Opinions on The Allblacks and Austrailia not being licensed in the game ?

[raziel_eire]

I'm concerned about it too and I have no affiliation with NZ or Aus.

I still want my games of rugby to be as realistic as possible in terms of the players on each team (whether the team is referred to as New Zealand or the All Blacks etc doesn't bother me).
If I'm playing against NZ, I want to see Dan Carter knocking consistently punishing me over any infringements I might make, not some random. The same goes for the other 14 and replacement players. This is the World Cup, so I want it to feel like it - which means playing matches against the same players who will feature in the WC.

I'm still living in hope that there are either correct player likenesses out of position or in the greater squad selection pool that can be edited to reflect (even slightly closely) the correct NZ and Aus (and anyone else unlicensed) line-ups.

What's the word on the player creator that was in previous ***les, has it been totally ripped out this time round and all we have is the editor?

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I'm concerned about it too and I have no affiliation with NZ or Aus.

I still want my games of rugby to be as realistic as possible in terms of the players on each team (whether the team is referred to as New Zealand or the All Blacks etc doesn't bother me).
If I'm playing against NZ, I want to see Dan Carter knocking consistently punishing me over any infringements I might make, not some random. The same goes for the other 14 and replacement players. This is the World Cup, so I want it to feel like it - which means playing matches against the same players who will feature in the WC.

I'm still living in hope that there are either correct player likenesses out of position or in the greater squad selection pool that can be edited to reflect (even slightly closely) the correct NZ and Aus (and anyone else unlicensed) line-ups.

What's the word on the player creator that was in previous ***les, has it been totally ripped out this time round and all we have is the editor?

I'm with you on all you said raziel! Check getofmelands review. It seems marginally better than the grimmest of news, but there are still a couple of minor details I've asked about in my reply to it. I've my fingers and toes crossed.

 

[raziel_eire]

review is up? damn, missed that - reading now!

 

[Duckdee]

The unions won't understand or learn from mistakes. They're all still run by the insular old farts, living in the amateur era.

Well, they can't live forever...can they? :huh:

 

[TRF_woosaah]

What I dont understand is when Codemasters had the ICC World Cup cricket license they were able to use all the real players and names. but when they played just general tornaments with these players (who wearnt licensed, i think only England and Australia were licensed) they played with just random names, or names close to the counterpart (but still used the likenesses i think) why cant RWC do the same? Can the IRB not give the All Blacks and Wallabies IP for the World Cup like the ICC? if not why not, and why does it work the other way.

I know its all in the legal terminologies and such but its the consumer that is missing out.

 

[spies8]

What I dont understand is when Codemasters had the ICC World Cup cricket license they were able to use all the real players and names. but when they played just general tornaments with these players (who wearnt licensed, i think only England and Australia were licensed) they played with just random names, or names close to the counterpart (but still used the likenesses i think) why cant RWC do the same? Can the IRB not give the All Blacks and Wallabies IP for the World Cup like the ICC? if not why not, and why does it work the other way.

I know its all in the legal terminologies and such but its the consumer that is missing out.

i agree. its going to be hard to play if all the big names like Dan Carter ect are not in the game.

 

[Boschi1012]

that just sucks i doubt they'll do it

 

[TheBokke]

Well I completely understand that HB have a budget and Sidhe tied up the rights to All Blacks and the Wallabies, but I feel that AJ reasoning that in making sure that all players from unlicensed nations will not resemble their players is a cop out.

Many sports games have not had the names or the player likeness in cut scenes, however in game you can normally tell that it is the player. This would at least compensate for not having names or official branding and most people would be able to stomach this.

However not to have any resemblance to the players in game is tragic! Pretty tough that we cant play against New Zealand or Oz. Before anyone gets all jumpy, I will definitely be buying the game and game-play is the most important aspect full stop! However this is pretty disappointing.

 

[kovana]

This is strange... Since its the OFFICIAL Rugby World Cup Game in association with the IRB. The teams should at least have some similarity to the real teams in the RWC... in regards to names, faces, etc.. Dissappointing to say the least.

Does this mean i will be playing the Samoan team with absolutely fake players who have NO resemblance to the real players..

NOOOOoOOOOoooo..

Anyways... Still a couple of months.. Cmon HB.. ask IRB to pull some strings.. Please.. Its only the RWC. No club teams are involved.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

We don't know whether Samoa will be licensed, yet - still more announcements to come so there's a good chance they will be

 

[kovana]

Lets hope so.... What would be flash is if they could have licensed all the NATIONAL teams in the IRB... and the majority of IRB tournaments.. The PNC.. The European Cup.. As well as all the nations in the Qualifiers... Ok.. Perhaps a bit too far..

Hopefully a '4 nations' and a 'European Championship' (6 nations)..

 

[spies8]

What I dont get is why HB cannot make the players look like the ones in real life and then let us change the names in the game. I will be so happy if HB done this but its a strong posibility they wont.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

This is strange... Since its the OFFICIAL Rugby World Cup Game in association with the IRB. The teams should at least have some similarity to the real teams in the RWC... in regards to names, faces, etc.. Dissappointing to say the least.

Does this mean i will be playing the Samoan team with absolutely fake players who have NO resemblance to the real players..

NOOOOoOOOOoooo..

Anyways... Still a couple of months.. Cmon HB.. ask IRB to pull some strings.. Please.. Its only the RWC. No club teams are involved.

I've got my fingers crossed for you Samoan guys too.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

I'll remove my post here too, due to someone rightly removing the earlier post of RedRoseDave. Good work.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Come on now, at least keep it the relevent places! This is for talking Bout the game, not what may or may not happen in the world cup

Also, that whole 'NZ are chokers' thing gets right on my wick these days!
NZ 1st XV tomorrow would see England beaten, easy as

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk

 

[nadoss]

it doesn't bother me much, but i just don't get why they aren't in the game. Maybe being from the United States where games actually have all the teams and players (except for college games, who dont have names for players, just numbers) no matter what, I'm spoiled, but it just doesn't make any sense to me why they can't let more than one game have the names of a team that is shown on TV in multiple countries every time they play

 

[RoosTah]

it doesn't bother me much, but i just don't get why they aren't in the game. Maybe being from the United States where games actually have all the teams and players (except for college games, who dont have names for players, just numbers) no matter what, I'm spoiled, but it just doesn't make any sense to me why they can't let more than one game have the names of a team that is shown on TV in multiple countries every time they play

It doesn't make sense to a lot of us... particularly given Rugby is a small sport in reality and needs as much exposure as it can get. You'd think the major Unions would be eager to see their official teams in as many games as possible as it raises awareness of them - it's basically advertising for them.

 

[TRF C A Iversen]

It doesn't make sense to a lot of us... particularly given Rugby is a small sport in reality and needs as much exposure as it can get. You'd think the major Unions would be eager to see their official teams in as many games as possible as it raises awareness of them - it's basically advertising for them.

I've been doing a think on this, and the only real hope for the future in this regard is co-ordinating an extremely large number of rugby fans to converge on this issue and basically mass email our unions and then also send a representative statement from that group to the IRB.

The basic point of it would be to request the elimination of exclusive licenses.

Somehow the point must get through to them that game developers will still want to use their licenses without them being exclusive and are likely to pay pretty much as much for those licences. If they don't, another developer will.

I can't imagine a developer walking away from Rugby just because the licenses aren't exclusive. It would be a solid indication to these unions and the IRB that the developers do not have the confidence in their own product for it to stand on it's merits without exclusivity.

I personally feel that the rugby unions commercially only have a limited understanding of exclusivity, in that usually their brands are associated in an exclusive agreement with a specific product (a single clothing manufacturer, a single type of food product etc).

This is different with games as the unions or teams are unfortunately unavoidably linked to other teams being associated with the game. If they are not the product suffers. So exclusivity negatively reflects back on the union in that they are associated with an incomplete product.

I think we'd need a really large group of fans to pull that off though. Worldwide maybe 20-30,000? I'd take a hell of a facebook campaign going through the next 2-3 years to do something.

Would it be worth it though?

 

[RoosTah]

I've been doing a think on this, and the only real hope for the future in this regard is co-ordinating an extramely large number of rugby fans to converge on this issue and basically mass email our unions and then also send a representative statement from that group to the IRB.

The basic point of it would be to request the elimination of exclusive licenses.

Somehow the point must get through to them that game developers will still want to use their licenses without them being exclusive and are likely to pay pretty much as much for those licences. If they don't, another developer will.

I can't imagine a developer walking away from Rugby just because the licenses aren't exclusive. It would be a solid indication to these unions and the IRB that the developers do not have the confidence in their own product for it to stand on it's merits without exclusivity.

I personally feel that the rugby unions commercially only have a limited understanding of exclusivity, in that usually their brands are associated in an exclusive agreement with a specific product (a single clothing manufacturer, a single type of food product etc).

This is different with games as the unions or teams are unfortunately unavoidably linked to other teams being associated with the game. If they are not the product suffers. So exclusivity negatively reflects back on the union in that they are associated with an incomplete product.

I think we'd need a really large group of fans to pull that off though. Worldwide maybe 20-30,000? I'd take a hell of a facebook campaign going through the next 2-3 years to do something.

Would it be worth it though?

I imagine it would be a numbers game... I contacted the NRL with a summarised version of an article I wrote about the benefits of the medium and argued that it would be in their interest to become actively involved in the funding and production of the next Rugby League game as part of multifaceted marketing campaign aimed at regaining ground from the AFL and pushing into other parts of Australia. Unfortunately they replied with a simple "thank you for your interest in the NRL, we will consider your suggestions".

Had my email been buffeted by 30,000 signatures they may well have taken it more seriously.

But yes, I agree that the Unions largely do not understand the marketing potential of the medium and are losing out by supporting exclusive licensing. There's got to be a marketing PhD out there somewhere that proves the Premier League and NFL fan base has increased world-wide as a result of the FIFA and Madden games... Just need to find it lol.

 

[Hatch87]

Isn't this the first time a licence has been exclusive? The last time two Rugby Developers were going was with HB and Swordfish. World Championship Rugby had all 20 teams and included Six nations and Tri nations. At the same time HB had out Rugby 2004 which also had the same 20 international teams.