Five Things EA Needs To Include In Online Franchises/Dynasties Next Year - BlyGilmore's Blog

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Five Things EA Needs To Include In Online Franchises/Dynasties Next Year Stuck

Posted on April 10, 2009 at 12:23 PM.

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It certainly is refreshing to see EA Sports embracing the online franchise and dynasty, especially considering this is a company that removed online franchises from Madden on the PC a few years back because �nobody played it.�

So in the interest of helping EA deliver online franchises people will love, here are some tips from the point of view of a long time Madden commissioner and NCAA Online Dynasty aficionado.

1 � Make sure everything works.

It goes without saying, but a lot of online dynasties in NCAA died last year because of a bug in the off-season � making it impossible to keep your best players from leaving early or transferring without some serious elbow grease by the league commissioner.

This particular bug really made you wonder if anybody at EA even tried to simulate an online franchise before shipping the game.

And you can�t have a long lasting dynasty when nobody wants to be the commissioner because their players won�t progress.

2 � Allow smaller, flexible leagues, with the rest of the teams computer controlled.

This speaks more to Madden than NCAA (since its NCAA's lead Madden should be following). It is just damn near impossible to find 32 guys who can get along for anything more than a few weeks.

Sooner or later you are going to have personalities clash and arguments erupt over what is considered fair and what is considered cheating.

The NCAA Online Dynasty model is much better � a flexible number of players up to 12, arranged in whatever way they see fit. And other teams computer controlled.

3 � Online fantasy draft please.

Allowing a league in Madden the option of having an online fantasy draft will help distribute talent across the league and limit the advantage some teams have coming out of the gate.

Otherwise, you�ll have fistfights over teams like the Patriots.

4 � Exported rosters for online pickup games.

This is a feature that is always overlooked and one that people would love � having the option to export their team from an online franchise/dynasty and then use it for pickup games online or offline.

The ability to practice in the franchise is nice, but folks like to play with their teams against others and get a feel for their players � especially after the off-season when they have new players and draftees to try out.

5 � Import rosters in Madden or NCAA 11.

At some point this became part of the Ten Commandments of Sports Gaming: once a new version of the game comes out, you needed to scrap your old team and start over.

In online franchises and dynasties this is particularly disheartening, since players are dealing with draft picks and recruits they would love to see graduate or retire some day.

So give us the option to import the rosters from one edition of Madden or NCAA to the next edition.

What do you think? What are some items on your online dynasty/franchise wishlist?

Comments

# 1 algeron04 @ Apr 10

I love the point about being able to import a roster from one edition of Madden or NCAA to the next edition.

# 2 Maximus205 @ Apr 10

The import dynasties to the next edition idea I shot to ea 3 years ago.Glad someone finally decided to jump on.I hate starting over every year.

# 3 BlyGilmore @ Apr 10

yup - its something I know I personally suggested to EA Sports devs a number of a years ago.

# 4 Fetter21 @ Apr 11

All good ideas, especially the less than 32 human controlled teams for an online Madden franchise, since if all the teams need to be controlled by users this will kill the whole thing before it even gets started.

The one thing that I can't see them putting in is the carrrying the same team into Madden 11, it's be a good feature, but it seems like there might be too many issues making it difficult to happen & ultimately filling it full of bugs. So I won't get my hopes up too much for that one.

The others should definitely be in if they are thinking online is as big of a deal as what they have been saying.

# 5 Fetter21 @ Apr 11

I don't know if they got it into Madden 09 for the leagues, but they need to be able to allow people to see the league info the web and not just from their Game Console.

# 6 BlyGilmore @ Apr 11

dunno fetter - i mean if you think about it moving a team from Madden 10 to Madden 11 could be as simple as exporting a CSV file and then importing it. After all we are mostly just talking about numbers.

# 7 Fetter21 @ Apr 11

I suppose you are right, that it could be as easy as importing a draft class and they do that. It's just not something I've ever really expected to see, just since there are so many other things they leave out. Wouldn't be a bad idea though, since it does encourage people to get the new one, and leaves little reason to keep playing the old one.

# 8 hbk_wess @ Apr 11

i have been screaming about the importing dynasty and franchises in ea games for years

# 9 Africa Jr @ Apr 15

I think It Should be a max of 4 ppl or 8 4 would be good for thats one little division! and thats fine with me!!! and you say make everything works i don't think thats possible for they haven't even mentioned a online franchise!!!