作者彙整: Matthew Kato

College football fans are still waiting for the mess between the NCAA and athletes regarding compensation to resolve itself so companies like EA Sports can get back to putting out video games.

In the meantime, modders have taken matters into their own hands using the PC version of Madden NFL 19 to wedge the college game into the NFL title the best they can. One of the latest, called College Football Mod 19 (CFBM19), replaces the NFL’s 32 teams in Play Now mode with the pre-season top 25 college teams (plus seven others) and also includes rosters and some college-only rules.

I recently played the mod, and found it an easy – albeit limited – way to experience the college game.

Installing the PC mod (via the Operation Sports forums) is simple. One of its creators, TheBleedingRed21, has easy-to-follow instructions in both video and text form for downloading and installing the mod. There is also a roster file (with one update already out) of real-life players as well as an optional file of custom gameplay settings. Other small things to note: The mod only uses DX11, and it’s launched through the Frosty Mod Manager (which you install through the instructions above), not Origin.

Once installed, arguably the most compelling feature of the mod, other than the ability to play with the teams themselves, is the uniforms. Teams like Oregon and Clemson have alternate uniform options (all the mods uniforms are from the 2018 season) that include different helmets and there are even conference patches. Teams don’t have the bloated college rosters, but they do have the real player names and an attempt at player likenesses. 

The mod also tries to deliver some of the college-only aspects of gameplay that set it apart from the NFL. Fields’ hashmarks are set wider than in the pro game (affecting playcalling and field-goal attempts), the clock stops after a first down, and catches only require one foot to be inbounds.

The mod includes University of Central Florida’s Space Game unis.

The game itself isn’t fully moddable, so the changes only go so far. The mod covers Play Now and practice modes, and is not intended for Franchise or the online modes, and does not include the college overtime format. Presentation-wise, there are some college team-branded overlays, but the commentary is unchanged, the stadiums are vague approximations at best, and coaches roam the sidelines in team gear but are the same models as in the regular NFL game.

There are plans for a similar mod for Madden 20 that should hopefully be out sooner in the game’s lifecycle than this one was for Madden 19, but that all depends on how much of the code the makers can access in the new game.

It’s limited, but the CFBM19 mod shows that fans’ appetite for the college game has not diminished one bit, it’s just getting more inventive.

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Last year, Out of the Park Baseball added a free fantasy-based card mode called Perfect Team to its simulation offerings, and not only has the mode taken off, but it’s just the start. Out of the Park Developments has added collection missions, and tournaments are planned before the end of the year.

I talked to OTTP community manager Kris Jardine and chief marketing officer Rich Grisham about how fans are finding ways to win in the mode, and what’s next for the mode and the company.

Where any changes made going from Perfect Team in OOTP 19 to 20?
Kris Jardine: We took a lot of the feedback that we got in that initial Perfect Team 19 in terms of player ratings and in-game strategies, and we were able to make some improvements in that regard. So we were able to tinker the way that players were rated, especially in terms of older historical players and trying to use their defensive ratings in a way that more reflected how the game was played at that time. And just some general changes to the way that the A.I. operates. And we introduced the opener/follower scenario that has kind of taken the baseball world by storm.

Have you seen any particular strategy or lineup that you were amused by or thought, “That’s a pretty novel strategy – I hadn’t thought of that”?
Jardine: I’m always impressed by teams built completely on speed. I’ve seen teams that they will amass 600-700 stolen bases over the course of a 162-game season and make it work. Me, when I think baseball I think, “Okay, I want someone who hits for a good average, who can hit with some pop, plays acceptable defense…” Then you see these guys like, “No, I’m going to try to Billy Hamilton, Rickey Henderson, and Lou Brock, and I don’t care if they drop 1,000 fly balls or hit .110.” I just don’t conceivably understand how that could be successful. But I’ve seen people do it, and I’ve seen them make it work. It’s definitely not for me, but it is one that I always look at and am like, “How does that equate to 105 wins?”

Is there any particular meta players are using in Perfect Team you’ve had to adjust to?
Jardine: There’s always going to be a meta. Me personally, I don’t really like the term “meta” in the way a lot of people use it. Sure, I get it, you know, there’s always a funnel-based way to win, right? There’s only so many teams that can win, and it’s all the teams that get to the bottom of the funnel first, and sometimes there’s more effective ways to get there.

If you had to say what the meta of Perfect Team has been, I would generally say it tends to be toward starting pitching. If you look over the course of the history of baseball, I think you would probably say that more often than not elite starting pitching in real life wins out versus elite hitting. There are plenty of examples of that over the course of history, especially in some of the pitcher-dominated eras like the mid- to late-’60s. You see that from time to time in Perfect Team, especially when you get to the upper tiers where you see people trotting out some of the Walter Johnson cards, some of the Pedro Martínez cards…. There’s a peak Curt Schilling card out there, which is “God Tier” here in the community….

We haven’t done anything to combat that – that’s baseball. We provide the cards – how people choose to assemble their teams to win is totally up to them. We haven’t made any sort of groundbreaking changes since 20 has come out to change how the A.I. operates, to buff hitting in any way. We just let it naturally flow through the course of baseball. And yeah, if that’s how people choose to build their teams, going elite starting pitching first, so be it. It’s up to the other 29 teams in your Perfect Team league to figure out how to beat you.

Is the mobile version of the game you’re working on – OTTP Go – tied directly to your PC-based Perfect Team? Or is it a mobile version of the regular OOTP sim game?
Rich Grisham: It’s yes to both. We are building OTTP Go from the ground up…so you’ll be able to play Out of the Park Baseball in a traditional way, and you’ll also be able to play and participate in Perfect Team. So [it has] the Auction House, ripping packs, managing your team, checking the scores, and all of that stuff.

So to clarify, will you use your existing Perfect Team save in OTTP Go?
Grisham: The Perfect Team will be completely the same, so it’ll be your Perfect Team whether you’re on your PC or whether you’re on your mobile device. There is a plan for the traditional Out of the Park experience to also be you know – basically, call it cross-platform play. That’s the plan and the goal, and it just comes down to can we execute that in time for the release? Or will that be post-release?

Can you give any more details about the tournaments scheduled for Perfect Team by the end of the year? Will they be user-generated, what’s the format, etc.?
Jardine: Initially the plan is that people will be able to participate in three tournaments at a time. The tournaments are going to be all generated by us through the servers [Kris says user-created tournaments are on the wishlist – Ed.], and they are going to cover an absolute wide variety of potential possibilities. So, for example, we may have a tournament where you can only use all bronze-level cards limited to 32 teams, double elimination. We may have another tournament that is completely open – no roster restrictions, the first 64 teams that get in there and fill it up, single-elimination, and away you go. We may have a giant 256-team, Diamond and Perfect card-only tournament. The possibilities are really endless. 

If we start ignoring the traditional franchise mode and pivot toward this Perfect Team-only focus, we will lose everything that got us here.” – Rich Grisham, Out of the Park Developments CMO

Are there any third-party database websites to track players and auction house data, and do you have to okay that first?
Jardine: Is there a point where we’re going to have the API available and allow third-parties to make you a FUTbin, or a MUThead, or a Daddy Leagues sort of site that can aggregate auction house information, identify trends, and help people build a database of cards? That’s not for me to decide. I think it would make a lot of people very happy. I think it’s something that we have had discussions about and will continue to have in the future. Ultimately, if it happens it’s because we as a team have decided that this is the best method for us to grow the game for the community.

What do you say to fans who worry that because Perfect Team makes money for the series, OOTP’s focus is going to skew in that direction to the detriment of the other modes?
Grisham: I say two things. Number one, don’t worry about that. Number two, don’t listen to me say, “Don’t worry about it.” Just watch what we make. We let Out of the Park Baseball speak for itself. We’re going to continue to make the core game better, we’re going to introduce new things. Baseball’s changing at such a rapid pace. The three true outcomes, launch angles, exit velocities, openers/closers…We cannot ignore that because that’s when we will lose fans. If we start ignoring the traditional franchise mode and pivot toward this Perfect Team-only focus, we will lose everything that got us here.

Has anyone done any of the really hard collection missions yet?
Jardine: There’s two collection missions I could think of right off the top of my head without having the game open in front of me that are particularly difficult. One is we have what I like to call tiered missions. So basically, we have a Chicago White Sox collection of missions, that in order to receive the very top reward, which is a perfect Ed Walsh – a great Chicago White Sox pitcher way, way back in the day – you have to complete a subset of five other collection missions collecting all kinds of players from different eras of the Chicago White Sox. It is incredibly difficult to do, and a lot of those cards are incredibly rare and incredibly expensive. But we have seen it done a few times. That is one that a lot of people on the channels I monitor are really, really psyched and really pushing toward and hoping to someday complete the Ed Walsh collection.

The other mission that has been incredibly tough and time-consuming is we have a subset of missions of collecting all the World Series champion cards for every year of the 1980s. Then you can turn that in for a World Series champions of the ‘80s mission. The last time I had checked, which this is probably four or five days ago, that mission had yet to be completed. When we launched, we had 119 missions. Within about six or seven hours we had some people who had completed upwards of 90 of them, like right off the bat. But yeah, we still have a couple of those outliers that are not completed yet. I expect because we plan on supporting collections with content as well – we do plan on releasing periodical updates with new collections into the game – that we will be introducing some pretty tough ones. Kind of in that same vein as the White Sox. We plan on doing that for all the teams as well.

Do you plan to backfill players’ pictures for cards already out that don’t have them?
Grisham: Never say never. It’s certainly something that we would love to have, and plenty of our community would love to have, but it’s not something that we have on our short-term roadmap.

What are your thoughts on the different legislation against loot boxes being formulated right now worldwide?
Grisham: Certainly, if post-sale monetization becomes illegal, then that would definitely be a bummer. But, you know, if that happens, it happens. We’re still gonna make Out of the Park Baseball, right? That’s what we do. We’re certainly monitoring it, but we’re not ready to start running around flailing with our hands up in the air. Because, again, I think our community knows what we’re about. We’re open, we’re honest, and we respect our fans and our players. We’re not out to get them. There’s this attitude that I think in some parts of the world that companies are out to get people. We’re not out to get anybody.

Out of the Park Baseball 20 is on sale for 50 percent off until July 9. 

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I was surprised when the first thing EA Sports and developer EA Canada announced for FIFA 20 was the Volta small-side soccer mode, a more casual offering akin to the old FIFA Street series back in the day. Is this a good decision for the franchise? 

Perhaps there is no reason to be worried when Volta could be a fun experience different from the ones we’ve been having year after year. The mode’s resemblance to FIFA Street alone excites some fans, and I don’t begrudge them. But in the larger context of where the franchise is at and what it needs to do to move forward, adding another mode seems like a distraction from addressing existing gameplay problems and long-standing modes that have been left idle.

The announcement of Volta is just the beginning of what’s advertised for FIFA 20, as the developer has planned reveals for gameplay, Pro Clubs, Career mode, and Ultimate Team on the docket through the summer. Can EA Canada fight and win on multiple fronts and bring everything together? Most years the developer advertises changes in a variety of areas, but these don’t always make the necessary difference.

Some of the gameplay intrinsic to Volta, namely the one-on-one encounters, should benefit 11v11 football. However, small-side football is different in its speed, balancing, the player attributes it emphasizes, and how the A.I. reacts to your movements (including accounting for the ball going off walls). The gameplay shared between the two types of soccer only goes so far.

Volta is EA’s latest attempt at trying to capture the casual audience. The small team sizes of the mode may help in this attempt, but this niche brand of soccer is a far cry from what it is that casuals likely already identify with – the superstar players and the established team and league licenses they see on their TVs every weekend. Perhaps expanding the player-focused option in the Career mode could do this (like NBA 2K already does) in a way that Volta does not. Or maybe investing more into the Champions League experience.

Ultimately, I’m not sure EA or anyone really knows what it is that will hook casuals in. Wasn’t The Journey story mode supposed to do that? That’s gone now, and even the old FIFA Street series tried a comeback back in 2012 that didn’t stick. This was after the EA Sports Big label was retired and morphed into the short-lived EA Sports Freestyle in 2008. Has gamers’ appetites for this kind of take on the sport changed since then? How far will EA go down this road before it’s dropped as well?

Volta might get paid content after launch, so maybe that’s what this is really about. The NBA 2K series has microtransactions all over its many modes, and with loot boxes, “surprise mechanics,” or whatever you want to call them under siege all over the world, perhaps EA is positioning itself for life after Ultimate Team.

I didn’t get a chance to play Volta at EA Play, so I’ll have to wait and see what I really think about the mode. Until then, I’m certainly interested in how other areas of FIFA 20 shape up over the summer. But as it stands, Volta seems like a separate game, and it could lead to the kind of fixture congestion that fatigues the squad.

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