Sound Off: Has the 'Closed' Nature of Connected Careers Turned You Away?

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Quote: Originally Posted by therealsmallville

It hasn't turned me off at all. Still buying it day one. I understand why some are upset over the lack of some features...but the argument of "they're making me play the game their way!"? Well...it IS their game. And believe it or not, you've always played their game their way. You take advantages of options EA gives you. I imagine those who are saying "I refuse to play it their way!" are the same people who change the rules in Monopoly regarding free parking. I also imagine these same people (not ALL of them, mind you, but a good portion...and they know who they are) will be in the "Official Madden 13 Reaction Thread" giving their opinions on the game even though "I'm not buying it for the first time in ___ years." EA has a long way to go with this game. In my opinion, they pushed CCM out now so that they can be sure the ground floor is solid for the future. Making it work now, and adding to it next year, means (imo) that they will be able to import it to next-gen, saving us from the headaches of Madden '06 repeated for Madden 15. This technology can be used in the future; I'd rather get a full-fledged title for the start of next-gen and a smaller feature set now, than to get a full old franchise now & a gimped Madden later. The current gen is 7 years old...if I'm spending hundreds on a new console next year, I want a good Madden game to go with it. Madden 13 will see to that.

99% of people who edit rosters in Franchise mode did it for ONE and ONLY ONE reason: to keep the NFL realistically represented.

I also imagine that some people (not ALL of them, mind you, but a good portion...and they know who they are) are only arguing against those people who want the ability because they don't actually want the NFL accurately represented in Madden.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by ForUntoOblivionSoar∞

99% of people who edit rosters in Franchise mode did it for ONE and ONLY ONE reason: to keep the NFL realistically represented. I also imagine that some people (not ALL of them, mind you, but a good portion...and they know who they are) are only arguing against those people who want the ability because they don't actually want the NFL accurately represented in Madden.

I'm not arguing against anyone, I'm an offline gamer, and I don't use any of those features because I just don't have the time, not because I don't want the NFL accurately represented and that shouldn't be a crime.

Anyone should be able to play the game however they want to and not be judged by anyone.

[DarkFudge]

Quote: Originally Posted by Lisa_Bonami

In regards to the Physics engine that would make sense since you can only truly come to a conclusion about its new 'feel' by playing it first but in regards to Connected Careers and the restrictions of Franchise Mode features for those of us that play OFFLINE, there is no need to play it first...its pretty straight forward, you cant edit, create teams, players, play ANY GAMES around the league in your Franchise. This is all pretty clear and doesnt require playing the game to experience these changes to the game.....For many of us it is truly a TERRIBLE DESIGN decision. And let me clarify this, I personally applaud the many improvements and added depth to Connected Careers Mode that EA made for those that love to play online and even those that don't.... ...BUT what I feel was COMPLETELY UNFORGIVABLE and just a POOR DESIGN DECISION was the fact that they didnt have enough sense to break out Connected Career Mode and Franchise Mode into 2 separate MODES to allow a large consumer audience the same flexibility that they had with EDITING and CUSTOMIZING their Franchise experience all these years...and more importantly, the way they want to play the game when their playing it offline. There was absolutely no reason to cater to one type of audience and completely alienate the other when they could have just as easily included BOTH and made everyone happy to play the game the way they want to......As it is now, we cannot. That is why I feel that EA made a really bad design decision. I dont even think this is an arguable point regardless of which play style you prefer or how often or not you edit players, teams, etc.

100% agree with this intelligent and fair post...Im wondering if EA will have enough time to modify the final product to include it in or at least patch it in. I think it would really be in there best interest to include BOTH the new and the old format as mentioned above. It just makes sense to appeal to the broader customer base. As it is now, I dont know if I will want to buy the game without the ability to customize my franchise. I am not big on online play and playing with strangers. I'd rather play my franchise alone against a dynamic cpu AI that has each team playing and strategizing like their real lif counterparts.


I just dont feel comfortable leaving my Franchise experience in the hands of XBOX LIVE players

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I'm not arguing against anyone, I'm an offline gamer, and I don't use any of those features because I just don't have the time, not because I don't want the NFL accurately represented and that shouldn't be a crime. Anyone should be able to play the game however they want to and not be judged by anyone.

I was being facetious, which is why I actually used a direct quote from therealsmallville, which he used more or less to judge players who do like to edit the league. I know of no one who does this for any reason other than keeping the NFL represented authentically.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

It never ceases to amaze me how difficult EA seem to make a CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) operation out to be - this isn't exactly the first time basic database operations like editing a record didn't make the cut due to "time issues". My god, throw together a UI with the appropriate fields - use designs already done for other screens as a launching point - link those fields to rows in the database and there you have it - an editing form! It is literally that easy, and if for some reason it isn't, then EA, you are doing it wrong. Hell, if there already is an editing component for Play Now rosters, load the logic and design applied to that into CC and there you go. I'm sure Madden is coded in a modular manner where code can be reused rather than duplicated - just about any object oriented language basically forces this to be so. It is so puzzling I can simply not believe that some other reason than the tired "out of time" excuse isn't at play here. I dunno what, but this is stuff an intern could knock over in a day. I would LOVE to hear a proper explanation by EA about why taking the editing components on rosters and applying them to the same table of data that lives in a CC save file is so damn difficult.

nza, is it even possible to create a program that would run on the consoles that would allow editing rosters (franchise). You, and others at football freaks where just gods to the PC world years back.

[therealsmallville]

Quote: Originally Posted by ForUntoOblivionSoar∞

99% of people who edit rosters in Franchise mode did it for ONE and ONLY ONE reason: to keep the NFL realistically represented. I also imagine that some people (not ALL of them, mind you, but a good portion...and they know who they are) are only arguing against those people who want the ability because they don't actually want the NFL accurately represented in Madden.

99%, eh? Link? lol j/k

What is "NFL Authentic"? In Madden 11, if the Colts released Manning, people cried "they would NEVER do that!" Well, guess what?

"CJ2K is the best back in the league, and I'm going to edit him that way!" Where'd he go last year?

"A punter drafted in the 3rd round??? Madden's draft logic is broken!" The Jaguars say hi.

My point is, the NFL is crazy...and things change all the time. Something crazy happens in CCM, well that's just another crazy day in the NFL offseason to me.

I want the 49ers uniforms and helmets corrected. I want the Bills' mid-field logo fixed. I want (your team here) to have correct uniforms, too. That is all much more important to me than being able to edit Vick's visor, or putting an elbow pad on the left arm of that one DE instead of it being on his right.

[therealsmallville]

Quote: Originally Posted by ForUntoOblivionSoar∞

I was being facetious, which is why I actually used a direct quote from therealsmallville, which he used more or less to judge players who do like to edit the league. I know of no one who does this for any reason other than keeping the NFL represented authentically.

Actually, the part you direct-quoted about "most of these people, not all of them..." was in reference to all of the people proclaiming they're not buying it but will be in the reaction threads when the game drops. Not judging, just a simple prediction.

[DrewsLions]

Sure hope the devs are reading this full thread, because after a "monumental" press junket at E3, the results certainly shouldn't be this mixed. That HAS to tell them that they made a mistake with the removal of key components to Madden that has been a staple for years on how a lot of fans play this game. I'm all for innovation and change, but to undo progress for the sake of "something different" - especially when it forces a significant percentage of players to alter their playstyle that took years to create... epic fail.

For me personally, my anticipation has cooled tremendously. I was one of the thousands that were initially blown away, then kept getting hopes dashed day after day as all the news crept out of the lack of user control. What a shame. I am not one to always control all teams or go nuts with ratings editing, but I did my fair share of editing. I, at the very least, would take a quick run through all the teams, edit names, numbers, equipment and even ratings where I saw fit before I started my franchise. I've had to do that because historically a LOT of this stuff was wrong. Calvin Johnson Jr.?? C'mon... any and every Lions' fan takes that "Jr." off before they start a franchise. Why? It's not how he wears his jersey. Aside from Madden, I never knew he was a "Jr." to begin with. This is the kind of stuff that nags me as I play and losing this control really drowns out the realism. Never have we gotten a day one roster that was anywhere near complete. Not close. On average 5-10 players per team had something significant (jersey number, main piece of equipment, etc) wrong. We just have to live with that now and I don't think I am being dramatic when I say that is unacceptable in the year 2012.

In addition, Madden has always lacked a feel for "what's happening around the league" with respect to offline franchise (which is all I play, btw). To do that, the user has to be able to create for himself. One way I did this was to watch the other playoff games/Super Bowl using CPU vs. CPU. We can't do this anymore (and I know that many people think it's silly to watch CPU games, but many do it to recreate immersion within the franchise - so to each his own). It seems that the idea is total immersion in YOUR coach or player, but it remains to be seen if a twitter feed will fill in all the gaps with the other games, teams and players in an expansive NFL world within your franchise. If I miss the playoffs and the computer simply sims to the offseason with no regard for what happens around the league... how is that total immersion? Even from week to week... if there are no weekly wrap-up shows or anything, how do we know who is doing well, who the star players are, who is failing, etc.??? Twitter feed? Sorry... not enough for me and I suspect for many others.

All that said, I will try the game out. Buy it first day? Hmmm... doubtful. Rent? Yeah... probably. Disappointed in what I hear? Absolutely.