In FIFA 19, there have been accusations against Electronic Arts for years, claiming that mechanics are secretly at work behind the scenes that have a significant impact on players’ matches. The community has dubbed this phenomenon “Momentum.” Now, a community manager finds himself compelled to make a current statement in June 2019.
What is Momentum? In regular sports, “momentum” describes when a team is on the rise after a particularly successful play.
The team suddenly believes in its own strength after a great play, receives a boost, luck turns in their favor, and the match shifts in one direction. An inspiring moment decides the game: an incredible save by the goalkeeper, a brilliant combination, an “impossible” goal.
In FIFA 19, Momentum means something different for players: “Some mechanics” in the background actively influence the game. The match turns completely for no apparent reason because the “AI” wants it that way:
- A team that is leading 3-0 suddenly struggles; all shots go wide, all passes are intercepted, tackles miss their target.
- Meanwhile, the previously weaker opponent suddenly makes great passes, scores, races, and scores goal after goal.
Point of Contention: Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment
What players believe: They accuse EA of using elements like “dynamic difficulty adjustment” in FIFA 19 to make matches more exciting. The match AI favors the weaker team from a certain point onward and allows every action to succeed, while the stronger team plays with a handicap and misses everything.
Evidence has been found for this, as EA filed two patents in 2016 that describe exactly such mechanics:
Both patents concern “Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment.” (via pdfs.semantics.org).
This topic has resurfaced over the years. In FIFA 17, it bubbled up, for example, based on code findings.
EA says: Patent is not in FIFA 19
This is what EA says now: After the topic resurfaced again in recent weeks, there is now a current statement from Electronic Arts.
In the FIFA 19 Forum, Community Manager EA_Andy now states:
“We hear your concerns about the patent family for dynamic difficulty adjustment and we want to assure you that it is not used in EA Sports FIFA.
We would never use it to favor or disadvantage any group of players – in any of our games.
The technology was developed to explore how we can help players progress in a game where they are struggling in a certain area.”
Furthermore, the community manager states that discussions on the topic will be closed and deleted because they are not constructive.
Over Twitter, the community manager adds that they took their time with the response because they wanted to be 100% sure that the system is definitely not active in the game.
