How EA ruined Ultimate Team

"Team of the Year" cards, just another
Ultimate Team cash spinner.

I'm playing the Best of the best tournament, 5 star teams only, and I've battled into the final with a team that I've nurtured from the very beginning and slowly assembled as I've taken my team through strength to strength. It's a slow but extremely rewarding experience. It's rags to riches stuff of the gaming world and once upon a time it was a hugely addictive feeling. Until now.                                                                            
I've beaten some good teams to reach this final, and my 82 rated side is ready. I hit the search button and get quickly get matched up with another finalist. "Established : April 12", it reads. He hits play without any hesitation, and I'm virtually rubbing my hands at the anticipation of being matched up in the final against someone with less than 1 month's worth of experience on Ultimate Team. How could anybody with less just few weeks experience of Ultimate Team possibly be able to compete in a tournament which requires an ensemble of players equal to 5 stars? 
                                                   
As always, I glance toward the top right corner for the teams overall rating upon the pre-game loading screen. "86.....Fucking EIGHTY-SIX?!". I glance back over to the left side to inspect the team-sheet. TOTY (Team of the year) Sergio Aguero, TOTY Eden Hazard, IF (In Form) Hatem Ben Arfa. It doesn't get any more promising for my chances of victory, with a midfield reading to the tune of IF Xavi, Andreas Iniesta and Xabi Alonso. An IF Thiago Silva and Lucio make up a formidable centre half pairing.                                                                                                                          
The long and short of it as far as the actual game itself goes is, I lost. 4-1. The real issue though is how somebody so new to the game produces a squad with the rating of 86 so quickly, and can suddenly eclipse so many older players in terms of strength.                                                                
Back in 2009, FIFA released the concept of Ultimate Team. You begin with the most basic set of bronze players and work your way up to the top to produce the best team possible. It worked well back then for a number of reasons.                                                                                                          

Ultimate Team 2009 - The glory days

The most important thing to note, and probably the most significant in the context of this post, is that buying packs for real money wasn't an option back in the 2009 instalment of Ultimate Team. The example outlined above is a testament to the fact that, if you've got enough money to spend on the game, you can buy your way to success in a matter of hours. It completely crushes the purpose of what Ultimate Team stands for and has ruined the game for the more honest players who enjoy the concept of building a team from the bottom up, which is the exact foundations Ultimate Team were originally built upon. There was no choice back then, if you wanted a good team, you had to earn it through sheer determination. It's akin to real football, if you want to compete, you have to spend money, or your chances of success will be extremely limited.   
                                                       
The player development factor went a long way in UT 2009. Every player had a core rating, but every single player in the game could be trained to a rating of 99. I miss the days of terrorising defences with a forward line of Chris Eagles, Emile Heskey and Michael Kightly. The best thing about it was the fact that the squad you built was all through winning games, earning coins and developing your own players, so there was always a huge sense of satisfaction of winning tournaments and achieving trophies.                                                                                                                  
It's true that it made player values practically worthless, given the fact that a 99 Emile Heskey was as good as a 99 Lionel Messi (Admit it, you'd rather have Heskey anyway), but there were no shortcuts from buying packs with real money, and most revenue streams came from just simply winning games.                                                                                                                                          

"Man of the Match" cards. Yep, another
money spinner...

Ultimate team 2010 did shift away from the player development angle, implementing fixed ratings depending on the quality of players. It also sparked the beginning of the downfall of Ultimate Team too, as the option to allow people to spend real money on packs was introduced. Naturally, the charm of Ultimate Team was lost on some people, as you ran into players who had quite clearly spent real money to obtain the very best team possible, but every single player came in a single form (No IF or TOTY cards) and once you'd bought the best players, you'd essentially hit the end-game, due to the lack of extended options.                            
It was the 2011 instalment that kick-started the "special cards", with the addition of specific IF cards, depending on exceptional weekly performances from a selected clutch of players. Picking up from 11, and moving into 12, this is really where the problems all stem from. The constant re-release of weekly In Form cards, Super In Form cards, Team of the Year cards, and the recently introduced, Man of the Match cards have completely over-saturated the market and give people greater incentives to spend real money on the game in order to try and pull one. The exclusively limited Man of the Match cards can only be obtained for a specific amount of time, which means some serious money is thrown around during "happy hours", as everyone clambers for these special cards before the chance is gone and time expires.                                
The astronomical prices of these cards also make them impossible to get hold of unless you're one of those people willing to plug some serious money into the game, which creates a greater competitive imbalance and increases the divide in quality between players.                                                                                        
Sadly, there's no way EA will get rid of the option to buy packs with real money. Why would they? They'd be stupid to get rid of such a feature, but it completely goes against the spirit of what Ultimate Team was all about. Ultimate Team has just turned into a matter of whose willing to spend more money, and the days of success without spending a penny are long gone. I still get some enjoyment out of Ultimate Team every now and again, but it's incredibly demoralising to work hard on a team you're constantly trying to improve, only to get beaten by others who are too lazy to do the same thing.