NCAA Football 11 wishlist: 'Road to Glory'

November 6, 6:55 PMBoston Sports Games ExaminerJoey Ramaeker

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How can "Road to Glory" be improved for next year? (EA Sports)

As the holiday season quickly approaches, people from around the world will soon begin to compile their personal wishlists. In that spirit, throughout the month of November I will be publishing a wishlist once a week which will include 15-20 additional features or improvements that can be implemented into NCAA Football ‘11. These lists will be comprised of personal ideas as well as items frequently discussed within the sports gaming community. Each week will feature a different aspect of NCAA Football '11. This week’s entry will focus on ways to improve NCAA's “Road to Glory” mode.

• Student-athletes?: This doesn’t have to be a huge time consumer, but academics should be a part of the experience if the NCAA sticks to its “these are students first and athletes second” policy. Users can choose their major, which offers a basic risk/reward system. “Classes” can be in the form of college football trivia.
• National Signing Day presentation: Even if it is just a brief recreation of the “hat” ceremonies that take place across the nation every February. Would be a small but significant addition.
• More off-field interaction/ratings: Make the evening events more meaningful and interactive. This could be achieved by utilizing a “chemistry” rating. For example, QBs should interact with their receivers to improve chemistry. If they don’t it’ll influence Saturday’s performance through inaccurate throws or receivers not running the correct hot routes.
• Change in uniforms: What’s the fun of going to a school like Oregon if you’re only going to be able to see a home and an away uniform? This would make attending schools with attractive uniform combinations more interesting.
• Interactive recruiting: This feature briefly in this article. Make the process more interactive and realistic. 2 star players in Portland, Maine should not receive a lot of attention from Texas Tech. Coaches should pursue you and should provide more information about their program before you commit.
• Transfers: Not getting enough PT? Don’t like the play calling? You should have the option to transfer. Maybe limit schools eligible for transfer to schools located in your home region (i.e. created player from Oregon would only be eligible to transfer to schools on the west coast)
• Off-season training: Real life athletes work on things during the offseason, why can’t their virtual counterpart? Complete drills or mini-games in order to increase specific ratings and make progression more refined.
• Goal based progression: Progression as it stands currently feels arbitrary. In addition to practice and offseason drills, users should have to accomplish non-statistical goals in order to progress as well. This would include picking up a blitz, a receiver making a block down field or a defensive player staying in their assigned zone.
• Interaction with teammates/coaches in-game: You should have the ability to interact with teammates throughout the game. O-line not blocking for ya? Let me know about it. Offer users the ability to choose between two options (negative or positive) and see how teammates respond. Depending on the response, the teams chemistry will be influenced.
• Injuries: They happen in real life, why not in RTG? They don’t have to be lengthy injuries, but they should happen.
• Make practice matter: Practices should matter even after the players becomes a starter. This may result in a weekly boost in certain plays or attributes. Without any influence, practice quickly hits “sim” status.
• Add more positions: Users should be offered more choices when choosing their player’s position. SUre its fun to be a QB or LB, but some of the other psotions get no love. The ability to create a tight end comes to mind.
• Create athletes: With the previous statement in mind, why not be able to create an athlete that plays both sides of the ball during high school? Coaches can pitch where they see you playing for their squad and the user is able to make their choice based on this information.
• Special Teams: If you’re not starting, why not play a bigger role in special teams? Maybe blocking a punt will earn you the chance to get on the field somewhere else.
• Position battles: Users should have to fight for their spot, especially when going against stiff competition. Likewise, they should be benched with continued poor performance such as fumbles, blown coverages and interceptions. It happens on Saturdays so it should happen in RTG as well.
• Custom Celebrations: Select player celebrations from a set of defined animations. Unlock “advanced” celebrations by completing academic and on-field achievements. Example: A Heisman celebration is available only if your player was a finalist for the Heisman.

Agree? Disagree? Ideas of your own? Feel free to comment below.
 

Next Friday's wishlist will focus on "dynasty" mode. To continue receiving news, reviews and other sports gaming updates, please subscribe.