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Online petition to bring Women's Football to FIFA

oti

Banned
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There's an online petition to bring women's football to FIFA on openPetition. As of right now there are 150 signatures and 86 days left. In the description the initiator links two articles in which EA states that:

A: "Fans just need to be vocal." (20/08/2013 - Polygon) and
B: “We always need to make sure that what we can build and what we include ends up being the right package and so far women’s football hasn’t made the cut”. (11/9/2014 - Play)

He also links to one of his YouTube videos in which he talks to a spokesperson of EA Germany. There are some interesting facts here.

- Over 90% of FIFA players in Germany are male (99% of EA Sport's Facebook followers are male as well).
- EA is a US-American company that develops games for a brought audience around the world. That's why there's no Handball game by EA for instance. Very popular in Germany and some parts of Europe but not the US.
- In his (the spokesperson's) experience, female football players don't play that much FIFA. (I'm not making this up.) Host asks him if female players in FIFA would change that but doesn't really get an answer.
- Stats and attributes of Women's football are different from Men's football. A Women's team would feel very different compared to a Men's team. Spokesperson points out he doesn't mean this in a condescending way.
- Putting a woman's head on a man's body is easy, technically speaking, but it wouldn't make much sense playing a female player with the stats and attributes of a player like Ronaldo. It would feel wrong.
- Hence motion capturing would be necessary. That would take several years. Too big of an investment for the current demand.
- Hosts points out that Women's football could be an advantage over Konami's PES series, EA guy acknowledges that argument but says they put their effort in other things, like a bunch of licenses and modes. They are more important than Women's Football when it gets to beating Konami in sales.
- EA would have to negotiate for the Women's football licenses.
- All those things could change, EA mentions MMA as an example.
- People should tell EA they want Women's football if they want it in FIFA.
All in all the EA spokesperson sounds genuine.


So what do you think about this idea? Should EA implement Women's football? Do you care?
 

Raide

Member
Knowing some of EA's weird player animation glitches, I am sure the addition of Womens Football will generate way more gifs.

On a more sensible note, EA have no reason not to add the option for their FIFA series.
 

McDougles

Member
Money > everything else for publishers.

"Fans just need to be vocal" is the smartest thing EA can say, because then the onus is on the community, not them, to give them a reason to make the game.

I'd be surprised if we saw women's leagues or a mass representation in a FIFA game within the next 10 years due to the economics behind doing so.
 

Eusis

Member
Absolutely do not care, and it would be a huge waste of development money & resources
And if a lot of other people care instead?

As an outsider observer who is generally apathetic about sports I still find it disappointing the lack of variety in choices and options there... probably because if they did branch out more they'd more likely make something I'd want to play. Still, reflecting more of real life would be a first key step to make.
 
They should. Women's Soccer seems to be one of the most popular women's sports (in the US at least) - and it's really only a matter of additional character models.

It's not like there's much else for them to add into the base game.
 

Nickle

Cool Facts: Game of War has been a hit since July 2013
I don't think people would care enough to make this profitable.
 

spekkeh

Banned
Pretty sure soccer games are the most male skewed genre in video games.

There isn't a market for this

Yup this. Don't see this petition exceeding a few thousands, unless lots of people who aren't going to buy the game anyway start voting.
 

v1lla21

Member
release it as a 25 dollar dlc to fifa 15 or standalone and I'll bite. The thing is that a lot of people won't buy it due to it not being that popular outside of the US.
 

Fireblend

Banned
i can't name any female player... Ronalda?

And what does your ignorance prove exactly?
KuGsj.gif



There definitely isn't a market for this though. I see it happening as a separate entity, definitely not by EA and as a much smaller effort, but I know people that would love and play this. I'd definitely check it out. I think the EA spokesperson in the interview makes some excellent points and puts the whole issue to rest, honestly, including the motion-capture requirements. Just replacing the male players with female models would be weird. There are differences in the way women soccer is played. I actually think those are some pretty good answers and he should be given a medal or something for giving such a honest and well thought response.
 
I don't want to watch women football and I don't want to play such a game.

I wouldn't care if it would be in the game, but I won't be signing anything to get this into the game.
 

Joni

Member
I don't see a reason for it when even the national football leagues don't seem to take it seriously as a sport. In most countries, the fourth league gets more attention than the women's league.
 

hohoXD123

Member
Knowing some of EA's weird player animation glitches, I am sure the addition of Womens Football will generate way more gifs.

On a more sensible note, EA have no reason not to add the option for their FIFA series.

Well a potential loss on the extra investment could be one reason.
 

Jamix012

Member
People can be active all they want, and I fully support such a thing, but sometimes they have to realise there's just not a market for something like this. It's unfortunate, but EA aren't going to waste their resources adding female players and teams for minimal benefit.
 

benny_a

extra source of jiggaflops
Do it.

I mean I can believe EA when they say this isn't really worth it for the ROI. But they make so much money on this series, they can afford to be a little progressive.

Overall FIFA seems to be very lean and budget conscious, so that argument is understandable from the current perspective.
For example they don't even care to update the player faces and heads for the starting 11 in top 5 clubs in the world for several years.

Spend some money, popularize the sport even further among the female demographic and you might even end up with even more money earned.
 

Kinyou

Member
- Stats and attributes of Women's football are different from Men's football. A Women's team would feel very different compared to a Men's team. Spokesperson points out he doesn't mean this in a condescending way.
Would actually be kind of interesting to see if they could simulate a different dynamic on the field, but yeah, the market doesn't really support the amount of effort that would go into integrating so many female players
 

Bento

Member
Considering how they gradually have been adding smaller leagues and teams for the sake of completness and broad appeal I could see them one day add womens fotball. Hopefully sooner than later even if I personally wouldn't be using those teams like I don't play with say asian or scandinavian teams.
That's not the case though.

Do you think a company like EA would turn down free money, if there was a huge mass market for women's video game soccer?
They've pursued fairly niche markets with some of their league inclusions in the past though, so it could happen although probably not yet.
 
probably no real reason for this not to be a thing in the FIFA games

god knows they make enough money to spare some resources for inclusivity
 

Raide

Member
Well a potential loss on the extra investment could be one reason.

Hrmm... a billion crazy Fifa fans are still going to buy their annual update regardless. They should start adding a mode that has some of the women's teams and see how it goes.
 

petran79

Banned
there was this volleyball game called power spikes where both men and women national teams participated.

But then, we have dead or alive volleyball...
 

dhlt25

Member
I'm a huge soccer fan and I can't even name any women soccer player. Honestly I'm not interested either, the only time I've watch women soccer is during the world cup and I don't really care for it.
 

JayEH

Junior Member
There's a reason why we don't see women's versions of any sports games though... There doesn't seem to be a market for it.

It'd might be an interesting experiment though. Maybe like a barebones $10 digital game.
 

Empty

Member
might be easier to campaign for it in football manager

much cheaper than creating hd assets and likenesses and if it's a popular mode then you can use it as evidence to present to ea
 

Sentenza

Member
Well, why not? If they can afford it I can't see anyone having any decent reason to dislike the additional option.

Of course, I also can't see many actually caring, since female football has a minuscule audience even in real life, but if anything they could use the videogame to popularize the female leagues and the most notable players, rather than hoping for the other way around.
 

Joni

Member
There's a reason why we don't see women's versions of any sports games though... There doesn't seem to be a market for it.

It'd might be an interesting experiment though. Maybe like a barebones $10 digital game.

There is a market in cases where the sports are actually treated semi-equal. See for instance women's tennis. But that is what you get when the governing body sells television rights to women's games and stuff.
 

Corto

Member
AH the ultimate troll win... Playing online against Barcelona, Real Madrid or any other giant and win with the Germany or USA Women team. That would be pure gold entertainment. Do it EA!
 

AmFreak

Member
It sounds cool and all, but idk if people really want that.
I mean the best woman teams would have to be worse then the worst men teams if they wanted to retain any realism.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I had no idea Handball was a sport. Like, I've played Speedball, and now it's existence makes way more sense, but I had absolutely no idea it was based on a real sport. I thought it was just supposed to be a made up mashup of rugby and soccer.

semi-related on-topic: Do any of these other sports games include female leagues? I know the NBA games don't have WNBA teams.
 
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