Please Explain this NO SWITCH RULE

[Kramer5150]

I look at it like this......football is the ultimate team sport,so why not let your team play...good or bad.

I play against the cpu only,and this adds a bit of strategy for me,as I only play as LB,it determines when I will blitz or drop back into coverage.

It also lends itself to see where I want to go in the draft...if I controlled every player and made all the tackles or what-not...how can I tell who I need to draft,in other words...where is my "weak link" on the team.

[The JareBear]

It's only cheap or cheating if you use to....well...be cheap or cheat, lol. Switching on its own is not cheap or cheating. Back in the day, when you could switch and rocket catch, switch on a deep route and zig zag run to mess up the coverage, that was cheap/cheating. I don't see that too much anymore.

A lot of the "sim online leagues" enforce the no switch rule solely for the reasons that others have said, and reasons I fully believe in and advocate. Ratings should matter. If I switch on every play, offense or defense, I can make 60 ovr players look like 90 ovr players as long as they have speed, agility, and acceleration.

It's all up to you though. I think play calling/decision making "skillz" should be just as important as stick skillz so I do not switch and only play in leagues that are no switch, but, a number of great leagues do not have a no switch rule and are just as "sim" and fairly ran as any other league.

Variety is the spice of life, whatever floats your boat.

[NEOPARADIGM]

So far as I remember it, the "no switch rule" originated during the PS2 era as a response to defense being too easy for pretty much everyone. Not switching defenders after the snap was a way to handicap yourself in this regard when sliders or difficult setting couldn't do the trick. During the PS360 era, the issue became very blurry, as it was now possible to get the CPU to hand your *** to you, whereas this wasn't the case for many on PS2.

No idea what people are doing nowadays, other than the responses in this thread. I think the way the OP described it is how most people play defense.

[charter04]

Quote: Originally Posted by NDAlum

The general mindset behind this way to play the game is to allow player ratings to play more of a part in the game. Let's say you have a Revis at CB against a guy like Armanti Edwards (who? exactly). Theoretically a CPU controlled Revis should dominate Edwards up and down the field. If you throw a jump ball to Armanti with Revis on him that battle should go to Revis the large majority of the time. When you take over and user catch with the CB/DB you instantly nullify their attributes outside of speed (you could probably get more technical, but it's the main attribute). I can go ahead and dominate a Revis type with Armanti if I have the stick skills that trump yours. Even if I'm taking Armanti against a CPU Revis I have a huge advantage because of solid stick skills. For the record I don't think it's cheap or cheating at all. I also don't know anybody who does think it is. That's not why the rule is put in place. It's put in place for the above. If people want to user catch that's fine with me but I don't want to play against people that do. It's great that we have options and the rule is actually popular on this site and a staple of most online leagues. This thread is cool for conversation if you generally want to know why people use this rule, but if the goal was to say "I don't see why people do this or that" and "Why even play the game?!" etc etc then I will happily close this thread for you sir.

This pretty much sums it up for me. Against the CPU I like to not switch but, against real human opponents I will. I usually don't on offense though ever. I let the CPU receivers make the catches.

[BigTone1970]

Isn't the point of playing a video game regardless of whether it's a sports game, first person shooter, or simulation, to be somewhat an active participant and to be in control of what happens in the game??? I think that people have adopted ways to make up for the shortcomings of the game's producers and have been doing it for so long that it is now somewhat normal. A properly made game shouldn't have to resort to people calling a play and then watching it. The controller and all 10 or so buttons and multiple d-pads are there for a reason.

[Herschie]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigTone1970

Isn't the point of playing a video game regardless of whether it's a sports game, first person shooter, or simulation, to be somewhat an active participant and to be in control of what happens in the game??? I think that people have adopted ways to make up for the shortcomings of the game's producers and have been doing it for so long that it is now somewhat normal. A properly made game shouldn't have to resort to people calling a play and then watching it. The controller and all 10 or so buttons and multiple d-pads are there for a reason.

Exactly. It's about how well you play the game, not necessarily about ratings. If ratings were all I cared about, then what's the point? Just watch the games on Sunday then and forget about playing Madden. That said though, yeah, Calvin Johnson should be able to outplay some crumbum linebacker in a jump ball, so ratings ought to play some role. But I like to play the game, and it's not cheap at all to switch players.

Just my two cents.

[charter04]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigTone1970

Isn't the point of playing a video game regardless of whether it's a sports game, first person shooter, or simulation, to be somewhat an active participant and to be in control of what happens in the game??? I think that people have adopted ways to make up for the shortcomings of the game's producers and have been doing it for so long that it is now somewhat normal. A properly made game shouldn't have to resort to people calling a play and then watching it. The controller and all 10 or so buttons and multiple d-pads are there for a reason.

I don't even know how to respond to this. So much confusion. How is the no switch rule "calling a play and just watching"? Your still in full control of one guy on defense. It just makes the other players on your team ratings matter more against the CPU. It doesn't have anything to do with the games design it's just personal preference. How is it so hard to figure out? Lol

[charter04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Herschie

Exactly. It's about how well you play the game, not necessarily about ratings. If ratings were all I cared about, then what's the point? Just watch the games on Sunday then and forget about playing Madden. That said though, yeah, Calvin Johnson should be able to outplay some crumbum linebacker in a jump ball, so ratings ought to play some role. But I like to play the game, and it's not cheap at all to switch players. Just my two cents.

Should ratings matter or not? Lol

I don't think many if anyone is saying its cheap to switch. It's just how some like to play against the CPU. The OPer just asked what the rule was and why some do it. Why does every thing have to turn into some what of a debate on what is better? Neither way is better. It's just personal preference