FIFA 15 Problems: In-depth

FIFA 15 Problems: In-depth

First off, I want to say that FIFA is fundamentally a fun game.

It’s great to have a session with friends, or even online, when the EA servers are working, and I still play it nearly every day.

The problem is, EA keep aiming for the bare minimum when they release the yearly update, and it seems to be because of the massive amounts of money they can milk from the Ultimate Team mode, and it’s killing the franchise slowly.

In theory, Ultimate Team is a great idea. Pick a squad of 11 from any (current) players in the world, and play against other teams, either online or offline. When you add in the chemistry links, which give players boosts based on nationality and their current club, it gives a tactical edge, and it should help to balance the game out.

But the way in which you obtain players is incredibly unfair. You can either buy packs with coins earned from games, which randomly generate players and items for your club, or you can buy or sell direct from the in-game transfer market. On its own it seems fair enough.

Alternatively, you can pay real-money for ‘FIFA Points’ to fund your search for players. I’ve opened so many packs over the years, and you’re probably best off using the transfer market directly. Despite what some videos might tell you, it’s really unlikely you’ll pack somebody like Ibra or Messi. The best I’ve had over the years is Yaya Toure, and I actually spent FIFA points to get him. 

My point is, people are willing to spend money to fast-track their team’s progress, but it’ll probably take an obscene amount of money/time to do so.

In the past, some people would turn to coin-sellers, as it always worked out much cheaper when compared to the traditional gold pack, which costs either 5000 or 7500 coins for a slightly better variation.

EA have since been cracking down on the illegal coin selling. FUT producer Marcel Kuhn had this to say:

FHN: What would you say to someone who buys coins because they think it offers better value for money compared to buying packs?

MK: What would I say? That it's not legal, that it's against the terms of service and that if we catch you doing that we'll ban you, so consider if it's worth losing out on the fun of playing FUT just to fast track a little bit.

Note how he completely disregarded the issue. It’s not about fast-tracking. It’s the fact that it works out so much cheaper to buy coins from anyone other than EA. EA love the Ultimate team revenue stream, and not just because it rhymes. They want their money, and they’ll actively ban you if you refuse to pay.

Another interesting issue is the contract situation. You have to buy contracts for your team and with the cheapest gold usually going for 200-300 coins, it can cost more than your entire match bonus.

It could be considered as another aspect to juggle, but it’s really more useful as a tool to keep players investing real money into the app, or wasting valuable coins on contracts.

But when you only earn 500 (more often less) coins per match, it’s a tough slog, which could take 10 matches to achieve. The game is also plagued with connection issues, which lower the coin numbers from matches even further depending on your Did Not Finish (DNF) rate, which is often out of your control.

But what about the actual gameplay? Goalkeepers veer from erratic to superhuman, and the refereeing is for the most part a joke. Penalties are given way too often for the slightest of touches, and the advantage system doesn’t even work properly most of the time.

Every match tends to start with a glitchy attempt to run through my team as my defence mills around, both static and stupid. Pace is stupidly overpowered, and headers have been nerfed. (Unfortunately for Andy Carroll.)

With 1000’s of players to choose from, most gamers probably use less than 100 in their lifetime. You end up playing back-to-back games against the same old XI’s with the same old players. Aguero up front again? Or if they’re poor and sweaty make that Ibarbo.

Who would honestly have Ibarbo in their real-life ‘Ultimate Team’? Of all the players in all the world, Ibarbo comes up time and again. (Obviously his relative cheapness, four star skills and 91 pace make his virtual counterpart pretty OP.)  

Most of the time team selection isn’t through choice. People have to fight fire with fire. In FIFA 15 that usually translates to pacey skillers, scoring from that tight angle close to goal that the keeper would most probably have covered in real life. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of an ‘I can’t hear you celebration’ + watching the goal replay three times like many griefer’s seem to love, especially with the crazy amount of last minute goals that always seem to be conceded.

Strangely, I also regularly score in the 69^th minute specifically. (No, not with John Terry.) It’s possible I only remember because of the connotations of the number, but it often happens twice in a row in hard-fought 2-1/1-0 wins.

When FUT does work it can be close to perfection, which is why most people play, despite the many issues and cash-grabby nature.

FUT may have been mediocre when it first released last year, but the recent introduction of price ranges in an update has further spoiled the game for many players. The price ranges mean that all players now have a min/max price at auction. I used to buy loads of gold players for 400 and insta-sell them for 650, but obviously that’s now impossible.

It means there are some bargains on the market for the average player, but the best players are still incredibly overpriced. While the likes of Rooney and Costa can now be bought for roughly 9k and 17k respectively on PS4, Messi still has a minimum price of 4m coins – so most FUT players will never get to use ‘the best players’. (Having played against a few 98 rated TOTY Messi’s, maybe that isn’t such a bad thing.)

Instead, Ibarbo gets yet another run out, and most players languish in the transfer lists at their minimum price.

It was another hypocritical move introduced to stop coin sellers, but they still offer their services across the web, at a fraction of the price of EA’s ridiculous FIFA point system.

Nobody is forcing anybody to buy FIFA points, and they can help people with less spare time upgrade their team. I see how they can be useful in moderation, but the game shouldn’t be so grindy for people unlucky with packs.

A couple of weeks ago I came up against a guy playing with Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand and Terry as the spine of his team. I turned on my mic and asked him why. I mean, it’s not 2006. He responded;

‘Oh. You know, contacts… And I have no coins.’

I do know.

So, now that EA have introduced price ranges, what could they do to make the game a little fairer for those unwilling to part with real money? It’s simple really. Give players more coins for winning games, or lower the ridiculous prices gold packs. Most people already spent £40+ at launch, it’s not a free-to-play mobile POS.

Obviously they won’t, because hey, who wants to kill the golden money-shitting goose? Not EA.

Is buying coins from sites worth the possible insta-ban? Probably not. But buying FIFA points is definitely never worth the money.

If you liked this why not check out my book; Video Games: the Modern A-Z.