Madden 11 Online Team Play - Hmmmmm .... - ShopMaster's Blog

ShopMaster's Blog

Madden 11 Online Team Play - Hmmmmm ....

Posted on June 15, 2010 at 12:04 PM.

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Shopmaster's Thoughts on Madden 11 Online Team Play

It was no shock that the new mode being released on SpikeTV was going to be the Madden 3 vs. 3 Online Team Play mode for Madden 11. Yuri Bialoskursky (Madden 11 Devleoper) claims to have added more than just another player to the 2 player Co-op of last year; they have taken it to the next level. That next level allows you to play 3 people against 3 other people online. You can still play 3 vs. CPU if you like and any combination; but I imagine the real joy of this mode is getting 2 of your buddies together and going against 3 other human players.

The thing that is bothering me right now is the statement that they put out earlier in the day about not hardly touching Online Franchises and Superstar Mode. They say that those modes were the least played and I'd like to see what the numbers were for 2 player Online Co-op that were so good they felt they had to expand on it.

I have no doubt that people will probably really like Online Team Play for Madden 11. I myself have the following concerns about Madden OTP:

1. Connectivity - If I had to guess, I would say 1 out of 10 people have experienced some connectivity problems when playing Madden online last year. I'm not talking always getting disconnected but I'm just saying there are few people who I've seen (in fact I can't remember any) that have played more than 30 games and have a 0% as their DNF. Now we know alot of times this has nothing to do with people pulling the ethernet cord but just some packets getting lost and disconnecting. Now you have a game mode that requires 6 people to be connected all at the same time. I have a feeling this might be disasterous if latency on the servers were not properly tested.

2. Attribute Boosts - Yuri didn't go into a lot of detail about getting attribute boosts after unlocking achievements but I have to wonder if down the road will this just be too much. I like the ideas of unlocking achievements but soon you will have people who are just going to use the New England Patriots with a boosted Tom Brady and boosted Randy Moss and they are not going to be stopped. They are already a scary combination without the boosts. This has the potential of starting out really nice and turning into something EA didn't think about down the road. It sort of reminds me of The Ultimate Team and how it was great at the beginning but then I just kept getting pounded by guys who boosted their team by buying add-ons and it wasn't fun anymore.

3. Matchmaking - This sort of falls in with #2 and what is EA going to do about matching people up. In The Madden Ultimate Team you can't even play against your own firend so you are subject to whoever the system matches you up against. I really need this mode to have the ability to let me pick a group of friends to play against.

Of course I don't know all the detail of Madden OTP but here are some ideas that would make OTP great.

Web Component! Madden Online Team Play needs a web component in a way that you can do the following:

- The ability to create a team online
- Add uniforms, logos, team name, stadium and more ...
- Ability to add friends to your team and track each individual process

So there you have it, my thought on Madden OTP. What do you think about it and give me some feedback on things that could make this a better mode?

UPDATE: I was just over at PastaPadre.com and he has a screenshot fo the 3 vs 3 OTP and the paying for boost. I do not like this at all. I agree with Pasta in that I do not like the idea of people having the ability to pay to get an edge.

Here is some of what PastaPadre had to say:

I don't even really like the idea of attribute boosts in the mode since real NFL players are being used. I can't say though that these +2 type boosts will end up being much of a big deal, maybe it will just be something to make the user feel like they have an edge. Many of the ratings are inconsequential anyway when a player is user controlled. Areas such as speed or acceleration could factor in more however.