a week to get back to me via email.He asked me to explain my problem

in detail for the 100th time and I did. Almost a month later he returned my email and said that this was the first that he has heard of my problem and then he proceeded to give me the company line " it must be your browser ".

[Coach Kernzy]

Oh yeah that's right, let's add that to the list as #5.

#5 After advance an OD user had 0 recruiting time or scouting time and he was set to "Ready to Advance"

[gigemaggs99]

I haven't been able to upload my stats or game recaps in my OD for the last 3 weeks, we are in week 7 year 1. The only saving grace is it gives me the option to continue without uploading them. It seems like last year the OD would just freeze at some point and it wouldn't give us the option to continue.

One thing that is so strange to me is, EA seems to be really wanting to push the online stuff. I read that Madden 13 has CCM and they want you to really play with other people online. Same as NCAA and ODs. Why does the offline stuff work so well? Why does it upload the recaps and stats? Why are they slowly removing stuff from the offline portion (see Madden 13) and pushing more for the Online stuff....yet it doesn't work all the time.

I enjoy online and offline just as much as the next guy, but I'm starting to play offline more just b/c it works for the most part 100% of the time. It's going to be annoying if the day ever comes that they don't have all the features offline that they do online, only to have them work 50% of the time.

[Coach Kernzy]

Let's add a few more to my list.

6. The situation where in a user vs cpu OD game the cpu offense just stays in the huddle.
7. Duplicate players in the depth charts of several teams including human and cpu teams.
8. Users can even get into the OD currently.

EA is just awesome

[Coach Kernzy]

It's all over the web, everyone is having all these same problems but not a peep out of EA about the issues.
OS, EA forums, here, everyone is having these issues but or course EA is not acknowledging anything at all.
Come on EA, really, at least say "yeah we're having issues and we know it but we're working on it".
The more likely scenario is that they really don't care and aren't going to fix anything because they already have our money and are about to have another money grab with Madden coming out.

[JeffHCross]

The more likely scenario is that they really don't careWhile I can't speak to your issues or the likelihood of a fix, I can absolutely deny this. They care. I can't explain why the product is what it is (particularly since I haven't personally seen any of your issues, other than not seeing the game updates in the OD site), but I do know they care. I do share your wish that they would be a little more forthcoming with acknowledgement of issues (but that seems to be a larger problem with the game industry, particularly large companies).

What's really strange (and bothersome, to an extent) is that it seems like all of these issues started around the same time as Patch 2.

[Coach Kernzy]

I sincerely hope you are right Jeff, I hope they do care. And if they care they will fix the issues and at the very least make what is right now with these issues not even a playable game, playable again.

It'd be great to have one of the guys like JDewiel or some other member of EA say something, anything about all these issues.

They're all to quick to come around on forums and post things on Twitter when they are marketing a game or promoting it or whatever but when there is an issue this is pretty much the way it goes.
- they acknowledge the issue way to late after everyone is outraged or doesn't even care anymore
- they put out a patch to supposedly fix said issues but really it just created more
Then it's all just a vicious cycle from there that is destined to repeat itself.

[Coach Kernzy]

Any updates or feedback from EA on any of this?
There are reports on forums all over the web with these same issues but I've seen nothing from EA.

[gschwendt]

Any updates or feedback from EA on any of this?
There are reports on forums all over the web with these same issues but I've seen nothing from EA.
Sorry, we don't share anything they send directly to us unless they ask us to.

[Coach Kernzy]

So we aren't going to know if they are looking into or fixing these issues or not unless they publicly state it?

[Underdog]

This is incredibly rediculous.

[gigemaggs99]

Sorry, we don't share anything they send directly to us unless they ask us to.

That seems to be treading on thin ice there, it leaves the door open to "we might know something" or "we might not know anything". Seems like if they do not want you to share anything, saying nothing would be the more prudent way to go about it.

Your statement implies you might know something but we aren't privileged to the information. If we aren't, why dangle it out there?

In the end I guess I'm confused. All over the place even on the "making of" shows you hear things like EA just wants to make everyone happy. I understand you can't make 100% of the people happy, but it seems like they come out with patches, this has been more than just this year, that cause more problems than they fix. So we as gamers are left scratching our heads, should I A) not install the patch and play the game as is (with whatever isn't working) or B) install the patch HOPE things don't get worse but this will enable me to use the newer features they are going to implement (i.e. uniform store).

It seems like the overwhelming "need" of the gaming community is to have a working product. The new features are cool and all but I'd just like things to work. Last year there were all sorts of problems one of which had to do with something the gaming community has been begging for, for years, Custom Playbooks. Well now all of a sudden this year they seem to work for the most part. So it's nice that, well it just plain WORKS. Why can't they get the rest of it to work? This is the 20th year of the game right?

This is probably stating the obvious but I'd much rather have a working game, i.e. working HB counter from spread PBs no matter what the game speed or HB size, no-huddle without strange animations, etc... all the actual GAME PLAY features, I'd much rather have that than see the Army Black Knights parachute into the stadium, albeit cool, it's a very small part of the game but I'd rather they spend more time on the in-game play features than this fancy "looking" stuff.

Thanks for listening and thanks for keeping the discussion rational. There are too many other sites that have people flying off the handle.

[gschwendt]

Your statement implies you might know something but we aren't privileged to the information. If we aren't, why dangle it out there?

Not my intention at all. All I was merely saying was that I/we send EA information. Sometimes they reply, sometimes they don't. But when they reply, they're replying to us, not to the public. There are things that you can say in confidence that you wouldn't want everyone reading for fear that they misinterpret. They know us, we know them so there's less room for that.

[Coach Kernzy]

So G, at the very least they are aware of all the problems that so many ODs are having all over the net, not only here but over at OS and on the EA forums themselves?
It would be nice and wouldn't hurt at all for them to just acknowledge the fact they yes they know there are some people having issues and yes they are looking into ways of fixing them. They don't even have to give a time frame or anything, just a simple we are aware and are working on a resolution.

[gschwendt]

I agree with you... I don't like their approach either.

[JeffHCross]

So it's nice that, well it just plain WORKS. Why can't they get the rest of it to work? This is the 20th year of the game right?You've said in other threads that you formerly worked as a tester ... so I know you know that not everything works right out of the box, and there are some things that work 99% of the time but don't work 1%. Bugs happen. I'm not saying that as an excuse for some of the issues that Coach is reporting ... it's unacceptable for a patch to reduce stability in a software product. But whether or not a complex piece of software "works" is much, much easier said than done.


So G, at the very least they are aware of all the problems that so many ODs are having all over the net, not only here but over at OS and on the EA forums themselves?Obviously they'd know what's being posted on the EA forums ... some of the mods are EA employees themselves. I'm confident that postings like this would be difficult to ignore.

[Coach Kernzy]

Apparently there is a new tuner or something folks are being prompted to download last night and this morning. Any word on this?

[gschwendt]

Apparently there is a new tuner or something folks are being prompted to download last night and this morning. Any word on this?
Trying to find information. It wasn't on PS3 last night.

[Coach Kernzy]

Most reports are from 360 users as I guess that stuff comes out earlier for 360 than PS3.
Keep us posted G. Thank you sir.

[Coach Kernzy]

Just to let everyone know, my 3 other OD members have downloaded the latest tuner from last night/this morning and they still cannot even access the OD.
So at this point my OD is pretty much dead unless EA can fix it. Into our 3rd season and all that time just wasted if they can't get this taken care of.

[Coach Kernzy]

Bout to post my chat transcript with EA...it's great and so typical. I'm sure you'll all get a kick out of it. Knew it wouldn't resolve anything but I wanted to just see what they would actually do or say.

[Coach Kernzy]

This is sad, somewhat hilarious, and it really pissed me off all at the same time. So typical. Canned answers, no resolution, passed it off to "experts" who I'll never hear from and of course, all this from someone in India named Dutta.
Full chat transcript to follow...


You are now ready to chat with Dutta.
Dutta:Thanks for contacting EA Help! My name is Dutta how may I help you?
you:having multiple OD issues as follows, OD name on 360 is TGTCMOD360
you:1. First off about two weeks ago I can no longer get my game recaps or stats to upload. 2. None of the other guys in my OD can either and thus none of us can see the game recaps or stats on the OD site 3. Then yesterday and today myself and two other owners can't get past the coin toss in user vs user OD games. 4. Now today the OD site won't let me advance the damn week online which I've done many times. Says I have to do it on my console. 5. After advance an OD user had 0 recruiting time or scouting time and he was set to "Ready to Advance" 6. The situation where in a user vs cpu OD game the cpu offense just stays in the huddle. 7. Duplicate players in the depth charts of several teams including human and cpu teams. 8. Users can't even get into the OD currently.
you:I have see all over the net on several forums including EAs that many people are having these same issues
Dutta:Would you mind holding for a minute or two while I look into your issue/concern?
you:certainly
Dutta:It is taking longer than expected; please allow me few more minutes. I appreciate your patience.
you:I'm happy to be patient as long as we can get the problem resolved
you:if there is any more info you need from me I'm happy to provide it
Dutta:Let’s first try to clear your console cache, this can sometimes cause issues with game. To remove these files, follow the steps mentioned at the below given link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971755
you:thought you might say that...I have already cleared my cache and even gone so far as to delete all things NCAA13 from my hard drive and neither has made any difference
Dutta:Corrupted game files can sometimes cause issues like this. To remove these files, follow the steps below: 1. Start your console with the game disc out so it launches into the Xbox Dashboard. 2. Select the System blade. 3. Select Memory and press the A button. 4. Select Games and press the A button. 5. Select your game and press the A button. 6. Delete all files for the game. 7. After following these steps re-launch the game and try again. Note - Deleting these files would reset your offline progress in the game.
you:as I just said, I have already deleted all files NCAA13 from my hard drive and that did not make any difference in my online dynasty issues
Dutta:ok
you:ok? so what now?
you:do you have any other suggestions or can you pass me off to a higher level of tech support or anything?
Dutta:I shall be passing your issue to our experts.
you:can I speak with or chat with these "experts"?
Dutta:You shall be receiving mail from our experts.
you:mail or email? if email, what email address will they be sending it to and when can I expect a response?
Dutta:E-mail
Dutta:Sure thing..
Dutta:<my correct email address, surprisingly>
you:alright great, so when can I expect a response? also is there a ticket # or reference # pertaining to my issues and this conversation that I can get so that if I don't hear from someone I can call in and get a status report
Dutta:Case Information (# 05127822)
Dutta:Thank you for contacting EA. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
you:Yes, when can I expect your "experts" to contact me via email?
Dutta:2-4 days.
you:ok great, if I don't hear from them within that time, what phone # do I call to check on the status of this case?
you:I'm still here, what is the phone # I call to check the status of this case?
Dutta:1-866-543-5435
you:Great, thank you very much
Dutta:Thank you for contacting EA. Is there anything else I can help you with today?
you:May I ask where you are located?
Dutta:India.
you:Alright, thank you for your time Dutta. Good day.
Dutta:Bye and take care.
Dutta:If you need help with anything else, please feel free to contact us anytime!
you:Certainly, bye

[PeaceWithin]

Dutta seemed like a nice guy, but it was pretty clear that this sort of issue was a bit out of his knowledge base. When he mentions he's passing the information on to the experts, that likely means via email, right? It is a bit disconcerting to think that Madden comes out in a matter of days and a related flagship title from the same company is having a breakdown of this magnitude. I'm curious how this will impact Madden sales.

[Coach Kernzy]

Nice? sure
Out of his knowledge base? certainly
Impact Madden sales? not at all sadly

[PeaceWithin]

I'd really find that hard to believe, actually. For the first time in a decade I was sold on a Madden purchase, and now I'm scouring the websites to see how EA responds to issues like this one. If there is a history of remaining nonchalant about potentially gamebreaking issues such as this one, I can definitely see myself not only potentially losing interest in the NCAA series, but forgoing Madden would be a certainty. I'm sure there are others out there that would be in the same boat, and from what I hear, the company is losing is not exactly raking in cash like it used to. Any dent in the profit margin is potentially a major deal with the market being what it is.

[Coach Kernzy]

I wish that were the case but sadly for us football gamers and anyone else that buys from EA, they have been raking in the cash and skirting the issues and sweeping them under the rug for decades, nothing has changed and nothing will.

[PeaceWithin]

That type of business model is the blueprint for losing one's lead in a competitive marketplace, and from what I understand, EA no longer holds exclusive rights to many of the NCAA based sports. The 2K version of college hoops was vastly superior to EA's counterpart and NFL 2K5 ate that year's Madden for dinner. A little ingenuity and aggressive marketing from team 2K, and we could be looking at EA's market share dropping considerably here in the future if they do not take the time to appease their current fanbase. Please don't misinterpret this message to be bashing EA. I want them to succeed. A quality NCAA and NFL game from them is great for football fans everywhere, but if they don't take quality control seriously enough here in the next 5-6 months, it could well prove disastrous.

[Coach Kernzy]

This says it all

MY CASES


STATUS
CASE
UPDATED
PRODUCT
NO NOTES


CLOSED
05127822
08/24/2012
NCAA FOOTBALL 2013
CLOSED



I go to check out my case online and looky there, CLOSED. They didn't send my case to any "expert". The closed it and said F*** YOU PAL, WE ALREADY GOT YOUR MONEY", with no intention of doing anything at all about it.

Simply unreal.

[JeffHCross]

Coach, just an FYI, but in the Powerhouse OD the issues with Game Recaps and Weekly Updates not being accessible appears to have resolved itself with the roll-over to Year 2. That's ... interesting, if nothing else.

[cdj]

1. First off about two weeks ago I can no longer get my game recaps or stats to upload.
2. None of the other guys in my OD can either and thus none of us can see the game recaps or stats on the OD site

Just a heads-up: It looks like this is working again. I am seeing stories and stat recaps for games on the site now.

Even though the error said the upload failed, I'm seeing stories for every game between the 10th and today.

[hawkeyeguy]

Nice to see the Dynasty Site is working so perfectly today. #sarcasm

[thirtydaZe]

Has anyone else noticed that on the OD website, if you look at another schools roster, it no longer displays properly? Or maybe it is for you.

I'm experiencing that if you look at QB for instance that instead of listing the depth at that position, it pops up 1 random player, and nothing else is being displayed?

[gschwendt]

Has anyone else noticed that on the OD website, if you look at another schools roster, it no longer displays properly? Or maybe it is for you.

I'm experiencing that if you look at QB for instance that instead of listing the depth at that position, it pops up 1 random player, and nothing else is being displayed?

Yeah, I sent that as a bug this morning.

[thirtydaZe]

Yeah, I sent that as a bug this morning.

good to hear. makes scouting your opponent almost impossible.

[JeffHCross]

Has anyone else noticed that on the OD website, if you look at another schools roster, it no longer displays properly? Or maybe it is for you. If I browse a dynasty I'm not a member of, then I experience that whenever I change to any team other than the first to come up. Which is kind of the same thing as "another school", I suppose.

[thirtydaZe]

Yeah, I sent that as a bug this morning.

Good Work. It's working for me today, first time in a week +.
:nod:


Well, that was short lived.

[JeffHCross]

1. First off about two weeks ago I can no longer get my game recaps or stats to upload.
2. None of the other guys in my OD can either and thus none of us can see the game recaps or stats on the OD siteMy game recaps are still uploading, but otherwise it looks like this problem is back. For the Powerhouse OD, in Year 6, the Weekly Update for Week 3 is not displaying on my Dynasty Wire or in-game. The last two stories, according to Dynasty Wire, are my game recaps for Week 2 and Week 3, neither of which show up in-game.