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One on One with Tiger EP Mike Taramykin

Posted May 11 2008, 05:51 PM

Last week we unveiled some of the new features in Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09.  A few of you had questions about the new game, so I caught up with Executive Producer Mike Taramykin to get the scoop on what we can expect to see this August.

Q: Sounds like an interesting concept with Tiger’s coach, Hank Haney, playing a big role in this year’s game. Can you tell me a little more about what role he plays?  

MT: A big part of this year’s game is that the experience changes based on an individual player’s performance.  We have added a new dynamic attribute system that adjusts based on how you play, a club tuner feature that allows players to customize every club in their bag, and custom training drills are based on actual shots that players made on the course.  All of these features are tied together and presented to you by Tiger's own coach, Hank Haney.
So after every round of golf Hank will create personalized training drills based on how you just played, similar to how he works with Tiger in real life.  And when players go into the Club Tuner, Hank will help identify club settings that will maximize your personal performance.
What we tried to do was closely mimic the real life relationship that Tiger and Hank share, and bring that directly to players of our game.

Q:  I know a lot of people were fans of GamerNet last year.  What are you doing to enhance it this year?  

MT: We’ve done a lot of great things to evolve the GamerNet experience.  
First, we’ve brought GamerNet challenges into every mode of the game.  So if you happen to be playing PGA TOUR mode and find yourself at the tee of a hole that has a long drive challenge posted on GamerNet, then we’ll bring that challenge right to you and give you a chance to earn GamerNet points while you play your TOUR event.  We do the same for closest to the pin, and long putt challenges.  The idea is to surface GamerNet content throughout the other modes and give players the ability to build up points without the need to specifically go into the GamerNet mode.  It’s also worth mentioning that GamerNet will always favor challenges posted by your friends when choosing which random challenges to give you.
Another thing that we’ve added to GamerNet is that we’ve created a “Daily Winner” contest to keep track of who has won the most points on any given day.  We then track overall winners based on number of days that they have won, rather than just a total number of points.
We also made saving GamerNet challenges much easier.  Players can now post challenges directly from the golf course without the need to first save local clips.  It really improves the overall experience.

Q: I know you guys have been working on a new online engine. What is Simultaneous Play going to mean to the online experience?

MT: Simultaneous Play allows up to 4 players to play a round of golf without having to watch each of their opponents take their shots.  Instead, everybody sees a colored ball trail that represents each of their opponents along with onscreen information that tells you what shot each of them is on.
If someone finishes a hole early, then they switch to a spectator mode and can watch any of their opponents play via an interactive camera system.
The biggest impact that Simultaneous Play will have on the online experience is that you can now play MORE games, because 4 player rounds will take the same amount of time as playing by yourself.  This is something we consistently have heard that we needed to streamline the length of play and this is another thing that will really improve the overall experience.
 
Thanks Mike and look forward to hearing more about Tiger in the months to come.

Cheers,

Peter

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Comments

Jeremy Bennett said:

May 11, 2008 6:57 PM

Very nice blog Peter.  I'm very excited for these new features this year.  Adding individualized features such as the interaction with Hank Haney, Dynamic Skill, and Club Tuner are going to make for a more realistic feel to the game in my opinion.  With as much room as there is to work on a Blu-ray disc, I cannot wait to get some hands-on looks at the amount of individualization within Haney's coaching.  

The dynamic skill I'm really going to enjoy, because if you start to slump, so will your ratings.  It will be a nice way to implement slumps and streaks that golfers tend to go through during a season.  I'm also glad to see Haney's contribution to using the Club Tuner as well in regards to getting the most out of your clubs.

As for online, I'm definitely agreeing with the changes you're making to GamerNet.  I like the new scoring system, as well as implementing the challenges to the offline play as well (as long as it doesn't get in the way and subtle when you go about telling someone that they can go for a GamerNet challenge).  I thought GamerNet was one of the most innovative features to hit a golf game, or any sports game, in quite sometime.  Finally, the simultaneous play online is going to be a good feature when I'm not playing online with my buddies, but will be something I will not use when going online against friends.

Again thanks for the blog post and I'll be looking forward to more information as this game progresses.  As it stands now this game comes out on August 26th, which is my birthday.  It will be a very happy birthday for me as it stands with 09!

Diharduncfan said:

May 12, 2008 5:14 PM

Peter Moore,  

 I wish I could have interviewed him.  I would have asked him the questions most of the gamers want to know that play Tiger Woods game online.  

1.  Are they going to have fantasy courses for TW 09?

2.  Have you fixed the daily tournament when their is a tie for the winner?  

3.  Are you going to change the way you beta test TW 09 and let hardcore gamers beta test the game?

4.  Have you fixed ALL ONLINE ISSUES that gamers have posted on EA forum about TW 08 for the ps3 and xbox360?

5.  Are you going to have were gamers can download new courses each month for ps3 and xbox 360?

  I hope one day someone from EA gets smart like other company's and have the hardcore gamers be more apart of the beta testing.  

tpcatsawgrass17 said:

May 13, 2008 6:31 PM

Peter Moore,

Why don't you care about your games?  The reason why I ask is because if you truly cared, there would be refs, chain gangs and field goal nets in NCAA Football this year.  With Tiger 09, it sounds like a completely boring game.   This game needed a total presentational overhaul and then some.  Stat overlays need to be included, TV like camera angles need to be in there, more views of the course, caddies beside the players, a better looking gallery and tour atmosphere, better player animations after strokes, better gameface, much better commentary that is realistic to the game of golf, more than 30 real courses should be available including augusta and cour d' lane, more stat tracking, better career mode, better AI in career mode, more real tour events in career mode, I can go on all day.  But here's the thing, you guys didn't even scratch the surface with any of these things it seems.  Why do I need Hank Haney as my coach?  Totally pointless.  Gamernet is totally pointless.  I don't want training drills, I just want to play realistic golf.  

You guys focus on the least important things.  The things the development team thought up this year sound really boring.  Oh, and there is no excuse for having less than 20 courses, why do you take courses out?  How stupid!  

Peter Moore, another thing that bothers me is how you want to make every single game more arcadish.  You have the exclusive rights to many sports and don't deliver a sim experience. You are ruining video games for a lot of people and putting a lot of people out of jobs.  I garauntee you that if you focused more on important aspects of the games, you'd have through the roof sales.  

I am only 17 and I believe I could be a better president of the company than you.  I would really focus on the stuff that really matters to gamers.  You do a horrible job of managing the company Mr. Moore.  Feel free to discuss your side and debate me, I have open ears.  I would really like to visit your company over the summer because I really care about your games.  I would be willing to help make the refs and chain gangs for the up coming football titles.  I'll even donate up to $800 to make it happen.  It would only take a few days and would be easy to implement into the game.  I am not joking and am completely serious.  If you respond and want to talk even further, I would be willing to give you my email and phone number so we could discuss some things in more detail.  I know your not in charge of the developement of the games, at least in what I believe to be true, but I know that you are the head of the company.  I may have sounded harsh but feel free to debate me or talk to me privately.  I would book a plane trip tomarrow if you'd ask me.  

Thank you for your time.

Diharduncfan said:

May 14, 2008 5:38 PM

Tpcatsawgrass,

 I have been playing online while you were still in Middle School.  What I have posted on here speaks for most gamers that play on the ps3 TW.  Our league is totally for TW game online which has over 132 members.   If you want realistic golf, go play real golf.  This is a video game and if you go to EA forum for TW game, you will see that most gamers want fantasy courses.  I do agree with you about the about of courses.  There should be 30+ courses each year but EA has to get a new license each year for every course.  If they would create more courses of their own, we could have more courses.   Go to this site and see all the courses they could put on the game.  Type in Course downloads under google and it will pop up.

tpcatsawgrass17 said:

May 15, 2008 7:32 PM

Dihardduncfan,

I have been playing TW since 2003 so you do know more than me.  From the feature list this year, it doesn't look like there are going to be any major improvements which has me concerned.  Yeah I agree too with adding some fantasy courses in there as well.  I don't think I said that I didn't want any but I was unclear.  I understand that it is a video game and i do play golf in real life.  I just like having Tiger Woods handy for the winter.  I know what most people want and I know I am in the minority for video games.  I do not have time to play much anymore, but when I do play, I like seeing some realism in these games.  

TW 05 was my favorite because I liked how the career was set up and that little trophy hallway thing was pretty neat. I want the TW next gen games to have that type of excitement for me.  

EAcom Golf Tim said:

May 16, 2008 9:13 AM

Peter,

First off, I am the moderator on the Tiger forums and Community Leader for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR.

I have to say that I am personally very disappointed that there will be no PC version of Tiger 09. I am guessing that the PC versions of all EA Sports titles aren't making enough return to continue to produce them. I have some thoughts on why they are no longer profitable. First off, EA Sports has taken on the mindset and strategy of "console first" when it comes to sports games. This strategy has been evident with the Tiger series since the 2006 versions as the PC began to lose features from previous versions while the consoles were gaining features. When you begin stripping features from a seasonal product like sports games, you alienate your hardcore and loyal userbase as well as make the games less appealing to potential new users. It is no wonder the PC versions aren't as profitable as the console versions, even though the PC installed base far outweighs the console installed base. I also realize that development for PC versions is a more daunting task than consoles because of the wide range of PC user system specs and capabilities. This challenge has however, not stopped EA from producing other PC titles that are very successful to this day such as the SIms, Battlefield, Need For Speed, etc.

Piracy is certainly another issue with PC gaming. However, there is technology available that minimizes piracy. The PC version of Tiger has been a staple of EA Sports for years, ever since Tiger 99/2000. What bothers me is that since TW99/2000, EA has continually reduced the features and online gameplay modes/features since that version. TW99 had THREE Internet TOURS and several other PGA TOUR-related events that included cash and prizes during its time. EA Sports even created a feature called "Play Against the Pro's" for TW99 and 2000 in which EA set up these games for TW99/2000 PC users to play along with the actual PGA TOUR tournament on the course that the Pro's were playing that week. This was even before the PGA TOUR's ShotLink technology which today is very well-refined and functional. A feature like this today would be FAR easier and cost-effective to implement than what it was 7-8 years ago. It was a major hit with users then and I can assure you it would be even moreso today. However, we see NO features like this coming out for the PC nor 360 or PS3. I have to ask, why? During the Tiger 99/2000 days, there were literally THOUSANDS playing online daily whereas today you would be lucky to find a few hundred. In this day and age with the technological advances that the PC and consoles have seen, I have to wonder why EA Sports has not introduced more innovative features that improve replayability for the average and hardcore user.

As far as TW09 for the 360/PS3, I like some of the features I am hearing about. However, I am not hearing features being announced that the loyal users who post on the TW forums have been asking for. The console versions have been plagued with online play connectivity and online play performance issues from TW2006 to now. I am not speaking personally here, just telling you what the users who post in the TW and other TW-related forums have been asking for. While I like the idea of simultaneous online play for those wanting to get in a quick round, what about the users who enjoy the socializing aspect of turn-based online play? I am hearing the the turn-based online play is not enabled currently with TW09 and to me, that is a feature that users should be able to change if they so desire. I also question why EA Sports continues to require online play users to log in to an EA server when on XBox Live or the PSN? The complaints about online play on all of the console versions have been very loud and clear that EA Sports games are the worst performing games for online play stability and performance of ANY console games on the market. The common denominator in this is that the EA Sports games have to go through an EA server in order to play and other games simply use the XBox Live online play functionality and achieve much better results. Have any of these issues with online play been addressed?

In closing, I have been a HUGE fan and loyal supporter of EA Sports for 15+ years. I have enjoyed a personal relationship with the TW Development Teams from TW99 through TW09. I have also produced output for the Tiger PC series in the past by writing sections of the TW PC game manual, writing previews for upcoming TW version for EA.com and the Official TW websites, as well as capturing and creating digital content for 6 PGA TOUR courses that have appeared in the TW series over the years. What I am trying to communicate is the fact that I believe that EA Sports is FAR more capable today of putting out a Tiger game than what EA Sports was capable of 7-8 years ago, yet EA Sports does not seem to be pushing the envelope with regards to innovation in features for today's products. If EA Sports would take a look back at what they have achieved in the past, I think you will see that there are many opportunities to improve the product and provide innovative features that befit the the technology available in 2008. Your loyal fans have been screaming for such innovation and online play quality for years. It would be reassuring to see EA Sports respond to these users and give them hope that more innovation and improved quality control is coming.

Thanks for listening,

-Tim

Diharduncfan said:

May 16, 2008 12:21 PM

Ea golf Tim,

 Very well said dude.  I have been trying to get PETER MOORE to understand what really is going on with creating the games each year.  He is giving me the impression that he does not care also.  Lets face it, if EA does not change the way they beta test the games, we will keep continuing to have online issues each year.  

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