Has anyone noticed the pre-play fidgets now?

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

There's always a reason they're behind. Once, I'd like to hear about them taking advantage of something like being able to add so much to '15 because they ported 25. And then they market the hell out of the game, of course, only to bash it themselves the next year. I feel like no matter how good madden gets, it will always be years behind the other major sports, and thus, behind expectations of many.

As hard as I can be on the developers of this title, this is actually not entirely their fault either. The concept of leaving things out is done on purpose just as much as it is a struggle for the dev team to implement it. This is what the EA marketing machine sees as the only way to get people to buy the NEXT game. When you are short sighted and lack creativity this is a sound practice. However, in a game like this, you will NEVER run out of things you can do to enhance it enough to make it compelling on a yearly basis - I don't care how much you do in a single year. This, of course, is not how they see it.

Take, for example, crimson's post from a couple of years back. He explained how the Tiburon crew had a meeting to discuss MLB the Show. The meeting resulted in the idea that The Show was actually TOO GOOD. Yes, you read that right... and thus it resulted in a lack of desire to buy the next iteration of the game since the current one was so compelling. One thing I will give Tiburon, when they are wrong about stuff, they don't half *** that. They go all the way, . Personally, I believe this line of thinking borders on complete insanity and is very, very sad - but that's just me.

In any event, this is the way of things, and it is never going to change. Madden will be the only NFL game for as long as EA exists. You either have to accept it and be willing to play a game that you feel is lacking, or you play nothing at all (with respect to NFL football games). For every seasoned gamer that has given up on Madden, 10 more younger gamers who don't know any better will slide in to take their place. If you are expecting any of this to change, you will be in for a lifetime of disappointment. 2004 changed the football gaming landscape forever. As long as EA is in business and Tiburon is developing the game, this will be the way it is. All you can do is hope for the best. It's not worth getting frustrated or angry over anymore because, quite frankly, it's not going to change anything.

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

Take, for example, crimson's post from a couple of years back. He explained how the Tiburon crew had a meeting to discuss MLB the Show. The meeting resulted in the idea that The Show was actually TOO GOOD. Yes, you read that right... and thus it resulted in a lack of desire to buy the next iteration of the game since the current one was so compelling. One thing I will give Tiburon, when they are wrong about stuff, they don't half *** that. They go all the way, . Personally, I believe this line of thinking borders on complete insanity and is very, very sad - but that's just me.

Wow! I don't remember that. Wow!

I wonder if there's ANY validity to that. Did they at least see a decline in sales, or a lack of growth?

Wow!

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

Wow! I don't remember that. Wow! I wonder if there's ANY validity to that. Did they at least see a decline in sales, or a lack of growth? Wow!

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3&postcount=99

I urge you to go back and read some of his other posts. They are very insightful.

[johnnyg713]

Quote: Originally Posted by wordtobigbird

Just look at the other EA Sports titles or just look at FIFA. IMO, if FIFA can do it so can Madden and FIFA is making great strides but it seems like they are just a year or two ahead of Madden. When FIFA gets a feature Madden gets it the next year. When I see the living worlds in FIFA it makes me excited about how they translate to Madden. One thing FIFA does great is procedural awareness and organic animations. For example if a CPU player is just standing there and I move my player into him he will put his arms out to shield me. Both players start hand fighting and shoving and all I've done is move my left stick into another player. This is what Madden needs with WRs/DBs. And it's obviously possible because FIFA Is already doing it.

I think the issue is distinguishing when the jostling takes place and who does the jostling. In FIFA the animation happens with every player in any part of the field. My guess is it's tougher to get just WR/DBs to jostle in the situations they should be jostling. Not that I don't think it won't be in next years game. I just think it's harder for them to implement than people think.

[iamgramps]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3&postcount=99 I urge you to go back and read some of his other posts. They are very insightful.

As much as I like Madden, I find this to be so true. I've always felt things were left out intentionally, just to have it marketed the next year. I do feel the team that makes Madden is talented; however, I do believe there are restrictions placed by those in charge. At the end of the day, it's a business and as long as money is being made, EA is happy.

[RACZILLA]

Quote: Originally Posted by BezO

Wow! I don't remember that. Wow! I wonder if there's ANY validity to that. Did they at least see a decline in sales, or a lack of growth? Wow!

FWIW, in my time working around sports games I can't think of a single example where someone discussed not implementing a feature to save it for the next year. I don't believe this is a real practice and it's one of those things I'd hear people say that I always found kind of funny.

When you look at whether or not individual titles are successful there are a lot of variables in addition to quality and what features are on the back of pack. Other games shipping in the same window, things that would affect how you put together your marketing budget/plan, etc.

The thing is, the majority of players don't purchase these games every single year no matter what. There are some years where a game goes above and beyond and captures more audience than usual. When that happens it's true it can be tough to get people to go back to the well the following year. But it tends to be tough regardless, so holding stuff back isn't in anyone's best interest.

I'm not disputing the anecdote BTW. Just not sure I buy it as a common marketing strategy for sports games.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by RACZILLA

FWIW, in my time working around sports games I can't think of a single example where someone discussed not implementing a feature to save it for the next year. I don't believe this is a real practice and it's one of those things I'd hear people say that I always found kind of funny. When you look at whether or not individual titles are successful there are a lot of variables in addition to quality and what features are on the back of pack. Other games shipping in the same window, things that would affect how you put together your marketing budget/plan, etc. The thing is, the majority of players don't purchase these games every single year no matter what. There are some years where a game goes above and beyond and captures more audience than usual. When that happens it's true it can be tough to get people to go back to the well the following year. But it tends to be tough regardless, so holding stuff back isn't in anyone's best interest. I'm not disputing the anecdote BTW. Just not sure I buy it as a common marketing strategy for sports games.

Thanks for posting on this Rac. I would certainly hope that this does not happen, but from the outside looking in, it can certainly seem like this is the way of things at times.

Quote:

The thing is, the majority of players don't purchase these games every single year no matter what

History doesn't seem to agree with your statement here. Madden sales blew up from its inception to 2004. That's 15 years and massive sales number increases year over year, so those stats would not really align with your statement. Most people who buy a yearly sports game will line up in droves to buy the next one if the previous version was really, really good. This is due to assuming that the current version was so well done, I can't wait to see what they do in the NEXT version. People won't buy the NEXT version of the game if they feel the development team will not do much to improve on it that following year.

[RACZILLA]

Quote: Originally Posted by GiantBlue76

Thanks for posting on this Rac. I would certainly hope that this does not happen, but from the outside looking in, it can certainly seem like this is the way of things at times. History doesn't seem to agree with your statement here. Madden sales blew up from its inception to 2004. That's 15 years and massive sales number increases year over year, so those stats would not really align with your statement. Most people who buy a yearly sports game will line up in droves to buy the next one if the previous version was really, really good. This is due to assuming that the current version was so well done, I can't wait to see what they do in the NEXT version. People won't buy the NEXT version of the game if they feel the development team will not do much to improve on it that following year.

When it comes to year over year sales, it's true that sometimes there's growth year over year for a certain period of time.

What I'm saying is it's often not the exact same people buying the game each year. You're talking about a large pool of potential buyers and aren't always hitting the same people even when the year over year numbers are fairly consistent. A bit part of that is about what else is in the market at the same time.

It's also worth mentioning that across the course of some of these franchises that the market has changed a lot. It's pretty different from say that period 10 years ago that you mentioned.