CFB (NFL Head Coach / Text Sim)?

[kingsofthevalley]

Good day all! Earlier today something crossed my mind that I wanted to present here as a question.

I was wondering if there were individuals who actually see CFB25 / Madden as "NFL Head Coach" or "Football Text Sim" type of games? I ask that because it appears that there is a demographic that don't actually "play" the games (on the field), but only sim / text seasons and deep dive into stats.

I see that as being a problem in many instances because it appears the foundation that the game was built on doesn't produce the pinpoint accurate stats that a "text sim" would probably produce (or did the CFBs / Maddens of old actually do this?), and ultimately leads to a form of OCD with a few people laser focusing on sim stats YEARS into the game without actually enjoying a major part of what the game was made for (on field play).

IMO opinion, its a bit odd to just sim every season and then shutdown when you're 20 seasons (!!!!!) in and the RB stats are off by 50 yards from real life or some similar situation. Its like purposely ruining the game for yourself when its not built super detailed that way. I don't know, I suggest playing and enjoying the game with the realization that some things may be outside of the "left and right lateral limits" of real life because its a game.

Can the devs fix this, who knows? It seems like if they could it would have been done by now. It could possibly take more than what we think it takes to amend the problem, so in the meantime, I suggest to adjust your baseline of what stats are in real life, to game stats, ex. if RB stats in the real world are 2000 yards per season (I don't know I'm just spit balling here, don't really mind that much), but the RBs in CFB average out at 1500 per season, then thats your new baseline for the CFB world of football and go from there.

I've said it before, you have to have SOME semblance of imagination and flexibility with video games gents, so go ahead boot up and have some fun! I sit here reading posts and I'm thinking, sheesh do these guys actually play this game or just sit and read stats?

Any similar / conflicting thoughts on this?

[Funkycorm]

So, here is what I will say about this.

I do not care about the stats personally. I honestly don't even look at stats that aren't my own team. But many do.

I like to simulate seasons.

Simulating also helps to test things like XP sliders.

I like to play seasons.

I like to simulate 5-7 years in games then play with the team I created.

It is simple: People pay for the game, can enjoy the game how they want, and shouldn't be judged for how they want to play. I personally do not do any CPU vs CPU, but respect that is how some play and enjoy the game.

Play how they want and enjoy what they want. Honestly, no real need to call anyone out as with your recommendation on how to play.

That is my conflicting view.

[J.hunt1376]

Like Funky, I too am not worried about sim stats. I worry about my stats, and I often look at the Conference standings, as I have a Custom Pro/Rel Conference setup, and it is fun to see what all the conferences are up to. But other than that, I play my home games and only the offense at that. I already get frustrated enough playing offense (RE: my post on my OL &#128545, so I know I would throw a controller if some craziness happened on defense.

As Funky said, though, everyone should play how they want, and whatever that is is good enough.

[JGRIPP81]

I was a Madden player, so I dont know if anything I say was the same for NCAA.

People like myself are disappointed because there was a "fix" for the sim stats. A quick history lesson based on what i remember and for context.
Back in Madden 04 a couple members from this forum noticed that in franchise mode, all the user controlled teams would finish the season "first against the run, last against the pass". If you played a game against the CPU, the CPU would pass the ball over 75% of the time, even if they were up big in the 4th. At the end of the season your team would only allow something like 600 yards rushing but 4000+ passing. But the simmed games were close to the 55/45 for run/pass stats. Using the Run/Pass slider they were able to get the CPU to run more in user played games and pass more in sim games. That allowed better player progression and end of year stats. There was a running back slider that adjusted how often the back up would get carries, allowing backups to progress while starters didnt over progress. I believe there was a slider that adjusted how often a defense would blitz and one that would change how often the QB would take a deep shot. Slowly finding what slider does what and what effect it has on other sliders and gameplay, these members were on to something.
When Madden 05 came out and with what they knew from 04, they created great sliders for us sim franchise players. 20 minutes of adjusting some sliders at the begining of the season, then with a few tweaks before and after each game you played, the stats where great. It wasnt perfect, but the balanced gameplay was great. When adjusting injury sliders and how fatigue certain positions had to be to be pulled and put back in, its a delicate balancing act. But more and more members were volunteering to test and it kept getting better.

Then there was Madden 06. The players were excited with hope of so many new ways to improve over 05. EA kept the sliders in the game but they no longer had any effect on gameplay or simmed games. Change the run/pass slider to 99/1 or 1/99, you were getting the same stats. 50/50 runningback split, back ups were still only getting 20 touches a season. If EA fixed the sim stats on their own way I dont believe many of us would have been so upset. Or even make the adjustments based on what they learned from this forum, but they didnt. Same with 07 and i believe its the same with every Madden since. I know for a while Id check the forums after each release to see if EA fixed the stats on their own or allowed the user to adjust them and never saw anything promising. So I gave up.
So why am I and maybe others upset? Because 20 years ago we could "fix" the sim stats and EA took it away for no good reason. There was some rumblings back in the day that this was done because the sliders that this forum and community created hurt some egos on the Dev team, just hear say. And it would be pretty petty to still hold that grudge. Its just very frustrating that a game from 20 years ago, on an inferior system, can allow the user to improve their experience and maybe that of others. And we'd happily pay EA to buy the game and will eagerly "work for free" to make it better.

Sorry for that long winded response. But I saw this while i was doing my semi annual lurking of this forum to see if I will buy the game or not and felt compelled to respond.