Madden 11 Adding True Online Team Play.

[Nature_Boy]

From Pastapadre.com

When online co-op was delivered last year, with two users able to connect together and face the CPU, that was intended somewhat as a bridge to an Online Team Play mode that was to come. That will be delivered in Madden 11 as Gamestop has posted a listing of features which includes the mention of 3v3 Online Team Play. This is likely what is being referred to in the trailer as what will “reinvent the way you play football online”.


With Madden 10 I posted impressions on the online co-op mode where I predicted this very development for Madden 11 and went over issues with the mode that hopefully will have been ironed out for this year. 3-on-3 Team Play makes the most sense for a football game. On defense everyone tends to have a different position they enjoy controlling, or can adapt to several, but on offense most users will want to control the skill positions. This leaves the QB, RB, and WR as the most likely to be taken over. I could see 4-on-4 working well down the line also.

As opposed to other games where Team Play has been successful with every individual user controlled like FIFA, NHL, and NBA Live, it is good to see it capped at this number for now. What you don’t want are games filling up and then people dropping out in the middle of them. The more users to get involved also leads to more difficult arranging games and ultimately more potential for trouble in terms of disconnects and lag or those who could look to ruin the experience for others.

There does need to be something that will attach users to the mode and keep them coming back to it, whether that be on an individual level like tracking of lifetime stats even down to particular positions and lifetime game results or a more team based solution like the EA Sports Hockey League. If the Online Team Play in Madden ends up being just one-off games the mode won’t have lasting appeal.

[yardz23]

That sounds awesome, i hope this becomes a standard trend in the coming years for sports games.

At one point, it was thought Backbreaker would support 2v2 online, but no longer. We can, however, play 2 players on one console versus another 2 players on another console online.

[Gossennator]

Really excited about this..I actually get to play with people instead of against people all the time. A nice refreshing feature IMO

[canes21]

No need for more topics on this subject. Or that could be me acting a little angry since I did start a thread on this yesterday.

[SA1NT401]

recipe for disaster if you ask me....I could NEVER play WITH someone on my team. When the AI screwss up, you kinda expect it...I would have ZERO patience with an actual person.

but differant strokes i guess. I personally hate ONLINe play. But thats just me.

[Pacman83]

I actually agree with you there Saint, people online are Idiots, mostly because you can't reach over and slapped the s*** outta them.