The EA defense conspiracy theory

The defense for this year's version improved a lot, but I'm suspecting that it might be an illusion. Here are my reasons why:

- The passing is slow, which allows the defense to recover quickly
- The recovery time after catching a pass is slow, which allows the defense to recover quickly
- The CPU is faster than the human controlled player, which allows the defense to get to his man quickly (including, and especially on fastbreaks)
- The incredible strength of the CPU, which can stop you from driving and even push you out of bounds
- The slow dribbling, where blowing by your man does not happen often
- The high number of blocks

So instead of actually improving defense with more defensive help from other teammates (not necessarily double teaming), smarter defensive rotation, and a true collision mechanism and contested shots mechanism, EA creates the illusion of good defense by hindering the skills of the offensive team, and slowing down gameflow.

It's hard to design a game with good defense. It's much easier to design problems with offense.

It's hard to design a game with good defense. It's much easier to design problems with offense.

That's true, you have a good point there.

I just wish that rather than sacrifice gameplay for a "realistic" defense, more work should be put on defense to create better gameplay. I don't want next year's NBA Live's poor offensive capabilities to repeat itself just to make the defense look good.

hmm.... I think it's fine. Maybe you're right, but nonetheless, it gives a realistic game. If they do decide to make more realistic defense and offense, I hope they don't end up wrecking the game as it is now. Maybe when they do change it, we might not even recognise it, as the gameplay is still the same.

The defense for this year's version improved a lot, but I'm suspecting that it might be an illusion. Here are my reasons why:

- The passing is slow, which allows the defense to recover quickly
- The recovery time after catching a pass is slow, which allows the defense to recover quickly
- The CPU is faster than the human controlled player, which allows the defense to get to his man quickly (including, and especially on fastbreaks)
- The incredible strength of the CPU, which can stop you from driving and even push you out of bounds
- The slow dribbling, where blowing by your man does not happen often
- The high number of blocks

So instead of actually improving defense with more defensive help from other teammates (not necessarily double teaming), smarter defensive rotation, and a true collision mechanism and contested shots mechanism, EA creates the illusion of good defense by hindering the skills of the offensive team, and slowing down gameflow.

You post this like you're surprised. This is EA we're talking bout. That's what they always do. When they can't fix something they work around it. They find another way to do it. They patch problems rather than fix em. Just like on Madden.

But as long as it appears to play right I guess its cool sometimes.

[quote="Sonic98]
You post this like you're surprised. This is EA we're talking bout. That's what they always do. When they can't fix something they work around it. They find another way to do it. They patch problems rather than fix em. Just like on Madden.

But as long as it appears to play right I guess its cool sometimes.[/quote]

That's my gripe. That because I feel it doesn't appear to play right, so that EA should fix it instead of compensate something to create an illusion to "fool" people. Really, I wish they ditched the All Star Weekend to work harder on making the gameplay better, especially since 2004 made 2005 look so promising.

I agree with all of the points made in the first two posts. You'd have to not be paying much attention to not notice if you play a decent number of games. I was thinking of making a thread like this, in fact.

yeah i really wish they could have worked on something else other than the all star weekend. its a big thing in this years game and it is pretty sweet. but it makes you wonder how much they could have improved the overall gameplay. if all star weekend never came to be in this years version we wouldnt miss it,now that its in you cant just remove it.

yeah i really wish they could have worked on something else other than the all star weekend. its a big thing in this years game and it is pretty sweet. but it makes you wonder how much they could have improved the overall gameplay. if all star weekend never came to be in this years version we wouldnt miss it,now that its in you cant just remove it.

hmmm... i think the allstar weekend gameplay is probably just a modified version of 2004 gameplay

Actually... I think this is all part of a bigger conspiracy. EA have probably got a perfect NBA Live game stashed at HQ somewhere, but they won't release it, because once they do, no one will buy the versions that come out after that, since it is already real and perfect. So instead, they put some inperfections and bugs in each Live game, just enough to be frustrating, but not enough to be unplayable, then they "fix" the problem for the next years version, and the cycle continues.

I doubt EA has a perfect game stashed away someplace. I program computers for a living, so I really appreciate how much work it took them to get NBA Live to exist at all. I'm grateful to them for a game this good.

I agree that defense continues to be a problem. Like everyone else I've done a lot of tweaking of sliders. Until they give us more improvements I think the most important thing is to tweak heavily to match your skill level and taste.

For example, I originally tried slowing the speed down, but that made the game too sluggish. I've had better success with dramatically lowering shooting percentages. I can get realistic scores with 12 minute quarters on All-Star. The other stats have some realism problems, but the game feels fast enough and realistic enough to be fun. And fun trumps all.

I doubt EA has a perfect game stashed away someplace. I program computers for a living, so I really appreciate how much work it took them to get NBA Live to exist at all. I'm grateful to them for a game this good.

OTOH, it makes it easier to detect where they are "cheating", doesn't it? (does for me)

I'm not grateful... they're a huge company making tons of money with this game! I can empathize with the guys doing the coding, though.