Could Madden ever have true role players?

[TMJOHNS18]

Watching another Sunday's worth of football has made me look at one of Madden's limitations yet again. In the perfect world sports games would reflect their true life counterparts. But, they don't. It's almost impossible to recreate the crazy world of sports, some games do it well, some games don't.

When it comes to Madden there is clear disconnect between game day and the game in many ways, one of them being the 'role player'. Watching games this week I once again see guys like D'Onta Foreman, James White, Duke Johnson, blocking TE's, Tavon Austin, Mathew Slater, etc. who are role/situational players who are not rated high enough to be starters but play a significant role for their respective teams.

These guys and many others are the reason a team rosters 53 players, but Madden doesn't reflect this in its current state. Sure human players can use formation subs in a way to replicate it, but the CPU will always default to OVR and never differentiate between player strengths.

Look at Tarik Cohen of the Bears. He's quick, agile, can catch, and is explosive. But at this stage of his career he isn't an overall stud RB (or he could be but hasn't been given the playing time to see). Yet he only gets a handful of touches and a portion of snaps each week. In Madden's current state he'd be a pure backup who would only be given opportunities on third down (if he is rated the highest 3RDB) or if Howard is injured.

In its current state Madden clearly can't incorporate role players. But, could it ever? American Football is a very complex sport, outside of multiple depth charts for multiple situations, it would seem unlikely to happen.

[raypace1]

They are capable of doing it but I don't think they have any intentions of doing it.. It'd be nice to see slot and nickel positions but it's too much extra work for them..


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[reyes the roof]

I feel like they'd mess it up if they tried this. You'd see things like Von Miller being subbed out for a pass rushing specialist

[rplatypus]

I don't think it would be that hard. Using NBA2k's badge system would be a fairly simple way. Assign a badge/role to a player and if you are using them outside of that role they would receive a drop in attributes. For instance if you have a nickel back assigned to the outside they would decrease. If you have a 3rd down running back lining up in the I formation on 1st and 2nd downs, he would be less effective. Assign star players a star badge/role so that they never are subbed out except if they are out of stamina. I think they were on to something in Madden 07 and 12 with player roles, they just needed to expand it more than just the increase in trade value that most of the roles effected.

I wouldn't mind seeing a potential attribute coming back either. A single number wouldn't work but 3 potential numbers would be cool. Max, likely and floor potential might provide a welcome change. If the player ever reaches his max or floor that number could increase or decrease after they spent a season at that number. They would have to tier it based on overall meaning it would be much slower to increase a player that reached his 92 overall max potential than a player that reached his 82 max. A HOF type player hitting his floor would cause a retirement the following season. Doing this for attributes would be amazing as well. Tired of seeing aging Qb's with 74 Throw Power in the league after a few seasons.

[Kaanyr Vhok]

Its difficult because so many of the nonstarters are underrated.

[Zack317]

Quote: Originally Posted by rplatypus

I don't think it would be that hard. Using NBA2k's badge system would be a fairly simple way. Assign a badge/role to a player and if you are using them outside of that role they would receive a drop in attributes. For instance if you have a nickel back assigned to the outside they would decrease. If you have a 3rd down running back lining up in the I formation on 1st and 2nd downs, he would be less effective. Assign star players a star badge/role so that they never are subbed out except if they are out of stamina. I think they were on to something in Madden 07 and 12 with player roles, they just needed to expand it more than just the increase in trade value that most of the roles effected. I wouldn't mind seeing a potential attribute coming back either. A single number wouldn't work but 3 potential numbers would be cool. Max, likely and floor potential might provide a welcome change. If the player ever reaches his max or floor that number could increase or decrease after they spent a season at that number. They would have to tier it based on overall meaning it would be much slower to increase a player that reached his 92 overall max potential than a player that reached his 82 max. A HOF type player hitting his floor would cause a retirement the following season. Doing this for attributes would be amazing as well. Tired of seeing aging Qb's with 74 Throw Power in the league after a few seasons.

I like the idea of the badges and specific roles

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[Haze88]

Madden is too binary for this. Positions are too rigid due to online guys crying so long and ratings mattering so little over the years that they could never properly balance anything. Despite them mentioning it in-game on commentary, we still don't have Sam/Will linebackers, we still don't have slot designations for CBs/WRs, and player differentiation ends at the numbers next to their ratings since everyone has the exact same animations. Even the ratings aren't separated enough seeing as NBA 2k has open/contested/standing/moving ratings for shot types while Madden still has pass rush moves set to power/finesse with no nuance at all to spins, rips, bullrushes, etc. We have a long way to go to get the players even feeling unique as is, before we start getting into role players, gadget guys, and hybrids

[Matthew25x]

Madden used to have player roles. I thought they were a pretty cool idea at the time but they didnt keep up with it. Then it disappeared. Then it came back. Then it disappeared again

Here's a link that shows the Player Roles from Madden 2008.

http://www.neoseeker.com/madden-nfl-...6836-role.html

Its depressing thinking back on all those previous Maddens. The player roles, the newspapers, the Tony Bruno show.. Franchise modes were much more engaging back then. Now nobody at EA really seems to care about making any sort of enjoyable experience with this game mode.