Hey guys,

I decided to start a NCAA Basketball 09 Community Event LIVE blog to cover off what's being talked about during the event.

I'll be editing this blog throughout the day with producer interviews, community leaders interviews and maybe even pictures, so keep checking!

In attendance:

Dave Vachon - vetzvirtualballin.com

CJ Peters - KonsoleKingz.com

Dougles Veney - Stick Skills.com

Paul Gryzb - Operationsports.com

Mario Drake - EA SPORTS Basketball

Shawn Drotar - 5w-g.com and XBOX.com

David Seeney - KonsoleKingz.com

Robert Hagen - xbox-sports.com

Chris Jacobs - NCAAStrategies.com


11:08 - The Producers have met the Community Leaders and Line Producer Sean O'Brien is giving an overview of NCAA Basketball 09

11:30 - Dave Vachon asks key question about demo length for EA SPORTS games. Very good question and something our NCAA Basketball 09 team will now look into! (Good question Dave)

12:00 - Gameplay Producer Connor Dougan is going through gameplay additions and improvements. He's showing the brand spankin' new NCAA Basketball 09. Another question was asked instantly about the placement of our score ticker in the game. "Sony and Microsoft, because of different TV setups have a "safe zone" where our game accounts for the variations in TV size and whether it's Standard Def and High Def" - Brent Nielsen

12:37 - STILL on Gameplay! Some don't think we take enough time on gameplay. Not the case here. The community leaders are really engaged in discussions right now with our production team asking about gameplay options, features etc. It's a really good conversation going on right now that has definitely peaked the interest of our community leaders!

1:18 - The guys have had lunch and are still listening to our gameplay presentation. We're now talking about defensive gameplay improvements. Producer Novell Thomas is up next to talk about audio and in-game presentation. Stick around guys!

1:42 - We FINALLY finished the gameplay presentation and Q&A, and we've shifted focus to Novel Thomas's audio and in-game presentation segment. Based on community feedback from wishlists that I sent over to the dev team, they've been able to implement that feedback into their in-game presentation. This is a MAJOR win for the community, and I thank you for all of your ideas and comments around improving our in-game presentation from March Madness 08 to NCAA Basketball 09!

3:16 - We double-dipped and headed over to the NHL 09 Launch Event. They were playing the EA SPORTS Hockey League with some NHL players like Dion Phaneuf and Jeremy Roenick! We're now back and Producer Joe Stallings is taking the community leaders through the new online features of NCAA Basketball 09.

3:41 - Joe's going over some new improvements with Dynasty, and some of our new modes in NCAA Basketball 09. Some of the integration with a certain sports leader is getting people pumped.

4:17 - You want a smoother online experience? Producer Joe Stallings just said that they worked very hard to make sure NCAA Basketball 09 is an enjoyable experience for all of you with far less lag than you had in NCAA March Madness 08. Nice tidbit for you online heads!

4:42 - We have Chris Winters who's the Art Director for NCAA Basketball 09 in talking about our visual decisions made for the game. The community leaders are asking a lot of questions, clearly making the visuals in the game a hot topic of discussion. We see some complaints about the legs of our players in basketball. The community leaders have the answer to that question and many others that they'll make available to all of you soon! Next up is the roundtable Q&A with our production team, and then we're done for the day. Make sure you log on tomorrow for the Day 2 LIVE blog where the community leaders will get 10 straight hours of hands-on time with the game! I'll also be interviewing our producers live on location, and bring in a few of our community leaders to give you guys their impressions of the game. Thanks for reading guys, see you tomorrow!