Madden NFL 15 Gauntlet Mode Teaches You How to Play Football, Get Better at Madden

[jpdavis82]

EA Sports released a brief Madden NFL 15 video featuring the new Gauntlet mode yesterday. A couple of sites have posted their previews this morning. If any more show up, this post will be updated.

• Madden NFL 15 Wants You To Be A Student Of The Game (Game Informer)

Quote:

The Skills Trainer mode features 48 new drills, but beyond teaching you the controls of the game, they go deeper to teach you core football concepts like recognizing defenses. "When we playtested," says designer Danny Doeberling, "we found out that people call cover 2 defense, people call a smash route. They have no idea what that actually is. So, we're actually taking them through how to recognize a cover 2 defense. And once you actually see it on the field, we'll have you attack that. When you're calling different pass plays, what actually makes up a pass play? What's a cross? Outs? We basically teach you the foundation of the coverages, and we also [teach you] the most common pass concepts. We basically teach you football." Accordingly, there are also drills in the mode where you call red zone plays, for instance.

• Madden NFL 15 wants to teach you about football to make you a better Madden player (Polygon)

Quote:

As Cam and I crafted this vision to take the game toward 'more realistic and more authentic,' what we realized is, if we don't teach people how football works, they're never going to understand this game," Dickson continued. "That's really why the Skills Trainer mode was developed, is because I basically pitched that we need a tutorial system if we're going to keep going in a realistic, authentic direction.

[roadman]

Key quote right here:

"As Cam and I crafted this vision to take the game toward 'more realistic and more authentic,' what we realized is, if we don't teach people how football works, they're never going to understand this game," Dickson continued. "That's really why the Skills Trainer mode was developed, is because I basically pitched that we need a tutorial system if we're going to keep going in a realistic, authentic direction."

This thread should be interesting, to say the least.

[K_GUN]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/11/588...ainer-gauntlet

cute.......Pat Kirwin, author of Take Your Eyes Off The Ball, has already done that but thanks anyway!

[CM Hooe]

I've hammered on this on here.

More than anything else, sports games' biggest failing to this point has been accessibility and teaching its users how to play. This is evident in the fact that no gaming-oriented people around me will even attempt to play Madden, NBA 2K, The Show, or even WWE with me, because I'm a veteran of sports games and a hardcore sports fan in general. I know how to play these games, while they are helplessly behind with few to no in-game mechanisms available with which to catch up.

This is a necessary step for expanding the pool of potential customers for the Madden series, particularly as the NFL's popularity continues to grow. One they probably won't see any credit for on this message board, but - assuming the mode is well-executed - one they deserve credit for nevertheless.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by K_GUN

cute.......Pat Kirwin, author of Take Your Eyes Off The Ball, has already done that but thanks anyway!

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game.

If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

[kongemeier]

But... well, penalties would be a decent place to start then!

[K_GUN]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

That's the thing - no one is going to read a 200-page book to learn how to play a football video game. If a game can't engage a new player with the mechanics of the game in a meaningful way within the first ten minutes, the gamer will put the game down and never come back.

agreed.....perhaps it should be spun as..."Madden Dev's wanna teach you how to play their game.." ??

dunno...props to them for the effort to educate tho

[48 hours]

Nice..I am looking forward to the skill trainer.