Madden NFL Designers Podcast #4 w/ Special Guest, Pasta Padre Available Now

[bakersville123]

Long time football gamer, strictly offline franchise. There was a time when I thought Sierra Sports FB Pro 99' was going to be the biggest disappointment in football gaming history. Looking back a decade ago I couldn't have imagined how wrong I would be.

I have listened to the podcasts for MAdden 12. I hear sincerity in the devs voices. I get the impression these guys are passionate about football. But at the end of the day, no one can argue that since the exclusive license was signed, football gaming has become stagnant. No question about it.

Why?

If you have no competition, no one breathing down your neck, why innovate?

Not a slam on the Madden devs. Just that listening to the podcasts, hearing 'this feature takes time, that feature takes time...' it get old REAAAAAL fast.

In fact, it's insulting to the end user.

Here's a company that eliminates the competition.

Then they (EA as a company) have the audacity to sit on their haunches and dink and dunk a genre that has gone BACKWARDS from old gen to current gen.

I guarantee that there some company out there who would, if given the OPPORTUNITY, release a game that didn't sacrifice realism, depth and innovation for the quick buck and allure of the casual gamer.

2010 marks the first year I didn't buy Madden. I love football, and get my fix by playing Front Office Football.

No offense, but it's bothered me for years that one guy, ONE GUY, (Jim Gindin) could release a statistical game engine that could be so realistic and unpredictable, while delivering an immerse football gaming experience. Yet franchise mode simulated stats in Madden have suffered for years.

[RGiles36]

Quote: Originally Posted by tlc12576

@Rgiles, I feel like you took just a snippet of my post and commented. My point was that visuals are critical to every area of a video game including control. If a feature adds user control but does not translate well visually in-game, it can detract from the enjoyment of the feature in general, like with protak. I feel your point about the presentation upgrades but the "icing", as I keep calling it, want matter much if the cake ain't right. I am all for improved commentary, new overlays and a general upgrade in Madden presentation. However, if Madden 12 adds similar presentation from NFL 2k5, like the highlight shows and reels, without addressing the way player interactions play out, on the field, it would most likely hurt the NFL immersion of Madden, even more. They really need to get the all player interactions visually, reasonably represented before that start actually putting a spotlight on these areas with highlights and game recaps.

Sorry that my post came off like that -- I may have misinterpreted what you were collectively trying to say. My bad . My point is the same though...

As far as player interactions, I guess I'd say that I don't think the player interactions in Madden are awful now. Yes, they can be improved upon -- and there are some wrinkles to iron out. But the animations in Madden are serviceable. They're not 2K great...but ok.

So I would say that it wouldn't hurt the immersion if they slapped presentation on M11 as is. It just wouldn't. The animations in 2K5 weren't flawless: think of the awkward running animation, or how stiff the QB looked when standing in the pocket. Granted, this is a 6-7 year old game and we are forgiving of those eye-sores. But my point is the presentation as a package helped us to overlook those "issues". I feel as though the same can be done for Madden: gradually improve the animations/interactions, but in the meantime, gimme broadcast presentation!!

[favre4thewin]

Quote: Originally Posted by Keenan G.

I just play only offline franchise. I am hoping that M12 will be deeper and more immersive.

Same here. Offline franchise is the games bread and butter for me. It is way too easy to build amazing teams. I wish scouting and free agency was a bit deeper and more challenging. It is frusturating to see 3 interior lineman go in the top ten picks of the draft and not have 1 QB taken.

[kmart2180]

In my opinion Offline Franchise is what put this game so high on the map. I think the higher numbers to online vs is do to the fact that Offline Franchise mode has grown stale that last few years. So people like myself who are not big on online vs are starting to dive into that.

What needs to happen in Offline Franchise mode is it needs to become tougher. There needs to be more of a struggle to improve or maintain your team. The Cap needs to be portrayed realistically. I should not be able to resign my entire team and still have 32mil to spend. I want to have to struggle with my decisions like do I resign Vernon Davis for a Mega contract and risk losing Manny Lawson,David Baas, Deshaun Goldson or sign the 3 and let him go.... We should not be able to sign whatever free agents we want and still have $$$ to sign all are rookies.

The Franchise Tag would mean more if we actually had struggle in keeping our players. Ive never had to use it cause I just resign everyone with no problem.

Overall the difficulty needs to be harder to make us work to win SuperBowls (I dont care much for All Madden do to its cheap tactics but its really the only way to get a challenge) I use sliders to get a better challenge but if would be great for if some way possible when u play Franchise mode All Pro mode will play a bit tougher than when in just play now.
Why i mention this is cause It is hard for me to get a set of sliders to make the 49ers a average team like they are in real life. In Madden they are like a Power House. And my current theory is if Im gonna win anyways I mind aswell be the Colts,Patriots ect..... I hate taking a team like the 49ers/Browns/Raiders to a 15-1/14-2 record. I end up deleting the franchise. There has got to be a way to get a struggle with these average teams.

Just realized im way off topic!!! Sorry!

[PantherBeast_OS]

For some reason I can't get my pc to where I can listen to the podcast. But from what I'm reading here so far is some people like the direction the Dev. Team is heading in and others don't think they have a clue to what they want to do. I honestly think their focus for this year is try cleaning up the game play and make it much better and work on the D and the AI. Work on making offline/online franchise mode make it much better then it is currently and also clean up the presentation part of the game aswell. Stop trying to add things fans don't want and focus on things fans do want fixed in the game. That's how you get people to buy the game when you give them a good product.

[Reejer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

...it was crazy how many people were exclusive offline or online gamers.

As a 39yo Offline only guy, who has bought Madden since it's inception: Strat pad, and Gameflow weren't the reason that I didn't buy M-11', but it didn't make me want to buy it either.

I personally didn't buy M-11' because Offline Modes were once again disregarded. If Offline Franchise and SS Modes were improved to M-06 (PS2) standards, I would have probably overlooked the controversial additions.

Is there any thought of producing two seperate titles, one for online, and one for offline? Possibly making each title $40-$50 ($70 for a box set), especially since there is such a split of use between online/offline use (so you wouldn't have to worry about alienating a large group of customers).

Good to see that you guys didn't give up (on podcasts) after the fallout from the last one. I do have a tidbit of advice for you guys: I understand that the online socially connected youth are the future buyers of Madden. However, the old-farts (that traditionally prefer Offline play) that have been buying Madden since it's inception aren't dead yet, and have years of purchases ahead of us.

[kiddlex]

I know no less than 20 people that no longer purchase Madden because the Offline Franchise is lackluster. Build the offline franchise, and they will come.

[Reejer]

I did like to hear Ian state that individual game customization is important.

Because I think that if you guys didn't remove any features (from year to year), and made them a toggle option the following year, you would make everyone a bit happier. And it would quiet the talk about "gimmicks" that come one year and disappear the following year.

As an example: Vision cone, I didn't like it, but some folks did. So why take it out completely? If you would have made it optional, it would have nipped the discussion in the bud.

Another example: Progression/regression being stat based and having it occur every 4 weeks (approx.). If it wasn't broken, why "fix" it with the pre-destined Potential Rating. You can make the potential rating editable (on a 0-99 scale), or at least you should make an option of which style of progression/regression you prefer.