Q&A for Dynasty Mode in NCAA March Madness

With Producer Mike Mahar

1. What new features are there for Dynasty Mode in NCAA March Madness 06?

There are several new features in Dynasty Mode this year.  Some of the features include:

Conference Preview - This gives the users a scouting report and break down of every team in the NCAA at the beginning of each season. Our goal here is to give the user the same feeling and information they get when flipping through the pages of any college hoops preview magazine. They will be able to compare each team in a variety of categories such as Starting 5, Recruiting Class, and Coach. Which program's recruiting class gets an 'A' and which Starting 5 isn't getting it done....... it's all here for the User to sort through and compare

Tournament Watch - This allows the user to track NCAA Tournament qualifying teams as you count down to Selection Sunday. The user can see who's hot, who's not, which team's have big wins or loses and who's 'on the bubble'. It lets you catch a glimpse at the struggles of every team trying to reach the Big Dance. It also provides a good preview into the selection committee's thought process as they select teams and seeds to play in the tournament.

Create Game Plan - This allows the user the flexibility to scout every opponent's players, team, and playbook. On top of that the User can break it down further into offense and defense and really analyze their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses before each game. It's an excellent tool to use if you want to gain an extra advantage on your opponent or if you want the latest information, all collected and presented in one place.

2. Explain the new feature of Assistant Coaches.

As mentioned above, the Create Game Plan feature allows the user to spend a portion of their budget creating game plans for their toughest opponents. The more of a school's budget allocated to this, the more game plans the User can create.

After the User chooses to create a game plan for an upcoming game, the Assistant Coaches handle the dirty work of scouting every aspect of an opponent……the team, the players, and their playbook. Based on this information, your Assistant Coach's give you advice on the best individual and team match ups and which plays to call in order to get the best out of your offense and defense. After the game, your Assistant Coaches will break down your game plan and give you a letter grade based on your team's execution. We keep this information on file so you can review if you run into the same opponent down the road.
 

It's an excellent tool to use if your in tough against a top ranked opponent and really lets the User get into the roll of the Head Coach. As inspiration, we looked at real life scouting reports used by coaches in the Big East, PAC 10, and ACC. We wanted to give our users the same type of quality and detailed information that an actual Div 1 coach would have. In the end the user has total control of every aspect of their team’s execution.

3. What is the maximum number of years a Dynasty can last for? 

Dynasty Mode can be played for a maximum of 30 years. It’s enough time to take a smaller school all the way to perennial power house on the level of the Carolina’s, Duke’s, Kentucky’s, and Arizona’s of the world. You have to be careful though......there’s also plenty of time to run your program into the ground and be forced into looking for work with a lower prestige program.

4. How is the idea of High School players tied into the Dynasty Mode?  Is there a recruitment process that is involved??

High school players are tied into the Dynasty mode during the recruiting process. They are the core of a successful coaching career. You can’t be successful unless you get out there, pound the pavement, and get the best talent available to choose your program above all others......especially if it means stealing a ‘Blue Chipper’ from your rival.
 

NCAA March Madness 07 offers both 'In Season' and 'Off Season' recruiting periods.
 

In this year's game we offer the user even more information about their potential recruits so they can make more informed recruiting decisions.

Some information includes;

- EA Sports All-Americans

- Blue Chip Recruits

- State Mr. Basketball for every state

- All-State Basketball 1^st Team for every state

- Complete and dynamically updated recruit high school game statistics

- Recruiting pipelines dynamically updated based on recruiting patterns

- Complete lists of competing schools with recruit interest for each

- Comprehensive scouting reports on recruit strengths and weaknesses

- Recruits respond to the type of recruiting pitch you use to attract them to your program

That’s not all, but as you can tell we’ve spent a good deal of time trying to give the users all of the information they need in order to make the best decisions for their program.
 

We believe we have a great recruiting experience and our expectation is to add more realism, detail and recruiting hooks in NCAA March Madness 07. The ‘next gen’ consoles are going to free us up to do even more exciting things.

5. Are there any NCAA league regulations enforced in the game, for example, players wanting to switch schools, are they made to sit out a year??

Yes there are NCAA regulations enforced throughout Dynasty Mode. As in NCAA March Madness 05 we have a Program Standards feature that allows the user to enforce team and NCAA rules amongst their players. If the NCAA guidelines are not adhered to the NCAA will take notice and depending on the number and severity of the infraction, penalize each program accordingly.
 

Another interesting regulation feature we’ve added is the APR, other wise known as the Academic Progress Rate. In a nut shell, every program receives a grade based on their graduation rate. If a program’s APR it too low, it results in NCAA penalties. We’re huge college hoops fans and this rule is positive step forward for the sport, so working with the NCAA in this regard on NCAA March Madness 06 and going forward is a great opportunity for us.

6. Are the players able to be drafted into the NBA, thus making them playable in NBA LIVE 06??

Unfortunately we didn't have the time to implement this feature in 06. We very much want to bring this feature back in NCAA March Madness 07 and are in the early planning stages of making this happen with NBA Live.
 

Without a doubt, this is important for us to work back into our game and the fact that it will occur on the next gen platforms is going to make it even better.

7. What else can you tell us about this years Dynasty Mode that sets it apart from other games??

Not mentioned above is the fact the User can use our new Senior Leader feature in Dynasty Mode. We use logic such as playing time, points, wins and loses, etc to grow players into Sr. Leaders within Dynasty Mode. So if at first you don’t have an emotional impact player on tour squad, you can develop one by playing the game.
 

That said the features we’ve discusses above along with our Senior Leader and existing 2005 features make NCAA March Madness 06 the best dynasty mode we’ve put out to date. Our goal is to make Dynasty Mode better every time out and we really feel we’ve done that this year.
 

We pay attention to our consumers and the feedback they provide and we want to exceed their expectations.
 

When it’s all said and done, we feel the game play, coaching, and recruiting experience in Dynasty Mode of NCAA March Madness 06 is a great combination and hopefully all college hoops fans will as well.

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