EA bashing has started to become an "issue" only after it was pretty clear that the game was not going to look good. The lack of significant changes and a graphic that looks even worse than last year lighted up the fire.
A good company should be customer centric. If I am a project manager, I do listen more carefully to negative comments than to appreciations. Those are what pushes me to do better.
Last year EA brought in-house some guys from a forum (either this forum or nbalive.org...I can't remember). That was a nice idea and a good way to connect to your customer base. This year they haven't.
After reading the Q&A with developers, I felt they didn't have that much to say, simply because there wasn't enough new stuff to talk about. After the first few answers, the rest was a list of "NO".
Luckly, we have competitors that do put more efforts in the game development. Since this community is made mostly of PC users, most of you cannot appreciate other games. But this, in my opinion, has caused blindness to some of you.
Basketball videogames out there are already better than LIVE and look more authentic.
Not only NBA LIVE looks bad compared to those, but it looks bad also compared to other non-basketball videogames that are currently released on current consoles. The graphic and the phisyc can be a lot better on Xbox that they are in NBA LIVE. I just think EA is stucked to an old way of developing a videogame, the same way they have used since 1995. But times and technology have changed a lot, and so users' expectations.
I have paid EA a lot of money in my last 10 years, and I do have the right to complain. My money needs something in return, and simply they are not delevering it. If EA didnt have a rock-solid fans' base as unfortunetly they do, probably we would see more efforts. This is an example of what I am talking about:
How about I'm convinced, but not impressed?
I mean, I'm going to buy the game since I've been a fan for ages, but I'm not impressed at all.
That from another topic: http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic27829.php
I hope sales will turn down this year,just to send a message that some words in a forum can't send. But money can speak very loudly, so let's hope it will.