What is keeping your friends from Madden?

[labguy]

I am sure a lot of people here have friends from years past who they played Madden with in the dorms, military barracks, couch of apartment, etc who no longer play Madden. I am just curious as to what reasons (if any) that some of these gamers have stopped purchasing and playing Madden? Too busy with work or family? Don't think the game is as good as the older versions?

I had three friends that use to play Madden franchises non-stop. We'd set rules allowing only one trade per year and then just bust out 4-5 seasons before we got bored and picked new teams. None of these three guys have purchased Madden on the PS3 though. This year was the closest they came until they heard the Online Franchise mode lacked a cap and true free agency. I told them we could create a make-shift system but they declined. So basically the inability to play a franchise has kept them from buying Madden.

What has kept people you know from buying Madden? I am not really as interested in why people who have never played Madden won't buy it. I am more interested in why previous loyal customers have abandoned the game. Seems to me it takes a lot more effort to "win" a new customer over than to "maintain" a current one. So if you feel compelled respond to this post with how many people you know that haven't come back to Madden and what the reasons are. Please don't turn this into a thread that will get closed. Just state the facts and resist the urge to flame.

[GTheorenHobbes]

I was talking about this with a guy that I work with when we were leaving the office last night. He said that this was the first year that he didn't buy either Madden or NCAA. Said that he'd been tired of getting the same old game year after year, and this was the first year he ever had the will power to stop the cycle.

[Heisman]

It just seems like when me and my friends were younger we just enjoyed franchise mode more. We would wake up in the middle of the night, or early in the mourning and play.

Maybe the expectations were to high or something. Most of my friends still play it, but it's not anything like madden 99-05.

[juicydj]

I'm one of those friends who hasn't bought Madden. I did from 01-06.

They take out features. They cater to arcade players and not simulation players. The physics have not improved.

So I wait for something like Backbreaker to come out, rather than support something which would rather buy out its competition than improve.

[Autastic]

I have a buddy who stoped buying it this year because of 09. When they introduced the Madden IQ. He also didnt think there was much of an improvement from year to year so he traded his copy of 09 in and didnt want to bother with 10.

[shotgun styles]

As a hardcore football guy, I can tell you that I played this game for 1 day and sent it back.

It's broken. Period. It does not simulate football. Period. My copy of Madden 2005 works better.

[johnkorean]

Quote: Originally Posted by shotgun styles

As a hardcore football guy, I can tell you that I played this game for 1 day and sent it back. It's broken. Period. It does not simulate football. Period. My copy of Madden 2005 works better.

My best friend from college also plays Madden 05. Basically, he feels like $60 for a roster update is too much. He's also not the kind of guy that would really appreciate the minor feature upgrades of the last 6 years or so.

[shotgun styles]

Quote: Originally Posted by johnkorean

My best friend from college also plays Madden 05. Basically, he feels like $60 for a roster update is too much. He's also not the kind of guy that would really appreciate the minor feature upgrades of the last 6 years or so.

What rubs me the wrong way is that SO MUCH development and processing power is used up to make the game look pretty, but only a fraction of that power is used to simulate football.

I have yet to hear an explanation as to how a game that has super-realistic real time self shadowing shader techno-deliciousness does not have basic blocking assignments? You mean to tell me that I can see the entire field reflected in a player's eyeball, but I can't assign my TE to block the OLB? That's ridiculous.