Honestly, Madden 09 the game that's sucked the enthusiasm out of me

[alliance4g63]

Quote: Originally Posted by Radioactiveman

The EA/NFL partnership killed football video gaming dead! Football season used to bristle with excitement and anticipation of the new releases, Madden, Gameday, 2k, and who ever else wanted in on the action...all games had thier pluses and minuses but it was exciting to see the progress, each company trying to out do each other with new features, new additions, tweaked gameplay, ect....your chances of getting a game that year that you enjoyed was 3x, 4x, 5x better. Now we're spoon fed the same gruel every year and it never really tastes better. Even if you love steak, if you eat it every night eventually you will hate it. Then if you have no other choice and you HAVE to eat it, the thought of another bite will eventually repulse you. I think the gaming community is sick and tired of EA's gruel....

QFT!

Imagine if you wanted a double cheeseburger and could only go to McDonald's? Imagine if you wanted a beer and could only get Bud Light? Competition is AMERICA! If this had happened in any other industry, it would have made front page news. Videogames are just not taken seriously and is STILL..STILL..to this day, viewed as a children's toy!(see GTA hot coffee).

Back to Madden..... I remember right when this generation started and the hype for Madden 06 started. There were so many Ea fanboys bashing Nba2k6 because they stayed with the same engine from last gen.. Look at us now! Not to mention that the whole "new engine" was another marketing plow to cloud the mediocre game and dupe Madden supporters again. The game felt no different than last gen and was super watered downed.

Look men... We need to band together..Seriously. We are all getting "too old for this sh*t!"(Glover) If Madden does not come with it on 2010, we really need to get heard and do even more to get competition back. I don't want to be old and grey and talking to my nieces and nephews about the "good ol' days" of Gameday, Nfl QB Club, Nfl Fever and 2k football. After next year, we need to be heard.. Seriously.

I vote for GideonPrime to start the movement

[MJenness]

Quote: Originally Posted by alliance4g63

QFT! Imagine if you wanted a double cheeseburger and could only go to McDonald's? Imagine if you wanted a beer and could only get Bud Light? Competition is AMERICA! If this had happened in any other industry, it would have made front page news. Videogames are just not taken seriously and is STILL..STILL..to this day, viewed as a children's toy!(see GTA hot coffee). Back to Madden..... I remember right when this generation started and the hype for Madden 06 started. There were so many Ea fanboys bashing Nba2k6 because they stayed with the same engine from last gen.. Look at us now! Not to mention that the whole "new engine" was another marketing plow to cloud the mediocre game and dupe Madden supporters again. The game felt no different than last gen and was super watered downed. Look men... We need to band together..Seriously. We are all getting "too old for this sh*t!"(Glover) If Madden does not come with it on 2010, we really need to get heard and do even more to get competition back. I don't want to be old and grey and talking to my nieces and nephews about the "good ol' days" of Gameday, Nfl QB Club, Nfl Fever and 2k football. After next year, we need to be heard.. Seriously. I vote for GideonPrime to start the movement

Well said! People tend to believe that anyone who complains about the elimination of 2k (and others) from the NFL game market are either fanboys of the other company or EA haters....and it just isn't true!

I saw this coming (the downward spiral of Madden) the minute the exclusive licensing agreement was made. Why? Because it is the nature of business and human nature in general. Yet when I stated my feelings on it, I was called nothing but a flamer/basher/*****/fanboy.

Until EA sees a serious enough drop in sales (hope I am not the only one here who didn't buy this years game), this trend will continue. Why? Because it can, pure and simple. EA, from a corporate standpoint, allocates money to the games based on need. If Madden sells like hotcakes year in and year out, why pour tons of money that EA sees as unnecessary into it, as all that does is take away from the bottom line. I would almost guarantee that Live saw an increase in its development budget the last couple of years in an attempt to make a better game thereby increasing sales because sales were spiraling DUE TO 2ks better game.

And maybe I am wrong, but I am willing to bet Ian has not been handed a blank check for 2010, too. This is why we see many statements that "this or that may or may not make it into next years game" because of time/money constraints. You can't build a mansion if you're given the budget for a 3 bedroom ranch home.

Yeah, I hope (same as many of you) that Ian is able to do spectacular things with 2010, so I can have an NFL game to play again.....but I am not holding my breath. I think when we WILL see serious strides is when the licensing agreement expires and we have an open market once again.

[droopizzle34]

excellent post!

Quote: Originally Posted by alliance4g63

QFT! Imagine if you wanted a double cheeseburger and could only go to McDonald's? Imagine if you wanted a beer and could only get Bud Light? Competition is AMERICA! If this had happened in any other industry, it would have made front page news. Videogames are just not taken seriously and is STILL..STILL..to this day, viewed as a children's toy!(see GTA hot coffee). Back to Madden..... I remember right when this generation started and the hype for Madden 06 started. There were so many Ea fanboys bashing Nba2k6 because they stayed with the same engine from last gen.. Look at us now! Not to mention that the whole "new engine" was another marketing plow to cloud the mediocre game and dupe Madden supporters again. The game felt no different than last gen and was super watered downed. Look men... We need to band together..Seriously. We are all getting "too old for this sh*t!"(Glover) If Madden does not come with it on 2010, we really need to get heard and do even more to get competition back. I don't want to be old and grey and talking to my nieces and nephews about the "good ol' days" of Gameday, Nfl QB Club, Nfl Fever and 2k football. After next year, we need to be heard.. Seriously. I vote for GideonPrime to start the movement

[Tito78]

Quote: Originally Posted by MJenness

From a business standpoint, WHY should EA put tons of money and time into making the game better when it is simply a cash cow for them??....the LESS time and money they put into it, the higher their profits. And they KNOW it will sell millions of copies simply because it is 1) Madden and 2) the ONLY NFL game available.

Exacty, EA as a business is not going to spend time and money on improving a product that has no competitor and sells millions of copies each year. For the 360, 06 was a bare bones title, 07 & 08 were broken titles, and 09 is basically a correction of 08. Why would EA increase the budget when they don't have to ? They have other titles that have competiton, that's where their going to invest time and money.

[Tito78]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

Edited post #45 as I found the link to the article I was referring to. I'll post it here as well: http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Sto...558.htm?Page=1 From the 2nd page: "A lot of the core designers on the title have won Madden tournaments, that’s how we found them and we recruited them and they started and they’ve grown inside the company." Some of you may recall this from back in June. FWIW.

The fact that they've discovered a good number of core designers in madden tournaments is really disturbing. I've seen madden nation, and most of the gamers are teenagers or kids in their early twenties; I'm not trying to type cast the guys on these shows, but how much education and experience do they have? You would think that designing video games would be pretty technical, complicated stuff. You would think that you'd have have a degree in computer programming, grahic design or some sort of higher education. To work for a company as big as EA, you would think that you'd have to have some experience in designing games also.

No wonder this game is a joke; they found their core designers at madden tournements, Wow.

Does anyone remember one dude named "Da secret" who won a previous madden challenge? If they're hiring people like that as core designers, than madden has no hope.

[TheWatcher]

What concerns me most about Madden in the public nowadays, is that they've become too "mainstream" and they seem to want to bask in that light. Madden used to sell millions without being blatantly targeted at little kids who don't know squat about football, and it would've kept selling millions without changing this. But yet, you look at the ads that have run for Madden 09 and you cringe. It's so lame how they are blatantly targeting people who really shouldn't even be picking up a football game in the first place. The game of football--even the videogame--is not meant for everyone. When you try to cater to too many groups, you wind up being weak or mediocre at everything and great at nothing.

Like I've said in the past, this game has gone into an identity crisis. I think all of us here know what their identity should be: Pro Football, presented like pro football, created for fans of (you guessed it) PRO FOOTBALL. No compromises. They aren't making that kind of game at the moment, so they shouldn't be too surprised about the types of criticism they're receiving.

[matt8204]

Quote: Originally Posted by Tito78

The fact that they've discovered a good number of core designers in madden tournaments is really disturbing. I've seen madden nation, and most of the gamers are teenagers or kids in their early twenties; I'm not trying to type cast the guys on these shows, but how much education and experience do they have? You would think that designing video games would be pretty technical, complicated stuff. You would think that you'd have have a degree in computer programming, grahic design or some sort of higher education. To work for a company as big as EA, you would think that you'd have to have some experience in designing games also. No wonder this game is a joke; they found their core designers at madden tournements, Wow. Does anyone remember one dude named "Da secret" who won a previous madden challenge? If they're hiring people like that as core designers, than madden has no hope.

Can't stand that kid. He thinks he's such hot !@#$ because he's good at a video game. Pathetic.

[Adam Dayton]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

Look, I am one of the biggest "fans" of EA and Madden, I love the series, but as I said in another thread, the game is flat out boring. Atmosphere is nonexistent. Nothing pulls you into the game. And as you said Dave and MJ has pointed out, there are way too many quirks and bumps in the road that prevent this game from being enjoyable over time. In my opinion, this is the game we should've gotten in '07, not '09. I do think the game is making steps in the right direction, unfortunately given whats happened with '06-'08, the game needs to take strides, not steps. Somewhere, Ian/Phil/EA need to make up for 2 "lost" years.

Lol, I seemed to remember you honeymooning the **** out of the game the first 2 weeks of its release (same with ncaa). Yeah, I agree, the foundation of this game isn't there and in all honestly I doubt it will get to the point where the game will be worth purchasing in the next 3-4 years.