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[vasametropolis]

Adding women's teams is a horrible idea. What are they going to do to player stats? Nerf them compared to men's teams? That would be the most accurate thing to do, objectively speaking, but the worst publicity move ever.

It's not like I'm completely opposed to the idea, but I don't see it working out well for EA.

 

[DJ Crimson]

Yea

 

[Jokab]

have you actually watch any soccer? women soccer is almost a completely different game from men soccer. Unless you make the women play like men it's really is impossible.

Completely different? Give me a break. Even the best women struggle against low low tier men's teams, because they lack the physique and technical skill to pull things off. To me it's the same thing but just worse.

 

[Daemul]

Why not just mix teams, that you can play female and male players in a match at the same time.

Utterly terrible idea

 

[samuraidino]

If larger markets were a priority, why are they even bother making the smaller teams? No one is saying they should have every single female team in the game. They can consider making a small DLC pack and see how the market responds to it. I'd also argue that the positive PR will far outweigh those development costs in the long run anyways. From reading this thread; most of the replies are not even looking for any alternate ways to go about it or even give it a consideration.

Honestly the smaller teams still have a much larger audience than womens football. As someone mentioned earlier, one of the lowest leagues in England still has a much larger following than that of the biggest Womens league in the States.

Not to mention that these lower league teams do become worthwhile additions for a lot of people as starter teams, to build up and rise through the various leagues.

 

[El Topo]

Adding women's teams is a horrible idea. What are they going to do to player stats? Nerf them compared to men's teams? That would be the most accurate thing to do, objectively speaking, but the worst publicity move ever.

It's not like I'm completely opposed to the idea, but I don't see it working out well for EA.

Maybe they should just take United's current rating as the baseline.

Spoiler Alert:

Spoiler

FIFA ratings are bullshit anyway.

 

[trixx]

They should bring it to Wii U.

At least Wii u has FIFA 2013 =/

 

[Rodelero]

Adding women's teams is a horrible idea. What are they going to do to player stats? Nerf them compared to men's teams? That would be the most accurate thing to do, objectively speaking, but the worst publicity move ever.

It's not like I'm completely opposed to the idea, but I don't see it working out well for EA.

Out of all the reasons, you feel the bad publicity EA would get from giving female players lower attributes than male players is the one?

 

[PureXbox]

And 14 years old. This one will melt the hardest heart.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/v...nt-chance-to-play-scores-goal-v-celtic-video/

Beautiful. Thanks for that - really made my day.

 

[dhlt25]

Completely different? Give me a break. Even the best women struggle against low low tier men's teams, because they lack the physique and technical skill to pull things off. To me it's the same thing but just worse.

um... that's the point. The dynamic is different, the speed is different, the plays are different. They go by the same set of rules but there's no way the 2 can be mixed. I'm not against putting women into FIFA, I'm just saying that a mixed mode won't work.

 

[Tagg9]

The market for such a game simply does not exist. It would be like saying "Why doesn't EA invest money in a cricket game?" Because the audience just isn't there to justify making such a large investment.

 

[TeddyShardik]

They were sure interested enough to say no though.

Interested enough in this threads topic to try and explain why it probably won't happen.
That has nothing to do with the interest in the content the petition is for.

You're mixing up "this probably won't happen..." with "I don't want this to happen..."

I for my part am not saying no. Just explaining why, in my opinion, EA will say no.

 

[Jokab]

um... that's the point. The dynamic is different, the speed is different, the plays are different. They go by the same set of rules but there's no way the 2 can be mixed. I'm not against putting women into FIFA, I'm just saying that a mixed mode won't work.

Sorry I misread the post you quoted. It seems we agree.

 

[DSN2K]

The market for such a game simply does not exist. It would be like saying "Why doesn't EA invest money in a cricket game?" Because the audience just isn't there to justify making such a large investment.

Brian Lara games were decent

 

[Omnipunctual Godot]

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.

If we're being sensible, I think the reason would depend upon whether EA would consider the cost of licensing the teams and players a worthwhile expense.

 

[blitzcloud]

The real issue is ever-present in this thread - pretty much the reason EA won't do it. The general hostility from male players is enough to scare even talk any mode out of the game.

What hostility. Unless you mean being realistic is the same as being hostile in this case

 

[FuturusX]

The market for such a game simply does not exist. It would be like saying "Why doesn't EA invest money in a cricket game?" Because the audience just isn't there to justify making such a large investment.

I think most are suggesting a mode, roster updates / DLC. Not a full game.

I just don't see the sexism at all. If everyone was saying "No I don't WANT this to happen because it is too expensive for EA!" you might be on to something but that's not the case.
I only have big doubts EA wants to do it even if the extra effort and costs are as small as you think they are.

I assume most people reacting negatively in this thread think similarly though from what I've read.

Really? I'll concede and give the negative posters the benefit of the doubt - I do think, however, it's reasonable to feel that the powers that be at EA see this as too much effort for too little gain and crucially they seek to appease the core male dominated consumers of their product. Even if a significant amount of players are neutral to the idea could a perceived hostility be enough to shut it down at EA? I think that's possible.

There is sexism in all facets of our lives and that extends to the treatment and attitude to women who play football...I don't think FIFA players / consumers are immune from that. Perhaps my analysis of the reasons we won't see this is too far reaching...but I don't think so.

 

[DJ Crimson]

Yea

 

[Mory Dunz]

Yeah, you're right. It's because of a simple reason though: Barely anyone is interested in it.

If EA adds the teams/leagues whatever that's great but if not I won't lose sleep over it.
Actually as someone already pointed out there's already enugh men's leagues noone cares about in these games, for all I care they could just replace those with women's teams.

The thing is, adding the Austrian League or whatever might actually be a big deal in Austria. So the small leagues aren't small everywhere.

However, adding a women's league actually, adding international teams (they'd have more appeal than a league) wouldn't really add sales.

Does cyclical special event viewership usually translate to sales? Do olympic games do well? Maybe they used to...

 

[FuturusX]

What hostility. Unless you mean being realistic is the same as being hostile in this case

Not in this thread. But there is some hostility to the merits of women's football. Why should the players of FIFA be immune to that? (Not GAF members)

 

[TeddyShardik]

I think most are suggesting a mode, roster updates / DLC. Not a full game.



Really? I'll concede and give the negative posters the benefit of the doubt - I do think, however, it's reasonable to feel that the powers that be at EA see this as too much effort for too little gain and crucially they seek to appease the core male dominated consumers of their product. Even if a significant amount of players are neutral to the idea could a perceived hostility be enough to shut it down at EA? I think that's possible.

There is sexism in all facets of our lives and that extends to the treatment and attitude to women who play football...I don't think FIFA players / consumers are immune from that. Perhaps my analysis of the reasons we won't see this is too far reaching...but I don't think so.

I was only talking about the people in this thread. Obviously I can't speak for everyone who plays a FIFA game.
I don't think a company like EA would be intimidated out of implementing something like this because there are assholes who play their games.

In fact, if they want that good PR they would benefit from I would think they would do it especially when some people show themselves to be sexists.

You're missing my point...

That may very well be. Care to explain it to me then?

 

[HarryKS]

There are female players in the NHL games?

What?

 

[cyber_ninja]

It should be a separate entry imo.

 

[sunnz]

I'd rather fifa 16 have some meaningless new addition that really is any different to the year before than something actually new.

Spoiler

sarcasm, wouldn't mind this, could help promote female football too!

 

[BKK]

Not that impressive if you take the average.

National Women's Soccer League 2013/2014: 4,137 (108 matches)
Conference Premier 2012/2013*: 1,849 (552 matches)

Don't get me wrong, looking closer at the numbers (league size, lowest/highest attendance) I'd still say those are disappointing numbers for the biggest women's league, but it's not as ridiculous as you're trying to paint it. I mean, looking at the total numbers you'd think MLB was by far the biggest league in the world. It's just not quite that simple.

*Couldn't find the average attendance anywhere. Assuming your numbers are correct, we're talking about ~1,864 average attendance.

Here, although this one gives an ever so slight difference of 1,866. I see the NWSL season I used is out of date as 2014 has finished now.

As you point out, the number of teams does make a difference, as many will be the same repeat fans attending. It's impossible to say how many unique fans attend a league in a season, so for simplicity's sake let's assume that the same people attend each match.

National Conference: 24 x 1,864 = 44,736
National Women's Soccer League: 9 x 4,146 = 37,314

So the argument could be made that the number of fans aren't that far behind the English fifth tier (although I would suspect that the far larger number of games in the Conference would result in more opportunities for non-regular fans to attend, resulting in a bigger increase of unique fans).

As someone else pointed out, this petition would probably be better targeted at Football Manager, which already includes smaller leagues than the NWSL.

 

[Goliz]

I would rather see a female Link saving prince Zelda.

I mean... EA was so lazy they didnt add the Brazilian teams in the latest game and im sure Fifa is the only game you can count on BR's buying.

 

[Vermillion]

Realistically speaking, it's probably a terrible idea.

There isn't much of a market, for one.

For two, a women's game would have to play much differently than a men's game, especially based on the actual state of women's soccer. It could be argued that it would be a less enjoyable game than the men's version, actually.

For three, there's no evidence that a women's soccer game will attract more women.

On the more optimistic side:

I know a decent amount of people that have gotten into soccer because they played FIFA. Ideally, a women's FIFA could bring much more attention to women's soccer.

Two, perhaps the state of women's soccer is due to it's lack of popularity. If you're selecting from a small pool of women, it's natural that you may not have the most talented people. If the game can inspire women to play soccer, it could cause greater talent to appear, which would improve women's soccer. This isn't to say that it would be like the men's game, but perhaps it could develop in a direction that is equally as good, yet different.

But the two optimistic points aren't guaranteeing a good women's game, or even one that sells; rather, they rely on the hope that women's soccer will be improved some years down the line as the result of this game's effort.

That hope could be worth it, but the odds are that it wouldn't be.

 

[Ostinatto]

I'd rather fifa 16 have some meaningless new addition that really is any different to the year before than something actually new.

Spoiler

sarcasm, wouldn't mind this, could help promote female football too!

if they are going to spend resources in making new players ,i would prefer if they make better faces.

Look how they massacred my boy !!
Poor Gary...T.T

 

[Mushroomer25]

Licensing costs for player likenesses, teams and everything else is not insignificant. And it'd still take months and months of dev time.

It certainly wouldn't be an insigifigant feature to add, but I have no doubt that EA has the resources - and has very little else to add to the base game. They could get the licensing for almost nothing, and would only have to expand their existing motion capture sessions to include notable female players. EA has made bigger deals out of far more insignificant feature adds to Fifa than a women's league.

 

[entremet]

In terms of the bigger picture this is were women also need to support their own sports. Men support male sports pretty well. so they're catered to.

But when you get into women's leagues in general, attendance has always been issue.

It's not like there are more men than women, men as cohort, are just very dedicated to male sports leagues.

One could also say that male sports have a huge start. But EA, being a corporation, will only do things that makes sense to their bottom line.

I would like to see more representation personally, but EA and other companies are going need to see more real world data--because companies don't make decisions like these without data--on female fandom for female pro sports leagues.

As noble as the cause may seem, the world of business is ruled by the power of the dollar. Personally, I'm not opposed and would think it would be a great idea, but remember EA will need to feel like it's worth their investment. Unless you want them go the cheap route and use altered male models for the female polygonal players.

 

[valeo]

It certainly wouldn't be an insigifigant feature to add, but I have no doubt that EA has the resources - and has very little else to add to the base game. They could get the licensing for almost nothing, and would only have to expand their existing motion capture sessions to include notable female players. EA has made bigger deals out of far more insignificant feature adds to Fifa than a women's league.

I agree it would be a nice thing to have - but I can also see why they don't do it. If I was the CEO of EA, I would not look at something that would cost a lot of money and almost certainly never make it back and think 'that's a good idea'.

 

[PdotMichael]

In terms of the bigger picture this is were women also need to support their own sports. Men support male sports pretty well. so they're catered to.

But when you get into women's leagues in general, attendance has always been issue.

It's not like there are more men than women, men as cohort, as just very dedicated to male sports.

It's not really a men vs. women thing. Outside of the fact that general more men are interested in watching sports, I think even women watch rather men sports because its plain better. People are watching sports for entertainment and not for any political and social reasons.

I know several female supporters of my football club who don't care about our women's football team.

 

[Mushroomer25]

I agree it would be a nice thing to have - but I can also see why they don't do it. If I was the CEO of EA, I would not look at something that would cost a lot of money and almost certainly never make it back and think 'that's a good idea'.

It's FIFA. They could update next-to-nothing in a yearly installment and sell just as many as last year - as long as the league is still popular in major markets. I don't think adding a women's league will detract from sales, as long as the base game is still solid.

 

[treemasterx]

Well if there were woman football teams added to FIFA 16, the american players would actually be good.

 

[Squirrel Killer]

If larger markets were a priority, why are they even bother making the smaller teams? No one is saying they should have every single female team in the game. They can consider making a small DLC pack and see how the market responds to it. I'd also argue that the positive PR will far outweigh those development costs in the long run anyways. From reading this thread; most of the replies are not even looking for any alternate ways to go about it or even give it a consideration.

Because to add a low level men's team, it's probably just an intern sitting with an Excel sheet adding rosters and assigning rankings and generic player models. At a bare minimum, to add a women's team you have to do that plus make new player models.

And again, I'm not against it and would love to see it, I just don't see how it makes business sense for EA to do it. I'd argue that the positive PR will be minimal and risks turning into bad PR if there's some sort of unintentional glitch that make the female players look bad.

 

[HighResTomato]

This isn't going to happen simply because why would EA pay for more licensing of player no one has ever heard about?

 

[entremet]

It's not really a men vs. women thing. Outside of the fact that general more men are interested in watching sports, I think even women watch rather men sports because its plain better. People are watching sports for entertainment and not for any political and social reasons.

I know several female supporters of my football club who don't care about our women's football team.

I never said it was a men's versus women thing.

I was illustrating the fact, if women aren't going to support women's pro sport leagues, who is? And since these leagues are not as well supported, that would make it harder to obtain licensing partners, such as video games.

 

[jts]

Interesting idea.

Where's my fucking futsal/five-a-side though. Fifa would win me over with that. To think they had it in 97...

 

[Crash55118]

Outside of Olympic games, is the UFC the only sports game to feature licensed female athletes?

I can't imagine the licensing being too crazy for EA, it would be a good move in terms of visibility. It seems unlikely to happen because of market realities, and the visibility of the sport, but I guess I could say the same thing about Womens MMA, and the prevalence before and after. It seems like there was 2 or 3 big Strikeforce matches before Dana White saw room for expansion and a bigger wallet.

I watch soccer/football fairly casually, and is it the case that people would rather watch/play the 3/4th tier athletes and their teams vs the top Women's Clubs, or is it simply FIFA players attachment to a local club that pushes those leagues into the games?

I guess I'd love to see more weird outliers in games, or super robust in game tools so fans could create their own leagues/rule sets etc. I'd love a way to somehow change a bunch of rules in madden to make the game more fun, or even something as simple as replicating Candien rules.

 

[valeo]

It's FIFA. They could update next-to-nothing in a yearly installment and sell just as many as last year - as long as the league is still popular in major markets. I don't think adding a women's league will detract from sales, as long as the base game is still solid.

Sure, if all they want to do is slap 'Womens League' on the back cover and appease the people who are complaining. I would argue that is even worse than not having it at all, though, as it would not be done properly - there would be no player likenesses, no proper stats, no motion capture etc. You might as well just create your own players in the Pro mode.

 

[HolyBaikal]

I like women's sports.

I might actually play a sports game if they had women's football.

 

[PdotMichael]

I never said it was a men's versus women thing.

I was illustrating the fact, if women aren't going to support women's pro sport leagues, who is? And since these leagues are not as well supported, that would make it harder to obtain licensing partners, such as video games.

You are talking about women must support their "own sports" but why should women be forced to support an inferior product?

 

[Lothars]

You are talking about women must support their "own sports" but why should women be forced to support an inferior product?

nobody is forcing anyone to support them, what he's say is if almost nobody supports them than how can companies like ea justify to add them into the game? If they end up adding women by getting the models and licenses to the game hopefully they will make money back for it and increase popularity but it needs to be proven to ea as well.

 

[ttech10]

if i can't name any player, Why Bother?

I can't name a single character in any anime show, so why bother making anime based video games or continue making anime at all?

That's some pretty awful logic*.

*That's if it can even be called logic at all.

 

[entremet]

You are talking about women must support their "own sports" but why should women be forced to support an inferior product?

nobody is forcing anyone to support them, what he's say is if almost nobody supports them than how can companies like ea justify to add them into the game? If they end up adding women by getting the models and licenses to the game hopefully they will make money back for it and increase popularity but it needs to be proven to ea as well.

Yep. Thanks.

 

[HolyBaikal]

You know, it seems like there are a lot of people on NeoGAF who are into sports.

I've never really been into sports. But I like women's sports. Maybe one of the reasons I'm not very into most sports is because they're so focused on male athletes.

 

[entremet]

You know, it seems like there are a lot of people on NeoGAF who are into sports.

I've never really been into sports. But I like women's sports. Maybe one of the reasons I'm not very into most sports is because they're so focused on male athletes.

Do you like basketball? You can try the WNBA. Or women's college basketball. Both of those sports get airtime on cable.

 

[gai_shain]

It's FIFA. They could update next-to-nothing in a yearly installment and sell just as many as last year - as long as the league is still popular in major markets. I don't think adding a women's league will detract from sales, as long as the base game is still solid.

nobody thinks sales will decrease because of that, but if the sales stay the same as every year and they spend another x amount of dollars on that, they might not make that investment back

 

[DiscoJer]

Outside of Olympic games, is the UFC the only sports game to feature licensed female athletes?

Danica Patrick? She was in some kart game, I think. I dunno if they actually make NASCAR games anymore.

 

[Madness]

EA isn't in the business of social change, they're in it to make cold hard cash. FIFA is now their dominant sports game. It outsells and makes more money than NHL and Madden combined worldwide.

Adding women's football/soccer is such a non-factor in terms of added sales or profits. Those who want to buy the game will do so and those who don't, won't. Instead, these people would rather they not only pay tons of money for licenses, but also spend significantly more hours not only modeling female players who have a slightly different look, but motion capture etc.

EA is a nickel and dimes company. So the only way to get any change is to vote with your wallet. People had long wanted the women's hockey leagues and players in the NHL games, instead, they just let you create a woman player. Maybe they can do that for FIFA as well.