My Complete Thoughts/Ideas on/for Madden series

[BuzzKardzrool]

This is my first post but I have been following Operation Sports for some time now.

I am 19 years old and have been playing franchise mode in Madden since I was 8 or 9 Madden 99 on the PS1 up until Madden 06 on the PS2. I've tried to play Madden franchises and Head Coach 09 on Xbox 360 but it's way too flawed in such unnecessary and inexcusable ways. I would like to thank Madden 99-06 for teaching me so much about football at a young age. By the time I was 15-16 playing Madden 06 I started to pick apart all of its flaws. When I switched to 360, I noticed even more flaws and had no desire to purchase another Madden until reading the new improvements to franchise mode with more to come. Previous game killers to me were unrealistic stats, progression, rookies, and computer AI. All of these except for stats are promised to be improved so Madden 10 seems like it will be less flawed than usual, but I'm also skeptical given the lack of playability of franchise mode in previous years.

One thing that I feel has to be implemented is more realistic simulations. This is an absolute must. I don't want to see Peyton Manning and Tom Brady with 60 TD's and 3 INT's. It makes statistics completely meaningless. And that's all franchise is outside of the games is a bunch of names and numbers. I'm more used to Madden 06 on PS2 so I don't know exactly how it is on the newer versions, but it seemed like the simulations were all too random in Madden 06. I wouldn't know how it's improved but in Madden 06, all the teams were basically equal and teams had no real personalities. Head Coach 09 took this to an opposite extreme with good passing teams getting ridiculous passing stats while running teams had ridiculous running stats. The developers excused this as the coaches were playing to their strengths and they weren't going to alter the simulations to make the stats realistic. This makes a little bit of sense but is really a horrible excuse. Yes, it's good that the coaches look to exploit other teams weaknesses and take advantage of their strengths just as in the real NFL, but in the real NFL, opposing coaches would adjust to negate the exploitation and thus, stats in REAL LIFE are REALISTIC.

I like what I'm hearing about progression for Madden 10, but I have a few concerns. It's great that players will regress faster, but I want this (I'm not sure if it's not already how it will be implemented) to be the deciding factor in retirements. In previous Maddens (again, I'm more accustomed to Madden 06 on PS2, but I'm pretty sure it's the same in Madden 09 on 360) players would very slowly regress in their early 30's and retire near the top of their game at age 36. 99% of players in the NFL don't retire, they just can't make a roster. Many players try out every year and continually get cut in training camp. Even ex-pro bowlers do this. Brett Favre has retired after one year in every version of Madden going back to like Madden 2005, and he didn't really retire until this year, and likely because he's no longer valuable in the league. Jerry Rice continued to play until he just wasn't good enough to make a roster. This is how 99% of players end their careers. This should be the same in Madden. It isn't that complex of a formula.

I like where the Madden team seems to be going with progression and their rating systems, but I think it needs to be a bit more complex. Statistics in real football have little to do with a player's progression. Every player has a different personality, and most of their progression and regression (aside from age and injury) comes because of attitude and confidence. Players get better and worse quickly in the NFL. A lot of players have one breakout year and never do the same. WR's often take years off at a time (Moss, Ocho Cinco). Players come to training camp out of shape.

Injuries also need to play a bigger role. Injuries need to linger on past the amount of time a player would be out. Almost all injuries have a lasting affect on the player.

Also I would prefer not to have owner mode and have more of a coach mode like Head Coach 09. That was one of the best parts about Head Coach, even though it was very flawed like almost every other aspect of the game.

There's so much more I could get into. Maybe I will in future posts. But if these simple things could become more realistic. I would be an every year customer like I was from 99-06.