Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

[JohnDoe8865]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Phil Frazier is not out of touch, I promise you that. A lot of what EA is saying lately is being taken in the worst way possible. When someone at EA says "franchise mode is boring", as Ian said in an interview, he means Madden's franchise mode is boring. He's acknowledging that it's not where it needs to be. What Phil was talking about was making the processes that come with Franchise Mode fun rather than a series of spreadsheets. Having played through several season in NFL Head Coach 09, it is VERY hard to go back to traditional franchise modes that are nothing but spreadsheet management. I don't care what game you're talking about... MLB The Show, NHL... it's all just spreadsheet management. NFL Head Coach found a new way to present it too you, and it made a huge difference. This is the sort of thing Phil is talking about. If they added every possible feature and made the logic perfect but kept the current structure, I'd be extremely disappointed. It's just old, stale, boring, and just like every other franchise mode in existence. NFL Head Coach 09 Career mode + Madden NFL 12 gameplay would be revolutionary. Personally, I am pretty impressed by how much Phil has improved in interviews since last year. It's not really natural for him. I think he'd rather stay in the background and let Ian and Donny do the talking (actually, I think Donny's the only one that really likes doing public interviews, because he's the only real extrovert on the team). Phil doesn't seem to me to be the attention seeking type, and I think he's just rather be working than talking about work. I am pretty sure Ian doesn't like it. I get the sense that he's acutely aware of how his words are going to be dissected here. Mike Young is so soft spoken, and he's like that in real life, so it's hard to say how he feels about it.

I'm glad to hear this about Phil and I agree that Madden gameplay (with some yearly tweaks on defense) and HC 09 franchise would be a dream game for me. I've said as much in other threads here.

I played and love HC 09. The game is an incredible career mode experience warts and all. I really hope the franchise mode in M12 takes most of it's queues from HC 09. Part of me thinks that HC 09 was made partially to test the reaction from the community and get feedback so it could eventually be included in Madden.

[blklightning]

Quote: Originally Posted by marktg30

Career Modes are the only thing keeping my interest for next year. If it isn't above and beyond what we have already I will never buy Madden again. (I know a lot of you will say "Who cares?! See ya later!) Bottom line is that I think there are MANY other people that feel this way.

agreed. i'm skipping this version because of the horrible defensive play. and '12 will be their last chance to prove they are capable of making a good franchise mode. i have had it with the "wait til next year" that this series has devolved into. if '12 doesn't get it 100 percent right, then i'm done with it. but it wouldn't be a big deal, really; there are loads of great games out there to play.

[rooney8]

Quote: Originally Posted by blklightning

agreed. i'm skipping this version because of the horrible defensive play. and '12 will be their last chance to prove they are capable of making a good franchise mode. i have had it with the "wait til next year" that this series has devolved into. if '12 doesn't get it 100 percent right, then i'm done with it. but it wouldn't be a big deal, really; there are loads of great games out there to play.

Next year is their last chance for you for many it was this year and others the year before. If they do ever produce a quality game many people who used to buy will no longer care. I think a big thing hurting sales now is Madden08/09 lost alot of customers.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by PRAY IV M3RCY

its only been out a week, of course people are going to try the new features. They just bought it, and second its on default, so you will automatically be using Gameflow.

And as I stated later in the thread than the post you quoted, I'll be keeping those stats up and I'm not the only one.

[djordan]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Wow, a gimmick or Ask Madden 2.0 that is being used by 70-80% of the folks that purchased Madden? How can a gimmick be use that much?

WOW...A Gimmick that is on by "DEFAULT" when you start the game. Any "CASUAL" fan won't know to turn it off their first play through. Lets see the statistics after 4-5 months.

[JohnDoe8865]

Yeah I think I've run my course with Gameflow. I've been trying to give it a fair shot, but it is completely inept on defense. For example if the defense has been gashing you with the run, it doesn't adjust and start putting more men in the box.

I'll use gameplanning with conventional playcalling from here on out.

[PhillipR24]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Phil Frazier is not out of touch, I promise you that. A lot of what EA is saying lately is being taken in the worst way possible. When someone at EA says "franchise mode is boring", as Ian said in an interview, he means Madden's franchise mode is boring. He's acknowledging that it's not where it needs to be. What Phil was talking about was making the processes that come with Franchise Mode fun rather than a series of spreadsheets. Having played through several season in NFL Head Coach 09, it is VERY hard to go back to traditional franchise modes that are nothing but spreadsheet management. I don't care what game you're talking about... MLB The Show, NHL... it's all just spreadsheet management. NFL Head Coach found a new way to present it too you, and it made a huge difference. This is the sort of thing Phil is talking about. If they added every possible feature and made the logic perfect but kept the current structure, I'd be extremely disappointed. It's just old, stale, boring, and just like every other franchise mode in existence. NFL Head Coach 09 Career mode + Madden NFL 12 gameplay would be revolutionary. Personally, I am pretty impressed by how much Phil has improved in interviews since last year. It's not really natural for him. I think he'd rather stay in the background and let Ian and Donny do the talking (actually, I think Donny's the only one that really likes doing public interviews, because he's the only real extrovert on the team). Phil doesn't seem to me to be the attention seeking type, and I think he's just rather be working than talking about work. I am pretty sure Ian doesn't like it. I get the sense that he's acutely aware of how his words are going to be dissected here. Mike Young is so soft spoken, and he's like that in real life, so it's hard to say how he feels about it.

Whoa whoa I understand you are making a point here but spread sheet management? I think they did a good job of making Franchise mode fun on ps2 and that RFA wasnt hard to figure out. We both know that all they had to do was copy that same exact formula and it would have been fine. Also we both know that Head Coach 09 was sweet as hell. I can only hope they add some of those elements to Madden 12

[rooney8]

When Head Coach sold so poorly I just don't see them bringing it over. I think we will see something different.