Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madden

[Matty Aqua]

This is a fantastic idea!

[Aggies67]

I think I will benefit from this. I hope they include it in current gen version.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by K_GUN

agreed.....perhaps it should be spun as..."Madden Dev's wanna teach you how to play their game.." ?? dunno...props to them for the effort to educate tho

I mean, sure, you could say that if you want to split hairs, but Madden's game is nominally football. So yes they are teaching football through a video game. Teaching a person how to use a Levels passing concept or the strengths and weaknesses of a Cover 2 coverage applies in Madden and real life.

We all know Madden has shortcomings in the way some things play out on the field, but that doesn't mean that what it teaches isn't representative of the sport whatsoever.

[coke hogan]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game. If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

I wasn't engaged in the mechanics of the witcher 2. put it down, then picked it up a week later. one of the best games ever played.


so I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by coke hogan

I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

You'd be surprised.

One of the hardest things to do in making a video game is create the first level / the user's first experience with the game because if said level / experience doesn't teach the player how to play and doesn't engage them in the story (if applicable), the user will lose interest, will not invest into the game, and you've likely lost him. That's not to say there aren't exceptions, like your experience with The Witcher 2, but the general rule is that you've gotta grab the player early.

In talking about making good games today with reference to his experience making DOOM, designer John Romero recommended making the first level of a game last so that the designer knows all the tools he has to teach the player for the rest of the game. The infamous E1M1 Hangar board was the last level put into the game and teaches the player pretty much everything he needs to know about how an environment in DOOM works (with the exception of key cards, which are introduced in E1M2). This design lesson applied in 1992, it still applies today.

[mestevo]

Quote: Originally Posted by coke hogan

I wasn't engaged in the mechanics of the witcher 2. put it down, then picked it up a week later. one of the best games ever played. so I don't believe people would put the game down and not play it anymore, especially if they paid money for it.

I've actually stalled multiple times playing The Witcher 2 at the part that it decides you should learn every ability at one time at the end of the tutorial.

[greenegt]

Gauntlet Mode looks like fun. I'm really looking forward to Madden 15.

[juduking]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

Key quote right here: "As Cam and I crafted this vision to take the game toward 'more realistic and more authentic,' what we realized is, if we don't teach people how football works, they're never going to understand this game," Dickson continued. "That's really why the Skills Trainer mode was developed, is because I basically pitched that we need a tutorial system if we're going to keep going in a realistic, authentic direction." This thread should be interesting, to say the least.

What was skills trainer then? Just a way to get MUT cards?