Imagine yourself playing in the FIFA World Cup football with the bigwigs of the game? In the cyber age, you can let your imagination run wild and still be able to see it happening, well virtually. Amit Mudgill talks to Simon Humber of Electronic Art (EA) about its latest game, Story of the Finals that lets you connect to the world cup matches and play in them. Can’t believe it, read on:

EA has recently announced to launch a new feature Story of the Finals to its upcoming game.One has heard it will enable gamers connected online to play real matches from the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final and face the same challenges their heroes experienced throughout the tournament. Can you explain a bit?

The Story of the Finals is a free service that will re-create moments from the real World Cup during the actual tournament and will allow gamers to play them during the game. From June 11 to July 11, when the actual World Cup takes place in South Africa, we will select the most interesting match scenarios each day and gamers will be able to download them for free and play them out. For example, if in the real World Cup, England were losing to the USA with 10 minutes to go but ended up winning with two late Rooney goals, we would re-create that scenario and allow gamers to download it. It may take the form of a scenario where the gamer plays as Rooney and joins the game in the 80th minute in an attempt to re-create Rooney’s real life heroics or alternatively we may chose to let the gamer take control of the USA team and try and prevent the loss.

An initial demo of the game is out last week. What responses EA has received till now?

In the first four days after the demo was released we had over 1 million downloads which is phenomenal. Fans seem to be very excited by the improvements we have made to gameplay and the excitement of being able to play as their national side and win the World Cup. One thing we realised through research is that the World Cup is the most accessible product, meaning that of all the football titles we make, it is the one which attracts the most casual gamers, presumably as they get swept up in World Cup fever. We also discovered that a lot more of these more casual gamers would like to play our game but are put off somewhat by the complex controls. To embrace these gamers, we have added an optional new controller configuration called 2 button controls that enables novice gamers the ability to pick up and play World Cup without needing to be an expert at the game. Essentially it puts all of the complex control system onto just 2 buttons: pass and shoot. It would appear through the demo numbers we are seeing that a lot of casual gamers are trying the game.

A tutorial video has been launched telling how gamers can take advantage of improved penalty kick mechanic. Need to know in brief the changes been made for penalty corners? Will there be any second tutorial video expected ahead of the launch?

There was a lot of feedback and tweaks required on the new penalty kick system as it is such a step forward to what gamers are used to. We actually ended up putting in a training mode as we were finding gamers were missing almost every kick because they were not used to the added accuracy and control of the new system. We added a composure meter as part of that tuning and feedback and it is one of the features that help us emphasize the pressure of taking a penalty kick. Each player has a different composure setting in the Data Base and, in addition to that, the composure meter will also be affected depending upon the importance of the kick. If it’s simply a kick to extend a big lead in a friendly match then there is not much pressure. If it’s the kick to win the World Cup that’s an entirely different matter and the composure meter will relay that to the user. The feedback on the new system has been hugely positive so far. We expect to have additional tutorial videos available very soon.

‘Wavin Flag,’ the hip-hop song which hit #1 spot on the day of its debut on Canadian Hot 100, is picked up as one of the leading sound tracks in the game. A remake of that song was also made for fund raising of Haiti victims. And now, it is an official song for coca-cola. DO you think this will spur gamer’s enthusiasm?

As the first ever World Cup to take place in Africa, it’s a historic tournament and we wanted to ensure we captured this. The soundtrack and the anthem composed by K’NAAN really celebrate the soul of this World Cup and pays tribute to the musical heritage of the country. K’NAAN’s music has a message, a purpose and we felt this would resonate with our consumers. You’ll also notice a distinct African look to our game and we even included the Vuvuzela horns in the crowd. The Vuvuzela is a horn commonly blown at football games in South Africa and as a result, it creates a very unique sound and one not commonly heard at other football games. We went to South Africa and recorded the horns and added it to the game to ensure we captured the true atmosphere of South Africa 2010.

Lastly do you see India as a market for EA games. What I’ve noticed is that gamers in India know EA for its cricket and football games. Do you think the scope for other games will also improve over a period of time?

We do see the enormous potential of the market in India and other markets where piracy is prevalent. We believe our World Cup product will resonate with Indian gamers and be successful. As with all the products we launch around the world we share our learnings internally in an effort to continually improve the way we bring games to market.