Even before this week’s demo for NCAA Football 10 became available, a wave of questions began to lumber towards the shore regarding the yearly sure-fire hit. On June 9, Bryan “Pastapadre” Wiedey noted on his site a number of discrepancies regarding the rosters on EA Sports’ new Teambuilder site, and on June 12, Gamespot’s Brian Ekberg reported that Dynasty mode “accelerators”, for sale using microtransaction on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network, would be allowed in online play, meaning that gamers could literally spend their way to the top of online leagues.

To their credit, EA Sports responded quickly to these concerns, noting that they were aware of the Teambuilder roster issue and working on a fix - one which is expected to culminate in a new downloadable roster being available at launch - though it’s still unclear how that roster update will affect the tens of thousands of already-created Teambuilder clubs.

On June 17, one day before NCAA Football 10 demo was released, I appeared on the EA Sports Live Internet radio program directly after two members of the game’s design team did a segment, and to my surprise, was asked my opinion on the microtransaction controversy. The show’s hosts, Jason and Rob Thompson, continued the remarkably open discussion, which didn’t necessarily follow the traditional corporate line.

The archive stream of Wednesday’s show can be found here, with the following exchange occurring at the 43-minute mark:

Jason Thompson: You know, another thing that’s going on in the gaming industry… you kind of mirror a lot of what the community says… about microtransactions and things like that. Your positives and negatives to microtransactions - and they are filtering in to a lot of our favorite sports games - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is one, and now you’re seeing NCAA Football, you mentioned The Godfather (in Monday’s Scattershots). There’s a lot more microtransactions going on - Call of Duty, that series is starting to think about a monthly subscription thing. Your thoughts about that particular revenue model?

Shawn Drotar: That’s something I’ve been working over the last couple of weeks for a feature I’m working on. I think the simplest way to state it is this: I have no problem - and anyone who does really isn’t going to be comfortable with (this answer) because it’s just the way that business works - but these companies need to monetize their products any way they can - and they’re going to. That’s a simple fact; just Business 101 - any way you can make a revenue stream, you do it. My concern is when it unbalances things. For example, let’s say my wife plays Tiger Woods with me… once a month or something. And she wants to use the created players because she likes the Photo Game Face feature and thinks that’s a lot of fun. But, I play the Career mode, so my character’s a lot better and she can’t compete with me. Well, to be honest, I don’t really mind spending an extra two, three bucks to bump her character up so she can compete with me in the one or two times she plays, because she may enjoy it and then we have a chance to play more (often) in the future. So that sort of microtransaction doesn’t bother me. However, when you bring it online… for example, the Dynasty “boosts” that have been covered (by Ekberg)… the Dynasty “boosts” can used online as well as off. My concern is that what you start doing is creating something (like) an arms race; that of you spent $60 on a game, your teams are likely to be “this” good, but if you spent $72.50 on the game ($60 +$12.50 worth of “accelerators), your teams are going to be better. And I think, that even though we’re talking only $12 here and there, that’s pretty expensive for a game for a lot of people. And you run the risk of creating something of a caste system; on people who can spend more money on their copy of the game - who will be automatically better at it and have a competitive advantage - then you… I think that’s a tough call. It’s basically the same (situation as Major League) Baseball; does it (spending more money than the competition) guarantee a World Series when the (New York) Yankees and (Boston) Red Sox spend $200 million a year on payroll each? No, it does not - but does it guarantee that the Kansas City Royals, who spend $35 million a year on their payroll, won’t make the World Series? Yeah - it pretty much does… I think that’s the concern.

JT: So there are two issues: one would be if there was online play that allowed - and it was up front - this particular online experience is allowing in those who have spent a little extra money and are comfortable with an arms race kind of approach to online play, or I can opt out of that in online play and make sure that when I’m playing online, that this is a “non-boosted” league or “non-boosted” experience. That would be one way to (handle) it, right? Or to just shut it down altogether?

SD: It would be, but I think that separating and striating the online gaming communities, I think that weakens that online community as a whole. I think that’s a concern.

Rob Thompson: When I hear all this, my chief concern is the guy that I’m playing. Certainly, when I’m going online, I want to see what going on… and if there’s a way to… a way to annotate (that) this guy is a game buyer; he’s building his team like (Yankees owner George) Steinbrenner did. And there should be maybe a star (denoting that) this is a guy, or a girl - a gamer - this is a person that has done it (built their online Dynasty team) “this” way, and this is a person who has done it the “other” way.

JT: (interjects) Old school! Without performance enhancing…

RT: That has gone through… Dynasty (mode) and has built their school or team the way that they wanted it to be, without having to go outside (the purchased game) and spend any extra (Microsoft) points or dollars to get themselves to a level where they, quite frankly, probably don’t belong.

JT: Well, I can tell you this: Shawn, it’s been a message that’s been received from the NCAA 10 community, and they (the NCAA design team) are working on it, I can tell you that… it’s (part) of the reactive nature of our current state of gaming. The open-door policy of EA Sports.

SD: I think it’s important to understand as well - for members of the community that are stressed about this - the product’s not out yet. I’ve never - never - in all the (eight) years I’ve been doing this, went out and judged a product that I haven’t seen; that hasn’t been (a) final (build). It’s not fair. Until people see it, there’s really no reason to get all up in arms and worry just yet. I think it’s important to wait, see what comes up, see what comes out of it, see how it works, and then judge. I think what the community’s bringing up are (legitimate) concerns about how the viability of how the community can sustain itself by finding players who can compete with each other on a fair level.

RT: Right.

SD: I think that’s a discussion that, quite frankly, is good - and was bound to happen.

JT: Yes.

SD: It’s not really all bad that we’re going to finally get into something like this. It needed to happen, was bound to happen, and I’m actually - in an odd, perverted way - looking forward to seeing how this is received and how it goes. Because I think that getting through it is going to be critical to see where EA, where Xbox and PS3 and even the Wii - where all these microtransactions are going to go from here. I think this discussion has to happen, but the first thing that has to happen is that a game needs to put it out in the open. It’s good that we’re going to get a chance to look at it.

RT: Well, as an all-caps writer in a community, I can’t wait. (laughs)

JT: My brother only posts in all-caps, and as a result, no one ever hears what he says.

RT: No, I’m just yelling.

JT: But I can tell you that microtransactions work in certain circumstances. I mean, I have spent - I wouldn’t say as much money as on iTunes downloads - but I do spend money on Rock Band downloads.

RT: (interjects) Well, that’s different…

JT: And I look and I see that the country track pack that’s 22 songs deep and comes out in July - I know it’s $29.99. I’m buying it. I can’t wait for it to come; I’m eagerly awaiting it. But I’m not sure I would’ve gotten that content except for the fact that it’s monetized.

RT: Well, of course. And I think that’s the sign of the microtransactions that we’re all looking forward to, that we all wanted. But it’s just the other side, when you’re actually gaming and you’re dealing with wins and losses, (that’s) where I think the argument’s going to come down to.

***

Later that day, NCAA 10 producer Jeremy Strauser Twittered the following message to Wiedey: “NCAA team working on a patch so that DLC (downloadable content) can be deactivated in Online Dynasty. Rosters (sic) fixes also in the works.”

While it’s still up in the air what will come of these fixes for NCAA Football 10, there’s no question that gamers are dealing with a different EA Sports then they were only a few years ago. In March, I wrote an article about the company’s newfound transparency, which I discussed with EA Sports President Peter Moore in a face-to-face conversation later in the month.

On Wednesday, EA Sports put their money where there mouth is - again. I was genuinely surprised that an internally-produced product like EA Sports Live and its hosts were willing to step beyond the “infomercial” stage and make the clear statement that the company itself has become a sounding board and a place for introspection and open, thoughtful discussion. It’s hard to overstate the value of this as a consumer.

It makes me certain of one thing - I’m looking forward to next Wednesday’s show.