Do you think Madden "picks" winners of games??

[JDoze]

I'm in an online franchise with about 6 other people and it seems that for every user game its rarely a good game. Most of the time its blow outs and its never one person just beating everyone. It seems like the game decides who the winner will be and makes one team completely dominant. Anyone else see this?

[Hooe]

No, Madden does not predetermine who wins games.

The results of player interactions in Madden are calculated using random dice rolls weighted by player ratings. It is not technically feasible for the game can go out of its way to deliberately pick a winner given that it is built upon randomness.

[Ampking101]

No but I do believe that there is a team handicap that is chosen at the beginning of the game. It feels like a legacy issue as I have also seen it in past madden games where one team will drop almost every contested pass and the other team will catch every contested catch. Also sometimes one team will get more push on the oline or dline. It is possible to change it by forcing a momentum shift but it does seem as if there is a "home field advantage" type of mechanic in play.

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[JDoze]

Yeah, I've noticed good rushing teams getting completely shut down and just bad passes happening constantly. No pass rush and DB's just making weird decisions. Maybe they can give us an indication of momentum or the home field advantage... so it doesn't seem like your team is just randomly falling apart.

[JDoze]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

No, Madden does not predetermine who wins games. The results of player interactions in Madden are calculated using random dice rolls weighted by player ratings. It is not technically feasible for the game can go out of its way to deliberately pick a winner given that it is built upon randomness.

I feel like an overall increase or decrease to a teams rolls would easily explain the topic.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by JDoze

I feel like an overall increase or decrease to a teams rolls would easily explain the topic.

The balance settings and ratings weights for the various rolls are indeed adjusted by changing the game difficulty or adjusting the game's sliders and / or Tiburon releasing a new tuning file. That's as far as it goes.

Beyond that, let's just apply Occam's razor to this, shall we - what benefit is there for Tiburon having the game predetermine a winner when they are trying mightily to push the game's online competitive / e-sport scene? Having any sort of "pre-determined victory" or even "pre-determined favorite" for an online user-vs-user game would completely undermine the legitimacy of any e-sport match outcome before any game is ever played and would destroy the competitive scene before it gets off the ground.

It's just not there.

[howboutdat]

I can see both sides of this , and just toss out this as what i see . While it does not "pick" a winner , i do understand why some people feel like it does. What is essentially happening, i believe , in these games is , one team wins 70% or more of the dice rolls. Thus , it seems like madden is " picking" or " pulling" for one particular team.

Its like , just if one where to do 1000s of dice rolls , you may find at some point , you just lose alot of times in a row before you ever win one. Its just what can happen in a game of dice rolls. That doesnt mean its picking a winner.But it also doesnt mean , it sure cant feel like it is. Because when that happens, as one who has had it happen many times, I do totally understand why people feel that way. Some games, its like no matter how good your playcalling, you just dont get any breaks and the other team seems to get almost all of the breaks.Thus making it feel like madden is picking a winner, when really , you just lost a bunch of money playing craps ....

That just my take on it.But what do i know.

[T4VERTS]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

No, Madden does not predetermine who wins games. The results of player interactions in Madden are calculated using random dice rolls weighted by player ratings. It is not technically feasible for the game can go out of its way to deliberately pick a winner given that it is built upon randomness.

There is some sort of momentum modifier in there somewhere that hasn't really been quantified yet though. Fumbles on ensuing kick offs after a big play (pick six, fumble return for TD, etc.) when you are losing are a pretty common occurrence. Maybe a relic of the old hot and cold system, but there is something there that may make people think the game is "predetermined" because of those large swings.

Also, as we found out this year, through the away team fatigue bug there is a home field advantage that we don't fully understand but is definitely noticeable at times.