FIFA 12 & 13: The Glitched Virtual Pro Debate

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The glitched virtual pro. This has been the main problem in the second half of the FIFA 12 season whilst experiencing virtual life in the virtual pro clubs mode of the multiplayer. It is arguably the most popular game mode on FIFA right now, with a huge community of players who congregate on specialist forums to discuss their matches or arrange friendlies, whilst all the while trying to score their way up to Division 1. It’s highly competitive stuff, and often times it makes me very angry, but I’ll still play it, because I need my fix of competitiveness. You will understand this.

But there’s been one big hindrance this year, and that is the glitched virtual pro. As if the joke of the physics engine wasn’t enough to slow your progress down, we also have had to deal with these clowns as well.

Most of the people who I have encountered with a glitched virtual pro are generally bad at FIFA, and this isn’t surprising, because a large majority of people who feel the need to cheat at any game are blatantly low-skilled. Makes sense, but it’s still frustrating, especially when these low-skilled players can get away with running in a straight line, down the wing, because they have blistering pace with their 99-rated pro, and manage to race beyond your players to dispatch a cross into the box and score. It’s ridiculous, and this is why, regardless of your own skill, there’s a big chance of you and your team losing a game against a glitched team. Especially if one of those glitched players is a goalkeeper, then you’re pretty much screwed.

It’s above my station when I try to fathom why there was this loop-hole left in there by EA Sports in the first place. This sort of stuff should be poked at and eradicated before their game is released onto the shelves. It’s a football simulation, not a mess-on. There should be no such limit as a 99-rated player.

So last night I got into a heated debate with someone who is in a club with a glitched pro on their team, and because of that glitched pro, we ended up losing the game 3-1. They had three players on their team, and so did we, but that one glitched pro was enough to make the difference, and I will explain why.

When I confronted him about his methods, he thought it was completely fine that just one of them was glitched in that game, and he backed that point up by stating that he got all of the goals himself, not the glitched pro. I then hit back by saying that was beside the point, and the fact that the glitched pro was the play-maker, running down the wing in a straight line constantly, to go well beyond our lines and cross the ball in for an easy goal, was the reason why their methods were bullshit and cheap.

He wasn’t having any of it.

He spotted that one of our players had orange skin, which to anybody with knowledge of modifying FIFA would know that it meant the player had another person’s saved file on their system, giving them all of the achievements, making their virtual pro the highest rating it can be without being glitched. It did not mean that we had a guy with fake tan on during the match. The gentleman said that this was a form of hacking, and using somebody else’s legitimate save file is just as bad because it uses the same methods as glitching a pro, so in turn we were cheaters as well. That just isn’t the point at all, nor is it the case, because we’re still not the ones with the glitched pro. But because of this, he told me that I did not have the right to mouth of at him for them having a glitched pro.

Well, Sir, I actually do have the right, for a few reasons.

The first reason being that I can say whatever I like on Xbox Live Chat, so long as it isn’t abusive or beyond. The second reason being that even though there are modified files involved in our team, that doesn’t mean we have explicitly hacked or glitched, it means there has simply been a modification to make the player have the highest, legitimate rating, because at the end of the day, who really wants to go through all of those achievements again? Especially when most of us had maxed-out our virtual pros in the years prior to FIFA 12 anyway. It’s just frustrating, is it not?

I appreciate that there are people out there who won’t agree with such modification, but it’s just somebody else’s saved file, and it’s not explicitly cheating, it’s just giving you a pro akin to what you had in FIFA 11. It’s hard to be so competitive right up to the end of FIFA 11, challenging for the division 1 title, to then play FIFA 12 and start all over again with a 70-rated pro. It’s a good example of mental deflation.

Regardless, by now, without modification, we would have had a legitimately maxed-out virtual pro anyway, so his point was redundant as soon as it dribbled out of his mouth. They still had a glitched player on their team, and as far as I’m concerned, that is all that mattered, because that was the reason why I confronted him in the first place, and I demanded feedback related specifically to the glitched pro issue.

He was still having none of it, though. But to be fair, the chap was quite dim, and I refused to entertain his broken-record replies any longer, because he wasn’t quite grasping the main topic of the conversation, and it was late, and I needed to sleep rather than lecture him on how to think before he verbally expressed his brain-melts.

This all leads me onto this handy block of information, helpfully gathered together by Dux0r, an admin on the EA forums.

Clubs

• Now has Seasons format! No more confusing rank points/leagues. Get to Div 1!
• Online Pro progression saved on the server, not save files. Bye-bye hackers!
• Matchmaking – Ability to match versus Human GK & Human ANY as you wish
• AI teammates get better as your club improves
• Free Agent Hub allows you to play Drop-In matches, look at leaderboards etc before joining a club
• Maxed out pros more realistic to real life players. Accomplishments and growth have been tuned
• Online Pro and CPU teammates stats based off real attributes from players in top leagues
• Tuning to human GK’s and other attributes

The relative bullet-point here is of course the second one. The online pro progression will now be saved on the EA servers, which will mean two things; no more modifications leading to a legitimate rated pro, and no more modifications leading to glitching. This is both good and bad, but I would rather go through all of the boring achievements, again, if it would mean that the glitched pro users are done-for, for good. I think that’s a sacrifice anybody with sense would be willing to make.

In general, that list of fixes and additions to the virtual pro clubs aspect of FIFA 13 is really positive, and it addresses enough of the major issues to make FIFA 13 a lot more enjoyable than 12, especially by giving the CPU players better stats as your teams pros improve.

After seeing my views on the current issue at hand regarding glitched virtual pros, what are your thoughts on the matter? Do you even agree with modifying your pro to a legitimate rating, just to be competitive right off the bat?

Let me know in the comment section below.

  • Flagmaster

    You cheated. Say what you want in an attempt to defend yourself but you are a cheat. Legit players are those who regain ALL accomplishments to rank up their Pro. It’s tedious, sure. I know it is, because I’ve had to do it again. But it’s cheating to skip earning them accomplishments again as it will be in FIFA 14, too. You’re entire post just announces to any reader that you’re a hypocrite and another cheater. The people you’re directing in your post are boosters… Now they are c****

  • Tooommmy!!!!

    Seriously you can call it what you want fact is you didn’t work to get that player up to that rating. Everyone had to get all the accomplishments again not just you. Saying you already did that on previous games is a cop-out pure and simple… you cheated and the only reason you berated that guy was because he was at least blatant about his cheating. Confess and all shall be forgiven. Lying only hurts yourself! Why can’t you see!!!!

    • Jay

      If it’s cheating, then why did all the players who modified their pro to a legitimate level not get banned? Also, it’s not cheating when I’m playing competitive games against other players who did exactly the same as I did.

      At the end of it all, I didn’t exploit the boundaries of FIFA 12, which is ultimately what this article is about. My pro had a lower overall rating than Casillas, so what’s the big deal? Everybody got a high-rated pro in the end, but I’m pointing out the people who took it a step too far and got a 99 rated pro.

      I don’t think you quite understand the difference between the two cases. Besides, this article is now obsolete. Let’s move on.

  • Pete

    Seems to me like you are just playing the system with technicalities. Yes I agree with some of the points you make, that a 7foot orange giant with cannon legs and pinpoint accuracy ruins the game, and is most certainly cheating in the eyes of the games designers.

    However if the game designers of fifa had wanted players to have fully maxed pros from the start I’m sure they wouldn’t have put, as you put, such tedious accomplishments in, to keep you ‘the player’ playing the game.

    In my opinion your beef is of course with the glitched pros, but also with boosting. If this server side vp has truly eradicated modding, which I don’t think it has, then from what I read you’d still have qualms with the people that boost accomplishments.

    So all in all my opinion is that all three are classed as cheating, just the severity of which varies. Likewise I think the punishment should vary to match. Everybody who plays clubs wants to win and be the best which has led to this situation and only when the reason to not stay within the ‘confines’ of the game is outweighed by staying in them will we see any improvement. My suggestion would be that glitching modders permanent-banned. Modders maybe reset now with server side in place, and club results? And boosters well maybe just reset said boosted accomplishments and dock clubs points or division relegation?

    • Jay

      FIFA 13 Clubs has fortunately improved ten-fold from FIFA 12. It looks like nobody has been able to glitch the game, yet, and I don’t see how they could, and they have also made it so that you can’t boost other people through the achievements, because you can only get the achievements in an online VP game. So, if people did actually want to try and boost people within the VP game mode, then it will be quite awkward.

  • BoKi

    I found a webpage with fifa 13 virtual pro hack, but the download is asking me for a survey, and there are not surveys for my country… and i cannot download it…http://gameshacktrainer.com/fifa-13-virtual-pro-hack/ that is the link, please if someone can download it and try it let me know! and post it somewhere here please!

  • Fox

    I think you are being hypocritical , so its ok for you to max your guy out from the start because you feel entitled to it because you played last year. If you had real skill, as you stated you wouldn’t need to do any of that nonsense. man up.. play the game like its supposed to be played or go play madden

    • Jay

      You have completely misread what I am putting across. I’ve stated valid reasons for legitimately maxing-out my pro, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. It has nothing to do with skill, at all. It’s about it being tedious, because I had done it all in FIFAs prior to the 2012 edition.

      However, I have no qualms with EA Sports introducing server-side VPs, which means players will not be able to modify or glitch their pros, because it will minimize cheating.

      Also, if you’re saying that maxing-out a pro to a legitimate rating is the same as taking it one step further to be an arse-hole and ruin a match because of a 99-rated pro, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to disagree with you, along with most of the VP Clubs community.

      I play the game the way it’s supposed to be played, but in a far more relevant form than what you’re speaking of.

      Conclusion: Madden isn’t relevant, manning-up isn’t relevant, hypocrisy is not present, maxing a pro to a legitimate level is far different from glitching a pro to 99.

      • The Rushian

        Sorry dude, I’ve got to agree with Fox on this one. I do agree that what you did and what he did were different. He cheated a lot, and you just cheated a little. Just because you think you have valid reasons for it or you don’t see it as wrong doesn’t mean that it isn’t. I’m pretty sure that’s how most cheaters feel.

        Anyway the point is this; you’re mad at the guy you were playing because he out cheated you. And it sounds to me like the argument that you had was just the two of you trying to rationalize your own cheating. Were you more likely to be able to rationalize it? Probably. Was what he did “more wrong”? Sure. But it’s pretty clear to me that this article is rife with hypocrisy. And if it’s not clear to you, then you are the one who is missing the point my friend.

        • Michael @ Game Craic

          No dude, you are wrong. You will ask me to link evidence or cite sources and Im not going to be able to but Ill say this anyway. Right around when EA announced their attentions to ban glitched 99 pro’s, they stated that they were not looking to ban those who had simply modded their pro’s to the maximum stats within the parameters of the game, only those who had gone OUTSIDE the parameters of the game. And it is that terminology where I define cheating, cheating is going outside the allowable parameters of the game to influence results, which is something modders havent done. Modding is no different to having a mate genuinely do all the achievements then copying his profile to your Xbox HDD. Cheating is cheating, and modding is not.

          • Erick

            Modding is still cheating as it is giving you an unfair advantage over those who level up the pro the correct way and play the game properly and therefore you are ruining the game for them. So don’t get all butt hurt because someone else came and ruined your game. its called KARMA .. and yes like Fox said MAN UP!!

          • Choitz

            I agree with Erick… basically you’ve written a small essay on this and up until when you mentioned you’re team had a cheat player (and using someone else’s vp file is cheating) I was with you. I then skim read the other thousand-odd words of ranting.

          • Jay

            Our team didn’t have a “cheat player”.

          • Jay

            The people who glitched their VPs to 99 ruined everybody’s game.

          • Jose Galan

            You do the achievements once and then just create a team of clones to beat the schniz out of people struggling to build up their pros honestly? How is his 99 speed player flying past your 90 speed player any more unfair than your 90 speed player running past my 80 speed player?

          • Jay

            I was only rated 87. So, here’s the real question; what would you rather have, a 99 rated pro sprinting past you with ease, or an 87 rated pro sprinting not much faster than you?

            I’ll answer that question for you, no, no you wouldn’t. FIFA 12 is old news anyway.

          • Jay

            You would rather have an 87 rated pro in that situation *

        • Jay

          Nope. Cheating is exploiting and surpassing the parameters of the game, which I didn’t do. Just see Michael’s comment, because that is generally the deal here.

      • RandyJrQuetzacoalt

        No, you think your point is legitimate, thing is you’ve used a maxed pro that you didn’t levelled by yourself, he cheated so he could get a better one.

        In my book you’re both cheaters and whiners.

  • Jeroen

    But what happens if I just want to play Singe player with my VP, are there seperate stats for that? I just want to play career with my VP and not HAVE TO play online games for him to grow offline, so do I have to do that? Or can I just play with a seperate list of achievements offline and have him grow as my seasons and matches progress? Can anyone clarify? Thanks!