Enter the Dugout of MVP Baseball 2004 with EA Sports Producers - Part I

By Michael Lafferty

“…if you ask anybody who’s developed a baseball game they will tell you it’s probably the toughest sport to do justice to in a video game”

Editor’s note: This is the first in a multipart interview about EA Sports MVP Baseball 2004

Can you feel it? It’s getting so close!

What does this date signify to you – March 30?

If you don’t know, chances are you are not a die-hard, dyed-in-the-wool, hardcore baseball fan. Tuesday, March 30 is opening day – New York Yankees versus the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, A-Rod in pinstripes.

Baseball fans are gearing up for yet another season, hopes ride high (even for Cub fans, who are ever hopeful but of late have had great reason) and even if those who cover the sport are picking the beloved Cardinals to finish third in the NL Central behind Houston and Chicago, we have a whole season to prove otherwise. Sure, it boils down to pitching – the Astros and Cubs have it and the St. Louis staff is suspect.

It’s a topsy-turvy world where a wild pitch or a grounder through the legs can determine an entire season.

When it comes to videogames, gamers are no less fanatical about their favorite titles. EA Sports has long been one of the stalwart titles in the field, a perennial pennant contender, and the 2004 season should be no different. But what’s new to the rotation and lineup, what’s warming up in the bullpen?

To get the lowdown on the newest MVP from EA Sports title, we had to go to several sources. Ben Brinkman and Nate McDonald, assistant producers for MVP Baseball 2004, took on part of the questions we had.

So, on to part one of a multipart interview on MVP Baseball 2004 …

Question: EA Sports is renowned for sports titles that consistently bring the action into the game rooms of players. What is new or different about this new MVP title that will have gamers sitting back in amazement?

Ben and Nate: We believe MVP Baseball 2004 is going to be one of the deepest sports games around.  Here’s a look at what’s new for MVP 2004:

In-Game Goodies:

• EA SPORTS Pure Swing System hitting engine.  We are bringing hitting up to the same level of depth and control that there was over pitching in MVP 2003.  You have full control over your swing with about 15-20 different factors all coming together in one moment that determines quality of contact.

• Big Play Control.  Last year users couldn’t control dives or jumps.  Changing this was one of our top priorities.  Instead of mapping this control to a button we used the right stick for to give us more options for full control over whether your player dives, slides, jumps, or climb the wall.  Big Play Control also gives you the ability to control your slides. You can choose whether to execute a pop-up slide, hook slide, try to break up a double play by going in cleats-first, or even run over the catcher and knock the ball loose.

• Pitcher Warm-ups.

• Mound Visits. Need to buy your closer some time to get loose? Stroll out to the mound and let him get another pitch or two in. Your pitcher will also respond by getting a stamina boost or penalty depending on whether or not he appreciates the visit.

• An all-new on-the-fly Bullpen/Dugout Management Menu. Without even going to the Pause Menu you can warm up pitchers, call mound visits, sub in relievers, sit down pitchers in the bullpen and pinch run or hit.  You can even sneak a peek at the opponent’s bullpen to see how close they are to being ready.

• Pitch History. One click of the button brings up the menu that allows you to view pitch types, locations, and results per at-bat.

• Wild Pitches, Passed Balls, Balls in the Dirt and Dropped Third Strikes.

• Players and Actual Managers in the Dugouts. We have the licenses for several of the top managers in the league.

• CPU Learning for pitching and hitting. Pitchers and Hitters will remember your patterns and make you pay if you get too predictable.

• Gameplay Tuning Sliders. More than 40 sliders to create a personalized playing experience.

New Modes:

• My MVP. Create a Player Profile and earn MVP Points that can be spent on retro jerseys, legendary players, and classic stadiums. You can also track your own User Stats and keep track of your accomplishments with the Trophy Room.

• Scenario Editor. Take any two teams, set up their rosters, choose your inning, score, count, runners and the hitter and then see if you can make a save or come back for the win.

• Pitcher Showdown. Following in the footsteps of last year’s highly successful Home Run Showdown, this mode features two pitchers dueling it out to strike out the same batting order.

Dynasty Mode:

• Brand New Player Happiness and Team Chemistry Model. Being a top manager is not just about getting the stars, it’s about keeping them happy and functioning as a unit.

• Minor Leagues. Class AA and AAA rosters allow you to call up talent and nurture your prospects.

• Minor League Stadiums.

• New Off-Season Menu. You draft, sign your rookies, and participate in a six-week free agent signing period where strategy and clever negotiations will bring the top guys to your team.

• Spring Training. Play your Cactus or Grapefruit League schedule and watch your players to progress or regress.

• MVP Inbox. A new email system will keep you up to date on prospects, injuries, trades, player happiness, and future games.

• Fantasy Draft and Dynasty Options. Customize the way that you want to play out your Dynasty mode.

• Dynamic Stadium Attendance.

Q: Baseball is the type of sport that, on one hand, is statistical intensive, and yet has random chance thrown into the mix. How difficult is it to program a game in which you have two such diverse elements?

Ben and Nate: I think if you ask anybody who’s developed a baseball game they will tell you it’s probably the toughest sport to do justice to in a video game because of all the nuances and subtleties.  Some games have gone the route of scripting the action.  For example if you haven’t hit a double in the game and it’s the 5^th inning the AI will decide the next batter will hit a double.  That takes control out of the user’s hands.  We decided not to go this route because we want all the action to be the result of what the user is doing.  This requires time, patience and numerous iterations.

With last year’s game we had a finite amount of time to put together our first baseball offering and it showed in the lack of both feature and gameplay depth but at the end of the day I believe we did a pretty good job.  We weren’t able to really fine tune and polish the baseball subtleties and some were just left out all together.   Believe me, as a fan of both baseball and baseball video games it killed me to cut some of the things we did for MVP 2003.

With MVP 2004 we had a solid vision early on knowing we had to address our shortcomings in both logic and gameplay features.  We had some unfinished business to attend to and that was furthering ourselves as THE consummate baseball title. 

To give you an example I will run you through the abridged version of the enhancements we made to our batting interface; the Pure Swing System.  After much tuning, tweaking and polish we developed a system that is extremely close to reality and is the equal of our innovative pitching system that returns from last year with improvements of its own.  With the Pure Swing System we spent a great deal of time looking at hitting charts and setting up situations to make sure that we were getting authentic hit results.  Last year it seemed like we had three different hit types whereas this year any hit type under the sun is possible all cued by timing and what you did with the left stick as well as who the pitcher is, what he threw you and where it was thrown.  That is the short version.  To really put it into perspective you have to compare it to MVP 2003.

MVP Baseball 2003 – hitting was based on timing and modified by positioning the left stick up for a fly ball, down for a ground ball and either left or right to direct the ball to a side of the field.  Essentially there was 1 major component and one modifier.

MVP Baseball 2004 - the Pure Swing System is made up of 15-20 different components to determine not only hit contact quality but whether or not you will make contact at all.  It’s all about hitting the ball where it’s pitched as opposed to directing a hit or lining up a cursor.

Q: One of the biggest gripes I have had with baseball games has been the inability to differentiate between a hit and fielder's choice …

Ben and Nate: This has always been a gripe of ours as well, and is extremely difficult to get right 100 percent of the time in baseball games because there are an infinite amount of scenarios that can happen throughout the course of any game that, depending on technicalities of specific rules, could end up being ruled a hit or a fielder’s choice.  Another reason why it can so often be difficult to differentiate properly is because the difference between a fielder’s choice and a hit can sometimes be subjective based on whether or not the official scorer felt there was enough time to make a play on the runners, or whether a slight bobble made a difference as to whether or not the runner would have been safe.  On top of all that, users will sometimes perform actions that are not accurate to what would happen in real life, whether accidental or on purpose, so the AI can potentially get confused.

What we have done to help differentiate hits and fielder’s choices as much as possible is taken all of the situations noted above so that at end of every play, the AI has as many factors as it can so that it has the ability to make the best decision statistically, based on the result of the end of the play.  We feel confident that this will alleviate the majority of the situations where a hit or fielder’s choice would have been awarded incorrectly in years past.

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