I'm running a GM Connected league with about 10 friends. So far, I'm really disappointed in how it has been set up.
First, the menus are a joke. EA does not have a server load that can account for accessing the server for every single click in the menus. It's a sloggy waste of my time to find anything.
And that assumes what I want is there. We have games set to two weeks. I have five games to play. Right now, I can look and see that I have one game left versus a human. That's great. But the league has been super active so far, and I think we are close to being ready to roll. But there does not seem to be a single menu screen that tells me what games each owner has left. Seriously?
There is not a decent way to really check out my friends box scores, schedules, and other stuff. Overal, the GM Connected menus feel very isolated. We had six of us playing games at the same time the other night, and there was no good place to look at results and see what was being done. Huge missed opportunity for providing what has been a staple of playing in online leagues since the 90's.
When I set up the league, I sent invites to folks on my friends list that had said they wanted to play. But in the forum the league is based out of, there were also guys joining that were not on my friends list yet. So I figured I woud add them later, and then send invites. But no, once the league is set-up, there is no longer a way to invite more users in to play. Huge fail.
Basically, we have been enjoying paying each other casually. But this would be a nightmare if this were a more hardcore league. I have no interest in dealing with the sloggy menus to deal with free agency and trade blocks. And I still don't see a good way to do so, even if I wanted to.
Seriously, there are better ways to create leagues than what EA has been trying to pull off with NHL and Madden. It's like they have spent zero time looking at the thousands upon thousands of online leagues in various games and sports to see what people actually do and what they need.
It's functional. But I see this becoming less and less mangeable over the coure of a season. How often will I roll before people are done? How often will people be done, but I fail to roll because I don't know? How long will it take before people just get sick of the god-awful lag in the GM Connected menus?
I think EA's reach was much, much farther than their grasp here.
First, the menus are a joke. EA does not have a server load that can account for accessing the server for every single click in the menus. It's a sloggy waste of my time to find anything.
And that assumes what I want is there. We have games set to two weeks. I have five games to play. Right now, I can look and see that I have one game left versus a human. That's great. But the league has been super active so far, and I think we are close to being ready to roll. But there does not seem to be a single menu screen that tells me what games each owner has left. Seriously?
There is not a decent way to really check out my friends box scores, schedules, and other stuff. Overal, the GM Connected menus feel very isolated. We had six of us playing games at the same time the other night, and there was no good place to look at results and see what was being done. Huge missed opportunity for providing what has been a staple of playing in online leagues since the 90's.
When I set up the league, I sent invites to folks on my friends list that had said they wanted to play. But in the forum the league is based out of, there were also guys joining that were not on my friends list yet. So I figured I woud add them later, and then send invites. But no, once the league is set-up, there is no longer a way to invite more users in to play. Huge fail.
Basically, we have been enjoying paying each other casually. But this would be a nightmare if this were a more hardcore league. I have no interest in dealing with the sloggy menus to deal with free agency and trade blocks. And I still don't see a good way to do so, even if I wanted to.
Seriously, there are better ways to create leagues than what EA has been trying to pull off with NHL and Madden. It's like they have spent zero time looking at the thousands upon thousands of online leagues in various games and sports to see what people actually do and what they need.
It's functional. But I see this becoming less and less mangeable over the coure of a season. How often will I roll before people are done? How often will people be done, but I fail to roll because I don't know? How long will it take before people just get sick of the god-awful lag in the GM Connected menus?
I think EA's reach was much, much farther than their grasp here.
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