ShopMaster's Blog
Online Franchise and Superstar Modes are lacking in Madden 11
Posted on June 15, 2010 at 11:48 AM.
"Last year we delivered Online Franchise and while it was received very well by community and press, the usage was among the lowest for any of our gameplay modes. What this said to us was that Franchise mode as whole needed more than just a new access point, it needed a complete refresh. As most of you know, Franchise mode debuted in Madden NFL 99 on PlayStation, and since then, we've been adding on layers and layers of code each year to make it the most authentic experience possible. As console technology has evolved, it's become increasingly more difficult to evolve the mode in-kind, since we are handcuffed by the limitations of the code from so many years in the past. To re-write Franchise mode to take full advantage of the PS3 and Xbox 360 would take well over a year to do, which is why we've taken the approach we have up until now. With that in mind, we made the decision to focus this year's development on making the core areas of Madden NFL better, namely the AI, animations, playcall, and online play. While that meant not making any major overhauls to Franchise or SuperStar, we were still able to make some notable improvements while we prepare for the future."
The imporvements/additions they did make were the following:
- Improved franchise stats (specifically rushing yards and season sack stats)
- in-game injuries
- Super Bowl presentation
- NCAA Draft class tuning
- completely re-created over 8000 players in 32 draft classes
- added the new Meadowlands Stadium as the 2014 Super Bowl site
The biggest addition Phil said was the addition of Game Planning and the ability to create a new Game Plan for every game in your Franchise. You can create a Game Plan to take away the strengths of your opponent and have one for each team. You can always go back and edit that Game Plan at any time.
Phil ended the blog by reaching out to the community and asking the community to help them shape the direction of these career modes.
"We feel great about where we've taken the foundation of Madden NFL and are ready to refocus on building Franchise and SuperStar from the ground up. We have already assembled a team fully dedicated on setting the vision for what Franchise and SuperStar modes can and should be in the future. Since we are starting with a clean canvas heading into Madden NFL 12, we want the community to help us shape our direction- starting NOW. Let us know what you'd like to see in Madden career modes in the future. We're not just looking for small add-ons either. We want your big ideas. What would revolutionize career modes in your opinion?"
Shopmaster's Thoughts
At this time last year, EA revealed Online Franchises and it looked great and it sounded like they had a solid foundation to build upon. I know that there needed to be a better way to sign free agents salary caps needed to be added, and commissioners needed better control of the league, but I felt that the foundation was there to do that this year. After reading that, I'm very disappointed that they have decided to just toss this year out in the crapper for Online Franchise and Superstar mode; which in both NCAA and Madden, have been untouched for a couple of years now.
This "minor stat" that nobody used the mode so we are not going to try to make it better is rediculous. Will they do the same for GameFlow and Game Planning if no one decides to use that. Online Franchises just had one year, and the reason why most of the Franchises died was because the things that needed to be added above (salary cap, more options for commissioner, etc ....)
This all comes on the heel of a major announcement of another mode that they are unveiling tonight. GTTV's E3 All Access Special on Spike, tonight June 11th, at 11:00 PM EST EA plans on releasing information about this new mode. My guess is that it will be the Online Team Play 3-vs-3. This mode was revealed on Gamestop's web site back in April and has since been taken down.
The 3 on 3 Co-op mode seems very interesting. I'm sure there will be some things that they could do to make this mode better too, but again will this be just another mode that gets no attention or love in Madden 12. I guess we'll find out then.
What do you think of no significant updates to Online Franchise and Superstar Mode?
http://www.mymaddenpad.com/articles/204.php
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I hope EA comes to their senses. The online franchise was and sitll is a great idea. I for one exclusively played online and the online franchise.
Here are some reasons why this was an "unused game mode"
1. Needed the option to create a franchise with only 8, 16 or 24 teams. The reason why this is important is because when we play onlline, we like to play against human players and not against computer controlled teams. I was a part of franchiese that only had 8 human controlled teams and for the most part we were stuck playing the computer teams each week and that sucked. If we wanted to play against computer we would play offline franchise. For online franchise to work we need to be able to create franchises which consist of only human controlled teams. This is not always easy to do. Getting players who will remain dedicated to a franchise can be difficult if you have to fill all 32 teams. Giving users the options to create a franchise with only 16 teams for example, makes it easier to get 16 players who will remain dedicated to the franchise for the life of the franchise. Also, knowing that week in and week out they will be playing against their buddy as opposed to the computer also makes a big difference. So EA don't scrap this mode. It works. You just need to apply this suggestion. Give us the option to have franchises which does not consist of computer teams and the only way to do that is to allow us to limit the amount of teams we can have in the franchise.
2. Not enough commissioner control. The commissioner should be allowed to modify/create schedules, assign winner/loser to unplayed games, heal injured players. Give the commissioner these controls via the website as well not just on the console.
3. Outdated draft classes with static player potentials. After going through a draft once, everyone knew who the top players were and how well they would progress. It would be nice to see new players in the draft as well as their potentials determined more randomly. I don't want to know that in each franchise that a particular qb will also be an A potential. Make it random, allow players to take a risk on a player each time out.
4. No player scouting. I guess this was not needed since the player potentials did not change. But if my last suggestion is implemented, adding the ability to scout a player, maybe at the combine would be nice. Of course you can limit how much scouting you do similar to offline franchise. But allowing a player's potential to change randomly and giving online franchise team owners the ability to scout a handful of players prior to the draft would add an interesting level of intrigue.
5. Not enough stats and records. EA needs to add the ability to view much more stats not only through the game but online. And store the stats for each season. We would like the ability to go back and track a players career and look at their stats each season.
6. No Salary Caps/FA Contracts. This may be difficult to implemnt would be a very nice feature for online franchise mode.