Madden fan feels bad for ESPN players

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigtiggalsu

Those features were great don't get me wrong and they add a new level to the game but its still feels like the same game with add ons. I am not silly to think the will come out with a whole new game from scratch. But it just seems like they give us a little extra to justify a new purchase

Yes but until any manufacturer, EA or Sega, or anyone, develops a whole new engine, which usually is only when new consoles are introduced, the game will always tend to feel alot the same on the surface. That doesn't mean they don't add alot but using the same engine will simply make it feel that way. I see where you're coming from but I just don't think that people realize that on a yearly cycle only so much can be added.

If they completely overhaul the game each year, as Sega did for ESPN this year, then you end up low on testing time and the product has alot of bugs. ESPN is a great example of this, the product improved immensely in one year but because of the complete overhaul alot of obvious bugs were shipped in the product because of the short testing/bug ironing time.

[NovaStar]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

B.S. - The fact that ESPN has sold alot this year proves the fact that not all Madden fans are just blind sheep. Homerism works both ways..

When I say Madden fans I was trying to avoid the word fanboys, however, that is what I meant. I am a madden fan in that I enjoy good football games, but in the case where fanboys blindly buy a game because of the name, you fuel inferior product and create the monster that ea obviously has become. I like good games not manufacturers, and Espn/vc made a better game, the response of EA tells you that. Believe if you want that the nfl pushed this deal, it was EA all the way.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by NovaStar

When I say Madden fans I was trying to avoid the word fanboys, however, that is what I meant. I am a madden fan in that I enjoy good football games, but in the case where fanboys blindly buy a game because of the name, you fuel inferior product and create the monster that ea obviously has become.

Although all products have "fanboys" it's not because people are idiots or anything, it's because, as hard as it is for us diehard sports videogamers to understand, that alot of people use videogames recreationally and as a very minor past time. Alot of the people that we define as fanboys give no more thought to buying Madden than any of us do about buying coat hangers, unless we've bought a certain type of coat hanger in the past that don't work we will probably buy that brand again without thought.

I agree that having fanboys can create a company that will just put out less and less because the company feels it doesn't really matter. However I don't really see EA in this light anymore because I think through the years EA has seen that very minor upgrades and a deteriotating product is going to cut into their sales. Triple Play is a good example, the quality of that game just went down and down until hardly anyone was buying it and it was regarded as a joke. Now I know someone will point out Triple Play had competition but it's competition really didn't do all that well either. I don't believe it was the competition that killed Triple Play at all, rather it was that the quality of the game was ignored and alot of people just kept playing older titles and didn't buy the new Triple Plays. I know alot of my friends played Triple Play 97' I think it was for several years because the new game reviews and word of mouth was so poor.

That combined with the fact that NCAA (the game I play mostly) has continued to see alot of features added and gameplay changes year after year despite no competition leads me to have faith that EA will pretty much update Madden the same way now as they always have in the past when it had competition. Now maybe for some of you that's not enough and I know that sucks for you. Also as has been mentioned by others, perhaps some people just preferred ESPN's style of play and variety is the spice of life. So i'm not saying the situation is good or beneficial to us because it's not but it's also not near as bleak as alot of people have painted it in the time frame since this initial announcement which I believe has caused pretty much a hyper-hysteria with people making wild claims caught up in the emotion and all.

But I really find it to be the case that alot of people here and elsewhere are greatly exaggerating the situation in that "oh EA will just do roster updates and add 1 new small feature and it'll be the same game basically" which is just the opposite of fanboyism IMO, it's ....to quote Seinfeld....."bizarro fanboyism" or wanting to believe that because a company is successfull, has had great success or dominated a market, that it no longer feels any real need to innovate and will just put a big "ha ha" on the consumer because of the situation. Sorry I just really don't believe that to be the case here at all.