Implementing unpredictability

[RGiles36]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

Coz the media portrays Americans as dumb. And you guys apparently don't learn geography at school.

No my man, don't blame the media; YOU said it. I'm not even the super patriotic type of guy, but that's kind of offensive. You should watch that...I (emphasis on I)don't see Americans on OS demeaning those from other countries. It's just not cool.

[FadeEmAll]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

Coz the media portrays Americans as dumb. And you guys apparently don't learn geography at school.

You don't ever want to take anything from the media chief. They portray Australians as backward racists, who blindly follow our lead, and in this global climate that doesn't make you well liked outside America and Britain.

LOL in some ways I guess this is an argument for probability....We don't want what we are programmed to expect....

[CreatineKasey]

Quote: Originally Posted by Exonerated

American's don't understand simple math (probability) so it will never work. Something may only have a 1/1000 chance probabilty to occur, may occur twice in a drive, or never or in 5 consecutive plays. Unpredictability is good.

This is simple math people. The probability of an event happening is NOT dependent on the variable time.

This event has the SAME chance of occurring ANYWHERE in the game. It's not like the probability rises because it's late in the game.

I don't know where some of you guys get your ideas. You are making up resistance and really just hiding the fact you don't wnat to deal with these kinds of events taking control out of your hands. Well you know what? It's a part of the game and it should be in there, period.

[RogueHominid]

Strong words from Creatine, but I agree wholeheartedly.

The dev team has explicitly invoked The Show as a model sports franchise. I own and play the hell out of that, and one of the things that makes that game truly great is the variability of player performance.

I just played a game with Beckett and the Sox in which he could not find the strike zone for his life. He battled through five and only allowed a run, but walked 3 and flirted with disaster, so I had to pull him early. Next game, he might throw 8 scoreless and strike out 10.

Football is different, but I would love for the basic principle to translate. I love the idea of players not playing the same way week in and week out. That happend in real life. Guys go on a tear for a few games, have a few bad games, and a few okay ones. If that made it into this game, it would infinitely extend the replayability of Madden. As it is, the game begins to feel stale rather quickly because every QB is deadly accurate all the time, etc. We all know the drill.

I love the OP's suggestions about scheme switches affecting consistency about rookies having a learning curve, etc. That's authentic football right there. The problem is that the user base for this game is too big. The Show can do these things because it is trying to be the most realistic baseball sim in existence, but Madden isn't just competing with football games specifically, it's competing with all games for sales. Because it wants to sell to such a wide array of people this kind of variability won't make it.

I read and post in The Show forums, and people who love baseball are complaining about it being difficult to hit in The Show. That's from people who know that success equals a 70% rate of failure in baseball! How much less patience will people have with the Madden brand, which is built on the idea that it can be picked up and played by almost anyone.

I don't think the issue is the vision and commitment of Ian or anyone else in particular, but is instead the conception of this game's place in the larger market. Until that changes (and it likely won't), there will be serious limitations on how much of this kind of stuff we see.

[CreatineKasey]

AW you are spot on and your insight is solid here.

I had an epiphany when I was arguing statistics endlessly every post. The people just refuse to reason and resist on the basic principle of losing control, even though it's another step closer to what we see on Sundays.

In the end becoming closer to the sport is better. The more the standard moves towards sim gameplay, the more people should accept it.

Don't be afraid to be out of your compfort level guys. A new Madden is a good thing. We can improve on the same thing we got the last 10 years.

So, the debate isn't whether these events should occur, it's WHY do people fear losing control in favor of the game getting closer to emulating real life. This debate will never happen because there's an obvious answer to it that the opponents don't want to admit. It's okay, I've made it obvious.