{"id":368126,"date":"2011-04-04T23:49:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-04T23:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/04\/quality-and-detail-pgatour-com\/"},"modified":"2011-04-04T23:49:00","modified_gmt":"2011-04-04T23:49:00","slug":"quality-and-detail-pgatour-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/04\/quality-and-detail-pgatour-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality and detail (PGATOUR.com)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n <\/p>\n

PGATOUR.COM<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

NEW YORK\u2014The internal discussions, Tiger Woods<\/a> said, started more than a decade ago, back when his PGA TOUR video golf game was still a mere infant. Then at some point, the negotiations started and heated up. Finally, the contracts were approved and signed.<\/p>\n

Then the actual work began. That was two years ago.<\/p>\n

The secrecy, however, remained in place.<\/p>\n

EA Sports, which develops Tiger’s game, had landed the biggest fish in the market, Augusta National, and would be using the course, as well as the history and tradition of the Masters, for its 2012 version. Inside EA’s offices, information was doled out on a need-to-know basis, according to Mike DeVault, who has been the lead designer on Tiger’s game for three years. Outside the office, the topic dare not be brought up for fear the news would leak prematurely.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t easy. Imagine all those fired-up employees who restrained themselves from telling loved ones about their latest project.<\/p>\n

“One of the hardest things was to keep this under wraps, especially in this day and age of the Internet,” said DeVault, who made several trips to Augusta National to examine the course. “You can’t just tell your wife, ‘Hey, I’m going to Georgia for a week. See you later.'”<\/p>\n

The company finally went public with the news in early January. On March 29, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 12: The Masters went on sale for the first time in North America (worldwide on April 1).<\/p>\n

If you’re a gamer, this is a big deal. If you’ve played Tiger’s golf games, this is the day you’ve been waiting for\u2014a chance to play a virtual version of Augusta National.<\/p>\n

In 12 years of his association with video’s most popular golf game, Woods understands the significance of this moment.<\/p>\n

“Augusta is the creme de la creme. It really is,” Woods told PGATOUR.COM during a recent interview in his hotel suite in Times Square in Manhattan to promote the game. “It’s something that everyone’s been trying to get for over a decade. We were fortunate enough to get it.”<\/p>\n

Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, said Augusta and the Masters has, for more than a decade, “been the most requested and coveted feature” among the game’s fans.<\/p>\n

With other iconic courses such as TPC Sawgrass, Pebble Beach, St. Andrews and Torrey Pines already on the game, Augusta National indeed became the elusive Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

Woods said when his game was first launched in 1999, he never thought Augusta National would be a part of it. But thanks to the vast improvements in technology that would accurately portray the historic course, as well as the chance to grow the game with a young audience, Masters officials became convinced that the time had finally arrived.<\/p>\n

“There’s a good reason why the course has never been in the game,” DeVault said. “It’s the most prestigious course in the world and until we were to able make them comfortable that we could portray the course and represent it correctly, it was not going to happen.<\/p>\n

“When you play this game, it needs to come through just how special the place is.”<\/p>\n

An accurate portrayal of Augusta National definitely is one of the key reasons why those involved in the game’s development are so excited about its release.<\/p>\n

Not only did DeVault and his team make numerous trips to Augusta, but the entire course was laser-mapped, allowing EA Sports to capture the course within 6 millimeters of accuracy.<\/p>\n

“That’s just ridiculous, if you think about it,” Woods said. “I was playing the game and the putts that I hit, I know what they do, how they break, how much they break and the speed they are (in real life). That’s what they are in the game and that’s what blows my mind.<\/p>\n

“For kids and for anybody else who may never get to the Masters, let alone play Augusta National, for them to experience that is pretty neat.”<\/p>\n

Until now, most golf fans have only experienced Augusta National via television one week every April. Getting a Masters ticket is one of the toughest in all of sports, and playing the course \u2026 well, winning the lottery is easier.<\/p>\n

Now, with a virtual version of Augusta National available, a whole new level of intimacy has been reached. Sure, unless you have a ticket, you still won’t be able to touch the azaleas or peel off the green wrapper of a pimento cheese sandwich. But you can line up one of the daunting shots at Amen Corner and get a feel for what the players face.<\/p>\n

DeVault said the slope of the bunkers are “as close as humanly possible that we can get for the moment.” He also noted that course officials were very particular about the speed of the greens and how putts would roll from various spots.<\/p>\n

“Once we had that validation,” DeVault said, “we knew it was perfect. And that was just for the greens.”<\/p>\n

Even up to the very end when DeVault submitted the final version of the game, slight adjustments were being made, such as shortening the grass in certain parts of the rough, and changing the reflection of the water. The level of input EA received from Augusta National officials was unprecedented.<\/p>\n

“When it came to the course, nobody other than the people we worked with at Augusta could give us the kind of feedback we needed,” DeVault said. “You’re going to think the course is exactly the way Augusta National is. That was the goal of ours and that’s what Augusta held us to\u2014represent the course better than in any environment in any video game.<\/p>\n

“They were as much a part of making the game as we were. \u2026 We got to a level of detail where we had not been before.”<\/p>\n

But now that the game is available and the desires from the gaming community have been met, the question becomes: What’s next? Now that the “license of all licenses” (as DeVault puts it) has been acquired and delivered, what do you do for an encore?<\/p>\n

Tiger already has started to think about it, and said he’ll meet with the creative department and figure out something.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got one idea I’d really like to have happen,” Woods said.<\/p>\n

Then he adds with a grin: “But I can’t tell you yet.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Follow this link:
\nQuality and detail (PGATOUR.com)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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