The problem with this game ... is you? - Why you ruin this game

[Xaor]

This will be the last of the trilogy, the first two are here:

Regarding assists (Why the assists MUST go - Why they mar a great game), and regarding the pressure (Why the pressure buttons must go - Why they mar a great game).

The previous two topics linked above focused on much more specific areas of the game than this one will. This thread will be focused on a vaguer, larger, more complicated and deeper problem which is not only part of the game, but part of the community. This thread is about mentality. Now, as you may have guessed, I'm not talking about the left/right on the d-pad mentality - I'm talking about the mentality of people who play FIFA.

This topic will be ridiculously long, for a number of reasons - primarily because there is a huge amount to talk about, which makes it pretty difficult to structure, but I've done my best. I would obviously prefer if people did read the entire thing before replying, but I will not be surprised if that does not turn out to be the case - just remember that in not reading the entire thing you will open yourself up to attack if you attack what I have written. I would not be surprised if this is the longest topic ever written so I apologise for my lack of conciseness.

As disclaimer, I am not blaming you. You may be blameless - but I am blaming some parts, large parts of the FIFA community. Even though this is going to be as much an attack on these people as anything, the problem at the end of the day rests with EA, and they are the ones who need to shoulder the burden for this quite epic problem.

So without further ado - what do I mean? What do I mean by the mentality of this community being a problem? Well, I think a lot of you already know. That's part of the problem. It's so wide spread that, a lot of you know what I'm going to say before I say it. It's so blatant that as soon as you step into the online arena, you can already feel it beating down on you. I mean this statement very seriously - playing FIFA online at times could honestly make the most optimistic man lose all faith in humanity. Well... maybe not that seriously... but you get my point. There is something ever-so depressing about the attitude of the people who play this game.

The uncontrolled aggression, the absolutely unstoppable hunger for recognition and achievement. The constant fighting for that extra goal at any cost to themselves, or anyone else, or the game. The constant selfishness, arrogance, and unbelievable petulance which can only really be found in one place - on FIFA's online.

Nothing makes me want to go on a rampage more than attempting to play a game of "Pro Ranked Match" (which for those who aren't online players, is the 10v10 mode where you use your respective virtual pros). Instantaneously, you are bludgeoned in the face with it. You go in. The two teams are likely Spain and Inter Milan. Imbeciles jump between the teams as if it is going to make any difference (it won't). If one team suddenly changes to Aldershot, huge swathes of users will bounce across to Inter Milan... and that's just the very tip of the iceberg. You get past that screen and it's a disgusting, pathetic, illthought out mess as every 12 year old in the country runs towards their favourite position which, naturally is striker. Some, fantastically, will decide that if they don't get their position they will sit there, sulking until someone gets bored and gives in, or simply leaves. This too, is the tip of the iceberg, or maybe it's the tip of the tip of the iceburg - because things are only going to get worse. You enter the game, no doubt seeing that half the players are either the mini-Speedy-Gonzalez styled players, or the gigantic BFG clichees. This visual indicator does at least allow you to know who is worth passing to, and not worth passing to. Time and time again from my center midfield position I pass the ball out giving us great chances for attack but, alas, everytime Jimmykoolaiddude192 decides that it's a much better idea if he tries to go it alone, gets stuck, having isolated himself... and gets tackled, ruining another out of many attacks for your team. This is one of thousands of examples which are the recurrent norm for FIFA 10's OTP variants.

The problems are well known, well documented, and, let's be honest - all over the damned place. Lists the size of the Bible are being created detailing the bugs of this game, and rightly, it's not good enough. So what's the point of the story? To give a real example of just how broken this game is. This game can play well, I've said that many times. When you play on less-assisted settings, with players who won't abuse the pressure, or anything else, the game takes on an almost unrecognisable form... nothing like FIFA.. but more like football. Beautiful, reasonably paced, methodical. A game which rewards creativity over repetition. Tactics over exploits.

This game is fine... if you want it to be. They've got all the elements there to allow a really realistic, and quite fantastic game of football to be played. It's not perfect, but, when played right, this game isn't just the best football simulation ever made, it's that by an ABSOLUTE mile. But FIFA... the actual FIFA... what you get whenever you step online... is generally horrendous. The exploits are endless, the cheating is endless... and there is a serious lack of real football. There is no thought out tactical play it's just people doing what works over, and over again until it does. It makes for a highly frustrating game - and I know that, probably the majority of people on this forum are really, really annoyed with the online this year.. and rightly. Frankly, if you aren't - you don't care for realistic football.

I'm not saying it's worse than FIFA 09 - it's not - it's better... but it's still far, far too bad. Without the manual filter this year, I'd be absolutely infuriated with my purchase. The problem is that EA underestimates the severity of the problem if they even consider it a problem. To get this game to not be utterly broken online they are going to have to fight, tooth and nail, inch by bloody inch, dragging the scum in this game kicking and screaming. People won't play realistic football until realistic football is THE way to win. People won't play realistic football until the cheat ways of winning aren't better. Over the last few days I came to a realisation about what breaks FIFA. What breaks FIFA is overloading. What breaks FIFA is when you take one mechanic to the extreme and use it to its extreme.

The example are endless, so I'll reel off a few

1. Super tall players on Clubs
2. Super strong players
3. Super fast players (FIFA 09)
4. Huge amounts of pressure
5. Incredible frequency and pace of passing
6. Bulldozing - Running multiple people close to each other with the ball to regain control*
7. Putting lots of players in a very small space on set pieces to near guarantee headers
8. Players with very high shot power

* Where club teams will run all incredibly close to each other - with one player followed by more players. This means that when the player gets tackled one of the next players will snap up the ball when it comes loose (and it will come loose - defenders have absolutely no control over the ball when they tackle it and they seem to have no intelligence to prevent them pushing it the wrong way)

I can go on, and there are probably as many again, but these are the most prominent ones. They all have something in common - they are all ONE thing being exploited in ONE way. They are all extremities. I mean, realistically, how much would this game be improved if we just shaved off these extremities? If we put a more reasonable cap on height ~6' 4". If strong players were just taken down a few notches. If you couldn't constantly apply pressure without consequence. If the shot power on the top few players was rationalised a little - or perhaps shots of that power were made far, far more inaccurate. Of course, one great example of where the extremities have been shaved off is the speed. Fast players on FIFA 10 are massively nerfed, perhaps even too much... Other than the glitches (of which I am now positive there is an absolutely HUGE one regarding the goalkeepers ability to deal with looped balls over their head almost regardless of their positioning)... this is pretty much it. All the real problems in the gameplay occur for one reason - overload. The problem is - and what EA really need to understand, is that you have no choice.

If FIFA is to really improve, and I mean REALLY improve, EA are going to have to be brutal. They are going to have to irritate a HUGE, HUGE number of people. They are going to have to have balls of steel and REAL confidence in what they are doing. Because people will hate it. You can see in the assists thread just how incredibly stagnant people are - how unbelievably attached they are to some of the most broken mechanics in FIFA. How they will tell some of the most hilarious lies to defend the systems which hurt this game. Until EA do this, every step forward is going to be inundated and drowned by the same recurring problems which have been driving us mad for many, many years. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, the cycle has to be broken. It should be done now, and it should be done hard. For many, many years we have had to put up with various games from both EA and Konami which fail to deliver an online experience which both is fair, and resembles the beautiful game.I fear that if EA continue to try to innovate in the gameplay, they will continue to throw the balance around, whilst failing to solve the initial problems. It would be worth this year focusing on fixing the problems rather than adding things in... because it has to be done. I assure you EA, what us, the consumers want more than anything else is to have a game which is playable for a long period of time without making us want to tear people's finger nails out.

I know many, many people who don't play online. The reason they don't play online isn't because they don't want to - but because the online is so utterly horrible. It's so devastatingly irritating to play. To play a game where the currency is cheating. Exploitation. Anti-football... and when they DO play online in the closed circumstances where FIFA plays like football - they love it - because FIFA can be a great game if all players consent to wanting it to be a good game.

Many people will say in reply to this topic, as they have in reply to previous topics and posts I and other have made, that people pay for this game and therefore they can do whatever they want. I take offence at this idea. As soon as you go online - you forfeit the right to 'just do what you want'. It's no longer OK for you to use glitches, or to exploit, or to cheat - because by doing this you ARE ruining the game for other people... and this is my message for the majority of FIFA online players: you ARE ruining the game for people. Through your selfishness, your obscene sense of entitlement, and amoral style of play, you ruin people's game. So well done. Well done.

Can you change the way people play? Yes. You can't change WHAT they want, but you can affect how they get what they want. EA need to make the BEST way, the most effective way to play the realistic way. They need to make all of the cheats ineffective one way or another, all of the exploits sorted, balanced, and so forth. There is no point in improving the game until they get past this. The difference between FIFA 09 played like football and FIFA 10 played like football is inordinate.. but when you step online all those differences and improvements become absolutely irrelevant.

EA don't get it. EA have a lack of.. guts.. a lack of balls to pull the rug from under the feet of the people who take this game hostage. That's what they do. People take this game hostage and ruin it for everyone else. Lots of online games have this and the reason is because they don't have the guts to make the radical changes which are necessary. So that's what you need to do EA. You need to employ someone highly competent, ruthless, and entirely devoted to making sure that we get an online game which doesn't frustrate people who like football. For this to happen, I fundamentally believe on every level that we need:

1. To see a HUGE change in the control settings system, whether it's an entire rebuild or a massive balance
2. To see almost TOTAL changes in defence
3. To see an almost entire eradication of bugs and flaws

and once, and ONLY once you've achieved that is there ANY point of concentrating on ANYTHING else whatsoever. This game is too pathetic, that's what it all smacks of. It smacks of a lack of guts, a completely pathetic attitude to dealing with the real problem with this game. Stuff like the completely ridiculous system with the penalties in the area.

Another AWESOMELY flawed system is the rating system on Be a Pro. Possibly the stupidest system I've ever seen in my life. Currently it's so flawed that the game would improve if it were removed. Defenders CANNOT get good ratings on average. Midfielders get a hard deal. Strikers seem to barely be fallible. As a midfielder, I take my team's corners, reasonably. If we take a corner, and I put it perfectly... but my friend fails to jostle and head, I get a -pass. That's the tip of the iceburg though, because after that I get numerous -positions/-defence when I run back from the furthest extreme of the pitch. What really smacks of EA's total lack of care for football though is the lack of any boost when you intercept a ball. I made a really great sliding interception - what did I get? You got it. I got nothing at all. In a game which should have a LOT of interceptions in (it doesn't because of the assists)... it doesn't even recognise it when you do make one. All these little things affect the way people think about the game. People want to do well, and thus they will play in a way which improves their rating, rather than increasing their teams chance of winning. Realistically, what need, ONLINE, is there for a rating system like this? Forget the fact that it is one of the most flawed calculations imaginable... why is it necessary? Clubs, OTP, and Pro Ranked Match are all about winning and the ABSOLUTE best way to make people want to win is to give them no arbitrary goals whatsoever. Take away all arbitrary incentives, so that the only remaining goals are the true ones of football - enjoying, winning, and being successful in the rankings.

But isn't that the whole point of FIFA 10? Is that not exactly what it is? A damning indictment of EA's failures to understand football. A defensive system so flawed that you have no control over when to tackle and therefore whether you foul, or not. A system where you can pressure so much, so fast, so telepathically, and so automatically that it forces a passing game which can only be possible with yet another foundational flaw of the game in the poorly built, poorly balanced assist system. A game where there are exploits everywhere - where goalkeepers can't be bothered to stay on their lines nor abide by their orders when told to retreat. A game where goalkeepers seem to be incapable of catching balls which drop from certain heights. A game where freekicks are scorable left right and center once you have the method right. A game where in Be A Pro, any exploits in the normal gameplay are exponentially worse, where EA ridiculously allowed players to make themselves giants, or Speedy-Gonzales, and yet, the only defence you get are a load of bumbling defenders who can't tackle for their life - defenders who barely manage to be average human height let alone average center-back height, and goalkeepers who can't even reach their own bar. A game where the default view for Be a Pro is one which allows you to pass forward, but not see backwards or to the sides.

EA needs to get some balls. Full stop.

There will be additions to both Part 1 (regarding some more radical possible solutions), and Part 2 (regarding the flaws in defence as a whole) in the near future

[ccaston13]

Wow.

[xWinnerxWisherx]

One of the biggest fanboys on this forums defo.

[jayson16]

I think this guy has put the fifa series into context there like...

[smeltzerinho]

my eyes, my beautiful eyes

[XOlieOgdenX]

There will always be something t exploit, if you remove every problem, people will work out how to abuse the system once again, as for the Pro Cam, im pretty sure you can change that yourself....

[xx_MESSI_xx1993]

Ermm ok.

[EnglishSnake]

i agree with the BAP mode n i dont play online cept for clubs which is flawed

[seanflannery]

I can't be [Removed] to read about 10-Word pages of info

[The Metal Moth]

Ok.. well Im all for being passionate...

However...

Sunlight maybe?

[Northzzz]

a) i read it
B) lalalala off to everyone who says HO HO HO NAH I ENT READING DAT CUZ IT'S WEL 2 LONG

I think he makes a good point although inevitably will be dismissed with around 70% of people as they don't think forward progression is necessary if they can win easily online (which is most likely on assisted with 5 star teams)

[The Metal Moth]

Originally Posted by Northzzz

a) i read it
B) lalalala off to everyone who says HO HO HO NAH I ENT READING DAT CUZ IT'S WEL 2 LONG

I think he makes a good point although inevitably will be dismissed with around 70% of people as they don't think forward progression is necessary if they can win easily online (which is most likely on assisted with 5 star teams)

Maybe some people just dont care as much as this person does?

Its not healthy to care THAT much about the game..

I play on full manual and dont use 5 star teams and I dont care enough to read all that, its very boring.

As i said.. Sunlight perhaps.

[benvenom121314]

lol some people read it :O

[Xaor]

Originally Posted by The Metal Moth

Maybe some people just dont care as much as this person does?

Many people don't care as much as I do. I'm not really sure why that's a means for insult, but alas, that's a forum for you. You've made 1600 posts since December 2007, so, let's say 2 years. I've made 3150 posts since September 2005, over four years. So you make more posts per day you are on here than I do, substantially. I type very quickly, it's not some huge effort to type a lot.

Its not healthy to care THAT much about the game..

I play on full manual and dont use 5 star teams and I dont care enough to read all that, its very boring.

As i said.. Sunlight perhaps.

I work outside all the time, currently in here because the heavens have opened again. Grow up.

Originally Posted by seanflannery

I can't be f***ed to read about 10-Word pages of info

10 word pages? 10 word pages? I can tell you've never written something long in your life.

Originally Posted by XOlieOgdenX

There will always be something t exploit, if you remove every problem, people will work out how to abuse the system once again, as for the Pro Cam, im pretty sure you can change that yourself....

I did say that you should read the entire thing, maybe I Should have also said that using your brain helps. The Pro camera can be changed, and that's fine - but the Pro Camera, as a default, is both flawed, and ruinous. Having people with it on your team, in Pro Ranked Match or OTP basically means you have a useless, incompetent player on your team. It's a flawed camera which is meant to achieve something it doesn't.

Originally Posted by xWinnerxWisherx

One of the biggest fanboys on this forums defo.

Errh... what? Would you like to clarify that? What am I a fanboy of? FIFA? or PES? I'd love to know.

[russell_st]

wow, u have alot of time on your hands. 3,245 words, i'd struggle to get 50

[SkyBlue92]

Fantastic post Xaor, absolutely 100% agree with all of it.

EA need to thoroughly read and understand all 3 parts of your "trilogy", FIFA 11 would be a really brilliant football game if they took your advice...

Unfortunately, none of the EA reps or FIFA dev team probably even care about the issues and won't read or post in this thread - as long as they line their pockets with our cash (as they have done this year) they have achieved their objective and this was proven by their utterly pathetic attempt at a patch (no gameplay changes, and only 6 or 7 MM bugs out of over 70 reported issues were fixed).

[russell_st]

Originally Posted by Xaor

This will be the last of the trilogy, the first two are here:

Regarding assists (Why the assists MUST go - Why they mar a great game), and regarding the pressure (Why the pressure buttons must go - Why they mar a great game).

The previous two topics linked above focused on much more specific areas of the game than this one will. This thread will be focused on a vaguer, larger, more complicated and deeper problem which is not only part of the game, but part of the community. This thread is about mentality. Now, as you may have guessed, I'm not talking about the left/right on the d-pad mentality - I'm talking about the mentality of people who play FIFA.

This topic will be ridiculously long, for a number of reasons - primarily because there is a huge amount to talk about, which makes it pretty difficult to structure, but I've done my best. I would obviously prefer if people did read the entire thing before replying, but I will not be surprised if that does not turn out to be the case - just remember that in not reading the entire thing you will open yourself up to attack if you attack what I have written. I would not be surprised if this is the longest topic ever written so I apologise for my lack of conciseness.

As disclaimer, I am not blaming you. You may be blameless - but I am blaming some parts, large parts of the FIFA community. Even though this is going to be as much an attack on these people as anything, the problem at the end of the day rests with EA, and they are the ones who need to shoulder the burden for this quite epic problem.

So without further ado - what do I mean? What do I mean by the mentality of this community being a problem? Well, I think a lot of you already know. That's part of the problem. It's so wide spread that, a lot of you know what I'm going to say before I say it. It's so blatant that as soon as you step into the online arena, you can already feel it beating down on you. I mean this statement very seriously - playing FIFA online at times could honestly make the most optimistic man lose all faith in humanity. Well... maybe not that seriously... but you get my point. There is something ever-so depressing about the attitude of the people who play this game.

The uncontrolled aggression, the absolutely unstoppable hunger for recognition and achievement. The constant fighting for that extra goal at any cost to themselves, or anyone else, or the game. The constant selfishness, arrogance, and unbelievable petulance which can only really be found in one place - on FIFA's online.

Nothing makes me want to go on a rampage more than attempting to play a game of "Pro Ranked Match" (which for those who aren't online players is the 10v10 mode where you use your respective virtual pros). Instantaneously, you are bludgeoned in the face with it. You go in. The two teams are likely Spain and Inter Milan. Imbeciles jump between the teams as if it is going to make any difference (it won't). If one team suddenly changes to Aldershot, huge swathes of users will bounce across to Inter Milan... and that's just the very tip of the iceberg. You get past that screen and it's a disgusting, pathetic, ill thought out mess as every 12 year old in the country runs towards their favourite position which, naturally is striker. Some, fantastically, will decide that if they don't get their position they will sit there, sulking until someone gets bored and gives in, or simply leaves. This too, is the tip of the iceberg, or maybe it's the tip of the tip of the iceberg - because things are only going to get worse. You enter the game, no doubt seeing that half the players are either the mini-Speedy-Gonzalez styled players, or the gigantic BFG clichés. This visual indicator does at least allow you to know who is worth passing to, and not worth passing to. Time and time again from my centre midfield position I pass the ball out giving us great chances for attack but, alas, every time Jimmykoolaiddude192 decides that it's a much better idea if he tries to go it alone, gets stuck, having isolated himself... and gets tackled, ruining another out of many attacks for your team. This is one of thousands of examples which are the recurrent norm for FIFA 10's OTP variants.

The problems are well known, well documented, and, let's be honest - all over the damned place. Lists the size of the Bible is being created detailing the bugs of this game, and rightly, it's not good enough. So what's the point of the story? To give a real example of just how broken this game is. This game can play well, I've said that many times. When you play on less-assisted settings, with players who won't abuse the pressure, or anything else, the game takes on an almost unrecognisable form... nothing like FIFA... but more like football. Beautiful, reasonably paced, methodical. A game which rewards creativity over repetition. Tactics over exploits.

This game is fine... if you want it to be. They've got all the elements there to allow a really realistic and quite fantastic game of football to be played. It's not perfect, but, when played right, this game isn't just the best football simulation ever made; it's that by an ABSOLUTE mile. But FIFA... the actual FIFA... what you get whenever you step online... is generally horrendous. The exploits are endless, the cheating is endless... and there is a serious lack of real football. There is no thought out tactical play it's just people doing what works over, and over again until it does. It makes for a highly frustrating game - and I know that, probably the majority of people on this forum are really, really annoyed with the online this year... and rightly. Frankly, if you aren't - you don't care for realistic football.

I'm not saying it's worse than FIFA 09 - it's not - its better... but it's still far, far too bad. Without the manual filter this year, I'd be absolutely infuriated with my purchase. The problem is that EA underestimates the severity of the problem if they even consider it a problem. To get this game to not be utterly broken online they are going to have to fight, tooth and nail, inch by bloody inch, dragging the scum in this game kicking and screaming. People won't play realistic football until realistic football is THE way to win. People won't play realistic football until the cheat ways of winning aren't better. Over the last few days I came to a realisation about what breaks FIFA. What breaks FIFA is overloading. What breaks FIFA is when you take one mechanic to the extreme and use it to its extreme.

The example is endless, so I'll reel off a few

1. Super tall players on Clubs
2. Super strong players
3. Super fast players (FIFA 09)
4. Huge amounts of pressure
5. Incredible frequency and pace of passing
6. Bulldozing - Running multiple people close to each other with the ball to regain control*
7. Putting lots of players in a very small space on set pieces to near guarantee headers
8. Players with very high shot power

* Where club teams will run all incredibly close to each other - with one player followed by more players. This means that when the player gets tackled one of the next players will snap up the ball when it comes loose (and it will come loose - defenders have absolutely no control over the ball when they tackle it and they seem to have no intelligence to prevent them pushing it the wrong way)

I can go on, and there are probably as many again, but these are the most prominent ones. They all have something in common - they are all ONE thing being exploited in ONE way. They are all extremities. I mean, realistically, how much would this game be improved if we just shaved off these extremities? If we put a more reasonable cap on height ~6' 4". If strong players were just taken down a few notches. If you couldn't constantly apply pressure without consequence. If the shot power on the top few players was rationalised a little - or perhaps shots of that power were made far, far more inaccurate. Of course, one great example of where the extremities have been shaved off is the speed. Fast players on FIFA 10 are massively nerfed, perhaps even too much... Other than the glitches (of which I am now positive there is an absolutely HUGE one regarding the goalkeepers ability to deal with looped balls over their head almost regardless of their positioning)... this is pretty much it. All the real problems in the game play occur for one reason - overload. The problem is - and what EA really need to understand, is that you have no choice. You HAVE to deal with them. You have to deal with these problems one by one, you have to do it viciously, and it's ALWAYS better to go a bit too far than not far enough. I honestly believe that EA have gone too far on the speed now - but that is INFINITELY preferable to it being exploitable as it was in FIFA 09.

If FIFA is to really improve, and I mean REALLY improve, EA are going to have to be brutal. They are going to have to irritate a HUGE, HUGE number of people. They are going to have to have balls of steel and REAL confidence in what they are doing. Because people will hate it. You can see in the assists thread just how incredibly stagnant people are - how unbelievably attached they are to some of the most broken mechanics in FIFA. How they will tell some of the most hilarious lies to defend the systems which hurt this game. Until EA do this, every step forward is going to be inundated and drowned by the same recurring problems which have been driving us mad for many, many years. Somewhere, sometime, somehow, the cycle has to be broken. It should be done now, and it should be done hard.

I mean this very, very seriously - if EA released FIFA 11 as a game which fixed the flaws of FIFA 10, and added absolutely NOTHING new (mind you, the amount of fixes necessary are almost inordinate)... I'd buy it, and I know for a FACT that it would be a raging success because that is what football fans have been waiting for. For many, many years we have had to put up with various games from both EA and Konami which fail to deliver an online experience which both is fair, and resembles the beautiful game. I fear that if EA continue to try to innovate in the game play, they will continue to throw the balance around. It would be worth this year focusing on fixing the problems rather than adding things in... Because it has to be done. I assure you EA, what we, the consumers want more than anything else is to have a game which is playable for a long period of time without making us want to tear people's finger nails out.

I know many, many people who don't play online. The reason they don't play online isn't because they don't want to - but because the online is so utterly horrible. It's so devastatingly irritating to play. To play a game where the currency is cheating. Exploitation. Anti-football... and when they DO play online in the closed circumstances where FIFA plays like football - they love it - because FIFA can be a great game if all players consent to wanting it to be a good game.

Many people will say in reply to this topic, as they have in reply to previous topics and posts I and other have made, that people pay for this game and therefore they can do whatever they want. I take offence at this idea. As soon as you go online - you forfeit the right to 'just do what you want'. It's no longer OK for you to use glitches, or to exploit, or to cheat - because by doing this you ARE ruining the game for other people... and this is my message for the majority of FIFA online players: you ARE ruining the game for people. Through your selfishness, your obscene sense of entitlement, and amoral style of play, you ruin people's game. So well done. Well done.

Can you change the way people play? Yes. You can't change WHAT they want, but you can affect how they get what they want. EA need to make the BEST way, the most effective way to play the realistic way. They need to make all of the cheats ineffective one way or another, all of the exploits sorted, balanced, and so forth. There is no point in improving the game until they get past this. The difference between FIFA 09 played like football and FIFA 10 played like football is inordinate... but when you step online all those differences and improvements become absolutely irrelevant.

EA don't get it. EA have a lack of... guts... a lack of balls to pull the rug from under the feet of the people who take this game hostage. That's what they do. People take this game hostage and ruin it for everyone else. Lots of online games have this and the reason is because they don't have the guts to make the radical changes which are necessary. So that's what you need to do EA. You need to employ someone highly competent, ruthless, and entirely devoted to making sure that we get an online game which doesn't frustrate people who like football. For this to happen, I fundamentally believe on every level that we need:

1. to see a HUGE change in the control settings system, whether it's an entire rebuild or a massive balance
2. To see almost TOTAL changes in defence
3. To see an almost entire eradication of bugs and flaws

and once, and ONLY once you've achieved that is there ANY point of concentrating on ANYTHING else whatsoever. This game is too pathetic, that's what it all smacks of. It smacks of a lack of guts, a completely pathetic attitude to dealing with the real problem with this game. Stuff like the completely ridiculous system with the penalties in the area. Players usually have one tactic once the ball is in the area: hold down A, and B. Now, outside of the area, there are two risks with this. The first is that it pulls two players out of position. The second is that it can cause a foul. In the area, both of these obstacles are removed/irrelevant. The number of times I've been BLATANTLY fouled in the area must number into the hundreds. Now, I believe, as I said in a topic on the issue that this CANNOT change before the defence in this game changes.

Another AWESOMELY flawed system is the rating system on Be a Pro. Possibly the stupidest system I've ever seen in my life. Currently it's so flawed that the game would improve if it were removed. Defenders CANNOT get good ratings on average. Midfielders get a hard deal. Strikers seem to barely be fallible. As a midfielder, I take my team's corners, reasonably. If we take a corner, and I put it perfectly... but my friend fails to jostle and head, I get a -pass. That's the tip of the iceberg though, because after that I get numerous -positions/-defence when I run back from the furthest extreme of the pitch. What really smacks of EA's total lack of care for football though is the lack of any boost when you intercept a ball. I made a really great sliding interception - what did I get? You got it. I got nothing at all. In a game which should have a LOT of interceptions in (it doesn't because of the assists)... it doesn't even recognise it when you do make one. Now, this doesn't sound like it matters - but it does. All these little things affect the way people think about the game. People want to do well, and thus they will play in a way which improves their rating, rather than increasing their team’s chance of winning. Realistically, what need, ONLINE, is there for a rating system like this? Forget the fact that it is one of the most flawed calculations imaginable... why is it necessary? Clubs, OTP, and Pro Ranked Match are all about winning and the ABSOLUTE best way to make people want to win is to give them no other goals whatsoever. Take away all arbitrary incentives, so that the only remaining goals are the true ones of football - enjoying, winning, and being successful in the rankings.

A wonderfully stupid design decision would have to be the Pro camera. Which fool thought of it? I mean really? Nothing is a better analogy of the general mentality of the OTP player than a camera which constrains all football and leads to trashy, disgusting forward-only lateral-deficient play. I have no doubt in my mind that this camera should be REMOVED from any Be a Pro game types forthwith. It breeds EVERYTHING which I loathe about Be a Pro. More than anything it's a damning indictment of EA's view of what football is.

But isn't that the whole point of FIFA 10? Is that not exactly what it is? A damning indictment of EA's failures to understand football. A defensive system so flawed that you have no control over when to tackle and therefore whether you foul, or not. A system where you can pressure so much, so fast, so telepathically, and so automatically that it forces a passing game which can only be possible with yet another foundational flaw of the game in the poorly built, poorly balanced assist system. A game where there are exploits everywhere - where goalkeepers can't be bothered to stay on their lines nor abide by their orders when told to retreat. A game where goalkeepers seem to be incapable of catching balls which drop from certain heights. A game where free kicks are scoreable left right and centre once you have the method right. A game where in Be A Pro, any exploits in the normal game play are exponentially worse, where EA ridiculously allowed players to make themselves giants, or Speedy-Gonzales, and yet, the only defence you get are a load of bumbling defenders who can't tackle for their life - defenders who barely manage to be average human height let alone average centre-back height, and goalkeepers who can't even reach their own bar. A game where the default view for Be a Pro is one which allows you to pass forward, but not see backwards or to the sides.

EA needs to get some balls. Full stop.

There will be additions to both Part 1 (regarding some more radical possible solutions), and Part 2 (regarding the flaws in defence as a whole) in the near future

I have fixed the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.

[TheSerbianGiant]

You have a lot of time on your hands. Great post though

[DeaconBlues]

A big boy grown man post ....Great Job and to all the slaters and haters who have tried to rib you.

Some actually make videos and then post them and ask for feedback, yet have the audacity to say you care to much for the game.......This forum is too dam funny sometimes.

[Fc_Zenit_Fan]

Good post. I agree, that's why I've almost give up on online. Too bad, cause playing on manual against CPU is still fun, but playing with real people is even better. And yeah, those raitings are horrible.

[OLAJIDE45]

i aint gonna even bother wid that, could someone give me a summary?

[Dubrx]

Xaor...you have summed up why I rarely play online. I only play with my club and that is it.....but that still opens us up to the morons online...we just play better football than them and beat them though.

[EFC-STE-1878]

Yep agree with the very high shot powers and the tall players in clubs. Especially against my 5ft keeper i always seem to have and 5ft 2" centre halves. Clubs is lalalala this year. Sorry but its true.

[OLAJIDE45]

wow, i actually read it.

my response...clubs+friends=some fine play of football

[Kxiitti6]

Great post!! EA should really listen to these post. The game is good but the online game needs much improvement so that antifootball would not work. Only way that this game is great is manual(slow) and clubs when you play against a team that plays FOOTBALL not FIFAfootball.