With Madden Approaching -- You Have a Choice on How Much You Enjoy It - RaychelSnr's Blog

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With Madden Approaching -- You Have a Choice on How Much You Enjoy It Stuck

Posted on July 31, 2011 at 04:19 PM.

(28)

I always dreamed I'd start social movements that had people pumped up to tackle tough but important issues in the world today.

But I guess I'll settle for the problem of first-day sports game buyers for now.

Owen Good of Kotaku took up my cause in an article this weekend, writing a pretty darned good piece pretty much agreeing with the notion that buying sports games on launch day is a frivolous effort and sure to frustrate you.

In fact, many of you who responded to my post last week had a lot of the same thoughts.

For instance, chi_hawks felt that his new routine might be to wait until September before buying NCAA. He's a smart one -- that's about the time you can get a patch or two out. If one would have taken this approach this year, they'd be sitting back and seeing a bunch of really annoying bugs be worked out. Then, when they purchased in September, they'd be instantly playing one of the finest NCAA Football games ever.

Of course, most people tend to get swept up into advertising fervor and can't help but not purchase a new game at launch.

How can you convince people to give up their Madden holiday anyways?

The Guarantee of Sports Gaming

There are a few things which you can count on in sports gaming -- the bigger the changes from year to year the bigger (and more numerous) the bugs.

Add in a multiplier if the changes are in a dynasty or career mode, since QA has a distinct ability to not notice these bugs (see: NCAA Football 11, MLB '11: The Show for starters).

Sports games are going to be buggy at launch nowadays, and accepting that fact is the first step towards coming up with an acceptable solution. I'm here to offer a few, and you can choose what you want to do based off of the choices laid out (and not laid out). So here goes�.

You can choose to give up sports gaming

Being a sports gaming website, I can't openly advocate this approach for a variety of reasons. However, I will say that the best way to fix a problem is to get rid of the reasons there's a problem in the first place.

But let's get real, you are here at Operation Sports, you aren't giving up sports gaming.

You can take the every other year approach.

This is my personal approach towards playing games. Year to year, it doesn't feel like games are progressing much -- but take a year off and come back and you'll see that sports games really are moving forward.

A smart plan could have you playing Madden one year, NCAA the next, Madden again the third year. Taking a year off saves you money (!!!) and let's you focus on getting the most out of each title. However, this does nothing to fix the bugs at launch problem we are really worried about. But from a prudence and enjoyment standpoint, this method works and works well. Even more importantly, you will probably be more willing to forgive a patchable bug if you are impressed with a games progress.

You can choose to wait

This is the method which requires only one important change, waiting 2-3 weeks after launch before you even consider buying a game. Many are adamant about not being able to do this for a variety of reasons.

First there are publisher incentives for buying a game early, some games get $20 off at launch. And if money is tight (and it likely is or will be sooner or later for you) then you need to take the possibility of saving $20 seriously. Of course, if $20 is a real huge deal the every other year method will save you $60 per year per title you buy. Hard to beat those economics.

Second, many will say the extra 2-3 weeks you'll waste waiting will result in you falling behind if you are wanting to be a part of competitions. Guys work hard, really hard, to break sports games so that they can sport better records both online and in tournaments. This extra time is simply money for them they cannot afford to lose. I'd argue in retort that the time you spend learning a game in the first few weeks might be wasted if a title update completely changes the rules after a month or so.

You can choose to do nothing

That's right, even though you are upset about the state of sports gaming and you cannot stand the fact that games are released broken every year -- you can choose to go stand in line on launch night and buy the game anyways.

Granted, I think you forfeit a lot of your right to complain -- especially if you read sites like Operation Sports and this blog -- but this is your prerogative. It's also my duty to tell you that these problems will only get worse and not better.

And if you think this generation is bad, just wait until the next one when detail gets even greater. The amount of things that could go wrong will grow exponentially again. That might be quite a frustrating ordeal.

But really, there's not much else to do now is there?

Simply put, this is an issue which isn't going away.

So your time to choose what you want to do in the future is coming up, for many, on August 30. You can buy into the hype and hoopla and you can go have a Madden Holiday with millions of other gamers.

And most likely, you will experience a bunch of frustrating bugs that should've never made it into the game. Some of those bugs will likely make Franchise mode a hair pulling experience, perhaps even unplayable. History tells us this will be the case in some form.

History also tells us that after a couple of patches, Madden will play a lot better and it will be a game which is worthy of your time and attention. But the time in between going from pretty solid to pretty good might just be enough to make you want to scream�.or ask for a refund.

So when August 31st comes around, and the typical hysteria hits message boards near you: don't say I didn't warn you.

Comments

# 16 mnsportsguy40 @ Aug 1

I don't think any sports video game is worth the $60 we shell out every year just for updated rosters, fixed bugs, little additions, etc. But the gaming industry has all of us by the .... I feel once a new title comes out and it's updated every year the price should be cheaper, like $29.99 or whatever.
I'm a 45 year old sports game and as guilty as the rest. But as long as the fiscal numbers for the sports gaming community prove that sales are steady or rising, we will continue to buy and play our (new) sports games every year. I bet we would all freak at the notion that say Madden 12 was only $29.99 but 2K sports did it back in 2005 and it hasn't happened since...just my 2 cents...and yea we do have to remember it is just a video game. Looking forward to NHL 12, and yea I've preordered it of Amazon...go figure huh??

# 17 Pete1210 @ Aug 1

I am going every other year on the football games. Last year was NCAA11. This year I was planning on Madden12, but I am put off by no online franchise.
I may just wait till NCAA13 or Madden 13.

# 18 MMurda @ Aug 1

i agree that most sports games are not worth it launch day or at all. some are only worth it every other yr. already decided to skip madden AGAIN and go for fifa 12...no madden for me since '10. no online franch STILL = no purchase from me. ncaa 11 served me well and ncaa 12 is my go to game for football this yr and until madden can offer the same amount of bang for the buck(worthy offline and online).

oh well, too many other A+ titles coming out to be worried about a B- title that is madden. Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, FIFA12, NBA 2k12, Uncharted 3, MW3, Rage....shall i go on? Madden who??

# 19 QJB1022 @ Aug 1

im playing for superstar mode

# 20 SGMRock @ Aug 1

Having beta tested so many games I tend to just buy them at release and report bugs so they get fixed and make the game better for everyone in the long run. If no one bought the game at release and waited it would take them longer to fix the bugs anyway.

If no one bought the game at all they would either cancel making it or maybe be smart enough to QA them better. But you can't count on that fact, last thing you want is for them to stop making a game you love to play especially once they fix their bugs year to year.

# 21 chi_hawks @ Aug 1

Great post...and not just cause it used something I said

I used to wait and buy the game used, but now with EA having their "codes" to get to online roster lockers and such, I'm not sure its such a good idea. Usually if you wait a month or so, Amazon will have new sports games for around 39.99 for at least a day or two. This is how I scored MLB the Show a couple times.

Im still playing "play now" games with NCAA 12, but I want at least the roster issue patched before I even begin my new dynasty for this year.

# 22 PB11 @ Aug 1

This may be a dumb question. When a patch is released, do games shipped to stores after the release of the patch come with that patch already built in, meaning you don't have to download it?

# 23 Eski33 @ Aug 1

I am a day one buyer. The games have issues but enough to keep me from enjoying it.

# 24 JoeTex @ Aug 2

Games are like money, the come and go, ill pick it up on release, ill NEVER worry about the $60 I spent on it bc i honestly dnt care, ill have fun w/ it, and when its not fun anymore ill stop and go spend $60 on another game, rinse, cycle, repeat... Its the only way fam, trust...

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# 26 Retropyro @ Aug 3

@PB11 It doesn't matter if you buy the game after the patch was released, you will still have to download it. Buy a copy of Madden 11 today and you will still have to download the patches and updates that have come out in the last year.

# 27 gopadres @ Aug 20

Hmmm, interesting ideas. I'm personally gonna wait and use the extra time to get my *** in shape!

# 28 protoolsmp @ Aug 30

i'm picking up madden 12 at 10 am sharp..im looking to join a mature online draft league. if anyone is starting a draft this morning and needs a solid owner message me. THANKS!!

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