The demarcation between time spent at work and time spent fooling around with your online Madden league may be getting a bit hazy. This is just one of many goals of EA Sports World, a site dedicated to enriching your console gaming experience, even when not in front of a console. We had a chance to catch up with Mike Blank, the producer of EA Sports World, to find out how the site will enrich sports gaming and where the site is ultimately headed.
SportsGamer: What type of a sports gaming audience (beginner, casual, competitive head-to-head, competitive online, hardcore) is Sports World directed at? If more than one… describe the feature on Sports World that would enrich the gaming experience for that particular gaming sect.Mike Blank: Our current aim is to capture our core - the competitive online and hardcore sports gamers. By allowing our gamers to showcase their skills and talents through such features as in depth statistical tracking, in-game accomplishments or video uploads directly from gameplay, you are able to become a star within the community. Gamers will be able to have a collection of all their EA SPORTS efforts that will live with them from game to game, year to year, as a persistent record of their ‘career’. EA SPORTS World will continue to evolve to extend the gaming experience through such features as Online Leagues and Online Team Play Clubs which will allow EA SPORTS gamers to join, participate and manage their league or club from the web. As we develop these features, we are defining how the more casual consumer can become part of the EA SPORTS World experience and the foundation is already built to enable this through Video Uploads, news headlines from ESPN, as well as features like messaging, mini-feeds and EA SPORTS World Friends which encourage social interaction around EA SPORTS.
There are a number of features today like Paint Booth (part of NASCAR where you can create a custom car online and download to the game) and coming features like Boxer Share in Facebreaker (use Photo Game Face and create player functionality and upload to EA SPORTS World to share your favorite boxers) which provide tools for users to build and share content online that can customize and extend how they play the game.
SG: As online sports gaming indoctrinates more of an MMO experience (like an extension of Be A Pro), how will Sports World accommodate and enrich this form of gaming? MB: EA Sports World plans to be at the forefront of this sports gaming trend and are looking into features that extend Be A Pro and Online Team Play towards MMO style play. Having the unique ability to operate across title and platform and tie the web and game together translates directly into the concept of the MMO experience by allowing our gamers to build and develop their identity and career over time. We are in the planning stages now for a number of features that will drive and serve as the genesis for MMO type experiences.
SG: What tools will be available (or currently are) to manage in-game franchises and leagues–both online and offline- from Sports World? When will these features be introduced?MB: In-game franchise management from the web is definitely part of the plan. For example, our users are telling us that getting NCAA Football Online Dynasty on the web is a must. It’s clear that the web is an amazing tool to provide this. The ability to browse and review dynasty data from the web is a very compelling opportunity. We’re listening to this and are planning to deliver this kind of experience in the future. As I stated earlier, we are working on plans now to offer online leagues for the web. When the plans are finalized I would be happy to share what the experience will be and when it will be live.
SG: The EA Sports website formerly feature a Madden tool called Gamecast which would track statistics from every online game played. Are there plans to reinstitute a feature such as this on Sports World (including the breadth of statistics found in Gamecast)? How will a feature such as this be extended in the future? Will you be able to use a feature such as this to scout opponents in a meaningful way?MB: We recently looked at the Gamecast feature because of the way in which it tracked and displayed statistical data. We know that we need to provide tools to allow users to scout and track their opponents as well as assess their own performance. Our first goal is to introduce Online Leagues and Online Team Play Clubs. These features will definitely evolve to a place where scouting becomes an integral part of the experience. We’re talking about how to integrate something like Gamecast with spectator functionality so you could see a 3D review of the game along with the in-depth statistical tracking offered by Gamecast. This full package is new territory and may take some time to perfect. Once Online Leagues and Online Team Play Clubs are extended to the web, a feature like Gamecast is not far off. We encourage all gamers to feedback to EA SPORTS World through messages or blogs telling us what you would like to see on the site. We want gamers to help shape the future of EA SPORTS World so that we are able to offer the best possible sports gaming experience.
SG: Will Sports World act as a means for the community to interact directly with the game developers and how so?MB: Most definitely. We aim to increase the visibility we have with our consumers. Two-way, open and transparent communication is absolutely necessary. EA is entering new territory here and something that I have been pushing for is the opportunity for our producers, designers and developers to interact directly with the users of the games they work on. They are being encouraged to say what they think in an unfiltered but professional manner. EA SPORTS World will be the place for EA employees to blog, answer questions and respond to community questions. Producers, designers and developers will write into EA SPORTS World to discuss aspects of their game such as why certain choices were made or what differences we can expect for the new titles. As the developers have an EA SPORTS World identity, gamers will know immediately when an EA SPORTS World employee is online. We encourage our users to write in and suggest how they might want to interact with our development teams.
By the way, if you check out EA SPORTS World now, you’ll see this kind of communication has already started.
SG: Will Sports World act as a medium for EA gaming events/contests? Will these be tied to real sports events and to what extent?MB: Yes, we will be featuring events and competitions on EA SPORTS World in the near future, including everything from game tournaments to video competitions. The details of this are still being defined but we can expect that real world events will be a major focus for the nature of the contests. I can tell you today that contests and competitions will become a regular part of EA SPORTS World and this will start occurring within the next six months.
SG: What games are currently supported on Sports World and will NFL Head Coach be supported?MB: We are currently supporting NCAA Football, Madden NFL, FIFA, NASCAR and EURO and will be supporting Facebreaker, Fight Night, NBA Live, NCAA March Madness, Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and NHL soon. And yes, we will be supporting NFL Head Coach. The goal is create an EA SPORTS World experience for every EA SPORTS game.
SG: Where is Sports World going—what is the end goal of a site such as this?MB: There are three overarching goals:
• Extend the game experience beyond the packaged product – We want to provide our gamers the opportunity to be able to experience their favorite EA SPORTS title from anywhere and everywhere. As EA SPORTS World evolves, this means everything from checking your clubs latest score on your mobile phone to running a league player draft from your desk while you’re at work.
• Create the premier community for EA SPORTS fans – What good are all these exciting features if you cannot find the right people to play against? Creating the platform for sports gamers to connect and interact with one another is critical to developing a fun online experience. Becoming the premier EA SPORTS community means providing this rich environment of social interaction. It also means giving gamers a say about what they want in EA SPORTS games and providing them with direct access to EA SPORTS developers to be able to express their views.
• Become the online source for people who love gaming and sports – We aim to offer the total sports experience from game news, content and experiences (e.g. Online Leagues) but also connecting this to the real world. In the end, most people who play sports games are also fans of sport. We will be building experiences that become the true intersection of EA SPORTS games and the real world of sport through competitions, editorial content, and beyond.
We look forward to hearing your views about the content of this interview so please join EA SPORTS World now and tell us!
Thanks!
Subject: EaSportsWorld.com 
