As shoppers flock to the malls to find that perfect Christmas gift, one popular student item has been missing from the shelves. Even though Syracuse University basketball fans have been able to watch Eric Devendorf and the rest of the Orange play in the Carrier Dome, they have been unable to take control of their favorite players in the virtual world this year.

NCAA March Madness 07, the college basketball video game from EA Sports, was not released at its usual pre-Thanksgiving date. The plan: release the game when people are following the sport the most … and don’t try to compete with Madden.

‘Having a sports title come out when the season is most relevant in the world is a pretty important thing,’ said Sean O’Brien, the producer for this year’s game. ‘We found there are a lot of big titles that are coming out at that time (November), and we got a little bit lost.’

Now EA is planning to release the game on Jan. 17 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 2.

The newest version of the madness will take advantage of the capabilities of the Xbox 360 to live up to the game’s slogan, ‘There’s no place like home.’ March Madness, like all EA Sports games, creates a ‘project x’ slogan each year as a guide in the production. O’Brien said this year’s slogan will try to drive home the effect of playing in a raucous atmosphere, like the Carrier Dome.

The game’s producers focused on recreating the atmosphere of college basketball by trying to replicate the student sections, from placement in the arena to authentic student chants. March Madness also tries to accurately portray the bands, cheerleaders and mascots at each school. High school cheerleading teams were brought in to act for the animation and the former Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies mascot performed some mascot moves.

The atmosphere actually affects the play as each player is given a composure rating. Usually freshmen have lower ratings than seniors and have trouble playing in tougher places.

‘Carmelo Anthony could have been 35 years old with the type of composure he had, but he’s sort of the exception,’ O’Brien said. ‘Then you’ve got those great cases where a kid is playing at Syracuse for the first time and literally can’t handle it.’

The most important feature of the home court advantage involves the intensity meter. Whenever a team makes a positive play-a blocked shot, dunk, steal or any big play-the circular meter starts to build up. As this increases, players can use the intensity control to pump up teammates or interact with the crowd or opponents.

If a player waits long enough to activate the intensity control, the impact moment can be triggered. This new feature basically allows players to go crazy during a stoppage of play and amp up the crowd and their teammates.

‘You have seven seconds to do whatever you want within the environment,’ O’Brien said. ‘You can chest bump with the mascot, lead the cheerleaders in a dance routine, lead the band.’

The feature is exclusive to the Xbox 360 version because the high-powered system gives EA the capabilities to try something new. There will not be a Playstation 3 version because EA is only releasing selected sports titles for the new system this year.

Erik Kinyon, a staffer for the Campus Crusade for Christ at Hendricks Chapel, did not play the 2006 version of March Madness, but is a big fan of NFL Street, another EA Sports game with a similar feature. In NFL Street, players build up points until they can trigger a ‘gamebreaker’ moment.

‘It’s cool,’ Kinyon said about the gamebreaker feature in NFL Street. ‘It gives you a different aspect to how the game is played. It’s something different. If you want more of a serious sports game it’s not your style, but otherwise it’s kind of cool.’

Other gamers are more skeptical of the new feature. Brian Doty, a junior information technology major, bought the 2006 game in February and said the impact moment feature sounds immaterial.

‘I’m more focused probably on the gameplay than added perks like that,’ Doty said. ‘I think it would get old pretty quickly.’

March Madness has more new features than the impact moment, such as synchronizing the crowd movements with the chants. Instead of just moving around on their own, the people in the background will actually be performing actions that are related to the chants in the game. If they are clapping or stomping in the chant, the student sections will actually be clapping or stomping too.

The crowd has an effect on how the game is played in individual contests and in the dynasty mode. If players want to take control of a mid-major school and take the team to the top, they must deal with the lack of crowd involvement.

Schools that don’t have as much history as SU will not have student sections, bands or cheerleaders until the people start caring about the program. Winning games convinces the athletic director to invest more in the team, so the crowd will build up over time, along with improved practice and training facilities.

‘This year we wanted to really make those places like the Carrier Dome really stand out because of the atmosphere they have,’ O’Brien said. ‘If your school doesn’t care about your basketball program and your average attendance is four or five thousand kids, people will give you that.’

The producers are also trying every year to make the game more realistic by giving players accurate ratings. Most Syracuse fans that played last year’s game probably think Eric Devendorf is a little better than the end-of-the-bench SG #23 that could barely hit the rim from three-point range.

Rating players is a constant challenge for the producers, especially considering freshmen coming out of high school are unproven and many times unknown. For this reason, EA employs one person who works all year to provide the game with accurate player ratings. But no matter how hard he tries, it is impossible to please everyone, and the complaints role in constantly.

‘It doesn’t stop, whether it’s from the players themselves or from the fans,’ O’Brien said of the criticism. ‘It’s a thankless job. I feel bad for the producer who does it for us because he’s constantly getting bombarded.’

Published on December 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm