Made a small change this week...

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

We could also probably debate whether that many "casual" Madden gamers even exist on next-gen...do a lot of people out there spend $300+ bucks on new hardware and probably $1k at least on HD setups and stuff when they have no clue how to use a controller or have never seen a game of football? Wii on the other hand...

Ian;

Back in my days in college, it was Intellivision or the Atari 2600. The 2600 cost $99.00 back in the 80's. College students, at least in my time, couldn't afford big screen TV's, so, the the standard dorm TV was probably 13-15 inch range.

I don't know how much has changed today, but my nephew loves to play Madden and doesn't have an HD setup. His GF bought him the 360.

I don't know if the college crowd is a large paying audience of Madden, but I'm sure college bound students can figure out how to turn on the weapons, pre-snap, etc......

[GoToledo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

It's 100% more awesome.

Only 100% more, huh?

[tmulk]

Keep the LS, RS option available, just not visable. So if you hit down on the LS button, the menu pops up, but when you come to the line you see nothing, not even the closed menu. Just pull it up when you hit it, and have it go away after every play. IT SUCKS when your opponet feels the need to keep them up all f'ing game long!!!!!!! Get that nonsense off the screen!!! But still give the option of pulling it up real fast and then remove it for the next play, unless you need it again.

[Joborule]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

It's 100% more awesome.

I bet my custom one is more awesome.

[Joborule]

Quote: Originally Posted by Ian_Cummings_EA

So just to give a little insight, honestly this was definitely my first thought. But as I thought a little deeper...realistically is a person new to next-gen Madden going to do any pre-snap adjustments? I think they more likely feel overwhelmed when they see all these options. All of my friends nowadays say "Madden is too hard to play now", but I mean the core mechanics are the same from when they played 5 years ago - call a play, snap it, throw it, run, etc. IMO, it's the overkill with a million options that are always in their face that contributes to the panic. It immediately can invoke the feeling that "maybe I don't know what I'm doing" if you aren't using every one of those options. So I know the knee jerk thought is to think that we need to give more info for casual gamers, but that can often be detrimental when you go overboard. We could also probably debate whether that many "casual" Madden gamers even exist on next-gen...do a lot of people out there spend $300+ bucks on new hardware and probably $1k at least on HD setups and stuff when they have no clue how to use a controller or have never seen a game of football? Wii on the other hand...

That’s a good point actually. When I try new sports games, I generally get use to the basics in a few games first before I go into the deeper detail stuff that revolves around strategy. If I see too much stuff around the screen, it can become intimidating. Perhaps off by default would be a good choice. Those users that want to find out how to do audibles and hot routes will be willing to go through the instruction manual or tutorials to figure out how to do them.

[TheWatcher]

This is the kind of stuff that I've been hoping to see. Those very meticulous changes that add those very important small-thing touches to the game. This is very, very promising.

I'd vote for OFF. I personally wouldn't mind if they were still on with the ability to turn them all off one-by-one, but default off caters to my tastes as more of the non-casual I am so this is fine to me.

My main hope is that the on-off situation is contagious throughout the game in a variety of ways. The more ways we get to the make the experience tailor to ourselves the more happy players you're going to get.

Good job Ian. It may sound weird, but I'm almost as excited about where this can lead as I am about procedural awareness. I can't tell you tell how many times I play Madden and wish I could change, edit, or turn on/off this or that. I think that's one of the big reasons why FIFA and NBA Live appeal to me so much, because of the number of changes I can make to the game to tweak it to my tastes.

[TexasBorn1]

I guess it would be okay to leave it on for the casual players.. I wouldn't mind disabling it myself like in 09

[King Gro23]

Implement the big weapons in a pre-game show and never worry about seeing silly icons on the field just natural raw football