Madden: Lack of consistency cast doubt on any true long term planning - RaychelSnr's Blog

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RaychelSnr's Blog

Madden: Lack of consistency cast doubt on any true long term planning Stuck

Posted on August 8, 2012 at 12:52 PM.

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Remember the vision cone? What about Fight for the fumble?

What about Pro-Tak and Locomotion? The extra point? Weapons? Lead blocker control? The highlight stick?

And what of when the EA hype machine simply overstates the new features for Madden? What about Gameflow and hype about changing how plays are called in football games forever? While I personally do enjoy gameflow, it's apparent the NCAA Football team doesn't find it worthwhile for a football simulation. Gameflow has been so game-changing the NCAA Football team in the same building has decided not to implement it.

So pardon me, for not being enthused about any new Madden features that are described as huge in press materials: the past five years or so prove that most Madden features are actually going to either be dramatically downscaled or disappear completely from the game within a couple of years.

With all of the talk of long term plans every year for the franchise, one has to ask a simple question: are the long term plans of the Madden NFL football series truly to waste tons of development time each year on features which simply aren't going to survive another release or two?

If so, what kind of business model is that? If not, what kind of long-term planning is truly going on if any?

Don't get me wrong, some features do make the cut and do last awhile and in big ways. I have no doubts the Infinity Engine will be sticking around -- albeit hopefully much improved in the coming years. But to me at least, the jury is still out on Connected Careers. Part of me wants to believe it's going to work, but another part of me simply feels as if it could be a huge gimmick that simply allows the EA marketing team to promote the 'All-New Franchise Mode' soon enough.

And it's only fair to blame some of the long-term plan gaffes on simple personnel turnover. Lots of the guys at the top have left throughout this generation: Madden seems to be a pressure cooker job which few can actually stand to tolerate. When you are losing your visionaries on a yearly basis, it's hard to stick to a long-term plan for very long.

That's why the addition of Cam Weber as a visionary type of guy was a pretty big move -- as the franchise does seem to be slowly finding some year to year stability in what it's building on and what it's keeping versus throwing away.

Another thing you have to look at: is this a common phenomenon across other games in our genre? The evidence says that there is some feature destruction in other franchises, but almost always at a lesser extent of Madden (and NCAA to an extent).

FIFA Soccer, since it has found solid ground earlier this generation, has always had a logical progression of it's big features. In fact, this is a trait of most of our genre's best games. Features have built upon features -- you see that from this year from last year with the Impact Engine moving onto the Player Impact Engine. If FIFA were Madden, you'd see an Impact Engine one year, and a Weapons Feature with an all new QTE mode for penalty kicks the next, followed by an all new Physics engine the next year.

See how ridiculous that is? But that's how Madden has operated for the entirety of this generation.

You can repeat the same type of progression pattern in other franchises which have been quite successful this console generation, from NBA 2K to NHL to MLB: The Show and beyond.

But Madden? Madden stands alone in a sort of schizophrenic feature driven madness with no rhyme or reason of it from year to year. Some years a feature is added and it's gone literally the next. Other's it's added and phased out in later years until it's simply no longer in the game. Rarely, a feature is added and actually remains -- but it's rarely spoken of again.

The prescription seems simple enough: simply get a plan and stick to it. Don't go on crusades for features that simply won't be in the game in coming years.

Perhaps you just design smarter. Perhaps you build off of previous year's efforts instead of completely re-writing the game plan each year. Perhaps you try to keep a stable set of leaders around so you can actually do all of this.

Regardless, EA Tiburon's Madden team has been a lot like the Yankees in the 80s. I'm not sure who is playing the role of Steinbrenner, but there's enough turnover that it simply causes chaos within the leadership and so far, the results have spoken for themselves.

Perhaps Madden NFL 13 is the beginning of a new era where Madden games build upon themselves. Perhaps.

But history says don't get attached to the new features on the back of the box, they simply won't be there in a couple of years.

Comments

# 1 BigshotSportcenter @ Aug 8

If you sat back and think about all the new features that was in madden in the past, you would think at least one of them will still be around but it's all gone. They really do need consistency in their games.

# 2 Retropyro @ Aug 8

I'm confused. Madden on the current gen consoles has been ripped to shreds for being, well crap. But you complaining about them constantly trying to change it up to improve the game?
At the very least they acknowledge what failed by getting rid of it and moving on to try out something new.
So if Connected Careers turns out to be a complete failure and turns off the fan base, you would rather see the Madden team just stick with it next year or the year after? Then what, bash them for not dumping it and trying to innovate.
I have not been happy with Madden for awhile now. That said I at least like that they don't just hang on to features that have out right failed.
If CC's is a hit, they won't just dump it in a few years, they will refine it. If it sucks, they will dump it. What's wrong with that.

"Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...." Thomas Edison

# 3 kjjnesb @ Aug 8

Well said I haven't really paid attention to Madden 13 since CC was announced but that was huge punch in the nuts for them to announce Franchise was essentially dead after waiting since Madden 06 360 for them to at least get it to last gen level.

I also get management has been a problem since the move to 360 and PS3 but I don't trust that the EA suits won't once again pull the rug out from under the current guys or force flashy features on these Devs.

# 4 RaychelSnr @ Aug 8

Retropyro -- the problem is actually simple. The planning is so terrible that the features introduced end up being terrible and don't resonate with fans. You just said it yourself. My question back to you is simple as well: would you rather there actually be a long term plan with features that stick around and are successful or a yearly cluster-you-know-what of features which most disappear and tons of resources wasted in the process?

# 5 CM Hooe @ Aug 8

I'd love to hear an coherent and informed argument as to exactly how Connected Careers could be dismissed as merely a gimmick. I understand what this article is trying to get at, but picking on CCM as this year's example of a gimmick strikes me as completely misinformed.

If one had been followed the information release of the game, one would understand exactly why CCM exists, exactly what it is, and understand that it is here to stay as the sole season-over-season gameplay mode for the game. Will it be more evolutionary than revolutionary this year? Perhaps, it clearly is missing some of the bells and whistles we are used to having, and I'm just as disappointed in the missing nuances as much as anyone else. However, that EA is so confident in the mode as to publicly state on repeated occasions the phrase "Franchise mode is dead" ought to be telling as to where and how they will be spending a significant portion of their development resources going forward.

# 6 Layoneil @ Aug 8

to put it in football terms, every year, they either fire the head coach, GM or cut the starting QB.

# 7 Dazraz @ Aug 8

The problem with EA is they're great at coming up with a basic idea, giving it an attractive name & selling the game on the feature being the next great thing. The problem is EA never see there ideas through to it's conclusion. It's like they think 'Yeah nice idea but too much work to get it right so we'll drop that & let's come up with a new gimmick'.Gameflow could of worked if it was implemented properly. The Extra Point show could of made a massive addition to the broadcast presentation. EA just never bothered.
It's why I'm not yet convinced of the new Infinity Engine. It all looks good so far but what's the betting that once released gamers start finding numerous flaws with it. What then? EA will likely either abandon it or patch it up a bit & rebrand it as the Beyond Infinity engine or some such trash.

# 8 bigsmallwood @ Aug 8

EA has simply not delivered the next gen experience. They have failed again and again because like you have stated they keep adding half-baked features and then removing them in favor of "said new feature this year". As a gamer, my $60 is better spent elsewhere until EA SPorts and Madden decide on an identity. Do you want to be sim ala NBA/NFL 2K, FIFA, and MLB The Show? Or do you want to be arcade via NBA Jam Tecmo Bowl?

Its amazing how we went from Protak to Locomotion to the infinity engine and there is very little real difference in the gameplay. I'm sorry, players clumsily falling over each other after a play because of bad animations is not going to get me excited. 8 years of next gen and linemen walk from the huddle like synchronized swimmers still...too many unfixed issues that could be done in one dev cycle, but according EA...its not possible...although we have seen it with other sports games this gen. #sigh

# 9 scottyo60 @ Aug 8

It just feels like they don't take input of consumers and just build features. Vision cone was alright, but it was kind of needing fixes to make it work. Loved pro tak but the next year it was all, but gone. Didnt mind weapons so much either. Engine should have been the bases and then the features to follow. Madden 10 was like a million steps forward, then 11 was a million and 1 back. 12 I enjoyed, but the franchise was so flawed. Was it flawed to make people more enclosed to trust connected careers? Who knows. Hopefully the engine is the bases for a successful franchise.

# 10 kjjnesb @ Aug 8

@CM Hooe I honestly think the problem with CC is they are combining 2 modes that don't really need to be combined and alone are shallow. I mean I'm not sure what is supposed to be so special about playing as a superstar vs in past iterations besides the skill points.

You are still essentially playing as player with no real personality or unique characteristic with exception that you can switch to a coach at your leisure and you have a EA predetermined back story for your player. I'm basically going to only know my player ingames and as a silhouette and same could be said for the coach.

# 11 HitThatRowdy96 @ Aug 8

In my opinion, Madden needs to work some on renovating and perfecting instead of trying to innovate yearly. I understand the need to get some attention-getting feature or aspect to get us salivating for a new experience, but I agree with the sentiment to fix what's broken instead of buying a whole new thing. CCM seems like a step toward something good, but looking at some of the best rated games recently, we see MLB the Show (minor tweaks to some of the RTTS and Franchise modes on top of a couple upgrades additions to the gameplay system that were optional), NBA 2K (again, some tweaks and optional additions), and FIFA (as Chris said, features upon features to add on). Meanwhile, even if Madden is just making add one's with certain things, they advertise it as a game changer instead of calling it what it is- a tweak. CCM breaks that mold, but EA/Madden could definitely use some help in trying to renovate what's not broken, innovate less often when it's not completely necessary, and learn how not to make a big deal out of everything new.

# 12 kjjnesb @ Aug 8

And to add to my last post you can't call it the greatest and most innovative career mode ever when quite frankly 2K12 does the Myplayer/Superstar portion and Association/franchise portion better than CC as individual modes minus online of course.

# 13 BigshotSportcenter @ Aug 8

This CC feature gave me a real legit reason to be excited about madden because I've been waiting a long time for the offline franchise features to be in the online franchise. Hopefully CC is something that can last at least a few years. People I know been craving for this feature and now we can start a true online franchise.

# 14 kjjnesb @ Aug 8

@KCmizzou852 I know I meant as far as your player you'll be looking at picture or an in game model of your self or a generic cyberface or a current NFL player/Coach and they all have the same boring personality and won't really be part of the CC's world.

No heavy innovation in that aspect besides letting me import my face which is gimmicky imo.

# 15 RaychelSnr @ Aug 8

Tweaked the beginning of the article so people don't have a heart attack. Gameflow is in...but I simply didn't make my point about EA's marketing overstating a features importance..which is obviously a knock at CC until further notice