Post by rcgldr on Apr 23, 2015 16:16:04 GMT
I don't think there's a need to shut down NFS World. Explanation follows:
This is the main statement from EA:
"When it launched 2010, Need for Speed World brought together best-in-class action racing with an unparalleled social experience on PC. However, five years on, we feel that the game no longer lives up to the high standard set by the Need for Speed franchise. The steady stream of live content kept our players engaged but unfortunately we were not able to keep pace with feature development. At this point, the major overhaul needed to bring the game up to speed is not viable for us, so after careful review we came to a decision to stop development and begin winding down support of Need for Speed World."
My comments / rebuttal
"best-in-class action racing" "high standard set by the Need for Speed franchise" - NFS World was never meant to be best in class or a high standard. Instead it was meant to be compatible with low-end PC's and laptops, since it was targeting a world wide audience. One of the obvious changes was the removal of the rear view mirror. EA also removed controller configuration, supporting a limited set of controllers (although registry settings can be altered as a work around). NFS World was a relatively low budget game, made with a smaller development team, compared to a game like NFS Undercover. Rather than build from scratch, it was mostly a conversion from the Most Wanted and Carbon worlds (some stuff like police chatter and scenery taken from Undercover), but it was still a significant effort.
"unparalleled social experience on PC" - the main social experience is the free roam and free roam chat, which was removed. Underground 1 and/or 2 had chat in the lobby.
"steady stream of live content" - Most of this stream of live content was new cars added to game, many or most of which were for boost only. Drag mode was the only new mode added to the game. EA did add night mode and treasure hunts. Most of the development team was removed after release of version 5 (October 26, 2010), the map was never completed (one set connector roads left undone), and the canyons never added.
"we were not able to keep pace with feature development" - That's because EA removed most and later almost all of the development team from NFS World.
"major overhaul needed to bring the game up to speed" - no major overhaul is needed. Based on feedback from the recent Cherry Blossom event, players run about 1 million events per day, which is far more than Carbon, Shift 1 or Shift 2, and those servers are still running. So there is a very large number of players willing to play NFS World in it's current state.
"major overhaul" - Some low priority improvements would be nice, listed below, if EA was willing to put at least a skeleton developer (actual programmers) team to work on NFS World. Unknown is if there is anyone left familiar with the code base, or if there is any in house documentation for the code base and it's tool set, and if the code base has not been lost during all the transitions.
The connector roads could be completed. I doubt this would take any more effort than the custom tracks made by players for NFS High Stakes, along with the track editor tool kit, also made by players (player also make "scratch built" tracks (and cars) for rFactor 1). One recommendation - get rid of the two open gap jumps (convert to level road, no bridge, no hill, ... ), since these are an issue with the game play (what to do if a player or traffic or cop vehicle falls through the gap).
The bus terminal could be unblocked, especially if the data from the head start period (July 20 to July 26, 2010) was backed up, since it had the unblocked bus terminal.
'reduce the price of boost' - my suggestion
Many of the newest generation of players of NFS World are from locations that recently got their first access to high speed internet. Due to demographics, most of this new generation of players can't be spending much on boost. Some revenue would be better than none, so a large reduction in the cost of boost would be helpful here.
This is the main statement from EA:
"When it launched 2010, Need for Speed World brought together best-in-class action racing with an unparalleled social experience on PC. However, five years on, we feel that the game no longer lives up to the high standard set by the Need for Speed franchise. The steady stream of live content kept our players engaged but unfortunately we were not able to keep pace with feature development. At this point, the major overhaul needed to bring the game up to speed is not viable for us, so after careful review we came to a decision to stop development and begin winding down support of Need for Speed World."
My comments / rebuttal
"best-in-class action racing" "high standard set by the Need for Speed franchise" - NFS World was never meant to be best in class or a high standard. Instead it was meant to be compatible with low-end PC's and laptops, since it was targeting a world wide audience. One of the obvious changes was the removal of the rear view mirror. EA also removed controller configuration, supporting a limited set of controllers (although registry settings can be altered as a work around). NFS World was a relatively low budget game, made with a smaller development team, compared to a game like NFS Undercover. Rather than build from scratch, it was mostly a conversion from the Most Wanted and Carbon worlds (some stuff like police chatter and scenery taken from Undercover), but it was still a significant effort.
"unparalleled social experience on PC" - the main social experience is the free roam and free roam chat, which was removed. Underground 1 and/or 2 had chat in the lobby.
"steady stream of live content" - Most of this stream of live content was new cars added to game, many or most of which were for boost only. Drag mode was the only new mode added to the game. EA did add night mode and treasure hunts. Most of the development team was removed after release of version 5 (October 26, 2010), the map was never completed (one set connector roads left undone), and the canyons never added.
"we were not able to keep pace with feature development" - That's because EA removed most and later almost all of the development team from NFS World.
"major overhaul needed to bring the game up to speed" - no major overhaul is needed. Based on feedback from the recent Cherry Blossom event, players run about 1 million events per day, which is far more than Carbon, Shift 1 or Shift 2, and those servers are still running. So there is a very large number of players willing to play NFS World in it's current state.
"major overhaul" - Some low priority improvements would be nice, listed below, if EA was willing to put at least a skeleton developer (actual programmers) team to work on NFS World. Unknown is if there is anyone left familiar with the code base, or if there is any in house documentation for the code base and it's tool set, and if the code base has not been lost during all the transitions.
The connector roads could be completed. I doubt this would take any more effort than the custom tracks made by players for NFS High Stakes, along with the track editor tool kit, also made by players (player also make "scratch built" tracks (and cars) for rFactor 1). One recommendation - get rid of the two open gap jumps (convert to level road, no bridge, no hill, ... ), since these are an issue with the game play (what to do if a player or traffic or cop vehicle falls through the gap).
The bus terminal could be unblocked, especially if the data from the head start period (July 20 to July 26, 2010) was backed up, since it had the unblocked bus terminal.
'reduce the price of boost' - my suggestion
Many of the newest generation of players of NFS World are from locations that recently got their first access to high speed internet. Due to demographics, most of this new generation of players can't be spending much on boost. Some revenue would be better than none, so a large reduction in the cost of boost would be helpful here.