dennisjames71 Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Hey Guys, I thought I would fire off an anecdotal message here but allow me first a 30-second rant…You know, most of the time I really hate where I live. Having to be in Anaheim most of last week for a conference for my job was pretty cool and relaxing. I dig Anaheim quite a bit but the conference ended on Thursday and it was back to work near the downtown Los Angeles area on Friday. Of course, little did I know that I would have to deal with the endless traffic blocks, eight, count ‘em EIGHT freaking helicopters, and media onslaught clamoring over the epic Lindsey F#%king Lohan garbage. Randy Newman can cram it down his throat with his lame “I Love LA” song…I really hate this plastic town. *Rant over* Anyway, I wanted to write somewhat of an appreciation message to everyone here who developed and maintain the MVP Mods website. This time of the year is always a great, busy, and exciting time in the sports world…and with that sports gaming. Each year around this time I usually go through and update my NHL 09, Madden 08, and NBA Live (now Elite) 08 games for the PC. There have been some pretty amazing “upgrades” to these games (better interfaces and graphics, for instance). However, the experience of trying to accomplish these all-encompassing updates lie somewhere between something akin to electro-shock therapy or a nice migraine on a hot day. And who is to blame for most of this….? I’ll have say, the website and website management for the most part. I’m not here to hammer-on other sports-gaming websites per say…but I want to quickly critique them. Don’t get me wrong I greatly appreciate all modders that contribute to these upgrades but it really goes to show that how the website and the community involved can make or break the whole experience. Let’s start with the absolute worst: NLSC (NBA Live Series Center)- If a yearly upgrade to your NBA game is like a free bottle of the most expensive champagne…well, you can certainly find it here. The problem is that they shatter the champagne bottle on rocks and you are left to collect the broken glass and the alcohol to get what you want. Their “Downloads” section is a joke because silly me…I didn’t realize that these are only downloads from 1-3 years ago. In order to find downloads of any sort you have to hunt through the forums where each member (post) may or may not have a particular court, jersey set, or shoes in their 15-30 page thread. Some of them try to make sure that all of their newest downloads are on the first page, but it’s basically not consistent at all. For the past week, I’ve been trying to piece together an updated NBA Live game with rosters, new logos, uniforms, courts…but it’s been like a farking scavenger hunt and I for one hate scavenger hunts. Grade: F Football Freaks: These guys made a TUP (Total Upgrade Package) for Madden to make it a 2010 version last year which was fantastic and they are planning a TUP 11 for this season. The updated uniforms, rosters, and interface really gave it a fresh look and feel. The problem I found is that installing after-update uniforms that were released later was a pain in the butt and usually only had a 50-50 success rate. Their “Downloads” section is OK and the selections are pretty sparse (useful updates come infrequently). I found that a core of the modders there are quite condescending to newbs or aspiring modders from other sports games. I saw a recent thread where Football-Freaks modder got their panties in a wad when a baseball/hockey modder asked why uniforms and stadiums were deemed too “difficult” when doing these in Madden. The Football-Freaks “modding legend” clubbed this modder over the head with “modding stadiums and uniforms in MVP Baseball is like kid’s stuff compared with modding in Madden”. Ummmm….sure. The reason why modding Madden is more difficult is mostly because some content in Madden is encrypted in a different manner and it’s just a little tougher to get to. It is not necessarily more difficult to actually mod the stuff. Grade: C- The Breakaway.net: Pretty good overall website for NHL PC games. These guys have got it together for the most part. Well organized downloads section. Their forums section could use better categorizing a la MVP Mods. And sometimes you’ll find rogue downloads in the forum posts instead of the downloads section where they belong. The add-on support section is kinda spotty but the experts are certainly polite and helpful. They stick to some good forum rules and standards compared to the anarchy of the garbage NLSC (NBA) forums. Their annual update packs are not a 1 step process but they make it somewhat painless. Updates are usually only consisting of a complete Ice Pack/Boards Pack/Uniform Pack/Goalie Pack. Grade: B+ So, the reason for the assessment of these other sports gaming sites? Well, after going through the headaches of updating these games for the past couple of weeks…I’ve been truly grateful of being an active member of MVP Mods this year. The updates or the TC Mods are all a one file/one step process; how much easier can you get. Also, at your choice you can do incremental updates (stadiums, uniforms, logos) over time and if you end up hating these…they are very easy to remove and go back. It’s generally a matter of removing a file and replacing it. The organization on this site is second to none; the forum sections and the downloads are all categorized perfectly. The search function here is the absolute best (whoever designed the search for NLSC should be fed to sharks) and the fact that we have a wealth of TUTORIALS has got to be the aspect that puts MVP Mods over the top for me. The NBA and NFL sites don’t have jack-squat for learning how to mod those games and the NHL site has very minimal info. Combined with the community here which has been extremely helpful to me this year, the standards in the forum (don’t have to deal with people bumping their threads 6 times like some of the other website’s forums), and our security force of admins, like Y4L, doing the painstaking work and maintaining the quality of this great website. So, to Trues and all of our other outstanding admins, THANK YOU for this headache-free and extremely enjoyable MVP MODS site…the best sports-gaming/modding site on the internet. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Dennis, thank you for your kind words about this website and about how it is run. The credit for the organization of this website, from the way the downloads are in place and the ease of the search feature on here and how this place is run is accredited to one guy and one guy alone, and that's Trues. The next time you are here and when you are in between uploading your next classic stadium, I want you to notice one thing. Trues does not post a lot out in the forums. The guy is always working behind the scenes tweaking the website, and this is constantly. Sometimes you guys see the work he does when the site looks different and most of the time you won't see it, but he's always working on this site. And that right there is why we have the best gaming website on the internet. People like MarkB and myself have a completely different job than Trues. It's our job to weed out the smart asses who make duplicate accounts or want support for a pirated game or something like that. It's because of Trues and the way he runs the place that people are contributors in here because he made this place a great place to come and talk sports or whatever is on your mind and get some great downloads (that you have become a huge part of) for your games. Thank you again Dennis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeRudi26 Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Dennis, Not only are your mods a welcome addition to an already fantastically maintained site, the fact that you (among others) continue to mod MVP clarifies what this game has meant to hardcore baseball gamers for nearly 7 years. Couple that with your modesty, dedication, and consistency, it's a joy to see you post a new mod and know it's going to be a quality addition. You're a breath of fresh air dennis, loved the rant. :good: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trues Posted September 28, 2010 Share Posted September 28, 2010 Thank you, Dennis. I'll say it again though, it's the modders like you that make this place what it is. :drinks: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JDHalfrack Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 Well, while I agree that sometimes the "modding legend" at Football-Freaks does get our "panties in a wad," usually it stems from people bitching that our mods aren't good enough. Simply put, if you don't like them, you got two options: don't use 'em or make your own. Now, as far actually modding Madden goes, I can absolutely guarntee that it is infinitely harder to mod Madden than it is to mod these other games. I started my modding career with MVP baseball 2005, and that is most definitely "kid's stuff" compared to modding ANYTHING in Madden. It took me and two other guys almost 2 years to figure out how the DAT files were pieced together. Then, it took almost another year for me and another person to piece together the uniform files. Don't you ever "Ummmm....sure" the difficulty difference in the two modding abilities. "The reason why modding Madden is more difficult is mostly because some content in Madden is encrypted in a different manner and it’s just a little tougher to get to. It is not necessarily more difficult to actually mod the stuff." Um... that is most definitely why it is more difficult... And... it's not "some" stuff that's encrypted... it's ALL encrypted. The NFL agreement with EA forced Madden to go into encryption overdrive. Even with the modding utilities, it's still a 28 step process to make custom uniforms, graphics, rosters, etc because of the encryption. The fact that modding of Madden is even possible is due to people that the MVP baseball modders couldn't hold a candle to. While I don't really care about the quality of this site or even Football-Freaks, I just ask you actually do some research about modding Madden compared the any of the other EA sports games before you start bashing the difficulty of any of them. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisjames71 Posted September 30, 2010 Author Share Posted September 30, 2010 So you become a member of MVP Mods in August and you use your very first post to enter a rant about one member’s opinion of something? Guess what buddy, we are all entitled to an opinion, and I’ll tell you that pretty much nobody cares about your personal critique of my opinion. In fact, to take it further, I’m sure with only a few responses to my post; that very few people care about MY opinion about other websites. And I for one, am absolutely cool with that. Not that I feel I need to justify my post to someone who trolls the forum of MVP Mods in order to crack back on one person’s opinion; but I wrote my post as an overt appreciation to the founder and admins of this site. Instead of writing some stale love letter to these great guys; I figured I would show proof of the frustrations I deal with while trying to update games from the other sites that I have had past experiences with. Again MY opinion based upon MY experiences…I’m sure others have had better and worse experiences. If you don’t appreciate my opinion, just be an adult and walk away. I could care less for your unsolicited tutorial of Madden modding and your ego primping of your knowledge in the matter. If this behavior is an example of your contributions to this site, then I hope your visit is a short one. Dennis Well, while I agree that sometimes the "modding legend" at Football-Freaks does get our "panties in a wad," usually it stems from people bitching that our mods aren't good enough. Simply put, if you don't like them, you got two options: don't use 'em or make your own. Now, as far actually modding Madden goes, I can absolutely guarntee that it is infinitely harder to mod Madden than it is to mod these other games. I started my modding career with MVP baseball 2005, and that is most definitely "kid's stuff" compared to modding ANYTHING in Madden. It took me and two other guys almost 2 years to figure out how the DAT files were pieced together. Then, it took almost another year for me and another person to piece together the uniform files. Don't you ever "Ummmm....sure" the difficulty difference in the two modding abilities. "The reason why modding Madden is more difficult is mostly because some content in Madden is encrypted in a different manner and it’s just a little tougher to get to. It is not necessarily more difficult to actually mod the stuff." Um... that is most definitely why it is more difficult... And... it's not "some" stuff that's encrypted... it's ALL encrypted. The NFL agreement with EA forced Madden to go into encryption overdrive. Even with the modding utilities, it's still a 28 step process to make custom uniforms, graphics, rosters, etc because of the encryption. The fact that modding of Madden is even possible is due to people that the MVP baseball modders couldn't hold a candle to. While I don't really care about the quality of this site or even Football-Freaks, I just ask you actually do some research about modding Madden compared the any of the other EA sports games before you start bashing the difficulty of any of them. JD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 I could care less for your unsolicited tutorial of Madden modding and your ego primping of your knowledge in the matter. If this behavior is an example of your contributions to this site, then I hope your visit is a short one. Dennis Well what the hell? After reading the post made by this prick I was about to come in here and defend you but I see that I have no need to. You said exactly what I wanted to say but only better. Moving on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisjames71 Posted September 30, 2010 Author Share Posted September 30, 2010 Hey thanks Y4L...know that I'll always have your back as well. This is the perfect example of the childish and insecure garbage that's all over a lot of other sites these days. That's why I always visit here regularly because of the higher level of maturity for the most part. Take care my friend. Well what the hell? After reading the post made by this ***** I was about to come in here and defend you but I see that I have no need to. You said exactly what I wanted to say but only better. Moving on.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emath2432 Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 Other than the fact that I rather enjoy NLSC, and have gotten a ton of help in getting started on my All time mod (which is moving along slowly, but is shaping up nicely). Much like my unfinished mod here, I get bored rather quickly when putting together rosters/ratings, and packaging together all the other stuff involved in doing total conversions, and put things on hold (especially during the off seasons)... But anyway, my point. Andrew, over at NLSC has been a great help to me with info. Other than that, I agree whole heartedly with your OP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yankee4Life Posted September 30, 2010 Share Posted September 30, 2010 Off topic here for a second here folks. A little update on this guy JDHalfrack and why you won't be seeing him online here for a very long time. Seems that our friend here had a duplicate account here and it has now been caught, logged and banned. He won't be back here for a very long time. You assholes that keep on doing this are just going to get caught again and again. It's obvious that the ones that do this just never learn and it gets harder and harder for me to hide the contempt I have for these people. Take care JDHalfrack. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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