Madden 16: Is Connected Franchise Sacrificing Realism? (Roundtable)

[Skyboxer]

They'll continue to make millions.... they are delivering exactly what the "Madden Community" wants on most things.
"Hardcore" is the minority.

[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

They'll continue to make millions.... they are delivering exactly what the "Madden Community" wants on most things. "Hardcore" is the minority.

I see this with so many different games. You need to think how many copies game x sells. With Madden that number is around 10-15 million I think. And I would venture to guess that the sim/hardcore community is around 10% of that number. The arcade community is probably 20%. And the reset are just casual fans who just play for the game for ****s and giggles. It's all that's out there so won't do it. If there was competition they would get Madden because it's what they have grown up playing.

[jifgnb]

I paid for the game. Just let me have access to everything! And the observation is spot on - goals will make cheesing and exploits a high priority again.

[CaseIH]

Love being able to sim a win for teams, because I like my franchise to be atleats close to whats happening IRL, its why I love manual injuries that MLBTS has had for a few years now.

I have been concerned since thye started this connected career modes that were losing realistic simulation, but Im willing to see how all this new stuff works, as it could very well be a great addition, or it may very well ruin it for hard core sports fans that want a true simulation of football.

[VdaStampede]

Tons of great comments in this thread.

Quote:

Team based yearly performance goals (e.g. a +40% 3rd down conversion %, positive giveaway/takeaway turnover ratio, etc.) would also be a welcome addition as would be a more finely tuned regression system

For me though it's this right here. I'm willing to give this years XP a try, but until they move to team based goals I feel like full immersion will be difficult. I'd like to coach the way I would in real life and not be tied to arbitrary stat milestones in order to progress my players.

And for the sim/casual debate i'm not buying that sims are the minority some of you think they are. It seems like every other major sports title is going for a more sim feel they wouldn't be doing this if that crowd was so tiny.

[kenchun24]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

How do you know this? Is there some quantitative measure you are using for this? Anyone who plays a game cares about something that engrosses them. If that weren't true, then NBA 2k (for example) would never sell a copy. It's ridiculously in depth compared to what we have for football. Whether you like it or not is not the discussion here. It is the FACT that it is massive in depth from player controls, to playbooks, to the depth in the league and my player modes. If you like or love sports, you are interested in these things. There are modes in games for someone to just play a game of madden every once in a great while, however, those who are routinely buying the game every year (or a yearly sports game in general) are interested in a deep, immersive sports game. I was discussing this very thing with a co-worker of mine. He plays MLB the show. He plays it daily. He does not follow Major League Baseball though. He doesn't watch MLB games on TV and doesn't really have a favorite team. He is what you would call your "casual" gamer. (I hate that term, because I think it is nonsense, but that's a whole different discussion). He plays it because he loves how immersive it is and how much stuff there is to do OUTSIDE of just playing the games. The team management aspects, contract aspects, player and personality management, etc. etc. all gets him psyched to play it. This is my problem with Tiburon's approach. They claim that they want more people to play certain modes because not enough people are playing them. They reason isn't because they are "too in depth" or difficult. They aren't playing them because they are oversimplified, boring and there is very little immersion. There is a reason why so many of the people who went there providing input asked for an option to skip pre-season. Why do people want to skip it? Simple... Because it's pointless. It's just another game except worse. No confidence, no position battling, no real evaluation or storylines get generated about break out players, nothing. There is nothing interesting about it. Why bother? So instead of thinking along these lines, let's just make it one less thing to bother doing in the offseason/pre-season. Pretty soon there will be no point to contract negotiation or player management. Why bother? The contracts are simple beyond belief. There is nothing fun about managing my team. I simply offer 3 or 4 contracts to the player and he accepts or he says buzz off. Big deal. There is nothing about him outperforming a contract or having a major injury affect his value or price in the market. There is nothing that is exciting about doing any of this. How about weekly prep? You guys always talk about them wanting to make Madden fun for the masses. How is gameprep fun? I click a few buttons and rush through. I don't know anyone who is excited about preparing their team to play the following week. How about the ability to prepare like a real NFL team would? Give me a host of things to do that could affect my team differently than another guy's team in my league. How am I managing my injured players? Are they getting the best care? (Obviously I am touching on only a few examples here). There is so much that could be done here it's not even funny. These are the things that are fun. Something that is truly engaging and immerses me into the fantasy of running my own NFL franchise. Of course, you can always make it easier. Have OPTIONS (imagine that) that allow the user to be in control of as much or as little as he/she desires. There is so little in CFM currently that immerses a user into the feeling they are running an NFL team. No one is asking to simply skip through everything and just get to the games. This is why people who are single player folks (I am not one of them, online league only) play the game for 2 weeks and then forget about it. It's boring. The actual games are only a small fraction of a franchise mode, and clearly, you can see that many people don't even PLAY the actual games. They want to be immersed in the management aspects and the play calling. Without that, those long time franchise mode fans are now alienated and don't feel inclined to play or purchase Madden.

100% agree. The games Franchise depth has been stagnant, while other MLB/FIFA/NBA games have ALL the stuff Madden should have had in Franchise mode since going back to Madden 2007 (released in 2006 on one year on new gen consoles) on 360/PS3 for crying out loud.

[warhorseballa06]

Quote: Originally Posted by redsox4evur

Online, maybe but not MUT. There are 2 completely different development teams working on these 2 modes.

Da heck does that have to do with them not ruining CFM?? I don't remember the statement saying anything or disputing two different development teams...


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[TwoIsBetterThanJuan]

Here is my wishlist for Madden CFM (in no particular order):
1. Ability to everything about a player any time (like 2k Sports and NCAA football). IMO it helps keeping it fresh.
2. Different Story lines, for more then just rookie prospects and often blandish, repetitive. Suspensions, hold outs, ect.
3. If I win a super bowl with the Vikings or any other team without a SuperBowl ring one year, then work my a** off in the offseason building through draft/FA and come back the next season to win back to back i dont want to hear "the Lombardi trophy is at long last headed to Minnesota" 2 seasons in a row.
4. Any other sports game makes an effort to keep track of historic stats at least a little, I haven't seen this for years in a Madden game. The legacy score is neat, but if thats the way you are gonna go at least incorporate more stats to show why the legacy is so high, not just "awards, conference championships, and SuperBowl wins. I wanna see total yds tds att ect. I know I am not the only person who feels like historic stats would add depth to the game as I have read countless posts regarding it but sadly if i want them I need to do it by hand. The only historic stats available are the top 10 records for each category which IMO feels incomplete.
5. I think the OVR ratings are generally way to high (for mechanics of the game) and combine that with how out of whack the sliders are and IMO it leads to a sloppy feeling game. I think custom sliders in game should be allowed, along with better/more complete explanations of what each one does. I like in NCAA how you can also have Heisman difficulty on offence and freshman on D if you want to more custom fit your playstyle/skillset.
6. If madden has the rights to everything NFL (virtually) why isnt the "news feed" NFL Network or ESPN based? Combine that with the story line improvements i mentioned before and i think it could add depth/realism to the game.
7. I know there is more I'm not thinking of right now, but basically what i want madden to do is combine their playcalling with nfl 2k5 type of physics/gm type stuff with the depth that NCAA offers.