Are we doing more harm than good if we don't support "Sim" Madden

[lgxjames]

I know we all want a sim madden, But is the consensus stance to not purchase the game because of flaws going to backfire?

I recall and was just reminded of a post by phil stating that gimmicks might return if sales flop...As we have it now there is a Creative Director who is trying to create sim football, this really isn't debatable...I'm sure NO ONE here believes; even with the things we are unhappy with that he doesn't WANT to give us perfect football...So people boycott the game...Sales flop...EA panics...says "Sim" football is a failure, Goes back to Sim/Arcade football...Exclusive license renewed*...If Ian wants to keep his job he makes football the way the boss says will make money...

I'm not advocating buying something you aren't happy with but if this is the direction we really want madden to go (sim) maybe we as the consumer should also hound Ian on how to help the "casual" gamer as well as unite the hardcore...I'm just saying...

[SA1NT401]

the only think that i believe is that...5-6 yrs from now...Madden will probably be 90% Arcade 10% Sim.

But who knows. All i care about is that M11 delivers...has a very good franchise mode and "WORKS" is more areas than it has in prior versions....

I am optimistic at this point...

[sniperhare]

If they put the offline franchise elements from Head Coach into Madden 11 and fix the blocking and bad animations I think most would buy the game.

Personally I want RFA's and compensatory picks and a practice squad. And for coaching and gameplay to increase players stats over the current potential system.

[jazztrumpet5]

At this point I'd just settle for running stats to be nearly normal. I WANT a whole bunch of other things, but for crying out loud, EA, please give us something resembling normal sim stats in franchise.

[kjcheezhead]

The problem is the balancing act this team has to do, not whether or not we support a sim game.

For every fix sim guys want, a lot of tourney type players don't like the fixes. The Q and A on locomotion was a perfect example. There was a question asking if bad weather would affect locomtion so players slipped and fell with hard cuts. The response was they were looking into it. The tourney guys didn't like losing control of their players and there were too many random falls in Madden 10.

Bottom line, Madden can never go too sim or too arcade. It always has to fall somewhere in the middle.

[JerseySuave4]

Madden will always sell. Its a battle you'll never win trying to convince a mass of people not to buy the game. Keep in mind the amount of games they sell and then the amount of people that are on this site... we're just a tiny fraction on their radar in terms of sales.

[lgxjames]

Quote: Originally Posted by kjcheezhead

The problem is the balancing act this team has to do, not whether or not we support a sim game. For every fix sim guys want, a lot of tourney type players don't like the fixes. The Q and A on locomotion was a perfect example. There was a question asking if bad weather would affect locomtion so players slipped and fell with hard cuts. The response was they were looking into it. The tourney guys didn't like losing control of their players and there were too many random falls in Madden 10. Bottom line, Madden can never go too sim or too arcade. It always has to fall somewhere in the middle.

But right now I don't think the battle is Sim vs Arcade, it seem the battle now is franchise vs play now, I'm just wondering if there is a way of making both happy...Like the gameflow feature could have done that, If we were giving options of what to choose, but as Ian stated I guess you can still audible...

I'm just wondering how we can influence what we want while keeping in mind they are still going to try and get new gamers

[beastwork]

i honestly believe that any decrease in sales that madden has seen has more to do with the current economy than anything else. If we all were to be honest with ourselves, we could not rationally justify buying any sports game every single year. there a few reasons i feel this way.

I think the economy is normalizing things and making at least some people be a little more jidicious with how they spend their $60. for someone like me who really only cares to buy 3 maybe 4 games a year, i would rather try some new sports games or a new genre rather than play the annual madden rehash. I think this year is gonna be a baseball year for me. next year i might mess with soccer.

if you read EA's annual report you'll see the concern that the Board of Directors has for the impact that the economy is having on EA's revenue potential

furthermore i think the sim vs arcade decision making at EA is directly correlated to the budget constraints of the madden department. making a SIM game requires far more R&D dollars than making a "fun/arcadey" madden. Again if you look at the annual report you will see that over the last 3 years EA has increased its market spending at a far greater rate than its R&D spending. these conclusions are not at all absolutely corect but it gives you some insight into how the big wigs are running things.



you do raise a good point though