37 minute interview with Rex Dickson on Madden 18

[XtremeDunkz]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeuceDouglas

Here's the full interview: I'll go through an annotate up to the point that the OP starts here as well.

Jesus YouTube has an ad every 3 minutes now?? I haven't used it much lately. Incredibly frustrating. Worse than tv.

Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by XtremeDunkz

Jesus YouTube has an ad every 3 minutes now?? I haven't used it much lately. Incredibly frustrating. Worse than tv. Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk

Very few channels go to this extreme.

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by XtremeDunkz

The only problem I DID have with this interview was the realization that story mode actually took away resources from adding things I would care about. That was a bummer.

It's probably going to increase casual sales quite a bit, so it was a smart thing to do, but hearing about Rex's on field presentation/emotion stuff getting pushed back a couple years, because of story mode, was a tough pill to swallow.

[DeuceDouglas]

It was really interesting to hear him talk to the "other side," so to speak.

It was also interesting to me how he made it seem as if H2H/Competitive hasn't received any kind of attention or priority over the last couple years because it's been all about 'authentic simulation football.' I've never been under that impression over the last couple years and I've felt that it's been more of a balance between the two with some give-and-take where we can get some Sim, but it also has to have some sort of H2H flavor involved. The way he talks about the last couple years make it seem like it's been exclusively dedicated to Sim and I don't necessarily agree with that at all especially looking at what patches affect. And then lumping CFM into his sim argument I think shows how out of touch he is with the mode because it's philosophy is the exact one he ends up saying he disagrees with later on.

It's going to be interesting to see how the game changes over the next couple years because I think a lot of people want to believe (as do I) that this game style separation is going to cater equally to everyone but I get the impression that he feels like his work is done for the simulation side and this transition is all about the new plan moving forward which is largely focused on competitive. I think the current state of the game is currently more of hybrid which makes complete sense given that there haven't been separate settings until now but it's troubling for me to hear him describe it in the way he does.

But I don't know. I don't want to get too down on one interview and I should know from the last couple years that he's a great salesman and great at pandering to his audience so I should know to take it with a grain of salt and that what he says is usually never the whole story but it still has me a bit wary given how committed and involved he is to competitive now.

[JoshC1977]

Some people like to play Madden like they play 3D shooters....crank up the difficulty and beat the game no matter how many times their character dies. They thrive on the adrenaline and the satisfaction that comes from executing a move perfectly on the controller. These are your competitve gamers...

Some people like to play Madden as a participant in a virtual simulation of the game they love; watching their team of virtual players matched-up versus another virtual team. They want to feel it when their team is horrible on paper and be rewarded when they build a juggernaut. The real battle is in the strategy, tactics, and team building....a mental challenge more than a physical one. These are your simulation junkies....

I'm solidly in the sim camp (I view football as a giant chess game)....but I totally get the competitive side....I too get a thrill when I execute an awesome move. But...if my button input overrides everything else; then why build a team, why even have player ratings (and in my mind.....why play)? A competitive gamer might say, "why even push buttons if the ratings affect the outcomes that much"? They are both valid questions.

For years, EA has been trying to appease two very different camps, two very different mindsets....when you try to do too many things at once, you wind up doing nothing well at all. You take the core M17 fully-patched and play at default settings (and I mean pretty much EVERYTHING at default...gameplay assists, autosubs, fatigue, penalties, etc) it is absolutely fantastic (details in my slider thread....but I digress). But this was following months of back-and-forth between the two communities via all the bloody patches (you could always tell when a big tourney was upcoming based on what a patch nerfed). Things have now settled-down and the game is in a pretty good spot....though you can tell it is still in a "compromise" setup.

I'm a solo offline sim player; I'm likely in the minority now...I realize and have accepted that. I don't like even solo MUT because games are not full length (i.e. 120-130 plays) and playing versus other people doesn't appeal to me. But, I am praying that the new settings will prevent the patch "tug-of-war" in M18 and here's hoping that other EA groups (cough.....FIFA....cough) do the same thing that Rex and the team are doing for Madden by giving us game style options.

[Cowboy008]

Hopefully we get more info on simulation gameplay style during EA play/E3. What I really want to know is when playing on sim will the game play just like 17 or did they go in and improve things? Rex said the three year plan was all about authentic sim football and that 17 accomplished their vision of what authentic sim football is. So that's why I'm wondering if they fixed things for the people who want to play sim or if 18 will play just like 17 since they achieved their vision.

[Americas Team]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cowboy008

Hopefully we get more info on simulation gameplay style during EA play/E3. What I really want to know is when playing on sim will the game play just like 17 or did they go in and improve things? Rex said the three year plan was all about authentic sim football and that 17 accomplished their vision of what authentic sim football is. So that's why I'm wondering if they fixed things for the people who want to play sim or if 18 will play just like 17 since they achieved their vision.

I agree, from what it sounds like so far is that the sim game mode will be similar to the way the game plays now, and that competitive mode will see the most changes. I really hope this is not the case because Madden is FAR from an authentic sim football game, and if he thinks his mission is accomplished in that area of then he's delusional.
It's like he's saying Madden right now very authentic, the most authentic that it's going to get, now lets switch gears and focus on competitive (year of the user), even though they still have a lot of work to do on the sim/authentic side, I think he's trying make an excuse to ditch the sim focus and focus on competitive, but he never asked the sim crowd if we think Madden plays like authentic real football, I would like to see that poll.

[reverend_heat]

I think the bottom line is for EA, a company that puts making money 1st, 2nd, and 3rd on any given priority list, MUT and now Esports is where the suits are going to force the devs to put the focus. Sim is now a distant third, and fading fast.