“They’re coming through the left side,” I yelled into my headset just before a swarm of Navy Seals rushed our base gunning me and several of my teammates down in a hailstorm of bullets. I joined my fallen brethren in spectator heaven attempting to come up with a plan to thwart the onslaught.

“They’ve been rushing the left side the whole time, we’ve got to shut it down, and we’ve got to do it now.” We were having a blast despite getting our butts handed to us. As I was telling everyone good game in the lobby and logging out for the day, it occurred to me: Why am I not able to say those same exact things in Madden online?

SOCOM has long been one of my favorites on the Sony consoles. Some of my best online gaming memories have come from the series. I’m sure many of the Halo gamers out there can relate to my experiences. So what is it about these games that allow for such a great online experience? I feel it boils down to three major points:

Camaraderie – SOCOM builds a brotherhood element among clan members. When your backs are pressed against the wall, literally and figuratively, it’s good to know that your teammates are going to do everything in their power to help you out or go down trying (unless you’re playing with me as I typically run away from the guys firing in my direction).


"OK, whose job was it to pick up #23? That was your man, Billsfan49!"

Play along with me and imagine the translation to Madden here. 4th and Goal, down by four, late in the 4th quarter, and there are 11 players meeting in the offensive playcalling screen for the allotted 40 seconds; there's also 11 players meeting in the defensive playcalling screen for the same period of time. Both sides are attempting to come up with a play that will win the game for their respective sides.

Celebrating (or suffering) with your teammates on the field after success (or defeat) would build that camaraderie in Madden. I offer this as food for thought: Football is a game built solidly around the concept of camaraderie, yet as sports games, there is no translation AT ALL in Madden and NCAA currently.

Cooperative Play – SOCOM Combined Assault allowed for teams of four to take on the single-player campaign together online. Just before the Clemson/Alabama game this year, I had several people over for a pregame party. Myself, my brother and one of my friends all played together as Clemson against a computerized Alabama in what was a much better game than the real-life one. Imagine a franchise mode in Madden where you and up to 11 other friends take on the single-player franchise mode in an effort to get your favorite team back to glory.

By pulling another page from the SOCOM playbook, this can be handled easily with a wide base (32-50) of clanmates. This could be made even easier by allowing the CPU A.I. to control non-human players, so if you could only get six players online at the same time, then you could still play your franchise games.

Strategy – In SOCOM, certain players have certain tendencies and you always know what they are going to try and do. Whether someone is camping in a certain spot or taking a certain route, you have to strategize and adjust to his or her style of play.

In a full blown Madden online versus mode, certain players will have to be keyed in on. Maybe a team has a solid running back but not much else. It is each individual player’s responsibility to key in on this aspect. If they have a stellar wideout, the safeties have to understand their responsibilities and what they need to do. If a Madden league like this developed, each team would definitely have stats available and maybe even some further scouting info so teams could formulate a general strategy before going into the game.

My hope is that the guys developing Madden and NCAA take notes from the NHL series...

EA is definitely heading in the right direction with some of its sports titles. I am about to pick up NHL 09 simply because of the existence of the EASHL, which provides gamers many of the elements I listed above. My hope is that the guys developing Madden and NCAA take notes from the NHL series and provide us with an EASFL so I can play as wide receiver. (Just know I’m not running any crossing patterns over the middle.)