Hi folks, welcome to the forums. My name is Rob Hyder and I am the lead producer for EA SPORTS MMA. First off let me say to you who have already posted, thanks for coming onboard and we have been reading everything you have put up there. To any of you out there reading the forums, who have not yet spoken up, come on in the waters fine. As a matter of fact the game team is ready to join you. Over the next few weeks and months the team will become a regular presence on the site. We will be bringing you more information on our game, talking (arguing?) about the latest fights going on in the MMA world, answering your questions (where we can), and generally mixing it up. We love the sport, we have been eager to start talking about what we are doing, and we are looking forward to hearing your ideas and telling you some of ours.

So….. people tell me that you might be interested in knowing something about the folks that are building the game. “Rob why don’t you put together a bio for posting on the forum” I believe was the exact advice I was given. Here goes nothing.

So I am the “old guy” on the team. I have been playing video games since the dawn of the modern era (Day 1 of Pong) and I haven’t stopped playing yet. I have also played a great number of paper and pencil RPG’s, Avalon Hill and other board games, card games, and yes I have been known to throw some dice at a casino now and again. I started off life as an engineer/programmer before moving over to the dark side of management. While at Tiburon I have amassed “The Best Education That Money Can’t Buy”™ having worked in a variety of different areas in a number of different roles. I ran what we call a central technology team, project managed the PS3 launch of Madden ’07, ran our football gameplay team, and then got my dream job of doing this. I believe in spectacular gameplay, perfecting things rather than throwing the kitchen sink at a problem, authenticity where it does not compromise gameplay, and iteration as the way to find the fun.

On a personal level, yes that door thing was me, I do talk like a pirate a lot, I annoy my kids by being goofy, and I sometime go by the moniker “Kingpin”. I love the atmosphere of Japanese MMA, I respect what the UFC has done for the sport over here, Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell was amazing, and Spencer Fisher’s “walk off” flying knee against Matt Wiman makes me chuckle every time I see it (I just checked to make sure).

That’s probably enough. Once again thanks for your passion, excitement, critiques, and suggestions. We will keep reading, keep posting, and make you the best MMA game you have ever seen. Later.

Welcome to the forums, I can see this becoming one of the most passionate communities in EA History. I can't wait to here more on this title.

Congrats on signing Fedor. Is he a god-mode character, though? He is in real life...

You guys have to check out this guys work hopefully you pick him up for your dev team. If not have you guys tried this game I highly recommend it, it will give you guys excellent ideas for the single player portion just in case the online portion bombs like THQs did you will have a deep Single Player mode.

World of Mixed Martial Arts 2 Features

* Highly detailed fighters, with a multitude of statistics covering all major elements of MMA from striking to jiu jitsu
* Advanced play-by-play engine where the player can watch fights unfold in real time via detailed commentary
* In-game web site keeps you up to date on all the happenings around the game world
* Deal with injuries, fight refusals, upsets, money wrangles and more
* High pressure contract negotiations with fighters; will you play it safe or call his bluff
* Automatic archiving keeps track of details on every fight that happens in the game world
* Full detailed and intuitive game editor allows in-depth customization
* And much more

You mentioned Scott Smith and Pete Sell , dont forget recently Diego Sanchez and Clay Guidia i think they will get fight of the year it was a total war i wish all the fighters had the mentality and heart as those two warriors.

Thanks geraldvilloria. Appreciate it. It was an exciting day here when it happened.

In real life I think Fedor is an exceptional fighter who poses a lot of problems for anyone he fights. For a heavyweight he is very very fast on the ground. We have talked with people who have rolled with him and its his speed that blows them away.

From a striking point of view he is patient, can take a punch and is willing to do so (look at his face after Hong Man Choi), and he has the skills to set things up and then execute them. That punch on Arlovski's superman shot was not the first time in that fight he tried to lure him and catch him. If you know striking go back and look at the fight and you can see him miss at least one other time when he lured Andrei in from long range.

He is a very smart fighter and in the real world you had better either be really really at the top of your game or get very very lucky to beat him.

A great fight too SINISTER_1. I swear Guida is a machine. The Sell/Smith fight was funny at first with all of the high-fiving but that last shot from Smith was one I will always remember. I think it is those iconic moments like that punch that stand out to me even more than great wars like the ones that Guida has been involved in. If Guida could finish a good fighter he would have the complete package going for him. Too many of his fights go to the judges though.

Scott Smith is the Rocky Balboa of MMA, his fight with Benji Radach is one i will always remember and his fight with Nick Diaz where Diaz used his face as a punching bag was insane, all i can say whenever Scott Smith is fighting i will be watching.

Rob, did you do any work at or for EALA?

Also the Sell/Smith fight was pretty amazing. That shot just came out of nowhere.

cem_ea_id.DirrtyBird wrote:Rob, did you do any work at or for EALA?

Also the Sell/Smith fight was pretty amazing. That shot just came out of nowhere.

Nope, nothing out of LA. I am creditted in the PS2 Sims game The Urbz out of Maxis but the work I did on that was here at Tiburon. My other credits include Madden 06 X360, 07 PS3, 08, 09, NCAA Football 08 and 09, and NASCAR SimRacing 05.

Is there another Rob out there?

easw.EA_RobHyder wrote:

cem_ea_id.DirrtyBird wrote:Rob, did you do any work at or for EALA?

Also the Sell/Smith fight was pretty amazing. That shot just came out of nowhere.

Nope, nothing out of LA. I am creditted in the PS2 Sims game The Urbz out of Maxis but the work I did on that was here at Tiburon. My other credits include Madden 06 X360, 07 PS3, 08, 09, NCAA Football 08 and 09, and NASCAR SimRacing 05.

Is there another Rob out there?

Possibly. I am not too sure since this was about 2 years ago. When i worked for EALA I think their might have been someone with the same name or close to it. Your name just sounded really familiar.

Good Luck on the Game Rob. I know you guys will do a great job.

I look forward to seeing what talent you guys bring in from Japan, as well as hopefully from Europe.

Hi,
I think it's great that the games developers are taking time to look through here to see what the consumers want.

I know this might be the wrong topic but I would like to see a few things in this game which are as follows;

For the Create-a-Fighter mode, along side photo game face, I would like to see more options to edit the fighters face as I have neither xbox live or an xbox cam. This could be modelled on the create-a-player mode on fifa 09. I would like to see a wider selection of bodies which don't just have the option of ripped or soft like in fight night. Perhaps a slider would be useful here. Also I would like unlimited points to use on a character. I think this is important when trying to recreate fighters not in the game, and for online the stats are levelled.

For legacy mode I would like to see it similar to fight night except without the training mini-games. I find this mini-games tedious and hard to master. You could gain points for your attributes by good performances in the ring, or by good old fashioned sparring. One other problem with fight night in this regard is how some points drop when you do certain training, I find this completely unrealistic. Also your fighter should become a top fighter with high stats around 15-20 fights. Despite these few points, I think fight night round 4's legacy mode is a good starting point when creating MMA's legacy mode. Also you should have more options outside the fight, like publicity shoots, and the ability to either talk smack or praise fighters before and after the fight. Your popularity should not be based on fighting performance alone. Also I think 100 percent popularity should be unobtainable, but you should be able to compare popularity with other ranked fighters.

For the gameplay, I would like to see the striking as smooth as fight night round 4. As for the ground game, take a look at UFC Undisputed's and you will quickly see it is way too robotic and far from realistic in terms of transitions. It should be smoother, but also when transitioning you should not be able to go straight from one position to another, you should have to do it in multiple stages, and if you do not complete the transition fast enough your opponent should have a chance for an easy reversal or if they do not take this oppurtunity fast enough, just return to the previous position. For striking, obviously a shot to the head will do a lot of damage, and so will a well placed body shot along with a dent in the fighters stamina, but with for example a leg kick, this should reduce A players strength and speed with this leg. Damage to different parts of the body should have different effects. Also instead of just being rocked when your health is low, you should just slowly and progressively get slower, instead of having all the speed one minute and then being sluggish and near useless the next.

I would also like to see several rule sets along with the ability to use your own, custom rules along with the option to use a cage or ring.

Thats all i can think of for now.

Thanks for your time, it is much appreciated.

Elliot

easw.EA_RobHyder wrote:Hi folks, welcome to the forums. My name is Rob Hyder and I am the lead producer for EA SPORTS MMA. First off let me say to you who have already posted, thanks for coming onboard and we have been reading everything you have put up there. To any of you out there reading the forums, who have not yet spoken up, come on in the waters fine. As a matter of fact the game team is ready to join you. Over the next few weeks and months the team will become a regular presence on the site. We will be bringing you more information on our game, talking (arguing?) about the latest fights going on in the MMA world, answering your questions (where we can), and generally mixing it up. We love the sport, we have been eager to start talking about what we are doing, and we are looking forward to hearing your ideas and telling you some of ours.

So….. people tell me that you might be interested in knowing something about the folks that are building the game. “Rob why don’t you put together a bio for posting on the forum” I believe was the exact advice I was given. Here goes nothing.

So I am the “old guy” on the team. I have been playing video games since the dawn of the modern era (Day 1 of Pong) and I haven’t stopped playing yet. I have also played a great number of paper and pencil RPG’s, Avalon Hill and other board games, card games, and yes I have been known to throw some dice at a casino now and again. I started off life as an engineer/programmer before moving over to the dark side of management. While at Tiburon I have amassed “The Best Education That Money Can’t Buy”™ having worked in a variety of different areas in a number of different roles. I ran what we call a central technology team, project managed the PS3 launch of Madden ’07, ran our football gameplay team, and then got my dream job of doing this. I believe in spectacular gameplay, perfecting things rather than throwing the kitchen sink at a problem, authenticity where it does not compromise gameplay, and iteration as the way to find the fun.

On a personal level, yes that door thing was me, I do talk like a pirate a lot, I annoy my kids by being goofy, and I sometime go by the moniker “Kingpin”. I love the atmosphere of Japanese MMA, I respect what the UFC has done for the sport over here, Scott Smith vs. Pete Sell was amazing, and Spencer Fisher’s “walk off” flying knee against Matt Wiman makes me chuckle every time I see it (I just checked to make sure).

That’s probably enough. Once again thanks for your passion, excitement, critiques, and suggestions. We will keep reading, keep posting, and make you the best MMA game you have ever seen. Later.

Watch out for this guy. Don't let him behind you for the silver hand move or you will be out for the count. I couldn't agree more with your kitchen sink philosohy, it seems to be a common problem in games today.

sick!