Lower Barrier for Entry?

[medlinke]

I have not played a Madden or NCAA since EA got their exclusive NFL license in a bit of a mini-protest of the whole thing.

This year though I was really impressed with the Madden release so I decided to pick it up. The whole "adapts to you" piece along with Madden 93 (which I loved dearly) in the CE was more than enough for me to give it a try.

That said...

The barrier for entry for new gamers has never been higher though and EA didn't do a single thing to help their cause.

1. The Manual - The manual is, at best, a cursory overview of the game as a whole rather than a discussion of some of the finer points of Madden's internal jargon like the pre-snap adjustment options (of which there are over 50).
2. Tutorials? - I seem to remember NCAA and Madden used to have some tutorials that would walk you through new concepts and old ones like Hot Routes, adjusting pre-snap alignments, etc. As well as covering old basics like the running / throwing controls.
3. Rushing Offense Madden Test - Enough has already been said about this one.
4. Time before the snap - The AI gets to the line and basically snaps the ball right away making working through the myriad of pre-snap choices nearly impossible to do against the AI. I have memorized a few of the common choices like DB, Line, & Back coverage / alignment choices. However, doing anything more complex like spotlighting a receiver (whatever the heck that means) or calling <> an audible are all buried for a new player.
5. Speed - The game speed may very well be an accurate representation of the NFL's pure speed. That's fantastic. For new players who aren't used to processing everything at that pace no amount of compensation from My Score is going to make it any less difficult. Having the option to set a speed modifier would truly help new players because I think getting up to the "normal" speed would be good. It feels good, but it's a tough sell for the new player.
6. My Score adjustments - I, like everyone else, scored All Madden in rushing offense because I have a pulse and was in the same room as my 360 when I took that part of the Madden test. However, in the subsequent 8 games I've played my score is still in the All Madden range though my combined total rushing yards in those games has been 8 yards. Taking a bigger dip for consistently poor play should be taken into account to help better norm those My Scores.
7. Tiny Icons - I love the graphics. However, the icons for pre-snap, and player specialties seem really small. I'm playing on a 42" HDTV sitting like 8 feet away I shouldn't have a problem seeing them even with my old eyes.
8. Mini-Game Explanations - The mini-game quick info screens give you almost no idea of what to expect. Now thankfully before you're actually doing it for real with your franchise you can practice to your heart's delight. That said, I cannot for the life of me understand the receiver control mini-game.
9. Backtrack - Admittedly I haven't watched more than 6 or 7 of these things, but most of the time the information is so generic it's bordering on useless. In other cases it is useless advice like throwing to a guy on 3rd down who is across the QBs body, on the other side of the field (that couldn't be seen in the camera angle) and 8 yards from a 1st down marker. It's like there is no context in which those Backtracks are featured.
10. Stupid Easy default sliders - The sliders for the default difficulty modes are problematic. The lowest setting is just way too easy. The next step up doesn't feel incremental at all. Likewise Pro feels too easy and then when I go to All Pro it's like a slap in the face. So finding that comfort zone in the game is difficult. It's forcing new players to decide if they want to have an exclusive passing game or do they want to have the game so easy they can do what they please but can run and pass.

I am having fun with Madden, but I would hardly suggest that Madden 09 has taken into account welcoming new players into the system.

If that's the case, which I suspect other lapsed/new players will support, then why bother adding handicapping features into the game at all? Why not do, as so many hardcore Madden fans demanded, just create a game that caters to their needs?

EA... If you're going to force people to dive into the deep end with little to no guidance on the intricacies of your game then just go all out. Even the new guys will appreciate the attention to detail and advanced modes. They'll also be more willing to say, "Well...I just need to catch up my skills."

Madden 09 is a strong 8.x rating from me out of 10. That said, it's not a game that is as new player friendly as EA would have people believe.

[Ian_Cummings]

This is an awesome post - great feedback from someone who is coming back to Madden from a long hiatus. We've had similar feedback in our recent consumer play-tests as well. Definitely something we want to improve on in the future. Unfortunately the manual is probably not changing though. Not our call.

[medlinke]

Yeah...manuals today are not what they were 10 years ago nor what they were 20 years ago. I remember the old Sega game manuals were like tiny novels.

So I totally understand the contraints on the manuals.

The game is fun. Period. That strength means barriers are something players will deal with, but the usability overhaul on HC 09 might be applied to Madden 2010 with great effect IMO.

If I had to pick a few specific changes:

1. Tutorials - Even if they are just videos on the EA website somewhere or published on Youtube or whatever...that'd go a long way to understanding some of the finer points.

2. Increase time for the AI pre-snap - Even another 1 or 2 seconds would make a big difference. I always feel like I'm ALMOST at the option I want when the ball is snapped.

3. Revise the My Score norming formula - Track trends in down or upturns in the scores. After a threshold, like 5 games in a row with the maximum reduction or increase start multiplying that adjustment factor until it slows down a bit.

Great work at bringing me back to Madden and, more importantly, creating a game that's fun.

[Mjphillips]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheFuture15

This is an awesome post - great feedback from someone who is coming back to Madden from a long hiatus. We've had similar feedback in our recent consumer play-tests as well. Definitely something we want to improve on in the future. Unfortunately the manual is probably not changing though. Not our call.

You are right. This is a great post. My Dad used to play Madden with me but he is so overwhelmed now that he can't sit there and take a beating from me. The tutorials don't really work for him.

[dubz]

Great post. I agree with just about everything you just said. One thing that has helped me regarding the skill sliders is that custom sliders are the way to go. If you're having problems running just manually lower that slider down, and keep everything else the same. Also the AI snapping the ball really early is a bit of a pain. Really hard to set up your adjustments. Great game though, really loving it.

[mattsb84]

In the early 90s when I started playing football games, I had options. I started with Tecmo Superbowl, which was extremely easy compared to madden. In fact I played madden 94 and thought it was too complicated (i was 10 or 11) and went back to TSB 3. TSB 3 expanded on the playbook size and formations. It was not nearly as overwhelming to learn as Madden. Eventually I moved on to Madden on N64 and then onto Madden for the PC because I wasn't challenged by TSB 3 any longer.

Today, there are no options like that, and it wasn't just madden or TSB, there were a few other NFL games in there as well. There should be another game out there similar to Madden, but perhaps with an emphasis on teaching new players about the game. Once they get that down, they move on to the more challenging Madden series. Dumbing Madden down cheapens the experience for everyone else who has already taken the time to learn its complexities.

[medlinke]

The goal isn't to dumb Madden down. It's to create some systems the work with the player to provide that customized experience they are looking for from the game.

The My Score concept goes a VERY long way to achieving that. That feature, however, is not something you can test and launch without issue. It's going to take some time to get it down. For what it's worth, the current iteration is quite incredible. I mean the only real issue is that rushing thing everyone has already hammered on.

The first 3 games I played I was just playing vanilla without any adjustments at the line, etc. and it played pretty well. Obviously I missed opportunities when I saw blitz coming, etc. but overall it worked okay. That's another important building block.

I think if you look at Madden 09 as the springboard for future versions of Madden rather than a patch or descendent of previous iterations it'll make more sense to you.

The new art direction, a change in design philosophy over how difficulty is handled, etc. are all indicators that this is a distinct product that has separated from the previous "Next Gen" iterations of Madden from what I can tell.

The new lead designer, and bringing on the HC project guy to help with Madden franchise means that EA is serious about shakeup. Those are huge roles being completely replaced.

Now...enough apologizing...

The bottom line is that getting folks into Madden should be about focusing on the fun aspects of the game. The Virtual Trainer, for example, could provide some kind of verbal feedback on mistakes / successes. (not for this version of course).

I've already laid out what I think can be accomplished to address the situation brought up in the first post.

Anyone else have any insights into some smaller changes that could be addressed to keep Madden true to what gamers want but to assist in lowering the barrier of entry?

[Qb]

Quote: Originally Posted by medlinke

Anyone else have any insights into some smaller changes that could be addressed to keep Madden true to what gamers want but to assist in lowering the barrier of entry?

I have played Madden in some form every year since the first Genesis version, had each of the previous 360 iterations but was disappointed and consequently spent little time with them. So in some ways, after a few years of little virtual-football PT, Madden 09 is a new challenge for me and I am experiencing this 'entry barrier' in some aspects while playing offline against the CPU, namely overall speed of the game and defensive adjustments.

The quick snaps from the CPU drive me crazy. It seems to me that the user needs to make pre-snap defensive adjustments to maximize their potential for success and it's very frustrating to me that I can rarely get more than a line shift or press coverage in. Individual assignments? Hot blitzes or zones? In a few seconds? While having time to read the offense in the first place? Maybe the others can do this in a brief amount of time, but while I'd like to, I cannot at this point.

I'm by no means the most knowledgeable football guy out there, but I know enough to make some intelligent defensive adjustments --- if I have some time to do so. The mechanics/controls are somewhat familiar from my brief time with previous 360 versions and I will surely improve this aspect with practice, but there simply isn't enough time. For me, I feel that I'm always facing a hurry-up offense. This would be a great, truly authentic NFL-like experience if it was confined to when you are, in fact, facing a hurry-up offense...

But what to do about it? I cannot take credit for this idea as I saw it in the impressions thread --- How about the option to allow the user to hold a button that triggers a brief period (5-10 secs?) where the CPU will not snap the ball that would allow for pre-snap adjustments? Time would not elapse from the play or game clocks. I can easily see where realism nuts would cry foul, as it's essentially suspending time, but as a user-option it would help to ease new gamers or those who have been away into this element of the strategic game.

This could tie into a bigger picture that I believe we can see forming in the Game Style options, although they appear to be primarily visually oriented (aside from Rewind). As the consumer who paid his money for the game, I would very much like to be able to pick & choose which options I can use in the game in order to maximize my enjoyment of the product. I don't want all the weapons icons on the screen, fine, I can turn them off. I don't need/want the in-game hints, turn 'em off. I don't have enough time to make pre-snap moves on D because the CPU doesn't spend more than a few seconds at the line after breaking the huddle... you get the idea.

A lot of this just echoes some of the same stuff that Ian saw all too much on the topics of CPU sliders and the like: As the end-users of the product, we want as many options as possible to tailor the game to our liking. If it's just me and my 360, I should have as much power as feasibly possible to impact the gaming experience --- be it visual options, tweaking gameplay via sliders or more 'outside the box' (sorry I hate that term too) ideas like mentioned above.

Since I've gone on so long about the pre-snap stuff, I'll try to keep this brief (who am I kidding). For me there are two types of game speed that I have to delineate: that of the actual gameplay and something that I would call game-pacing & is more related to presentation (which I feel is already aimed at the 'entry' crowd so this isn't the place I guess). For the actual speed at which play happens "whistle to whistle", I agree with Medlinke that Madden 09 might be a good representation of the on-field speed of the NFL, but it is quite daunting for a new or otherwise less-familiar user. Being able to adjust the speed of play via a universal setting (which could then branch into sub-sliders that seperate it into areas like player speed, momentum/weight effect, ball physics related for the hardcore tweakers) would be golden for 'entry-level' users. Since I've been playing videogames for 20+ years, I'm sure that I will eventually adapt to some degree, but others may not be able to or necessarily want to and will be lost.

Anyways, thanks for listening (if anyone is) and I should probably do some work, since I am, in fact, at work...