This year it’s been very much a case of increasing those simulation aspects that allow the manager AI to do stuff to you in an unpredictable way - so sometimes the team will come in for your star player well under his valuation and then increase it. Sometimes they’ll come in with a massive offer, which you’ll accept, and they won’t have the money to follow through on the deal. Things that might happen in the real world of football can now happen in
FIFA 12.
Not absolutely everything, obviously, but many of the more familiar situations - a player can get upset and want to leave because he’s not getting enough football or doesn’t feel like the club’s going anywhere or isn’t getting enough money for example.
You can deal with those problems, or you can ignore it. It’s up to you, and eventually the press will get a hold of it and start talking about it too. There’s some very interesting parallels to some of the things that have happened in real world football. It adds a lot of variety and authenticity to the game.
SPOnG: How much of the changes you made was a result of fan feedback?
David Rutter: A lot of it, for sure. As a result of the feedback we had, we changed a lot of things. The player grade system got a lot of attention, and we wanted to make sure it works well based on player potential and how players grow. For instance, younger players now grow faster, but as they get older their skills will get worse and they will regress.
We’ve done a big youth academy scouting system this year, with the ability to send scouts out to the far reaches of the planet to find talent.
They may come back and tell you vague information about players in a similar fashion to a ‘fog of war,’ where you won’t know exactly how good they are until you continue to scout them for more details. But the risk there is that the longer a player is scouted, the more chance that he’ll be looked at by a rival club as well.
That thread of ‘risk and reward’ runs throughout the entire game, so the thought of a player coming back from an injury throws up the dilemma of whether you want to put them on the pitch right away or not. He might be okay and turn the game around, or he might get re-injured.
SPOnG: Are you guys worried that you might veer too close to something like Football Manager with the interface and nature of the Career Mode?
David Rutter: I think I’d be very happy if we veered close enough to Football Manager! I think that game is fantastic, but I think it services a lot of dedication and hardcore spirit that we’re quite some way away from yet. We are catering simply to the people who play FIFA a lot, and want that kind of twitch experience with the bonus of a comprehensive management experience on the side.
SPOnG: Could you explain the idea behind the EA Sports Football Club a bit more and how it integrates between each and every title? I was at the E3 conference and noticed how it would even sync with your FIFA iPhone apps.
David Rutter: I think some parts of that are future-looking, so we’re kicking off with
FIFA 12 on console and PC for the service right now. You will create your new profile, and everything that you do in that world of FIFA forever onwards will be tracked.
FIFA 12 on 360,
FIFA 13 on 360,
FIFA 14... the idea being that I start my profile and start playing the game, my friends are playing it too.
I have this competitive, socially engaging mechanic where I earn XP based on what I do in the game. They’re also earning XP in the same way, and we’re levelling up in competition with each other. There’s a certain amount of bragging rights in that - who’s playing the most FIFA, who’s the most skilled player, that sort of thing. As well as extending that out into the real world - who’s the best
FIFA player in the world.
