Ah, realism, the opiate of the masses; the Madden NFL Football masses that is. With the release of Madden '09 just around the corner, die-hard Madden players are gearing up for late-night jam sessions, partly to produce the most realistic football game on the market.

But wait…isn’t the Madden development team already taking care of that? Not exactly. For years there have been groups of gamers that must have the most realistic NFL gaming experience possible. These players have gone to great lengths to ensure that they, and the general public, do not have to settle for less than the best.

Some players tweak the game to generate the most realistic simulation possible. Others play each game themselves, but make sure that coaching tendencies and team rosters are accurate enough to produce gameplay that mimics its real-life counterpart. Neither way is wrong, in fact, both ways have one single goal in common: keeping it real.

There are several ways to keep it real during Madden gameplay. Let’s start, for example, with slider settings. Sliders control everything from substitutions to the frequency in which roughing the kicker is called. Setting the sliders just right for human control and CPU control can assure some of the most realistic gameplay on the planet. Don’t believe me? Head over to the MaddenMania forums or the Operation Sports forums. There is no shortage of threads based simply on adjusting sliders for gameplay.

Keeping it real in Madden NFL 09 could be easier than previous years.  Could be.

Another option for those gamers looking to achieve maximum realism is the coaching settings. Each coach in Madden has offensive and defensive tendencies -- sliders control these tendencies as well. Let’s give the Madden development team a round of applause for determining what they thought to be an accurate assessment of the coaching tendencies. Now, let’s give an even bigger round of applause to those forum users that have taken hours upon hours out of their lives to figure out how to adjust the coaching sliders in order to get the CPU to play just as each real NFL team would play.

Yes, it is possible for this to happen. However, it has taken gamers (or beta testers, as they should be called) years to come up with strategies to produce realistic gameplay and statistics. The method to the madness goes something like this: adjust sliders, play several games, adjust sliders some more, play more games, and on and on and on. It’s a never-ending cycle that most of us do not have the time nor desire to perform. Thanks to this wonderful creation called the Internet however, and now our beta testers can share their thoughts and findings with the world (insert best evil laugh here)!

There is another side to the realism coin as well: roster updates and transactions. If you are anything like me then you simply cannot play Madden unless every team has the correct roster. Unfortunately, for far too long there have been roster limitations that prevent us from having an exact roster. You can, however, have the closest representation of the real roster if you so desire.

By taking control of all 32 NFL teams you can make sure that there are no roster moves performed that have not been done in real life. How many times have you played a division rival and realized that the starting quarterback is no longer playing. You check the injury report and he’s not listed and he’s nowhere to be found on the roster. You quit the game and check the transaction log only to find that the CPU traded the starting quarterback to add a sixth defensive tackle. It used to happen all the time but by controlling all 32 teams you make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Getting rosters from the web is one step towards ultimate realism.

Of course, you could take it a step, or several steps, farther as I have continued to do. I am a Philadelphia Eagles fan and I simply refuse to play Madden without the Eagles (and the entire NFC East) roster being accurate. This even carries over into the off-season schedule during Franchise play.

I typically wait until the NFL draft class has been finalized and then find a file from the web that is as accurate as possible. I will then import the draft class and manually re-sign, release and sign free agents as each team does in real life. Yes, it’s time-consuming and yes, it means that I usually don’t start my second season of franchise play until about May but to me it is well worth it.

But let me take it a step further. For those of you that are veterans of the site MaddenMania, you should be familiar with the Madden Manifesto. For those that are not familiar, let me introduce you to a timeless classic.

The first thread I remember seeing on the Manifesto was for Madden 2005. Two forum users, BritPitbul and sm27, developed a full-fledged “system” to fix Madden. Included in the Manifesto was sim engine research, formulas for fixing gameplay, slider settings, instructions on how to implement the system, draft priority sliders, and updates based on new research and findings.

The thread itself was 46 pages and it was well worth the read. Other forum members pitched in and helped with some of the research and testing. Gamers from all over were picking up on the Manifesto and using it to re-create Madden. In short, the Manifesto is legendary. It produced the most accurate and realistic gameplay known to man…er, Madden.

So, is it possible to have realism in Madden? You bet it is. Sometimes it just requires some work. But for those of us who long for realistic NFL gameplay, I give you these words as spoken by my college basketball coach: “The work ain’t hard!”

How do you approach realism? Let us know.