EA's response to the Lefty Bug ...

snate · Post by **snate** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:06 pm

Here is my email exchange with EA:

Customer - 04/01/2004 09:53 AM

I know you have been bombarded with complaints about the problem with lefthanded batters in this game. As you know they are unable to hit with power regardless of whether you or the cpu are controlling them. A WEAK right handed hitter can easily outslug a POWERFUL lefty.
This makes the game unplayable. Is EA doing anything to remedy this problem?

Response (Box Leo C.) - 04/01/2004 06:56 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support,

Although many of our games are very technical in nature or difficult to play, the issue you are encountering is not with the game.
The game manuel should have answers to resolve many in game questions you may have.
You may want to surf the web and check out some of the major video game sites as they usually offer gameplay
hints for EA games. One major place for Hints and Tips is http://www.gamefaqs.com. Also, newsgroups are a good source of information as hardcore gamers often message each
other back and forth in these forums.

We also have a hint line available for $1.99 a minute.
United States: 1-900-288-4468
New US Titles: 1-900-329-4468
Canada: 1-900-451-4873

Please respond back to me if you have any more issues concerning the game.

Thank you,

Leo
EA Technical Support

Customer - 04/02/2004 09:56 AM

"Although many of our games are very technical in nature or difficult to
play,the issue you are encountering is not with the game."

Oh please. Spare me the patronizing bullshit. Look at your own meesage
board on the game. Look at any message board on the net about the game. Look at articles on the net about the game. Thousands of people have all realized there is a problem/bug with the left hand hitters in the game. Here is one such website that has written an article about it :

http://ne.fgn.com/modules.php?name=News ... =0&thold=0

If you are unfamiliar with this problem please forward my message to someone who is. Thank you for your assistance.

Response (Box Leo C.) - 04/02/2004 01:25 PM

Greetings,

Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support,

There is nothing wrong with left handed batters. It is a rumor.

If you have any further technical questions, please feel free to e-mail back.

Thank you,
Leo C. EA Technical Support

fatheadX · Post by **fatheadX** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:16 pm

Kinda late for April Fool's, isn't it?

snate · Post by **snate** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:25 pm

I'm not pulling your leg. That was their response to my emails.

Post by **Jared** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:28 pm

Is this a real response? Wow....the response seems so cold and distant. And falsely authoritative. Eek...not a good response at all. Sigh.

(Oh, and for people still using the ne.fgn.com link, feel free to use the actual site address www.digitalsportspage.com. The former link is a temporary domain name that might go at any time, whereas the latter is more permanent.)

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:29 pm

The first response was the one I got as well.

There you go: MVP is just 'too technical' for us.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 9:33 pm

I got the same thing from them. In my third exchange I asked them to test it out by lettingthe CPU control BOTH hitters in home run showdowns to prove the bug.

I never heard back.

dodgerfanyankeeman · Post by **dodgerfanyankeeman** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:28 pm

i just happened to come across the whole glitch thyme today. i play have and play alot of the easports titles. i had to wait for the online updates to catchup before i would start my season, so i played madden while i did so. i was excited about starting a new yankee season only to attempt a homerun derby using various lefties only to be left upset and disappointed. i'm not sure what to do. i really like every other feature with the exception of not being able to examine rosters online. what can be done? Exchanging the game doesn't sound like a problem solver only a gas burner to add to my growing expenses. thanks

Post by **Jared** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:31 pm

I'm not sure what the solution is. A lot of it depends on whether you have it for the PC or one of the consoles. I'd be much more optimistic about it being fixed if you've got the PC version.

BTW, I've contacted EA myself. We'll see what their response is.

Blublub · Post by **Blublub** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 10:36 pm

I KNOW that I've gotten that same automated response to completely different inquiries on other EA games. Nice to know that they don't even care enough about their customers to try and write a few different versions that would at least have some correlation to reality.

The only time I've ever gotten anywhere with them is to keep replying to their replies, essentially pointing out how stupid they were. Eventually a real human will likely "pick up," although unfortunately they're not a whole lot brighter than the bot.

Blublub · Post by **Blublub** » Fri Apr 02, 2004 11:21 pm

EA just released a patch for the PC version. Not surprisingly, it doesn't address ANY of the big problems.

Toledo · Post by **Toledo** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 1:44 am

yea, hopefully the people who are messing around with the tuning file can find us a fix to this disaster

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 11:51 am

I hate to say it, but EA's Tech Support is not the place to go for issues such as this.

You did not hear this from me, but the BEST way to let EA know how you feel about this issue is to contact the Sr. Producer and/or Executive Producer of the version of MVP 2004 that has this and other issues. This sounds like much more than a "rumor" to me and I am ashamed of EA's responses to the public that I have seen posted here. Makes me glad I have stepped down as Community Rep for TW last month due to a promotion with my company.

To contact the Sr./Exec. Producer, simply watch the credits of the game. Write their names down, then email them using their first initial and last name then @ea.com.

Example:

Paul Kelly

pkelly@ea.com

Lastly, I can tell you that EA will not respond to un-professional, irrational, and negatively critical, flame-like emails. They will just click "Delete". They DO respond to professionally written, rationally thought out and constructively critical emails. Be brief and get to the point quickly if you want to be heard and taken seriously. I know for a fact that their Golf producers and developers listen VERY closely to their communities. I hope the MVP producers are doing likewise.

Good Luck,

-Tim

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:01 pm

If they actually listen to these "flame mails" they might actually fix the game and come out with the baseball game..baseball fans can be happy with. They have a great base to work from. Hopefully their egos wont get in the way.

We are the paying customers. We are not the ones to be judged. They are.
We pay #50 bucks for incomplete games.They dont.

Get off your horse hoss.

DivotMaker · Post by **DivotMaker** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:11 pm

GridIron_Assasin wrote:If they actually listen to these "flame mails" they might actually fix the game and come out with the baseball game..baseball fans can be happy with. They have a great base to work from. Hopefully their egos wont get in the way.

We are the paying customers. We are not the ones to be judged. They are.
We pay #50 bucks for incomplete games.They dont.

Get off your horse hoss.

Get off my horse?? I try to give sound advice on how to contact EA to get someone to listen who can impact the game and you tell me to "get off my horse"? Biting my tongue right now.....

snate · Post by **snate** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:14 pm

Thanks for the tip Bertha. I will give it a shot. Hopefully the MVP team will have as much professional pride as you guys on the TW staff have.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 12:15 pm

BigBerthaEA wrote:
GridIron_Assasin wrote:If they actually listen to these "flame mails" they might actually fix the game and come out with the baseball game..baseball fans can be happy with. They have a great base to work from. Hopefully their egos wont get in the way.

We are the paying customers. We are not the ones to be judged. They are.
We pay #50 bucks for incomplete games.They dont.

Get off your horse hoss.
Get off my horse?? I try to give sound advice on how to contact EA to get someone to listen who can impact the game and you tell me to "get off my horse"? Biting my tongue right now.....

Your right.
That last part was stupid.
sorry.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Sat Apr 03, 2004 1:22 pm

Thanks Tim.

I'll give it a shot as well.

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:50 pm

"There you go: MVP is just 'too technical' for us."

Naw, that's not it...actually, you guys are too technical for MVP. It's a "forest for the trees" issue...

mfw · Post by **mfw** » Fri Apr 09, 2004 6:12 pm

good tip. i'll be emailing over the weekend.

Thanks Bertha