Madden NFL 10 Blog: The Importance of an Early Community Day (New Screenshot Included

[Valdarez]

Ahhh.... MindManager. One of my favorite tools. Best tool ever to make it look like you have done a whole lot of work, when you really haven't. It always seems to impress management because it has itemized lists, and pretty pictures. The two basic building blocks of managerial communication.

I honestly can't imagine building software without customer interaction, or a really good product management / business analyst duo in place. You really need both, but nothing beats customer interaction, as long as you can keep the number of customers to a minimum.

I see EA doing a lot of smart things from a software development perspective, but the history for the game is bad, bad, and more bad. '09 was supposed to be better, and other than the grass being prettier, better commentary, Madden Rating, rewind, and a really bad online league implementation, it played / felt like the same game from a game play perspective, and not a game I enjoyed on any level.

I bought the game used, and I have bought every other EA game used since the NFL exclusivity deal that ruined football gaming as we knew it. I have passed on round 10 to 15 games now from EA, making the net loss of that transaction for them 4 Madden titles, and 8 to 10 other titles, for a loss of $600 to $1,000 just from little ole me. On a side note. I really shouldn't be buying so many games new anyhow. What am I, made out of money???

Hats off to the guy that brought the 2K5 game, though I believe it's gameplay was far surpassed by APF2K8. 2K5 does however, provide a really good example of how presentation should work, something Madden '09 still could not match up to roughly half a decade later.

EA has always been smart on the marketing side. It will be interesting to see if the changes that Ian has listed are real, or just another pitch. I'm hoping it's real, and the game play changes are there. With so much community / fan interaction, if the game fails to live up to the hype this year, it won't just be the marketing guys that have been misleading in an attempt to garner our hard earned money.

That's the first time I have seen 'slower game speed' in a blog. I knew you guys were addressing the ratings overall, and the QB passing speed was being addressed, but didn't realize the overall game speed was being addressed. This is a good thing. The game is simply too fast to enjoy right now. I personally enjoy a game that is just a little slower than the real thing, as it allows me to take part in the game more as it unfolds, add to the realism. Madden is far too fast, and APF2K8 is just a hair too slow (though I prefer APF2K8's slow approach over Madden's speedy gonzales approach). What's really strange is that Madden used to be the tortoise of the football franchises, but when it made the leap to the 360 and they doubled the frame rates, they got a huge helping of endorphins making the game seemingly faster year, after year.

I see the blocking is listed on the MindMap, which is a good thing. I used to think APF2K8's blocking was bad, then I played Madden '09, and the blocking in that game made APF2K8 look uber Godly. Madden has OLineman letting DT's through on the 3-4 plays consistently (looks like a timing thing), and then the TEs, FBs and lineman that pull will constantly miss their blocks and run upfield. I have seen 3 blockers run upfield as one defensive DB ran right through them. They never even acknowledge he was there. No attempt what so ever was made to make the block. It's horrific and utterly ruins the running game.

My ratings for the new features (with 5 being highest/lowest score):

o Slower game speed +++++
o Stretched player ratings +++
o Dramatically changed turn rates +++
o Direction change animations +++++
o Momentum & prep steps while sprinting (isn't this the same as changed turn rates?)
o Different jukes & spins while sprinting +
o Lower “tolerance” amount on tackles and blocks (much less suction) ++
o Much lower ‘warp’ amount on catch animations --- (how about 'zero' warp amount)
o Normalized speed on all animations ++++
o Forced QB dropbacks -- (why should a QB be forced to drop back?)

The fact that warping Ints are still in is a huge, huge negative.

Average Score: +1.2 out of -5/+5 scale.

That's a 6.2 for a 10 point scale in case that's confusing.

[Dawkins#20]

I haven't gone throough 17 pages of this thread but when i saw the mind map i was a little put back. The alpha build seemed to have all the gameplay problems as last year in terms of run blocking, OL/DL interaction. I would have expected some change here .. has this been discussed at all?

[LBzrule]

Quote: Originally Posted by CapnKill

Good blog, very informative. You know I think tourney players get a bad rap. You guys have to remember these guys play for $$$ and they'll obviously do whatever they can to win and how can you blame them? It's not Tourney players that should get a bad rap, its the people that make the game that allow the glitches used by tourney players that should get a bad rap. If you make a game with no glitches, or exploits, then no one can use them. Tourney guys know alot more about football than some of you think, and I seriously doubt they will all of a sudden suck at the game if glitches / exploits are removed. Ok, well, I've always wanted to throw that out there so this was my shot and now back to the regular scheduled program

I wasn't commenting on them as a whole I was just commenting on something I would think they wouldn't like just by the sounds of it. But it is not as bad as it sounds.

[Vikes1]

Quote: Originally Posted by CapnKill

Anyway I think the community event thing is awesome, and hopefully they continue to do it, perhaps even a couple of more times before this game ships... should be the same people so they can see how the issues they had were addressed at a later date

I think this is a great point Cap.

I believe it would be best to have as many of the same guys go back a second time. [if possible] To follow up on where they left off. Seems as though it would be less confusing for everyone, to stay with the same crew...on both sides.

I should mention that I liked the way the early Madden Community day was handled. No fuss...no real fanfare. Ie...EA not taking advantage of this meeting solely as a PR, hype opportunity. The Madden day seemed to be more about getting things right. Congrats guys.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawkins#20

I haven't gone throough 17 pages of this thread but when i saw the mind map i was a little put back. The alpha build seemed to have all the gameplay problems as last year in terms of run blocking, OL/DL interaction. I would have expected some change here .. has this been discussed at all?

1. The game is in alpha build

2. Since the problems were noted by the testers, they are going to be addressed (if they weren't going to be already since again, the game is in its alpha build).

So yeah... don't see what the problem is...

[Ian_Cummings]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dawkins#20

I haven't gone throough 17 pages of this thread but when i saw the mind map i was a little put back. The alpha build seemed to have all the gameplay problems as last year in terms of run blocking, OL/DL interaction. I would have expected some change here .. has this been discussed at all?

This was actually asked before, but when you replace a ton of logic and animations you have to re-tune it all from scratch. That was a big help of having all these great hardcore guys in...to pick it apart and see what still needed improvement.

It should be fairly evident that it's all new stuff when we're talking about thing like "pocket doesn't set up fast enough" - since Madden didn't ever really have a pocket.

[swanlee]

You know new camera angles and a custom camera angle would be just the thing to show off and let us appreciate all these new details in the graphics. I'm sure the art director would appreciate us having the ability to change the camera angle during gameplay so we could really see all the hard work he has put in the game this year.

What good are all these details if the camera is zoomed to far out to see them?

[canes21]

Ian, when exactly does development stop? I am just wondering because if it stops in May, well it would be very hard to get the line right would it not? Do you guys know for sure that you will most likely have that all fixed to some degree?