Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by comen

Thats Maddens biggest problem right now!! Not having choices or customization!! It cant be that hard for them to implement options for casual all the way through to the hardcore! Customization is a must and caters to all users! The game has surely took a huge turn towards people that cant play football games(casual) or dont really care about true football sim! Maybe they should make 2 games: one called casual football and one called NFL football! (Great article tho!)

If anything the game has taken a huge turn towards the hardcore this year. Just because you can't do a fantasy draft(not realistic/casual) or control all 32 teams(casual/hardcore) doesn't mean that it's not for the hardcore. I totally agree about customization and giving us more options, that is something I really think EA football has been lacking since it went to the 360/PS3. One major area this is lacking is with legends, in NBA2k it's awesome how you can have a season with classic teams, uniforms, stadiums, presentation, you name it. In Madden other than in MUT, they only let us choose 1 legend and put him on a team to play with.

[StrawHat Patriot]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

If anything the game has taken a huge turn towards the hardcore this year. Just because you can't do a fantasy draft(not realistic/casual) or control all 32 teams(casual/hardcore) doesn't mean that it's not for the hardcore. I totally agree about customization and giving us more options, that is something I really think EA football has been lacking since it went to the 360/PS3. One major area this is lacking is with legends, in NBA2k it's awesome how you can have a season with classic teams, uniforms, stadiums, presentation, you name it. In Madden other than in MUT, they only let us choose 1 legend and put him on a team to play with.

Fantasy Drafts can be done by hardcore fans too. Along with other features not in the mode.

[jpdavis82]

Quote: Originally Posted by StrawHat Patriot

Fantasy Drafts can be done by hardcore fans too. Along with other features not in the mode.

That's true, but not having it in the game doesn't make the game any less hardcore.

[scoonie05]

Quote: Originally Posted by CT Pittbull

in order for them to survive they must cater to their hardcore fan base ...if someone wants to play madden bad enough ...they will learn ..one time getting spanked by a friend or the cpu should be their motivation to get better...if they give up after a bad loss and say "its too hard for me" ...then they in all likelyhood would not be a madden gamer for very long anyway and would move on to another game that they are more interested in...if you love football you WILL learn how to play madden...its NOT rocket science

This will not happen. Ea makes most of it's money off of casual fans. What do u think what would happen to Call of duty if it cater to their hardcore fan base?? It'll sell alot less. EA is a business and just like every other business they're in it to make money. Point blank

[DBMcGee3]

I guess I can officially call myself a casual fan by his standards. I still love my XBox, but at my age, reality has really set in and I just don't have the free time I used to spend practicing and improving in games like this. My biggest gripe with Madden has always been the massive gap between difficulty levels. It just seems like one level is easy enough to get boring, and the next level is frustratingly hard, even cheap at times. It would be cool if they added a few "tweener" levels so I can stop spending my precious few gameplay hours tinkering with sliders.

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

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.

XP/Goals/Progression=Casual

[chi_hawks]

This is awesome. Great read!

[cuttingteeth]

I deleted my initial post in here, but I want to make about the same point as to what the business model for this game should be:

Logic states you look through all the years of Madden sales, pick the year that sold the most and whatever that game's core features/options were, that's what every game should at least have coded in. Again, that's just simple business ethics they'll teach you in first-in classes.