Why Limit Gamers?

[RaychelSnr]

Let me state before I delve into the rest of this article that I believe Madden is a good but not great game. I'm by no means what most people would call a "bonafide full time Madden basher" and I don't feel the need to excessively bash EA Sports at every turn when it comes to their premiere football game.

In fact, Ian Cummings is one of the best game designers out there in our community and I kind of feel the need to apologize in advance -- mainly because the Madden team is far from the only group who limit gamers experience.

But yet, they're today's example. A line in today's post from Ian Cummings caught my eye and I must vent and ask some very important questions to anyone working on sports gaming development these days:

Quote:

"There are countless "cheesing" things that the user can do like dropping your player ratings right before the off-season, signing him to the cheapest deal possible, and then setting him back"

To that I must counter with: Who cares if Joe America cheeses in their single player franchise? Isn't that what video games are for? Creating an alternate reality you enjoy?

And furthermore, who cares if Joe America and his friends were to do that with their online franchise? What gives a game designer the right to limit the experience gamers want to have with your creation? Why are rules arbitrarily created to force players to play how you feel they should? You can easily customize the rulesets to allow for this type of tinkering by the commissioner in online franchises.

But really I have to ask again, who cares if someone wants to cheese in their franchise? Why hide anything at all when it comes to ratings? Why not allow users to allow certain ratings to be displayed or not, making franchise mode as easy or as hard as they feel it should be? If someone wants to cheat, LET THEM CHEAT!

The customer is always right, right?

I've said it countless times over the years, and I'll always continue to say it to every game designer who reads this site: if you purposefully limit the experience of the gamer, then you are limiting their enjoyment of your product and lessening the chance they'll return next time.

The Madden team is the only team who does this. Every team and every company is guilty to a certain extent. I think one of the main reasons is that there is a hidden fear that users won't buy the next game if you can customize the current game to perfection.

But that sounds like a reason to make material improvements year over year to me.

I'll continue this song and dance forever. Quit limiting gamers for no reason, give them the keys. You might be shocked what a dedicated community can do for a game.

[Blitzburgh]

I agree but didn't they say the reason they can't give full access is because the game crashes and is not stable? I don't think you need to continue your "song and dance forever" now, since there is your answer.

[jenglund]

I agree. I remember "cheesing" when I could put past players on my team, like Barry Sanders with the Madden Cards back in 2001 or something. Heck, it was fun. I don't play that way anymore, but I do want options.

A lot of us like to maintain a franchise that resembles the real season. All I really want to do is be able to tweak ratings during the franchise as real players rise and fall, make the appropriate trades, and force injuries on players who get hurt in real life. Then, from week to week, I just play my games and see how it all turns out with those parameters adjusted.

The other option is that we can have a franchise that somehow gets updated as they release roster updates.

[RaychelSnr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blitzburgh

I agree but didn't they say the reason they can't give full access is because the game crashes and is not stable? I don't think you need to continue your "song and dance forever" now, since there is your answer.

The first reason wasn't listed as making the game unstable -- just it was 'cheesing'. That's not cool.

The other problems are there because the design of the game has determined that there are limits which you cannot cross. It's a design flaw, not a software limitation.

[Hova57]

yea Ian did give a reason why, but also there is a sense of non control especially with sliders. you could put NBA 10 in right now. you can control the sensitivity of air collison fouls,cpu frequency stuff. NHL you can anything in that game, how fast the puck goes, how much you want the cpu to assist you . i understand what chris is saying

[SHAKYR]

MMChrisS, this is why I like Operation Sports!
I agree with this post.

[Hooe]

I fully agree with the premise of this article, and further would like to see the offline customization aspects of Madden expanded beyond editing rosters at any time. Let us create and edit our own playbooks, complete with custom formations and route combinations. Let us edit coaches and coaching staffs. Let us edit AI teams' playbooks and game plans (which should be assigned per-coach anyhow, I'm actually not sure how this works in M11 as I didn't play it much). Let us assign our own stadium sounds rather than having to use whatever EA puts on the soundtrack. Let us edit the incoming draft class during the in-season scouting periods. Heck, let us choose if we want the roof open or closed at Cowboys Stadium in franchise mode if we're playing as the Cowboys.

[bcruise]

Personally I think we have trophies and achievements (and the "rewards" that go with them) to blame for losing a lot of the customization aspect.

Nice read.