IGN Video Review

[Klocker]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfsolo

As someone who isn't buying the game because of their decision to not upgrade franchise mode, .

as you feel strongly about that I'm not criticizing but please appreciate this part of the story as well...

Quote:

Before Madden NFL 11, we primarily made design decisions based on our own gut feel, what we heard from reviewers, and what we heard from our community. Since online franchise was always the number one requested feature (from us internally as well as from everyone else), it was a real eye-opener to see such low usage and frankly, the possibility of how disconnected we possibly could have been from the majority of our audience. As to what the actual data tells us, well it’s a few things. We did know that our more hardcore gamers would be upset with some of the depth that wasn’t there (i.e. a realistic free agency/salary cap structure), but we felt confident that the franchise experience was deep enough out of the box (15 years, custom draft classes, online support, injuries, trades, etc.) that we could add features in the future and work iteratively on the mode over time. All those plans changed though when we saw the usage. It was no longer an effective strategy to be spending a major amount of work on a feature that was barely getting used (FWIW online franchise development is also some of the most specialized and difficult engineering in our game). I’ve heard some people put out the theory that usage was low because of the missing features, but that’s not the case. The critical time for the cap and free agency is obviously in the offseason, and only a small fraction of our online franchise gamers even made it through year 1 to that phase.

[myownsun]

Twas a pretty good review and an 8.0 is probably what i would give m11 judging from the demo, but then again the franchise mode will seem fresh to me because i spent about 10min franchising in m10 because the on the field action was not fun at all to me.

But that's all changed with m11!

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klocker

as you feel strongly about that I'm not criticizing but please appreciate this part of the story as well...

I read that when it first came out. I want to see the data about OFFLINE franchise usage. Unless Phil or Ian come out and say that they have hard data showing that few Madden players use Offline franchise mode, I'm still going to believe that many, many people still play it.

Regardless, if they make the decision to relegate us to 3rd class citizens, well I simply won't buy the game, and naturally would hope that the game suffers in sales because of it. No personal animus, just business. If you don't gear your game toward me, I don't want your game to have great success.

[Jistic]

LOL he said if you're looking for a simplified, great looking game of pigskin, this game is for you. So glad it's on it's way from GF right now.

[Klocker]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfsolo

I read that when it first came out. I want to see the data about OFFLINE franchise usage. Unless Phil or Ian come out and say that they have hard data showing that few Madden players use Offline franchise mode, I'm still going to believe that many, many people still play it. Regardless, if they make the decision to relegate us to 3rd class citizens, well I simply won't buy the game, and naturally would hope that the game suffers in sales because of it. No personal animus, just business. If you don't gear your game toward me, I don't want your game to have great success.

I'm pretty sure they can track usage from offline franchise (it is sent to XBL as status every time you are in a game mode so long as you are connected to internet)

[ManiacMatt1782]

Quote: Originally Posted by Klocker

as you feel strongly about that I'm not criticizing but please appreciate this part of the story as well...

It had nothing to do with the fact that dispute it being bare bones, it was also premium priced add-on. It was so bare bones it should have been free ware

[Boregard]

So let me get this straight, people started OLFs then found out there was no cap and FA sucked and so stopped playing and EA's snswer was to not fix any of it - IDIOTS!
I have 10 friends that refuse to buy Madden because the franchise mode sucks - no way to even share games across the internet (EA locker, export games) to facilitate an decent franchise!

If I am one guy who knows 10 others that won't even buy the game because of franchise mode's crappiness - then how many sales you think they are losing year to year because of the lack of attention they pay to the mode???hundreds of thousands? millions?

The reason you play football is to win championships - online play now sucks - the rankings make no sense - you constantly run into jerks who run the same 5 plays - ooooh and gameflow isn't going to fix that PERIOD!

The only reason to buy Madden is to play a franchise - against other HUM opponents and EA has completely crippled the consumer's ability to do that in any way. No buy for me - absolutely not until they fix the franchise mode and give us a way to accomplish multi-user franchises with online and offline functionality and a way to share files online!!!

[Rules]

I have learned my lesson over the years and that is DON'T buy into the hype! The demo was boring, the videos are boring, the crowds are boring and at times so quiet that you don't even know they are there. The game basically looks the same and the celebrations, cutscenes before and during the game is the SAME no matter the team you are playing with. I think 8.0 is probably very generous based on the lack of innovation / effort we have witnessed over the years.

Where is Ian this year, did he quit or get fired?