Reflection on EA Sports NHL Franchise Mode

[Maxssi]

Long post. translation supported by gpt chat. if it is not understandable delete it 😀

I don’t understand why the NHL team doesn’t take inspiration from FC or Madden NFL. In those games, Franchise Mode isn’t undervalued like it is here.

Here are some thoughts I’d like to share about NHL’s Franchise Mode:

I like playing all the games—82 regular-season games plus the playoffs. Managing trades, contracts, and more is fine, but if I only wanted to manage, I’d buy a simulation game like Franchise Hockey Manager 8! Give it a try—you’ll love it. When I watch Franchise Mode videos on YouTube, I’m stunned to see so many content creators go through entire careers without playing a single game. Unreal!

Why isn’t Franchise Mode designed like a coach’s career? Based on performance, I could be fired or receive offers from other teams. I could give pre- and post-game interviews, talk to players, and manage a staff to help with daily tasks. A broadcast-style presentation could keep me updated on other teams, scores, drafts, trades, and end-of-season awards. If you enjoy simulation, that’s fine—it’s a personal choice. The tools already exist; they just need better implementation.

Why don’t players have fluctuating form during the season? EA talks a lot about simulation, but this omission isn’t realistic. It feels like every player is always at full energy. Adding training sessions, like those in FC, would make the game more engaging.

The obsession with sliders needs to stop. Enough! We spend months tweaking sliders to find the perfect settings, only to never achieve a satisfying result. I want a more polished product with fewer, well-thought-out options. I haven’t completed a season since NHL 97! For a while, I played NHL 2K, which handled this much better. EA, make a game that’s either good or bad, but make it properly configured for Franchise Mode!

Too many stats complicate the experience. Tracking an excessive number of metrics forces us to replicate them in the game, which takes away the fun. Do we really care about passing percentage? Even NHL.com doesn’t include that in its game reports. Do we need to know how many power plays or penalty kills a team has, or would it be more useful to see just the success rates? For goalies, do we really need to know the total number of shots faced, or is a save percentage enough? Reducing both team and player stats to only the most essential ones would make the game much more enjoyable—and ease the stress over sliders!

In general, if I want the experience of a real game, I’ll go to the arena. I play video games to have fun, not to replicate every tiny detail of reality, though I do want a sense of realism that fits into the time I have available.

I hope that someday, Franchise Mode and career players can truly enjoy this amazing sport in video game form again. That’s my opinion.

Thank you for reading.

[Fiddy]

Good post!

Just my quick thoughts.

Playing all 82 games plus the playoffs is a chore, thats why creators don't do it.

Piggy back above, sliders/settings, we are not even sure they work properly so again why play the game and dig deep into a mode where we are still unsure if they work. Have to save, quit apps, restart consoles, rinse and repeat and hope that works. Again, a chore. (Although I personally feel you don't have to do that anymore and that using an unsaved preset works, but does it? lol)

I also agree, we don't need games to be a 100% sim experience thats where sports games have gone wrong over the years. Yes, need to have that as an option, but these games need to be engaging and also fun to play and if they are not fun to play, then I just won't play. lol

As far as the other stuff, I agree as well but we are asking a lot and if they can't get sliders and settings to work properly we shouldn't expect much elsewhere.

Frustrating for sure.

[MiracleMet718]

I’m probably the opposite guy when it comes to Franchise mode as I enjoy all of the stats and realism. But there should be a way to just pickup and play.

As much as 2k has frustrated me with certain things the last few years, the fact that they have all of the franchise settings open and available for you to choose if you want to manage them or not is the best part of that game. I wish all sports games had that where you can have it as detailed or simple as you’d like with a mixture of settings in between.

NHL does do a pretty good job of it, but I do wish they would add a few more things around trade frequency and free agency pickups/roster management automation for the CPU.