HOW CAN WE ADD REPLAYABILITY TO MADDEN?
During a recent interview with Rex Dickson, Rex expressed the idea of incorporating a feature/ reward system to entice Madden players to continue playing and do more than just “win a Super Bowl and repeat”. Many ideas have been tossed around on these forums, and it appears the idea of ranking people online is not what the community wants. I believe the answer has been in Madden for some time now, but it has not yet been used properly. The idea would be a legacy tracker/ hall of fame chaser.
Hall of Fame
One of the greatest honors in all of football is to be inducted into the hall of fame. The only thing Madden has to show for the Hall of Fame is a one sentence tweet hidden amongst the news feed immediately after the season.
One thing that would add an extra element to a franchise is fighting with other players (online or offline) for a spot in the hall of fame and a shot of "Being the G.O.A.T. The tracking measurement for this would be Legacy Points.
Compared to all other players currently fighting for a position in the hall of fame, legacy points would be used to measure who is in and who is out. Each position would have different standards and bench marks to get into the hall of fame so that way lineman would have just as much chance at making it in as a quarterback.
Legacy Points: Stats
Statistical Legacy Points would be added up very similarly to an already existing formula. That formula is fantasy football scoring. Fantasy scoring is the perfect way to measure the statistical numbers that players put up. Scoring would go as such (open different scoring features):
Offensive Players
Passing Yards: 1 point per 25 yards
Passing Touchdowns: 4 points
Passing Interceptions: -2 points
Rushing Yards: 1 point per 10 yards
Rushing Touchdowns: 6 points
Receptions: 1 points
Receiving Yards: 1 point per 10 yards
Receiving Touchdowns: 6 points
Fumbles Lost: -2 points
Fumble Recovered for a Touchdown: 6 points
Individual Defensive Players
Solo Tackles: 1 point
Assisted Tackles: ½ point
Sacks: 4 points
Sack Yards: 1 point per 10 yards
Tackles For Loss: 1 point
Quarterback Hits: 1 point
Passes Defended: 1 point
Interceptions: 4 points
Fumbles Forced: 3 points
Fumbles Recovered: 3 points
Defensive Touchdowns: 6 points
Kicking
PAT Made: 1 point
FG Made (0-49 yards): 3 points
FG Made (50+ yards): 5 points
As an example, I will use a few famous NFL players by their career;
Joe Montana: YDS 40,551 (1622 pts)+ TDS 273 (1092 pts)- INT 96 (-192 pts)=
2522pts
Brett Favre: YDS 71,838 (2,874 pts)+ TDS 508 (2,032 pts)- INT 336 (-672 pts)=
4234pts
Walter Payton: YDS 16,726 (1673 pts)+ TDS 110 (660 pts)+REC 492 (492 pts)+RYDS 4538 (454 pts) RTDS 15 (90pts)=
3369pts
Ladanian Tomlinson:YDS 13,684 (1368 pts)+ TDS 145 (870 pts)+ REC 624 (624 pts)+ RYDS 4772 (477 pts) RTDS 17 (102pts)= 3441pts
Jerry Rice: YDS 22,895 (2,290pts)+ REC 1549 (1549 pts)+ TDS 197 (1182pts)=
5021pts
Michael Irvin: YDS 11904 (1190 pts)+ REC 750 (750pts)+ TDS 65 (390pts) =
2330pts
Reggie White: TKL 1048 (1048 pts)+ Sack 198 (792 pts)=
1840pts
Lawrence Taylor: 1089 (1089 pts)+ Sack 132.5 (530 pts)+ Ints 9 (36)=
1655pts
Granted not every stat was included into this such as kick return yards, defensive touchdowns, fumbles, etc… This is just a base idea.
Legacy Points: Success
Now of course we know that there is more to tracking someone’s legacy/ HOF progress than just stats. Another factor into a players success is can they win? To add to the formula are total wins, rivalry wins, playoff wins, and super bowl wins. The points for such would go like:
Home Win: 4 pts
Road Win: 5 pts
Rivalry/ Division Win: 10 pts
Win the Division: 25pts
Wildcard Win: 20 pts
Divisional Round Win: 50 pts
Conference Championship Win: 100 pts
Super Bowl Win: 200 pts
These numbers would be divided in half for bench players.
To add these numbers to our previous players:
Joe Montana: Stats (2522 pts)+ Wins 117 (468pts)+ Playoff Wins 12 (600pts)+ Conference 4 (400pts)+ SB 4 (800pts)=
4709 pts
Brett Favre: Stats (4234 pts)+ Wins 186 (744pts)+Playoff Wins 11 (550pts)+ Conference 1 (100pts)+ SB 1 (200pts)=
5828 pts
ints: Awards[/u][/b]
To add to the legacy of most NFL Players, another huge consideration is the hardware that the bring home. These can be calculated by the following:
Rookie of the _____.
Week: 5pts
Year: 50 pts
Player of the _____.
Week: 10 pts
Year: 100 pts
NFL MVP: 150 pts
Pro-Bowl 25 pts
NFL Top 100
100-Ranking= PT Total
1st= 99 pts
19th= 81pts
Game MVP
Regular Season: 5pts
Playoff: 25pts
Super Bowl: 150 pts
To add to the QB points (excluding game MVPs and weekly awards)
Joe Montana: 4709 pts+ Pro Bowls 8 (200pts)+ NFL MVP 2 (300pts)+ SB MVP 3 (450pts)=
5659 pts
Brett Favre: 5828 pts+ Pro Bowls 11 (275pts)+ NFL MVP 3 (450pts)+ SB MVP 0=
6553 pts
Granted, a players success is not as simple as breaking down numbers, wins, and awards. There will always be the Brady vs Montana vs Manning debate. There are even some factors that are hard to account for like considering the talent around a player or the success of a team. Reason why people regards Jim Brown or Barry Sander better than Emmitt Smith despite all the records and Super Bowls.
What would be other scoring features for legacy points? Is there something I missed, over/ under valued? Share your thoughts.
Records and Rewards
Now that we have a method of tracking success, it is time Madden makes recording breaking exciting and something to brag about. How does Madden celebrate/ reward a record getting broken? There are several answer to these questions:
Cards/ Trophies: Anytime you pass a players significant career stat line, you can unlock a MUT card for that player. For example, if you have a franchise were Adrian Peterson is your running back, and he passes Eric Dickerson on the all-time rushing yard list, you unlock one of his MUT cards. If you then pass Eric Dickerson in career TD’s, you get another card. If you collect both,
you can then unlock THE ERIC DICKERSON MUT card with a 99 overall rating. This allows you to experience both franchise mode and MUT if you wish making you feel more invested and pride, as well as educated on a little NFL history. The ultimate goal for a running back would be to ultimately break Emmitt Smith’s records.
Celebration: Similar to a Super Bowl victory, if you have a player like Drew Brees pass Peyton Manning for most passing yards all-time, the game would stop and recognize Brees and his efforts. It would be the main story of the week, and almost every game after would mention Brees’ record.
Share: As well as tracked within your CFM, your players legacy scores could be tracker online as well, and compared to everyone else that plays Madden. If you have a 14 year career with Leonard Fournette, and rack-up more legacy points than Emmitt Smith, you could see where your 9,010 legacy points rank up compared to someone who may have achieved 10,034 legacy points with Dalvin Cook.
If you have made it this far, I thank you and would like to hear your feedback or ideas on what Madden can do to add replayability to the franchise mode.