Madden NFL Designers Podcast #3

[PhillipR24]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Wow... selfish. You aren't into MUT. Fine. Neither am I, for the most part. That doesn't make it a waste. It's successful... extremely successful. You don't like it and think it's a waste. Grow up.

Try not to be so offended about an opinion shared by many. You don't like that someone else doesn't like MUT? Grow up Broski.

[tjizzle]

Some one on the 8th page questioned whether or not Madden was being developed for consumers or for marketing. Modern economics and the basic foundation of capitalism dictates that the game is being made to attract the largest number of sponsors. This is the reason why the game is so broad, EA is attempting to appeal to the lowest common denominator among the masses, in order to diversify their potential advertising agreements to increase revenue.

One thing that is wrong however is the fact that the development crew takes a lot of heat for things they have no power over, this is unfortunate. I Actually like Madden 11 and enjoy playing online and with my friends, but for those who do not, its been said many times the best way to initiate change is to do so with your purchasing power as a consumer.

With the exclusivity EA has with Madden this has become extremely difficult, however at the current moment alternatives to this method of protest do not exist. Good luck.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by PhillipR24

Try not to be so offended about an opinion shared by many. You don't like that someone else doesn't like MUT?

Doesn't matter if it's a majority or minority opinion, if it's a money maker, it isn't going away.

Similar to telling your boss that even though it's a money maker for your company, it's time to abandon it because some people on a message board thinks it's a bad idea to spend time on it.

Job or no job?

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Wow... selfish. You aren't into MUT. Fine. Neither am I, for the most part. That doesn't make it a waste. It's successful... extremely successful. You don't like it and think it's a waste. Grow up.

MUT isn't a waste to the company, but it's a big reason franchise is in the state it's in and sort of a slap in the face to long time fans. It's wrong of EA to put their franchise guy in charge of a niche mode designed to nickel and dime kids.

When every core mode of any sports game is as barebones as Madden's are and they are putting their best soldiers in charge of MUT and Facebook apps, it just reeks of greed proctected by exclusivity and fans have a right to be angry about it.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

MUT isn't a waste to the company, but it's a big reason franchise is in the state it's in and sort of a slap in the face to long time fans. It's wrong of EA to put their franchise guy in charge of a niche mode designed to nickel and dime kids. When every core mode of any sports game is as barebones as Madden's are and they are putting their best soldiers in charge of MUT and Facebook apps, it just reeks of greed proctected by exclusivity and fans have a right to be angry about it.

What's there to be angry at, though? We aren't privy to how much Josh works on MUT, are we? The foundation for MUT is probably already laid down, don't you agree? So, what if it was 20% MUT, 80% FM?

From a business standpoint, if I'm a manager or owner, I'm not going to pull my best soldier off a great seller and put that soldier on a different project until it's well established and doesn't need that soldier anymore.

Anyone who thought all the code from HC could be ported over to Madden in one big swoop or business cycle was dreaming. It took three years to make HC alone.

[marshallfever]

Humm...i didn't listen to the podcast yet, but there are a lot of sad comments coming in this thread. I understand it takes "TIME" to implement modes into an already existent game....but when is enough enough. This is going to be the 7th Madden game on this generation of consoles. Why didn't this thinking happen several years ago?

I didn't buy Madden this year because i didn't see a big enough change from 10, i owned 06, 07,09 and 10. I thought skipping this year would guarantee me an awesome Madden 12.....but could i be wrong? Only "TIME" can tell right guys.

But for right now i'm going to give EA the benefit of the doubt. Step one in providing a good game experience is admitting where your downfalls are. For them speak freely about the lackluster franchise mode they've had for the last 6 years is a good start. It means they recognize the problem, now lets hope it doesn't take them 6 more years to give us a good franchise.

I didn't play Head Coach and still don't care for it. If they know they can't streamline the information from Head Coach then they should just move on and try to do this a different way. It's not like we're asking for the world here, just some attention to a franchise mode. The last two years, they didn't touch Super Star mode or Franchise. They tweaked some game-play features which is a good thing but its about time they looked at some of the game modes.

[tlc12576]

Quote: Originally Posted by rooney8

Agree 100%. Josh Looman is the franchise guy and has been there two years yet nothing really has been done. Talent isn't the problem, manpower and budget is.

Talent, manpower or the budget is not the problem I have, with the next-gen Madden we get every year, vision is. We have heard repeatedly that next-gen Madden has coding, resource and developer decision making limitations and I accept that. That said, the devs do have some decision making in the yearly development cycle by their own admission. (For example, they say the were able to add new run blocking AI despite marketing's apprehension.)

So, EA gives the Madden developers "lemons" every year, regardless of the "drink" devs and fans would prefer, they should be making "lemonade". The devs should be using what little input they have, to add as much "sweetner" as they can because they will be held responsible for how this "drink" tastes EVERY year.

However, in Madden 10, the devs added other ingredients like more "beyond broadcast" elements, incomplete pro-tak and incomplete online franchise, instead of sweetners like network broadcast-style elements, adding/improving existing tackle animations and focusing on oflline franchise.

Im Madden 11, they did add sweetners like gameplanning and run blocking, kudos there. That said, they added other "ingredients" too like a new pre-snap interface, broken player intro storylines, new lighting system and trademark stadium audio, instead of sweetners like more defensive pre-snap options for balance, upgrading the Extra Point/Halftime Show, progressive lighting and user customizable audio.

I think the Madden devs are talented and have a vision of creating a "drink" we can all enjoy, SOMEDAY. But, after 6 years of waiting for this universal "drink" I am very "thirsty" and would settle for some sweet "lemonade", this year. LOL

[kjcheezhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

What's there to be angry at, though? We aren't privy to how much Josh works on MUT, are we? The foundation for MUT is probably already laid down, don't you agree? So, what if it was 20% MUT, 80% FM? From a business standpoint, if I'm a manager or owner, I'm not going to pull my best soldier off a great seller and put that soldier on a different project until it's well established and doesn't need that soldier anymore. Anyone who thought all the code from HC could be ported over to Madden in one big swoop or business cycle was dreaming. It took three years to make HC alone.

First bold part: He's the franchise guy, but basically nothing has changed in franchise mode since he came over from the ps2 team. I have to assume from the product I've played that it's 98% MUT and 2% Franchise.

From a business standpoint concentrating all your efforts on MUT, Facebook apps and getting people to pay for Madden Moments makes sense. From a fan standpoint, watching those modes get 98% of the attention and being asking to fork over more cash while franchise, superstar and the other core modes go untouched is unacceptable.

Second bold point: What they've done is pour all their efforts into making this game a golden goose and forgot that people want to play the game. It's gonna take 3-4 years from this point to fix franchise because they did nothing to the core modes from madden 06-11. Every longtime madden fan should be angry about that. Hell, I'm pissed about it.