Way Too Much Attention To The Casual

[LaW97]

thanx to everyone who gave insight into this.
especially floridagatorfan... i didnt know you could gameplan for other teams but i hope that feature works properly. they have a tendency to market a feature them it doesnt even work the way they say it will,

Honestly i dont know anyone who buys madden every year jus to play it every now and again.
the majority of the guys i know have made all their console decisions on madden.
which system will madden play better on. which system will madden look better. goin all the way back to PS1. Why do they make these decisions??? Cuz most likely... Jus like me,these guys are about to get ready to ignore girlfriends/wives and the rest of the world to put hours into this game playing franchise and practice mode learning the playbooks(and exploits).

And yes,they havent released any info on franchise mode but im speaking in general as well as the past four years we have been on next gen.. They always make the gimmick the advertisement instead of jus puttin together a real NFL experience. I honestly think it cuz they have no competition. When they did have competition i saw PS2/XBOX madden get better every year and thats why PS2 Madden has a better franchise mode then the PS3/360.

How can you leave out something like Restricted FA... that is a part of the NFL schedule.
Talking players out of retirement. Why is there even a retirement screen when you cant do anything about it unless you PAY EA...AGAIN

Last year they put so much emphasis on that dumb fight for the fumble feature but i know the majority of us jus complained about o-line play. why not spend that time programming oline vs dline which is THE CORE OF FOOTBALL instead of some dumb feature we jus turn off within a month of playing the game

then the whole randomized draft thing... no not really random if the same names come uop in the exact same order every draft.
make it so bad we have this crap memorized. who doesnt know the players in the Mike Zazzali draft by now

[MaddenBalla]

The dual stick control is an example - is a casual gamer just going to pick this game up and master the sticks that easily? Ian mentions it is about balance and if someone is coming at you, you have to tilt a different way. It is going to take time for that novice to learn to maneuver his player and acknowledge a bit hit is coming and to practice timing with the combination of moves that you can do like a spin or a truck. The same should be for reading a defense, playing the defense. What does a casual gamer actually do on defense? He probably lets the clock run out so the computer picks his play and he sits on a defensive tackle and taps one button. I wouldn't know because I was never really a casual gamer, I am hardcore - says it in my name MaddenBalla it is not a slogan. I may not be the best, but I am hardcore and I tell you, football is life for us. Win or lose, its about the fun and the learning of football so when you play that guy again, you change up your gameplan. The chess match. Not just droping back 40 yards and rolling out and throwing off the wrong foot to Randy Moss with Tom Brady. What happen to the essence of football? Stuff like that should happen, but NOT IN ALL-PRO OR ALL-MADDEN.

[Boregard]

To me, and this is just my opinion, the casual gamer doesn't give a rat's behind what EA does or doesn't do within the game. I don't see how "Gameflow" is going to attract more "casual gamers". I have no idea, if I will like this new "feature" as I have a lot of questions about how exactly it will work.

For instance, does it allow for packages to be utilized within my "game plan"?

Do the audibles from the "Gameflow" mode coincide with the formation of the original playcall, or at least the personnel (ie 3WR singleback audibles should all be singleback plays, IMO)?

And so on.
Maybe cutting the time in half would appeal to casual gamers, IDK.

I think that Authenticity is a bigger force for sales numbers of Madden games than easy access is, but we could debate that all day. Although, I should point out that if you are here making threads, commenting on other people's, and trying to get whatever tidbits EA is letting out, then you are not a "casual gamer".


PS. I wrote a blog called "All-Madden should cheat more!" and I would really like some feedback on both the concepts and any tips or pointers on the format itself. To see it you can go to the homepage or just hit up my arena. Thank you.

[MaddenBalla]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boregard

To me, and this is just my opinion, the casual gamer doesn't give a rat's behind what EA does or doesn't do within the game. I don't see how "Gameflow" is going to attract more "casual gamers". I have no idea, if I will like this new "feature" as I have a lot of questions about how exactly it will work. For instance, does it allow for packages to be utilized within my "game plan"? Do the audibles from the "Gameflow" mode coincide with the formation of the original playcall, or at least the personnel (ie 3WR singleback audibles should all be singleback plays, IMO)? And so on. Maybe cutting the time in half would appeal to casual gamers, IDK. I think that Authenticity is a bigger force for sales numbers of Madden games than easy access is, but we could debate that all day. Although, I should point out that if you are here making threads, commenting on other people's, and trying to get whatever tidbits EA is letting out, then you are not a "casual gamer". PS. I wrote a blog called "All-Madden should cheat more!" and I would really like some feedback on both the concepts and any tips or pointers on the format itself. To see it you can go to the homepage or just hit up my arena. Thank you.

Oh, another thing - I hate how All-Madden cheats you out. Thanks for bringing it up, and I will check out your blog.

All-Madden should be an indepth hardcore game, where fatigue hits more so you are forced to do substitutions like a real game to maintain the flow and persistent offense or even a defense. Strictly based on scouting report and in-depth analysis, like 2K's VIP. All-Madden should make someone like Brian Brohm come out off the bench and turn into Tom Brady, but instead the AI makes him Robo-QB. You are probably wondering, how the heck can Brian Brohm be the next Brady? He is rated 51 overall! Simple answer. By not picking the good plays, and him catching you off balance with play actions. All-Madden should be the game to keep you on your toes at all times, with one flinch or turnover to change the game. If you see a team is weak in the secondary, you must constantly attack the secondary and weak cover man until they do something about it and trick you. They have to put in adaptive A.I., 2K had this and on NextGen with the technology it can become better and more enhanced. All-Madden should make you break a sweat just by thinking.

[Only1LT]

I don't think that this debate can resolved for one very simple reason. No one really knows exactly what a casual or hardcore Madden gamer really is.

Some think that a hard core Madden gamer is someone that plays 20yrs of franchise mode. I can tell you that I don't think I have ever, in my life, completed a single season of franchise in any Madden. Not because I do not eat sleep and breath Football, because I do, but because playing franchise involves, for the most part, playing the computer. The computer, in every game I have ever played, Madden or otherwise, pretty much has two gears. No match, or cheap. Not fun in my opinion. I prefer a human opponent. Which brings me to my next point.

Some people associate casual with players that play online. I don't agree with that either. Even if you are talking cheesers that know nothing about real world Football, can you really call someone casual who spends hours, upon hours a day "labbing" to perfect their "cheese" lol?

People have different notions about what makes someone a hardcore or casual Madden gamer. Furthermore, there is no way to determine the breakdown of the sales to casual and hardcore gamers, because that isn't something I've ever seen. Add the fact that there is no consensus definition of a hardcore or casual Madden gamer and I don't see how you can argue either side.

I think we can agree that Tiburon/EA is trying to make the game more accessible, but that doesn't necessarily have to be casual or hardcore specific.

[Klocker]

to say that making the game flow system and the teams playing like themselves and running and controlling more naturally is a "gimmick" and has somehow catered to the casuals... is ridiculous.

This game is inching ever closer to sports gaming nirvana for the first time in YEARS (rather than that arcade crap in 05-08).


it sounds to me like a bunch of disgruntled players who have not seen any franchise info yet and who would be better off playing a football game from another company but have no choice so they come in here and b!tch.

[Boregard]

I agree with you mostly Only1LT, online cheesers that glitch me to death are not casual gamers - that stuff requires practice, practice, and more practice. Just imagine what those kids could if they put that effort... Sorry, alomost became my Dad for a minute there.

MaddenBalla, great points, especially the chess match part - I live for that part of Madden. I have two close friends and we play a ton of Madden - one of them is an "air it out", fast QB, too many WRs on the roster, pain in the neck. I don't like his "style" but beating him requires some "stick skills" and a lot of strategy and it makes winning so much sweeter. The other guy is not so great on the "sticks" but he sees your tendencies in the moment, he adjusts to your plan of attack faster than anyone I have ever seen, and beating him requires a ton of adapting my strategy. two very different types of Madden players and yet both guys are super good challenges and way too much fun to battle on Madden - they often get me in trouble as I tend to slack on my responsibilities in the real world!!

[Johnny "Too Tall"]

The bottom line really is that EA has the financial capabilities to satisfy both the casual and the hardcore, and that the right thing to do would be to attempt to satisfy those who are most critical rather than those who are easily satisfied because they idea is to achieve perfection not just sustain the status quo. And who better to see as a guideline to the means to perfection than those who recognize problems and dissect every aspect of the game. Sorry I just got out of an ethics class.

The casual fan doesn't need features to satisfy them. All they want is to have fun playing football. In truth you could simply have a shiny box that says madden on the cover and has a cool picture of a famous player and that will do just fine. It doesn't need a list of features on the back or anything, it could simply say 'have fun playing fooootballlll!!!, in bold letters'.

The point is that they don't really need to spend alot of time and money on the casual fans, but they have the money so why not spend the time, on what i would call making the game as accurate as possible. I think there afraid of turning off the average fan, but really all people want is options if the default level is fun enough for the casual game to pick up and play a game, the the all madden level is as true to football as a video can replicate both sides win. So accurate line play and DB/WR interaction eventually needs to happen.

The entire concept of franchise mode itself is really for the hardcore gamer which is why it gets very little love. They could honestly probably just have a season mode and the casual gamer would be satisfied. I think were actually lucky to have Ian running the show, we could still be stuck in ortiz mode right now. There's some hope yet.