The Strategy Pad's Dirty Little Secret That EA Doesn't Want You To Know - cdon2k's Blog

cdon2k's Blog

The Strategy Pad's Dirty Little Secret That EA Doesn't Want You To Know

Posted on July 29, 2010 at 11:02 AM.

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A FIRESTORM

So as you may know, there has been a bit of a mini firestorm over the new Strategy Pad in Madden 11. "Go Madden" an OS user and operator of his own Madden strategy website seems to be on a personal quest to point out the new control scheme's shortcomings. Meanwhile, the EA brass are claiming that people are just afraid of change and need to get used to the Strategy Pad.

THEORIES?

Now there have been a few theories as to why the change was made. Some have guessed that the change was made to cut down on defensive adjustment exploits. The Strategy Pad has built in lag and is said to take more button presses to accomplish similar functions as the previous method. This could be why "Go Madden" is so upset because his website, and many others like it, sell Madden strategies based on making tons of defensive adjustments to exploit the AI. The theory seems pretty solid and the change would be one I would support if it were true.

THE DIRTY LITTLE SECRET

I believe there is more to the story. EA has a dirty little secret that they don't want people to figure out. Brace yourselves, the impetus behind the Strategy Pad is the same as what drove Gameflow and some of the other new features: new players. When many new players try Madden out for the first time, there is a fear of "touching the wrong buttons". Imagine how confused a new player was when he or she pressed a presnap adjustment button in the old system. A player would lose the ability to snap the ball on offense or change players on defense. Add to that the camera zoom out when making adjustments and you have one frustrated new player. Fast forward to Madden 11. All of the face buttons are safe to press for curious new players. There is even some added functionality for cycling back and forth through defensive players on defense. I believe they went with that for those who could not figure out the whole "hold the button and move the left stick" way of selecting a defensive player. Additionally, the cycle through way of selecting a player goes way back in Madden history so EA may have been considering players coming back to Madden after years on hiatus. Nonetheless, having the face buttons not be toxic to new players outweighs, in their eyes, the benefit of defensive adjustments. Lastly, many of these new players may never try defensive adjustments so the functionality is conveniently out of the way.

That is my theory, the secret's out. It really makes sense when you think about it. EA is all about new players and this move is all about that. Feel free to leave comments.

Comments

# 1 TreyIM2 @ Jul 29

I can ride with making it easier for a new consumer to get into but at least have an option for your Madden base consumer to be able to turn it off, if they want, just like almost every thing else introduced. Also, I need an option for that wack, regression of a kick meter. I thought the kick stick was progressive and like it and WANT IT BACK!!!

# 2 TreyIM2 @ Jul 29

Oh, and I wouldn't be surprised if a patch to bring back the old way of pre-snap adjustments or "unlock it" as an option. The code may still be there or saved somewhere and EA may have anticipated this uproar.

# 3 lnin0 @ Jul 30

I would agree that is the reason but the real question is how many 'new' players do they think are out there afraid to buy Madden? The game, which amounts to little more than a roster update, is still EAs cash cow and has been year in and year out.

It is the same thing we saw in Forza 3 with their 'one button driving' system. It doesn't matter how dumb or simple you make it, the genre is only going to attract a certain audience. An audience which already buys and enjoys your game and an audience that is turned off by having the game they love dumbed down.