Quote Originally Posted by Roy38 View Post
One more item I'd like to address, which I'm sure won't set well with everyone involved with the Game Changers program and Community Days events, but it would appear EA has "bought" another avenue to market the products as well as displace the dissatisfaction with said products. When I say "bought", I'm referring to your travel, food, hotel commendations, swag (free game, clothing, pens, toilet paper, etc. where applicable), and I would assume some form of pay for missed work time, whether through actual payment, advertising, etc. In essence, you could be viewed as an EA employee.
Allow me to correct the later part of your statement. There is no direct exchange of money between EA SPORTS and people who attend Community Events. Travel is covered, hospitality is covered, but nobody gets paid to offset the time they missed at work. If a person goes to the event and doesn't have the paid time off or vacation time, then they lose whatever money they would have made at their employment for that time. For some people, a free video game and compensated travel expenses don't begin to touch the money they lose from not being on the clock.

I know that getting anything covered could essentially be construed as payment, believe me; I've heard the argument often enough. But we're also far from being employees at EA, if only because of our limited involvement in the development cycle.

It's not as though EA is the only company to hold community events, either. For some reason, these events and the people who attend them just seem to be placed under more scrutiny than those other companies.

Now before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, think about it for a second. When things turn for the worse, and I think we can all agree that NCAA '12 has, where are people going to complain? Sure, they could call, write, e-mail EA, go to their forums and express their anger, hit up their social media outlets such as Facebook or Twitter, go to certain extremes that don't need to be rehashed, etc., but it appears no one is listening.
To be fair, EA SPORTS has advertised email addresses specifically meant for people to send in feedback and any issues they are seeing with the game through their social media accounts. Anybody following those outlets would have that information available to them if they wanted to contact the development team directly. I know that the game's executive producer reads every single email that comes to that account.

However, the people involved with Game Changers and Community Days , which have have a direct connection to the developers because, after all, EA is "listening" to your suggestions and recommendations towards the design, focus, implementation, etc. towards the game, are more readily available and a perceived "mouthpiece" for their product. Look at our conversation as an example of this. I feel like these programs are simply marketing ploys by EA Sports to get people to think they are listening to them - and even more so after Title Update #1 and #2.
When we consider how many people frequent forums instead of emailing EA directly, it kind of just happens. People here--and some people away from here--know that The Gaming Tailgate's forums have a number of people who attended community events this year. The same is true for other websites owned and maintained by Game Changers and community attendees. If a person unhappy with the game doesn't think EA is going to listen to them, why wouldn't they come here and see if calling out to one of us might get them a better result? Whether that is actually true or not ends up not meaning much once somebody gets the belief in mind that trying to reach out to any official outlet at EA won't be fruitful for them.

I would prefer that people try to get in touch with the developers through the direct lines they have in place, but I also appreciate that--when I joined the Game Changers program--I would be seen as somebody in the community who might be granted more access than the average consumer. Again, if I thought that my time was being abused because I'm serving as an "unpaid intermediary" for the program, I wouldn't be in this position.

I find it absolutely absurd when Ben closes his blog on the second patch by stating, "I trust you will find that it has been well worth the wait." That implies his product is fixed - even beyond our expectations. When that truth has been revealed to be a blatant lie, they go silent...and this is where damage control (you guys), the neutral voice, comes in to deflect some of the anger from their company. I would look very carefully at your relationship with EA and what exactly that relationship brings to the table.
Again, the lines of communication were established by the company through the feedback email address. I don't feel at all like I've been here at the forums trying to say that Patch #1 or Patch #2 fixed everything that is still problematic with the game, and I don't feel like I've been intentionally deflecting anger from the company; though some people seem to take their excess anger out on us--people who gave feedback and had no direct hand in the creation of the game code--in addition to the development team at times.

When I joined the Game Changers program, I knew how polarizing EA SPORTS can be to people; there are people who love the company and the games, and an equal--probably greater--number who are on the opposite end of the spectrum. But having the opportunity to see inside the development process and provide feedback for the games has made it worthwhile for me.

I don't expect you to be in agreement with me about the various topics you've broached, but I hope that getting this perspective helps your understanding of the program and why somebody would put themselves into it.