Old Madden Franchise Features: Are They as Good as We Remember?

[iamwubbie]

It's not listed in that article, but I'm a big fan of the old Player Roles & Weapons features that they had in 2008, 2012. I think NBA 2k has the same system, as badges, but I'm not overly familiar with them.



Weapons and Player Roles are similar to X-Factors in that they provide in-game bonuses, but IMO the biggest thing was that they were huge in helping with roster construction. A great example is that a 75 OVR rookie QB could have the Player Role of "QB of the Future" while a 75 OVR veteran QB could be designated as a "Team Mentor".


On paper, I feel that those Player Roles helped with AI roster logic. QBs of the Future had a higher Importance Value and were less likely to be traded or cut. It wouldn't make sense for a team to draft a QB in the first round in back-to-back years if they already had a QB of the Future. Meanwhile, that 75 OVR Free Agent QB that had a Team Mentor role is going to have value to teams. For Human Players, it's very easy for us to identify players we want.


Just going through other Player Roles-- Fan Favorites helped with Team Attendance. The CPU would only sign Injury-Prone players to 1 year deals. Team Distractions negatively impacted non-veteran players and were less valuable in trades.



The other thing I liked was that Player Roles were earned and an indicator of past performance or how they came into the league. Having a 5000 yard passing season should not lead to ratings increases, but he should be rewarded with a flag like Franchise QB so that he would be considered as more valuable by the CPU and in contract negotiations.



I hope they bring Player Roles, in some shape or form, back in the future. With the current schemes and X-Factor systems, I feel it would enhance the game and really differentiate players.

[tuckermaine]

When are we going to see some actual gameplay...games out in a week..

[Madden08PCgmr]

People still claim 2005-2008 were the best games of the series.

All that needs to be said, IMO.

How we are in 2020, and EA didn't build on what they had is inconceivable.

[Devaster]

There were definitely some aspects that were better that could have been improved upon to become true features.


But nostalgia also can make many features appear better than they were. I have fond memories of many games I played in my teens and 20's, but would I want to go back and play them extensively again? No, because it was mostly about the new experience and friends I played with during those times. I wouldn't be able to recapture that.


I am glad that since Madden 18 a bunch of the features I sorely missed in earlier versions were brought back like being able to fully edit players/rosters and just having the ability to see all of the players in the NFL at once or by position in the roster menu. Those features were removed for a while and really hindered the experience in Madden 15.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Quote: Originally Posted by Devaster

But nostalgia also can make many features appear better than they were. I have fond memories of many games I played in my teens and 20's, but would I want to go back and play them extensively again? No, because it was mostly about the new experience and friends I played with during those times. I wouldn't be able to recapture that.

I understand completely that online and competitive is the crowd they are catering to. I'm a little bitter about it, but there's nothing I can do really.


Talk nostalgia all you want, fact is, it was a sustainable setup that their fans spent tens of thousands of hours on. Why they would just leave this portion of their fans out in the cold still boggles my (small) mind.

[JayhawkerStL]

Quote: Originally Posted by SOU7GLO

The vision cone made QB awareness matter and added more depth to the the chess match that sim football gaming should have.

It was also not fun. And it completely split the online community because it is a standard that has to be used on both teams.

There was no way to save a feature that 90% of the gamers hated. Once you take it out of online, it's gone. And if it's available, it's splitting your community. That feature never had a real chance.

It was also not near as sim as folks make it out to be. Sim is the rating making the play, not the human. And you learn the timing and twitch reflexes, and it just leads to guys being able to turn Jameis Winston into Tom Brady.

Just because the cones were bigger for better players, it didn't make the feature sim. It was arcadey as hell, but that's not why it failed. It just forced gamers to do something they didn't want to do.

Hell, this was basically the reason I stopped playing Alan Wake. Loved the game, even loved the mechanics. But I got tired of having to aim that flashlight at every enemy to shoot it. At some point, when the game was going to make me cross the forest again, I just noped out. Aiming the flashlight made it work for me, and it killed my desire to play it.

[reyes the roof]

They weren’t mentioned but I also miss the custom sub packages

[oneamongthefence]

Holdouts aren't in the game today. A player can refuse to sign with you. But he won't refuse to play.

We have all these abilities in the game. How about some off the field abilities too both positive and negative. As what was said earlier those player roles were awesome.

A feature that was in Madden 12 I believe was the consistency system. Where the higher the consistency rating the more likely they would play at the same level each week. For example a player like Trubisky would have a really low consistency rating. So week to week he could play like a 60 ovr or an 80 Ovr. Tom Brady by comparison would play pretty much the same every week. The only change I would add is the ability to upgrade the rating.

I think the biggest issue is that multiuser franchises want to have control over everything. That's why dev trait regression doesn't occur. Or the way the game handles regression in general. Users can predict how and when a player regresses. All users have a similar experience by eliminating random elements from the game. Remember when injuries could impact a player? Gone.

On another note I wonder how online and offline franchise users goals align when looking at feature being added and implemented?

#fixmaddenfranchise