Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

[StrawHat Patriot]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

So do you guys see Madden 13 as breaking the trend in this chart and being more for the hardcore or do you think it's more for the casual?

A bit of both,

[SHAKYR]

WOW! This reminds me of a project I'm working on. The chart itself is exactly what I was aiming for;

http://www.operationsports.com/SHAKY...rs-interested/

I wondering how marketing knows what each fans want and they can implement it in the game without scaring the other kinds of players away? I always they core plays come first(default) then the other kinds of players come as options.
EA is notorious for creating a hybrid game as default to please everyone.

[Big FN Deal]

"The first thing you have to identify when analysing a video game is this: “What is the Core Experience the developers are trying to deliver?” Since the inception of John Madden Football back in 1984, Madden himself has stubbornly protected the Core Experience of the series: A realistic representation of NFL Football."

I hope this puts to rest any notion that attempting to achieve optimal NFL realism should take a backseat to anything in Madden, especially subjective notions of "fun". I don't really know what I think of the article overall because it seemed to suggest that EA/Tiburon has been trying to make Madden an optimally NFL realistic football game that casuals can access this console generation but I totally disagree. They seem to have been doing the opposite, imo, making a casual football game with just enough NFL realism to justify the NFL label.

Reading that chart of Casual vs Hardcore additions, it was really disappointing thinking about how poorly implemented and/or fleshed out the additions for both have been, up to this point.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by StrawHat Patriot

A bit of both,

LOL, I'm surprised you didn't say it was a win for the casual. The only thing M13 did for the casual was probably piss them off, no fantasy drafts, no option to control all the teams in Connected Careers, trying to remove nanos.

[StrawHat Patriot]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

LOL, I'm surprised you didn't say it was a win for the casual.

What does that imply

[McNutted]

I think the ball was dropped on the tuners. While NCAA hasn't blown people away with the tuner feature, it was at least used. I can't say I remember a Madden tuner last year.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by StrawHat Patriot

What does that imply

You don't give Madden much credit for when they do something for the hardcore.

[elementz09]

I enjoyed reading this article. I start to wonder though how much of these changes that EA has put into Madden or NCAA relates to sales vs. ratings? I know sales are important in any business, but I look at another sports game in MLB: The Show and they're pretty much top notch in MLB realism. Even the franchise mode allows you to schedule promotions, transportation, and all other kinds of things that comes very close to really putting you in the position of a GM of a MLB franchise. And if you don't want that much responsibility, just play season mode. I say that to ask how difficult can it be to get to the point in a game where you have a "fork in the road" option for casual gamers vs. hardcore gamers? Is it too complicated to implement out of fear of a sales decline and/or a not so good rating?