Madden NFL 11 News Post

Madden NFL 11 Interview with Ian Cummings (GameShark)

11:37 AM - July 30, 2010 by Danimal

GameShark has posted an interview with Ian Cummings, Creative Director for Madden NFL 11.

Quote:


	GameShark: "Can you go into some detail about the run blocking improvements? We saw holes develop at E3 we have never seen before in a Madden game? What was done to tweak this?" Ian Cummings: "Going back to question #3, run blocking was also up there on that list. We were at this critical point where we could keep trying to cobble together delicate fixes on run blocking code that was extremely hard to tune, or decide to suck it up and spend the resources to basically scrap it and go with a new system that was built on real NFL blocking assignments (rather than a video-game version of run blocking assignments). The gameplay design team spent weeks just meeting with coaches on all the schemes and months watching film of both good and bad executions of each scheme to basically create a full design of how the AI and animation support needed to be, so that the engineers and animators could implement the feature. I�ve also attached a video that Mike Scantlebury, a gameplay designer, put together back in August of 2009 that was the first part of that design. He did some great work there to help the engineers visualize how the new rules should work when players succeeded or failed."

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Member Comments

# 21 thbends @ 07/30/10 02:29 PM

I run a successful online league. We are wrapping up season 3 now.

It only works because we all know each other and have played together since NFL 2k5. Though few of us have ever met in person.

We are all in agreement that others did not play Online Franchise because it was not complete. Did anyone even try to use the message board they made for the site? Complete crap. We ended up using our own forums away from the site to keep in touch. So if EA could not get the message boards right, something people have been doing correctly elsewhere since AOL came in to existence in the 90's, how can we expect them to get the franchise mode right? lol

Basic features were missing. Features needed to communicate with your owners easily. COMMUNICATION is key when it comes to running a good league. EA offered little to no support in this area.

# 22 showbo1971 @ 07/30/10 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Legend Killer


	What I'm getting from the franchise mode question is that online franchise mode is more of a focus then offline franchsie mode. Which to me is hogwash. What is this all of a sudden wanting to do everything for online use. Most fans want a offline franchise more then anything. Don't they get point of that. If they do very little for offline franchise mode and end up doing a whole deal for online franchise mode. Then EA is going to end up POing alot of fans off and loss a lot of customers in the process. Most madden fans want a completely new offline franchise mode and not online. I wish they would confirm wheather they are going to redo the whole offline franchise mode along with online are what. This is driving me nuts. I like offline franchise mode more them anything. It's very very hard to get even a handfull of people to stick with online franchise mode for even a short time. Offline franchise is where they really to need to focus it at to redo this coming year.

Legend, I can understand what you are saying but I still believe they could have at least finished the online franchise. I think they should focus on getting the offline franchise perfected but just adding free agency/salary cap to online franchise this season would have been good enough to make the mode more playable.

# 23 marktwain77 @ 07/30/10 02:39 PM

I think the biggest problem with online franchise (and other have said it too) is that you get geared up, join a franchise, and inevitably 1/2 the other people either quit, never play their games, or just act like 10 yr old cheesers.

So everything you did was a WASTE of time. You're constantly dealing with not being able to advance OR not being able to play your opponent because of scheduling issues, etc. Then a few guys just join and never do anything... Finally 3-4 people quit and it's like a domino effect and you're left with 3 or 4 people who are serious about it...

That was my exerience anyway.... The whole mode was totally pointless and felt like a waste of time... I was not going to build my team over multiple seasons (the whole POINT of such a mode) because my league would be lucky to see week 6 of season #1.

With offline franchise I can play 10 games in a row in one night if I want, then not play for 2 weeks, then come right back to it and it's all still there. I don't have 12 other teams that just stopped playing.

# 24 K_GUN @ 07/30/10 02:52 PM

i think the biggest thing is commitment--or there lack-of---with OF. yes, i get it here ,there are a lot of commited guys but keeping 32 guys for more than one season is a VERY small %.

Heck even here our PS3 OF last for madden 10 had what....16 teams total...in year 1....i didn't make it out of year 2 myself....guys were dropping like flies....despite the fact that it was a VERY WELL RUN LEAGUE.

# 25 DaveDQ @ 07/30/10 03:01 PM

Just like you wouldn't control all 32 teams in an offline franchise, you wouldn't have to for online. That is the beauty of what they did with this feature. The number one reason online leagues don't work is because we pack them in to fill spots and scheduling becomes a chore.

In comes EA with the Madden OF and it was set up perfectly. Yes, it didn't have much depth, but the most important thing was the ability to play the CPU in different divisions and move the schedule along. We ran 4 seasons with 12 guys and it worked out great. Last year's OF and Pro-Tak were two things that gave me promise for Madden. This year, both remain untouched and it took the wind out of my sails for me.

# 26 thbends @ 07/30/10 03:01 PM

It does take a lot to run a good online franchise.

1. Starts with a good commissioner. He has to set the rules but not be overbearing.

2. Second you have to find a good core group of guys to keep it going.

3. Don't worry about filling all the teams. Just try to get quality owners. Kick the loser owners out as soon as you realize they are what they are.

4. Try to only invite guys that comes with a backing from guys already in your league that you trust.

5. If you league fails... keep the guys that hung around and consolidate with another group of guys who had the same experience.

(Pay close attention to rules 3 +4. NEVER just let anyone join. One bad owner can run off 5 good ones.)

6. COMMUNICATION

7. COMMUNICATION

# 27 at23steelers @ 07/30/10 03:11 PM

I agree, with the owners thing. We were in week 2, and one knucklehead was so mad that he lost his week 1 game that he released all his players to FA. So, then other good players didn't know what happened, but saw good players in FA, and since ours was first come, first serve, they signed the other kids players. Then, others didn't think it was fair, and then soon enough our whole league was ruined, because of one person. It usually is one or two people that ruin things.

# 28 kbomb1upc @ 07/30/10 03:58 PM

This is weak. The only reason I'm still playing Madden 10 right now is because of Online Franchise. Me and a bunch of people of my online franchise are not getting Madden 11 because they screwed online franchise. Guess will just keep playing 10 untill Madden 12 comes out and I'm fine with that. I'll rather give my money to NCAA 11.

# 29 jrivera34 @ 07/30/10 05:36 PM

I played in a few 2k5 leagues and it was the best gaming experience I had. Then my beautiful children were born and now there is no time to commit. That being said I wish there was an option to have a full online franchise were I could play with 3 other gamers in a division. The key is that it still needs to have all features of the offline game online. Otherwise the game gets stale after year 1.

As many have said, how can ea complain when they released a half baked online franchise. EA is way too big now to ever care. Competition will be the only cure and the competition needs to be serious and willing to battle for a few years.

This interview was very depressing to read. Sounds like we are slowly moving forward from a gameplay standpoint, which is great, but backwards on everything else.

# 30 statum71 @ 07/30/10 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AirLobo23


	Nice read. So maybe franchise highlites will be included in the extra point show since he named that as a negative for last years game?

I believe you're reading this wrong Lobo. I think he's saying he wishes they could have added highlights to the Extra Point for THIS years game. Since he was asking about improvements over last year's.

Anyway, hopefully this means the didn't take it out all together.

I could be wrong

# 31 Eski33 @ 08/01/10 12:17 AM

I agree with others that online franchises are hard to maintain even if you play with friends. Part of the reason is due to people having lives and that there are leagues filled with guys who have nothing better to do than play video games.

I have been in a couple of online dynasties and it's all about "hurry up and play your game so we can advance." Sometimes it is difficult to find time.

If people are in an online league, structure and communication is critical. I think and online league could be fun as hell if it resembles NCAA 11's online features, especially the web based items allowing you to recruit while not on the console.

Also, I think dynasties are easier to operate because you don't have to mess with salaries and caps, stuff that can get confusing for those casual gamers.

I hope EA builds on the feature by making it extremely customizable and defining all the jargon used in regards to caps, rules, etc. so users can choose what they want to utilize and what they don't.

My opinion is that EA should overload the mode then do an analysis to see how the mode is utilized, what structures are used and how. To create a mode with minimal options is going to lend to a minimized user base. To say that salary caps don't impact that just shows how far EA is in regards to knowing its user base.

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