Greg Wyshnyski posted an interesting interview with EA Sports producer David Littman. Apparently EA is looking to go groundbreaking with their next NHL title by creating a MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) "league"...kinda like World of Warcraft:
Your goal is to get this character to "legend" status both online and offline. And you're going to get hockey cards on the way to show your status.
We're tracking these players with the performance tracker. Someone that has 100 goals and doesn't play defense will not be the best player in the world; the best player on the leader boards will be someone who plays a full, rounded game of hockey. He won't be someone who goes off-sides all the time. Because nobody wants to play with the guy who goes offsides all the time.
Since you have your own guild, you can just trade a guy.
...
And during the game, there's voice chat with the team. You asked before about pitfalls in playing the game: Not communicating is the biggest one. Saying "I'm open" or "at the point, at the point!" is important.
We're hoping that there's going to be a lot of forums set up, and teams creating Web sites for their guild.
You know, you can see everyone on the leader board; if you see a defenseman that has "A's" across the board, you can immediately talk to that person and invite them to your team. Tell him, "Hey, we need a defenseman and we're making a run for the Cup."
Im personally not a big gamer. I've never played "World of Warcraft" and I dont even have a next-gen console. That said, this all sounds incredibly fun and may force me to pick-up a PS3 when this title drops.
Between "NHL 09" and real hockey this winter I may end up severely neglecting my friends/family/lover(s)/personal hygiene. Good times ahead!
