In a never done before move, Electronic Arts brought in two coaches from West Virginia University this past summer to help the NCAA Football 14 improve it’s recruiting mode, The Charleston Daily Mail reports.
Although EA was originally unsure how the move would work, they got a tremendous amount of input early on.
"Everything we've done for the game previously was what made sense to us and what we felt was the right way to do recruiting with the limited abilities within the game (was) to emulate recruiting and have it be fun," said EA Sports producer Ben Haumiller told The Daily Mail.
"Then it was, 'OK, we've done that. It's time to change the way recruiting works.' It got a little stale, a little old and we thought it was time to give it a new feel and a fresh look. We wanted to go out and take advantage of the opportunities we have. We have connections. We bring in coaches to talk Xs and Os and concepts and break down film all the time. We'd never extended to other aspects, particularly recruiting."
The experience was one Electronic Arts says will dramatically improve the gameplay feature.
“Expect recruiting to be more realistic. That was the only goal Hammond and Dorchester had,” Game producer Christian McLeod told The Daily Mail. “They found it odd a player never de-committed. They noticed variables like academics, coaching changes and the success of a season weren't factored into the process. They didn't think junior college recruits were represented in ways that explain their value."
Earlier this month, former Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson beat out Texas A&M wide receiver Ryan Swope and will serve as the game’s cover athlete.
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