Madden NFL 11 News Post

Madden NFL 11: Madden is Watching (ESPN)

04:29 PM - March 10, 2010 by Steve_OS

You wouldn't believe how many interceptions Brett Favre threw online last season, and EA is counting every single one as they track online user data to help shape the direction of Madden NFL 11.

Quote:


	"The average length of a "Madden NFL 10" game is 63 minutes, but only 17 minutes of this time is spent actually playing the game. The other 46 minutes are spent on things like calling plays, setting up audibles, making substitutions, and watching replays. Another crazy stat thrown out at the event is the fact that while most team playbooks offer an average of 330 plays, the average gamer only uses 13 plays per game. That is why the tag line for this year's game is "'Madden NFL 11': Simpler. Quicker. Deeper," as EA Sports is looking to not only speed up the time it takes to complete a game, but make the experience geared more toward how people are actually playing "Madden" online according to this user data they've compiled. "Our online base, our online connected rate continues to rise dramatically," explains "Madden" executive producer Jeremy Strauser. "We're able to now bring a tremendous amount of data in on real-time usage, real-time gameplay, in terms of reports from our connected user base. "We're bringing in over 173 million data reports ever single day with 'Madden,'" adds Strauser. "We're able to take this real-time data, confirm what's working, what's not working, and make changes to the game real-time while it's consumed." One example of how this quick-fix ability is a gameplay tweak from last year. When "Madden NFL 10" first shipped, EA started tracking Hit Stick tackles. While 1,135,443,163 were attempted, an astounding 518,959,818 were actually completed, for a success rate of 46-percent. Hit Stick tackles were meant to be a high risk/high reward type feature where gamers whiff and pay the price, but by making 46-percent of these tackles, the high risk part of the equation was almost nullified. So EA Sports went in and made a gameplay change through an online update about a month into the season, and the Hit Stick success rate plummeted down to the levels the game designers originally intended."

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Member Comments

# 21 Ian_Cummings @ 03/10/10 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bgamer90

Too funny.

See why this place drives me crazy?!?!?!

# 22 PantherBeast_OS @ 03/10/10 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	I will repeat. We are NOT dumbing the game down. Just because someone throws picks means zero to the hardcore community and Madden fan that doesn't throw picks. The two have nothing to do with each other. Some folks are taking this presentation totally out of context. The stats shown in the presentation were purely informational, to showcase that we can track stats over MILLIONS of games and focus our gameplay tuning to produce accurate NFL stats. We're not going to dumb down the playbooks or do any of those things you guys that think "we just don't get it" assume we're going to do. Thanks.

Ian thank you for clearing that up for us bro.

# 23 KANE699 @ 03/11/10 12:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChampIsHere42


	Goodbye Madden. I knew this would come..EA Sports is now going to focus towards the younger people just starting out with the game. This article means nothing to me and it shouldn't to anyone else. I don't care about this time thing. It's a football game, it's going to seem like you're picking your plays longer than you're playing because a play doesn't last very long in football. In basketball you're constantly playing, it's just how the game works. If people don't want to play a Madden game that long, then adjust the time settings down. I hate it when they lower the game standards for the people starting out with Madden. It's not fair to us hardcore Madden gamers.

Thats some quality thread reading you have done prior to your post. Really, well done.

# 24 PantherBeast_OS @ 03/11/10 12:20 AM

To me it seems some here overreact to much.I feel that things with madden is coming along fine. It's getting better year after year. Am I a blind fanboy of madden?? No I am not. But overall I respect madden because of the years of enjoyment I had with madden growing up. Just because madden has slipped downhill some coming onto the next Gen doesn't mean it will stay that way. Every company has it's bad days. Madden is having it's right now. They are slowly recovering started with madden 10. I will support other new games even like BB. But no matter how big of a slump madden is in right now. This is one fan of madden that will stay with them. It will get better in the near future. It just takes time. To many people now a days complain way to much. I know some of you growup back in the late 70s and 80s when games started coming out alot at that time. Before the internet I didn't know what complaining really was. Back then the games you got you played. I nevered complained one bit. But now a days to many people want more more on a game. No matter how much you do for fans. Some will never be happy. But me I have stuck with madden through thick and thin. And will keep on doing that.

# 25 tooldude79 @ 03/11/10 12:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	Too funny. See why this place drives me crazy?!?!?!

Ricky Williams ran for 2750 yards and 7 ypc in my season...are those accurate stats?

see why Madden drives us crazy?

# 26 CardsFan52 @ 03/11/10 01:03 AM

OOOO S#*! that was some funny stuff.

# 27 CreatineKasey @ 03/11/10 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bjones84


	Like i said all along, unless E.A gets a new game engine, Madden will just be the same every year. The thing that bothers me the most, is yet again all i've been hearing about is ONLINE ONLINE ONLINE PLAY, Frankly who cares about ONLINE PLAY, i think what the hard core FOTBALL FANS want is actual game play improvements, fix the Blocking for christ sake, make the tackles look and feel more real, stop having players at time run out of bounds and still come in fare play and catch a ball, that is things we need to worry about. i don't think the NFL players that play the game is thinking about how can we approve ONLINE PLAY. E.A can we please get back to the basics of how and what teh NFL really is really about.

I care about online play. What you're missing is that improving gameplay improves online play. They are tied together. It's more fun to play online in a better playing game. Online play is pure gameplay.

# 28 ODogg @ 03/11/10 10:53 AM

Bjones84 - who cares about online play? I DO and so do a lot of other folks. In the vein of what CreatineKasey said, fixing online play will fix a lot of offline stuff. Why? Because human players are the ones who find exploits and things working incorrectly in the game. Fixing those is going to make offline play much better. So for people like yourself who are freaking out about it, look at this direction as a positive thing, even if you never go online ever, because that's what it is.

# 29 Valdarez @ 03/11/10 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pantherbeast


	To me it seems some here overreact to much.I feel that things with madden is coming along fine. It's getting better year after year. Am I a blind fanboy of madden?? No I am not. But overall I respect madden because of the years of enjoyment I had with madden growing up. Just because madden has slipped downhill some coming onto the next Gen doesn't mean it will stay that way. Every company has it's bad days. Madden is having it's right now. They are slowly recovering started with madden 10. I will support other new games even like BB. But no matter how big of a slump madden is in right now. This is one fan of madden that will stay with them. It will get better in the near future. It just takes time. To many people now a days complain way to much. I know some of you growup back in the late 70s and 80s when games started coming out alot at that time. Before the internet I didn't know what complaining really was. Back then the games you got you played. I nevered complained one bit. But now a days to many people want more more on a game. No matter how much you do for fans. Some will never be happy. But me I have stuck with madden through thick and thin. And will keep on doing that.

Somehow your posts consistently instill a yearning for a warm glass of milk and a nice soft blanky.

Sticking with something through thick in thin definitely makes you a fan, and there's nothing wrong with that IMHO. Especially when you grew up with it as a kid. EA Sports lost this fan with the NFL Exclusivity deal, and won't get me back until we have competition once again. I grew up with so many games, it's hard to list them all. I'm fan of games like Zelda, Mario (though didn't like Galaxy game), SoulReaver series, in the late 90's Diablo (DII and soon D3!), TopSpin, APF2K8, God of War (Ultimate Edition arrives in t-minus 6 days!), Assassin's Creed, BioShock, and too many other games for me to list.

# 30 jyoung @ 03/11/10 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pantherbeast


	Ian thank you for clearing that up for us bro.

Honestly, he shouldn't have to clean up anything here.

People on this forum just seem to overreact and manipulate every little detail that is released about Madden so it fits into their opinion of the series (usually, a negative opinion).

Only on this forum can we have basically no real news about Madden 11, yet people are already on here telling us that the sky is falling before it's even been put in place by the creator.

# 31 qpc123 @ 03/11/10 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	The stats shown in the presentation were purely informational, to showcase that we can track stats over MILLIONS of games and focus our gameplay tuning to produce accurate NFL stats.

Not to be argumentative, but why track the online stats, and use those to tune the gameplay to produce accurate NFL stats? The way most people play Madden online seems to be about as far away from the real NFL as you can get.

For example was there a study done to determine the tackle % on "big hits" by NFL players, or is the hit stick just designed to work a certain % vs not based on player attributes.

In other words was the hit stick tuned down last year based the idea EA had for how it should work or on how often real NFL players were delivering a "big hit"

Tracking things people do online seems like it will only show what people do online, they play a B.S. style that leads to Favre being used to throw 7 million picks(Notice Brett Favre did not throw over 7 million picks, Madden users did, just a pet peeve when video game failures are blamed on the virtual athlete not the users) and over use of the hit stick.

Also "The stats shown in the presentation were purely informational, to showcase that we can track stats over MILLIONS of games... " if you use the stats to apply changes to the gameplay then they are not "purely informational."

# 32 J Masta J @ 03/11/10 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	Bjones84 - who cares about online play? I DO and so do a lot of other folks. In the vein of what CreatineKasey said, fixing online play will fix a lot of offline stuff. Why? Because human players are the ones who find exploits and things working incorrectly in the game. Fixing those is going to make offline play much better. So for people like yourself who are freaking out about it, look at this direction as a positive thing, even if you never go online ever, because that's what it is.

No, no it's not a positive thing, at least for me and everyone else who will never play online and who prefers the depth and challenge of off-line franchise mode. These developers do not have an infinite amount of time and resources, so for every day or gig of disc space they spend for the sake of online, that's one less for offline franchise mode. Sure, somethings are interconnected, but not all of them. It especially becomes problematic when the game in it's entirety is tailor made for the online experience (ie, dumbing down the playbook because some losers apparently only use 13 plays), a development which clearly effects the offline experience in a negative way.

# 33 jWILL253 @ 03/11/10 03:22 PM

I sware, people on this site are moodier than my mom when she's off her meds.

I think that the numbers from the presentation could lead to a feature we've been asking for since the transition to next-gen.

Common Madden playbook = 330 plays
Avg. # of plays utillized = 13

So, using those numbers, let's say there are 13 plays in every playbook that a user would find effective. Then, it would be logical to let the user to select JUST those 13 plays from each playbook to, essentially, create their own.

In other words: custom user-created playbooks.

See? These numbers aren't a sign of an arcade abyss; they ARE improving the game. Those Brett Farve interception numbers could be a sign of a user's tendency to gunsling, and a new passing mechanic could be created to make the user more aware of ball security.

Geez, don't be so quick to complain and groan...

# 34 ODogg @ 03/11/10 03:28 PM

Sorry, I disagree that improving online won't help offline users. Improving a game based on human intelligence tendency vs. trying to adapt the obviously dumbed down AI is always going to benefit the game tremendously when one goes back to playing offline. Instead of trying to make the AI more smart, they should be making it more human like. That's the essence of what offline users want (IMO) - a game that plays more human-like.

# 35 Valdarez @ 03/11/10 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wEEman33


	Honestly, he shouldn't have to clean up anything here. People on this forum just seem to overreact and manipulate every little detail that is released about Madden so it fits into their opinion of the series (usually, a negative opinion).

That's because the publisher/customer trust has been destroyed this generation by the publisher. Trust is earned and lost through actions, hence the responsiveness to perceived actions.

# 36 mavfan21 @ 03/11/10 04:16 PM

I think some of you are freaking out a little bit. I don't see them dumbing down playbooks or all that nonsense. What I see them doing is:

Custom Playbooks so players can compile the plays they prefer and get to them faster.

In-game saves.

# 37 ZoneKIller @ 03/11/10 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valdarez


	That's because the publisher/customer trust has been destroyed this generation by the publisher. Trust is earned and lost through actions, hence the responsiveness to perceived actions.

Very True.I have always been a Madden guy.2k who.Yeah I compare these new madden games to PS2 maddens.Just a lil history from me.But since I have bought my PS3(launch) Every time I see a game that is made by EA,I always double think about it.I refuse to buy Battlefield BC2.Simply because I read two different reviews from the same reviewer.One for Online and one for Offline.Online got a 9+ I think while offline was crap.More proof thats the way games are going in my opinion.But thats not the only reason I second guess myself about EA games.I loved all EA games on PS2.March Madness,Live,College Football,Madden.If I was to see a commercial on a game and see the EA logo at the end I was like YEAH that games going to be good.Now If I enjoy a new game commercial but then see EA at the end,,,Im like mmm maybe.

None of this is disrespect to Ian and co though.Madden 10 is bar far a LEAP away from Madden 09.Im an offline gamer and I want a Franchise mode that will keep the REPLAY value UP! I love football and would love to be able to have a Madden game once again to keep me wanting to play the game throughout the NFL season and offseason.The only way I know of that would keep me interested is a GREAT Franchise Mode.Thats all.

I was talking to a guy the other day about a certain title coming out.Some of you may have heard of it..God of War III.Anyways I was saying yeah Im going to Gamestop Monday night to get mine.He was like what time do you think you'll be home......
And then I actually became a little depressed.......Thats when I started thinking of the last time I stayed up late to get a game at midnight release.It was the last Madden I bought on PS2.I so badly want to have that feeling again with Madden.You would think I would now, being on a PS3/360 console.And that alone is sad.

# 38 CreatineKasey @ 03/11/10 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	Sorry, I disagree that improving online won't help offline users. Improving a game based on human intelligence tendency vs. trying to adapt the obviously dumbed down AI is always going to benefit the game tremendously when one goes back to playing offline. Instead of trying to make the AI more smart, they should be making it more human like. That's the essence of what offline users want (IMO) - a game that plays more human-like.

Aren't the gameplay complaints the same for offline and online users?

- Flats defense
- Blocking schemes- OL/DL interactions - pocket forming issues.
- Pass ball trajectory - deep ball ineffectiveness - WR's not elevating for the football - can't throw a deep ball and have your player "run under" it.
- Locomotion - unrealistic transitions and movements (especially on defense) - backpedaling without a loss in speed.
- Hitstick risk/reward issues
- Pro-tak multiple broken tackle smoothness.

Now, let's say they go in and work on these things. Who wins? online or offline?

BOTH!

Offline guys are missing the point here gameplay-wise. I understand their anger about offline franchise, but gameplay complaints insinuating that it's catering to casual online players is BS.

# 39 sb24 @ 03/11/10 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA


	Too funny. See why this place drives me crazy?!?!?!

We understand completely. Thats why many guys wont step foot into these Madden forums at all. Game is far from perfect of course but you did a great job. This coming from a 2k fan.

# 40 CreatineKasey @ 03/11/10 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flamehead


	And online statistics are needed to identify these?

Nope.

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