NHL Feedback: Year in Review

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2019 is now behind us, as is the game of NHL 19. As we are now 5 months into the NHL 20 year, I thought it would be a good idea to go back and look at the major complaints and feedback points about NHL 19, and how they were addressed in NHL 20.
As you guys probably are aware (since I posted/talked about it quite a bit) I conducted an NHL 19 feedback survey last summer, trying to collect points from every avenue of the NHL community. It took me quite a while to complete, but eventually I finished a spreadsheet containing all the data I collected. The spreadsheet contained every single piece of feedback I collected from various communities and websites, how many times that item was mentioned by individual people, and the total karma (likes, upvotes, etc.) those posts received. Here is the final document:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1navAbp7YaDWBau6Y7R4uGFmzS8xk03jLGeF4PEf0lEU/edit#gid=1654894240
This document was sent to EA and has been used by the producers to not only help identify major community concerns, but also to help them determine the direction of their game and where they want to allocate their resources.
So what I wanted to do here was go through each category of feedback, and discuss the top responses to see how the dev team addressed the major complaints of NHL 19 in NHL 20. I’m going to attempt to be as objective as possible, but obviously some of this analysis will contain my own opinions/biases.
***If you’d like to participate in THIS YEAR’S feedback project, (please please please do) here is the link. It is also posted at the bottom of this document. I encourage you all to not only respond, but include EVERYTHING you may have to say about NHL 20, even the smallest gripes. Like I said, this is being sent straight to the producers of NHL, so be sure to participate. Over 500 people responded to the last one, and I want to beat that number. Help make our game better! You have a voice!
NHL20 Feedback form: https://forms.gle/YTNLnHmnyPimpjFq6

Gameplay
*This will be the biggest section by far. Gameplay requires much more in-depth evaluation than the other areas.
1. Nerf Bumps (28 responses, 163 Likes)
Problem: In my opinion, and obviously many others, bumps were the major issue with NHL 19 gameplay. The fact that you could lose the puck on a low-speed hit from a checker in poor position made the gameplay very frustrating at times. Of course, top level players were able to find ways to most effectively use the mechanic while also avoiding puck loss from it as much as possible, but that doesn't mean it was not a problem. I think that "bumps" or low-speed hits, have their place, but the ones from behind and from terrible angles, or the ones where the puck-carrier has speed/momentum and the checker does not, really had no place in NHL.
NHL20: Plain and simple, the bumps were addressed. The gameplay team clearly heard this complaint and recognized themselves that it was mostly a problem. Low-speed hits do still occur in NHL 20, but they are far less frequent, especially ones from behind or in bad situations like I previously described. In addition, they added the stumble-without-puck-loss animation, so you can still get “bumped” but keep possession. While it may not be picture-perfect (you may still receive a bump from behind from time to time and want to spike your controller), we have to admit that EA listened to us on this one. Unfortunately, it is the opinion of a lot of people that EA may have overcorrected the bumps, and that the game is still slightly imbalanced, but in the other direction.
NHL19 also included a major discrepancy between the two consoles when it came to bumps, which was fixed in NHL20.

2. Better Puck Pickups (28 responses, 41 Likes)
Problem: For the last few years at least, we’ve been haunted by some wretched puck pickup animations. The simple fact here is that players just don’t like animations; we don’t like it when the game takes things out of our control. Puck pickups loved to take over the game themselves, putting your players into unwanted skating animations, warping players into unwanted places, and worst of all, having all of this happen and then not even come up with the puck. We hated all of this, and just wanted to be able to grab the puck and keep skating in one motion, without it altering or interfering with the play we were trying to make.
NHL20: NHL20 introduced the concept of being able to perform actions while skating. Previously, whenever you tried to pass or pick up a puck, your players feet would stop moving, and you would glide as you performed the action. And you would resume skating afterwards. This change was huge for pickups. I always find it super satisfying being able to pick off a D-to-D pass at the point and keep skating for a breakaway all in one motion. Another pickups change was that your player no longer attempts to grab pucks that he cannot reach. Both changes prevent many of those horrid skating animations.
Are pickups perfect now? No. There’s a lot of “puck physics” things involved here. The puck still bounces everywhere and off everything, which complicates things. Regardless, another big step in the right direction here for the gameplay team. Hopefully we will continue to see more progress.

3. Less Incidental contact (26 responses, 149 likes)
Problem: I think bumps are a big reason why incidental contact was complained about so much in NHL 19, but they are different things, so I’d like to address them both separately. Simply put, the puck bounces and hits off everything, causing a lot of puck loss. In the old, more arcade-style games, sticks and skates weren’t totally “solid objects,” meaning that the puck would go straight through them a lot of the time. The change to making the puck hit off these things, likely designed for realism, was a big adjustment, and not something that offensive players (or players that prefer that arcade style of gameplay) have been overly fond of.
NHL20: Is it different? A little. The improvements to bumps and pickups have indirectly improved the problems the community had with incidental contact. So, it’s become less of a problem, but it’s obviously still a big part of the game. There have been some changes involving stick interactions and stick physics that ultimately helped lessen puck loss from behind. I think we may have to adjust our expectations on this one though. Obviously, everyone in the community has their own philosophy of what the game should play like; some people prefer arcade style games, and others want more of a simulation-style game. My sense (and this is just my interpretation of the situation, not from EA) is that EA wants to find a healthy medium somewhere in between, where the game is still fun for those of the arcade camp, but also still resembles real hockey.

4. Nerf LT/L2 skating (16 responses, 27 likes)
Problem: A common complaint among the community that prefers more of a simulation-style game, the abuse of the LT/L2 skating mechanics became an annoyance to play against (and maybe to play with, honestly). There were many top level players, especially HUT/VS specialists, who would be spamming those buttons up the whole ice, protecting the puck and drawing penalties. The LT responsiveness felt great initially, allowing for creativity and some fun gameplay, but once people learned how good it actually was, it became a bit of a problem. The main issues were that people could spam the back-skate to protect the puck, without any chance of puck loss, and also that the players continued to accelerate during this process.
NHL20: The LT/L2 skating problems have been addressed, including changes that came last month. The big issues that I mentioned at the end there led to the major changes. Players no longer accelerate while skating backwards, and there is a chance of losing the puck while pivoting at high speeds. In the recent patch, we saw this note: “Players tuned to have less balance/preparedness when pivoting or backskating with the puck,” meaning players are more likely to be hit off the puck in this stance. While using LT/L2 is still a viable move, using it to move around people or to create space now requires much more skill and situational awareness, which is likely a healthy adjustment for the game (despite the fact that some back-skating enthusiasts may disagree).

5/6. Increase speed (13 responses, 105 likes), Speed differential (12 responses, 67)
Problem: I grouped these two together because they’re very related and may have even been people saying different words but actually meaning the same thing. These responses mainly came from EASHL players of course, as that community has been complaining of sluggish, uneventful gameplay in recent years. That’s where the request for increase speed comes in, with the players hoping that would increase the activity of EASHL games and indirectly nerf the trap strategy. Speed differential is similar but different. This has come from players of both 1v1 and EASHL, frustrated about easily being caught by defenders after gaining separation, or not being able to gain that separation at all to begin with.
NHL20: (This is somewhat my opinion) I don’t think speed was actually increased (I could be wrong), but the actual gameplay in NHL 20 is faster-paced due to other improvements, namely that you can perform actions while continuing to skate. Speed differential is better, I think you can definitely gain separation with speed and are less likely to get caught by defenders on a break if you have a step compared to NHL 19.

7. Increase deke success rate (11 responses, 99 likes)
Problem: There are so many loose puck dekes at our disposal, but are there actually? Do they really exist if you can’t actually execute them? Really makes you think. In all seriousness, this one is pretty self-explanatory. I would say this has been a complaint since the switch to the current generation consoles, but more so since the addition of all the new loose puck dekes in NHL 18. I don’t think people mind so much when their two-way forwards can’t complete a two-touch deke, but when they lose the puck on a simple sidestep, that’s where the frustration sets in.
NHL20: Things haven’t really changed.
My opinion: I think that across the board, deke success rate should be increased. The fact is that every player in the NHL can complete sidesteps, windmills, etc. They don’t all do it in game, but they can, because even I can do those. If you want to use a grinder in EASHL, should you sacrifice being able to do the complicated dekes? Sure, there has to be some balance in the game. But the simple ones should probably be executable by everyone. I think this also relates to the argument that people playing EASHL don’t want to use NHL 3rd/4th liners, but we’ll get to that later.

Gameplay Team Grade: A-
Is NHL20 gameplay perfect? No. It’s never going to be perfect. Did the gameplay team address every single major complaint people had about NHL 19? No, but again, I can’t imagine the answer to that question is ever going to be yes. But I think, especially relative to the other areas of the game, the gameplay team did a great job addressing a lot of the top complaints. They didn’t get to everything, and could either be intentional (i.e. the team’s and the players’ vision for the game differ in that area), or they just didn’t have the resources this year (it’s unrealistic to expect them to get to everything every year, we should know that by now). All in all, I think it reflects really well on the gameplay team that they addressed 3 of the top 4 complaints (and even the 4th, somewhat) in major ways. It shows they’re listening.

World of Chel
1. Practice Mode (41 responses, 126 likes)
Problem: The problem is that there is no practice mode (mind = blown). It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but it sucks that we’re unable to play around on a sheet of ice with our EASHL teammates, or even alone with your EASHL build. Currently, the only way to test a build is to actually get into a game. I guess you could recreate your build in the offline creation zone and then go into the offline practice mode, if you’re some sort of psychopath.
NHL 20: Nope, no practice mode. Is the team aware the WoC community wants it? Absolutely, I can personally guarantee that. Is it coming next year? I really hope so.

2. Full player build customization (21 responses, 55 likes)
Problem: A few of these sections are going to be really fun to write and also hear about, and this is one of them. Much of the EASHL community longs for those blessed Legend 3 days. Ultimately, and I talked about this earlier in the puck pickups section, people want to be in control. That goes beyond gameplay; they want to decide what their player looks like, what equipment they wear, and how they play in-game. I think people want something to play for as well. Legend 3 was a grind (and I don’t think EA wants to bring that back because it discourages casual/new players), but it’s nice to make progress and be rewarded as you play.
NHL 20: There are pre-set builds. There are enough of them that you can pick your playstyle, but it’s just not the same. I honestly think EA could give us the points, set attribute caps, and trick us into making builds that are almost the same as the pre-sets because of those caps, and people would still be happier about it. Personally, I think it’s not as big of a deal as people make it out to be, but I would still be thrilled about making my own player again.

3. Human Goalie becomes the Extra Attacker (11 responses, 68 likes)
Problem: Well, the problem is that this doesn’t happen. If a human goalie skates to the bench on a delayed penalty, an AI comes on. And who in their right mind wants another EASHL AI on the ice. It did work like this once, I want to say back in NHL 16? But then they removed the feature because it messed with the leaderboards or something.
NHL 20: Still doesn’t happen (honestly, I’m still sitting here trying to figure out who cares about the leaderboards). I can’t imagine the feature would be used in any competitive setting, but it would be a lot of fun for people playing casually with friends.

4. Higher rated EASHL builds (10 responses, 7 likes)
Problem: So, here is the other big issue people have with the EASHL builds. I think the request is somewhere along the lines of: if you’re going to give us pre-sets, could you at least give us GOOD pre-sets? Players tend to take issue with the fact that they’re restricted to playing with what is essentially the equivalent of NHL 3rd-liners.
NHL 20: Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the builds the exact same as the builds in NHL 19?
My opinion: Had to slide this in there because this topic really frustrates me. HUT is so popular because people love building their teams, their “ultimate” teams. People love using the best players, and cards with attributes that are specifically elite. Is HUT balanced? No, it exists to break the game. But a lot of top HUT players frequently say that HUT/NHL is at its best early in the year, when most cards are somewhere between 84-88. The cards are good, but not overpowered, and the game stays balanced. Even in VS, which is supposed to be the game in its most balanced state, you have maybe a couple 90+s and then the overalls decrease down the lineup. Typically, around half of a good teams forward lineup is 82+. So why are EASHL players restricted to playing with overalls around 78? It’s truly mind-boggling to me.

World of Chel Grade: D
I didn’t give them an F because as far as I know, Eliminator has been a pretty popular mode within WoC. Otherwise, WoC was a pretty major disappointment for me this year. Eliminator is a cool mode (especially because it allows you to skip menus), but it doesn’t appeal to the competitive player, or players interested in playing with 5 skaters on the ice. Looking down the list of all the requests, I’m getting a sense that there really wasn’t much else changed about WoC. Also, can we PLEASE get some new menus?

Note: Changing away from the Problem/NHL20 format for the rest of this, as a lot of these items are: either the game has it or it doesn’t. Also, many of them are missing from both NHL 19 and NHL 20, and for those I’ll basically just discuss what the point is and why people want it.

HUT
1.Custom jerseys, logos, and arenas (10 responses, 20 likes)
Yes, the mode centered around building YOUR ultimate team does not allow you to create your own “branding.” I don’t think this is a high priority ask for most HUT players (the HUT requests were fairly minimal and unpopular compared to most), but it’s just something that would be nice. I don’t think the UTs in other EA games have this feature either, but maybe it’s something we’ll see in the future.

2. Reintroduce collections (8 responses, 68 likes)
From my point of view, there are two main reasons why people would give this feedback: either they hate change, or they want a reason to expand their HUT collection. In NHL 19, sets mostly consisted of buying specific collectibles which were included in specific event packs, and the cards in your collection mostly did nothing for you, aside from a couple sets that included specific players (which led to market fixing for those players, blah blah blah). NHL 20 has simplified those sets a lot, but I don’t think it addresses the collecting aspect of HUT.
My opinion: Not everyone cares about this, but personally, doing team collections in NHL 15 was a lot of fun. It was not easy to do for a lot of teams, required a good investment, and generally gave good rewards (in the form of UT packs). It was not a perfect system, but I would love to see something similar be introduced.

3. Last Price Sold (7 responses, 30 likes)
In older games, whenever you looked at a card, it would tell you what price that card was last sold at. It was a nice convenience because you could see how much a card was worth without having to look at the market. However, it caused problems because every card’s value was basically determined by its LPS, which hurt the market. In theory, the “compare price” feature in NHL20 is a very nice alternative, but it needs a little work and needs to be accessible from more screens.

4. Better pack odds/contents (7 responses, 14 likes)
These requests likely came from people frustrated with NHL19’s infamous Ultimate packs. The NHL20 HUT team did fix their mistake on that one, simplifying the packs in general and giving actually decent odds for the high value packs, specifically those given as rewards for Champs/CS/Rivals.

HUT Team Grade: B
Of all the major modes, HUT had the fewest requests by far, and virtually no feedback points that were shared by a large portion of people who responded. This suggests that the mode lacks glaring issues, or is more polished than others. I think they addressed some things and added/changed a lot of stuff, so I give them a decent grade.

Franchise
Note: I have yet to play franchise mode this year, so I asked Tougie for some help on this section. If you’re not aware, Tougie is a fellow GameChanger and a franchise mode extraordinaire (Tougie24 on Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube)
1. GM Connected (106 responses, 317 likes)
GM Connected comes in at #1 in terms of both responses and likes, 47 and 154 more than 2nd place, respectively. It wasn’t in NHL 19, and it’s not in NHL 20. Why is this mode, that has been a major request from EA since its removal, being overlooked yearly? Well, when it was in the game, I believe it was their least played mode ever. But, it was also terribly made, with very unreliable servers, ridiculously long sim times, freezes, and more. Those issues likely caused the lack of players, but the lack of players probably causes EA to be reluctant to pour resources into trying it again. Personally, I’d rather them not implement the mode if it’s going to be half-assed like the last one was.
Tougie: “When it comes to GM Connected, I have no hopes of it coming back. But, I'd love to see them give it a second chance, this time with more reliable servers. IMO, the biggest reason why the mode failed and people didn't maintain their leagues is load time. As fun as the mode was, there was a lot of down time. And I think now with the Youtube scene being what it is, the Twitch scene being what it is, the possibilities with GMC are nearly endless for creators.”

2. Roster Sharing (38 responses, 113 likes)
*Tougie, on his soapbox*
Tougie: “I could go on all day as to why it should be added. The demand is there, it has been there. Whether it's the old Petrpuck website from back in the Xbox 360 days, or SnipeNScore currently with his old school roster builds, or myself over the past few years updating and customizing the modern day rosters. People pay attention, people care. I can't count the amount of times I've heard from someone "I want to play franchise, but I don't want to go through the effort of following your editing guide". That shouldn't be a barrier that people have to cross if they want to play a mode. It should be as simple as downloading a community file. Whether mine or someone else's. If the state of the rosters EA provides are going to be in a state where a decent percentage of people are unhappy? I fail to see why there can't be an alternative.
You look at MLB The Show for their upcoming game. They're working with the top community roster editor for their game this year. Madden has file sharing. NBA has it. Yet for some reason it's lacking for both FIFA and the NHL series. And I genuinely don't understand why. Regardless, roster sharing and the state of the rosters in general can go hand in hand with someone's enjoyment of franchise mode. It might not be the sexiest selling feature to add to a blog post or the back of a box. But it's a heart and soul feature that die hards who already buy the game yearly will appreciate.”

3. Three-way trades (8 responses, 30 likes)
There are a lot of little things that could and hopefully will be added to Franchise mode in the future, which will just enhance the experience. Three-way trading is one of those things. It has not yet been implemented into NHL Franchise mode, and I’m sure it’s not a huge deal to players, but obviously Franchise players want their experience to be as simulation-like as possible.

4. More accurate sim engine (7 responses, 23 likes)
Tougie: “The sim engine is tough to explain. They added in options to up the scoring with "low, medium and high", but it's certainly debatable as to whether or not they could be balanced differently. I'm on the side of it needing a bit of tuning, specifically the medium setting, which could see the scoring boosted a bit more. So while it's definitely nice to have those options, there's still work that could be tone In terms of the regular season and how it plays out, more often than not you will see teams that are expected to do well actually make the playoffs. You occasionally get a "San Jose situation", where a team is expected to be contenders but completely fall apart. Although I feel like that was the case in prior games, it's more noticeable now. Unlike the playoffs, which now feel like more of a roll of the dice than ever. So overall, is it improved? Yes. Could still use some tweaks here and there though.”

5. Contract NMCs/NTCs (6 responses, 33 likes)
See: 3. Three-way trades.

Franchise Team Grade: C
I know Franchise mode has had other improvements to this year’s game, some of which were lesser-requested items. Some people may have a “GM Connected or bust” mentality, but I think that’s a bit unfair. While I do think they deserve to take some heat for not having brought it back yet, it’s going to take a lot of resources to build that mode from scratch. So let’s say they had an average year. You can take this grade with a grain of salt since it is being given by an outsider looking in.

Presentation
1. More exciting commentary (4 responses, 1 like)
As we all know, the partnership between EA NHL and NBC ended this year. EA decided to create their own broadcast package, including new commentary from James Cybulski and Ray Ferraro, who are both Vancouver-based. The commentators being local allows EA to have frequent recording sessions to keep the commentary fresh. I would say the new commentary IS more exciting. However, maybe a little bit too exciting? Cybulski is just always yelling, and maybe that’s just his voice, but most events within a game of NHL don’t require that level of excitement.

2. Authentic goal songs (4 responses)
Authentic goal songs are not in NHL20. This would obviously be pretty cool if EA were able to pull this off, but I think there’s a lot of legal stuff involved here and it’s probably not as easy to get rights to all those songs as you may think.
Presentation Team Grade: B
I respect the Presentation team for trying to freshen up the game with the new broadcast package, which includes new commentary, a new scoreboard, plays of the period, etc. I would give them an A for the work they did this year, if the scoreboard was not permanently at the bottom of the screen. I think it was a major mistake on their part to not add an option to not have the scoreboard at the bottom, and I still hear complaints about it despite us being in February. Yes, people have mostly gotten used to it, but they also probably would switch back to a top-left scoreboard in a heartbeat if given the option. Nonetheless, I have high hopes for the presentation aspects of the NHL franchise moving forward.

General
(This category basically includes everything else that doesn’t fall under a specific area or mode of NHL.)
1. Be a Pro overhaul (59 responses, 144 likes)
I was honestly blown away at how many people wanted and supported a Be a Pro overhaul. I had no idea the mode had such a large community. I personally have not played Be a Pro in a few years (apparently, I haven’t missed anything), but here’s my understanding of the situation. The mode has not had much changed or added to it in the last several iterations of NHL. They had a Live the Life mode back in NHL 14 (?), which included more details and more off-ice events like the NBA/FIFA modes do, but Live the Life did not make the jump to the current generation of consoles. Clearly, offline NHL players are hurting for a more in-depth single player experience, which we did not see in NHL20.
2. User-friendly/Faster menus (14 responses, 30 likes)
Simply put, no, this did not happen. I long for the old “folder-system” menus, where you didn’t have to move screens 17 times to get to the EASHL dressing room. World of Chel added the new objective card, which allows you to directly jump from the card to a mode within WoC. Other than that, not much was changed or improved about the NHL menus. Please, EA, I beg you.
3. Better Servers (13 responses, 13 likes)
I don’t really know how to address this, but I don’t think this happened. There are more servers now, but I don’t think they are better. I personally have not experienced much as far as server issues go, but it seems like most people who complain about the servers are located in the northeast/Toronto area. People are still complaining about the servers every single day, including some major server issues that apparently occurred on the last night of the Capitals online 6s tournament.
4. Frostbite engine (11 responses, 27 likes)
No, the NHL franchise did not switch to the frostbite engine for NHL20. Why do people think this will save or greatly improve NHL? I honestly have no idea. I have no clue what this engine would do to the game and I can’t imagine that these people have any idea either, but they requested it, so here we are.
5. Separate tuning for EASHL and HUT/VS (6 responses, 39 likes)
NHL 20 still has universal tuning. This idea is a popular one among the 6s community. It stems from the fact that the game is tuned based on VS, but EASHL gameplay is so different, especially when all of the players are human-controlled. I think that EASHL is supposed to be tuned via the player builds, but the builds don’t change as the game does throughout the year.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I’m not an English major and haven’t written any formal writing in a long time, so I hope it was at least tolerable. Hopefully this helps to give an idea on the improvements that were made from NHL19 to NHL20, and what NHL20 is currently lacking.
The link to this year’s feedback form is down below, and it’ll also be posted everywhere I possibly can post it. I encourage you all to fill it out and say anything you want. I’d like to mention that EA is not asking me to do this or having me do their job for them. I had an idea to do this last year, and I had a lot of fun with it. Seeing it actually be used as a resource by EA motivates me to do more. I’m trying to give the NHL community a voice, and I’m making sure you guys are heard. So help me help you! Thanks again.
NHL20 Feedback Form: https://forms.gle/YTNLnHmnyPimpjFq6

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