Landon Donovan is a pretty serious gamer, so he was a fitting subject Wednesday afternoon at UCLA when EA Sports showed off the new motion-capture technology that will contribute to its FIFA Soccer 2011 videogame that will be released later this year.

Donovan, outfitted in a skin-tight black and orange spandex/neoprene suit equipped with sensors to capture his natural movement on the field, took some kicks at Guillermo Diaz – “Guillermo” from “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” for a segment that will air early Thursday morning – and went at Galaxy teammate Donovan Ricketts, who played in the nets so that Donovan didn't have to fake his on-field reactions.

Donovan was on UCLA's North Athletic Field for nearly five hours, drawing a small crowd of UCLA students, many of them snapping pictures, along with a lot of written press and television media.

The new “Mvn” motion-capture technology allows for more natural movement from players in the FIFA games, producer Matt Prior said.

“This allows us to capture the athlete in his more native enviornment,” Prior said. “Traditionally, what we have is a motion-capture studio (in suburban Vancouver), which is a very different environment – it's very blacked out, no windows, no natural light, just the cameras, and it's a very enclosed space.

“You can capture all the motion, but obviously that's a very unreal atmosphere to a lot of professional athletes. What 'Mvn' does is it allows us to come to the glorious outdoors and capture them in a much more traditional environment. Like anything, if you're in your traditional environment, it feels that much more normal, that much more fluid, so you get a much more realistic depiction of how they would play on a regular field.”

Donovan can appreciate that, and his development as a player – and understanding of opponents – has been enhanced by video games, he said.

“You might think this sounds a little odd, but growing up I didn't have soccer to watch on TV, and I feel like playing these games helped me learn players, learn about stadiums, learn about teams,” said Donovan, who grew up in Redlands. “I don't know every player on (World Cup opponents) Slovenia's and Algeria's rosters, and, believe it or not, playing the game you learn some things. It's not the exact characters, but there's similar areas. ...

“You can learn a few things about some players, maybe learn tendencies. These guys (at EA Sports) do all the research. They know what they're doing – they follow these players and these teams more than we do up until this pt (just before the World Cup), so you learn a lot.”