Madden NFL Designers Podcast #2

[blood9585]

Also NBA 2k11 is probably the greatest sports game to date. The madden franchise should look to implement a lot from it.

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

Ugh, can we for once not blow quotes out of proportion? Is that the situation we are in here? I loved those features too. In fact I was the designer that put those in. Let's face it - a defense isn't built at pre-play with each player actually changing their assignments all over the field. We all know that isn't REALISTIC or SIM. But as I acknowledge, Madden gamers need that control because the defensive options are limited. It's the same with offensive hot routes. We break realism in pre-play to allow you more options. The whole "something we're looking into" is actually me acknowledging that we want it.

I'm sorry you feel I overreacted. For me, these features were the single best part of last gen madden, bar none. When I got a ps3 and Madden 09, I just took granted they would be in. I mean why not, it's technology that was designed years ago. When I saw they weren't, I thought well Madden 10 will have it for sure. Then it was, I hope to god Madden 11 has it.

I'm not trying to be melodramatic but without those features I really have no interest in madden 12 so reading that post almost buried the game for me 10 months before it's release.

Not to be rude but as a longtime fan of the series (last gen at least), it's very difficult to believe you really want those features in the game when they have been around since at least madden 08, and they are something you yourself originally designed.

[wallofhate]

At this point I think its almost counter productive. It feels like a bad NFL team! The fans want change and progress and ownership is seems to make bad move after bad move. I personally think they have a good team in place its just weird to me how unbalanced it is. Sometimes its so stiff its unnerving and then all of the sudden your rb breaks a tackle and stumbles and it looks so realistic you can't help but to replay it over and over! You zoom in on the players glove and you can see the Reebok on the fingers and yet you have so many uniform errors??!! Defensive A.I. plays how you want them to for 2 down and 3rd down its like all your defense has an concussion??

These guys have a job to do and that is to make money by selling games and content. I'm not mad at them for a lot of what they do. A lot of the things the people at EA have to realize is most of that are young kids or people just trying to get a rise out of them. The "true" community like myself (im 28) just want them to know that the product of football they're producing is just not acceptable anymore!! We know its hard that's why everyone can't make games but other developers have shown and proven that not only are major changes possible but also possible in yearly cycles. Sliders are good but they shouldn't be the answer to make a game payable jusT more realistic!!!

Penalize players for not playing realistic. I shouldn't play my 11 year old nephew and he be able to keep up on the higher levels! Bring back the chess game bring back utilizing your star player to win the game. And for the love of God please fix presentation and broadcasting! Hearing Collingsworth call the new broadcaster Tom is just plain ridiculous! We are not asking for perfection we just want a larger chunk of realistic football that you havent given us since plantation 2 and xbox days! Bring a hell of a game next year and then you can just tweak the game through the next few years. Gradually isn't going to do the trick anymore its time to change the culture of maddened as we know it and switch the perception. just my thoughts thanks for reading and listening

[rawcorp]

Ian should know by now that most of us on here griping about Madden are griping about THE SAME THINGS YEAR AFTER YEAR. He says that they are doing everything to make this a better representation of NFL football, at the same time implementing new features. Granted each year they add some new "gimmick" to make Madden feel new and improved. But they NEVER seem to fix the core gameplay elements that make football more realistic. Pass Rush, pocket formation, playcalling, tackling, player interactions etc (i.e. WR/DB or OL/DL interactions) are never truly fixed to imitate the real NFL.

The thing is its not like these things are impossible. Other companies have implemented those things, and even previous Maddens implemented it too. The thing is they fix useless crap like hand towels, or throwback uniforms etc. but they dont ever seem to fix the real things that would make people want this game.

Why must we always complain about the same things every year? Just fix it for crying out loud.

[Palo20]

Ian, thanks for the insights.

--Getting CB shading back is just a very key part of strategic football. I hope it makes it in.

--I don't know if you're misunderstanding a little of what the "hardcore" crowd wants. I don't think anyone wants to play a 2 hour game of Madden with 22 penalties. Most people have simply asked for illegal contact calls and more PI calls (hopefully with some cool animations too).

I think the fix for this is to really make sure the penalty sliders work so the people who might want to see a ton of penalties will have that option. Having defensive PI at 100 should make for 4-5 PI calls per game. If the slider works a little better, we won't see any more "I've only seen 1 PI call in 87 games" threads.

--With regards to gameplanning and gameflow, I think they were great additions and I think they went over well in the hardcore community. Giving us a chance to create CPU gameplans (when they were working correctly) and really dictating how the CPU calls a game was a huge step forward IMO.

PS....

Please let us edit ratings in Franchise. Thanks

[daggaswagga]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

I'd suggest you listen to the podcast. We actually didn't say that at all. PS I'd love to be on this forum more but when so many people have seemingly lost trust in our ability to deliver our vision it's really too frustrating and takes a toll personally. As you all know the proof is in the pudding. In August hopefully we'll change your mind.

maybe "NOW" you guys wanna try and make Madden "sim" because maybe the 2k team is about the make you guys step your game up (2012)...we all know that's the only reason why the madden team wanna talk "SIM" NOW

[Aggies7]

Podcast 3 Question


Any word on using the defensive player lock system like NCAA where the came spins around to behind the defense?

[guaps]

I appreciate these podcasts and that the community gets the opportunity to hear more about the vision of the development team. Understandably they can't say much as it's November, but you get the overall idea that they've got the right intentions.

However, I still have a grudge with their attitude towards ratings (especially the whole czar-thing they've got going on). I agree with kushmir's posts that Madden's rating system is really poor and I do believe it needs an extreme makeover. At the same time I also understand that player ratings has become a big part of Madden's marketing.

There is no comparable sports video game to Madden when it comes to the promotion of players ratings. Over the last couple of years we've seen an increased spin on ratings (the Housmanzadah incident, "live" draft day ratings, massive weekly updates etc.). This year we even had several Madden forums and webpages creating big headlines when Moss' spectacular catch rating increased by 1 after the Jets game (when he was in NE).

I just cannot help being discouraged by all these player rating events, when I know that it has very little to no effect on gameplay whatsoever. Madden still plays like it's got generic players on all positions despite more ratings than the PS2 counterpart and you can't really tell the difference between Julius Peppers and Corey Wootton when you play the game.