Most modes in the world of sports video games have seemingly gravitated towards being online, and in most cases, rightfully so. The days of getting together and playing cards until the wee hours of the morning is slowly fading away. It's now being replaced by people hanging in an online party playing games together until those same late hours. The reasons are simple, and honestly, not that hard to understand. It’s much easier for us as gamers to connect to friends that are spread across the country rather than trying to get together all in one place, at the same time.

With that in mind, there are some great online modes in the sports genre these days, and Madden 16 is no different. While Madden offers multiple online modes, the one that seems to occupy almost all of my time is the connected online franchise mode, and the word 'occupy' may not be a strong enough word.

I am currently involved in a full 32-team CFM with Madden 16, and while the games obviously take center stage, what is so great about this mode is what takes place behind the scenes. All of us use a social chat app so that we are connected literally almost every minute of the day. While I may not know every single one of these men or have met them all in real life, I have met many of them. When we are not using choice words and phrases to discuss the lack of skills that some seem not to possess, we are creating fictional trade scenarios, looking at future games, possible playoff scenarios, and much more (some of which cannot be mentioned).

On top of using the social app, we also utilize an online website called DaddyLeagues.com that allows us all to jump online, look at stats, look at standings, box scores and advance the league at any given time. Now of course most of this information can be found in-game, or even on the website that EA provides for all of its online connected franchises -- to be honest, it doesn’t matter what your approach is as it all works. With Madden 15 we made it through seven seasons, and played it up until the week of Madden 16's release. We will most likely do the same with this year’s iteration.

On top of all the games, the trade chatter, playoff scenarios and basic shenanigans, we also have the draft and the offseason moves. I am here to say that doing a live 32-person draft online is some of the best times I have ever experienced. We have guys that have spreadsheets, databases and much more in regards to readying themselves for the chance to make their team better.

As with any online league, the more people you have, the better it is. It’s incumbent on the league GM to find the right type of people that mesh well together. While there are some great times to be had, there are also some heated moments that, if not handled properly, can literally destroy a league from within. There has to be mutual respect, not only for the other players in the league, but for the game itself. Our league utilizes a set of rules, but we mostly rely on our league members to not take advantage of the shortcomings of the game while treating each other with respect. Although that may be hard task to accomplish, I would say it’s almost a must if you want to have any type of longevity and continuity in regards to your online league.

So while the Madden franchise -- and CFM as a mode in general -- has some areas it still needs to clean up, what the developers have given the community in terms of connectivity is actually quite amazing. It may be fashionable to knock EA for the issues that some of their games possess, but the developers have also given the community the ability the come together and do something that would have seemed straight out of a science fiction movie when I first started gaming 20 years ago.

In short, I highly suggest you try to find a good online league and throw yourself into it -- it truly is a game changer.


How has your online CFM experience gone so far with Madden 16?