Should Madden have player ratings at all?

[fhhs63]

So, hear me out. Everyone likes realism. Yes, Madden has always attracted the Michael Vick abusing arcade-style users, but I think everyone here agrees that most true Madden fans are more geared towards realism.

I believe, in order to be realistic, Madden needs to do away with ANY type of player ratings whatsoever. In real life (that little place you find when you turn your door knob and push.....or pull in some cases), there are no player ratings. Players are judged based on how they perform.

I'm not going to go into a long explanation, but basically, we should just get rid of player ratings and again judge players by how they play. Any average joe could look at ratings and stack their team by unrealistic trades. But if players had no ratings and their value was based on age and performance, not only would teams be more evened out and you couldn't stack your team unrealistically, trades would be even too.

But how would you tell which rookies are good? Well, this is where scouts would come in. Scouts give detailed reports, BUT no ratings. Like "this kid has a cannon of an arm, but isn't comfortable in the pocket."

I can think of many more ideas for this, but Madden won't listen anyways.....

[CM Hooe]

The nature of computers effectively prevents this from happening absolutely; there is always going to be some sort of numerical rating system governing how the players interact with one another.

That said, I'm all in favor of allowing the user to hide and/or mask the existing ratings, either by the letter-grades in NBA2K, the "abilities" of APF2K8, the "weapons" of Madden 08 (which really didn't do anything other than tell you a guy had a high rating in a particular category, other than the play-art revealing abilities which should go away), or something else.

The idea of masking ratings has at the very least been previously presented by the developers for feedback from the community; not sure if it makes it into Madden, but they have at least entertained the thought.

[Seanzie]

So all you're basically proposing is that there are just hidden ratings as opposed to viewable, editable ratings?

Or, you're saying that Peyton Manning, Michael Vick, Trent Edwards, Joe Webb, and Charlie Batch should all start at the same place, and then they just play better or worse based on in-game performance?

Not trying to be a jerk, but either way I don't think you've thought this out that well, and if you have, I don't think your idea is a good one.

[tlc12576]

Quote: Originally Posted by Seanzie

So all you're basically proposing is that there are just hidden ratings as opposed to viewable, editable ratings? Or, you're saying that Peyton Manning, Michael Vick, Trent Edwards, Joe Webb, and Charlie Batch should all start at the same place, and then they just play better or worse based on in-game performance? Not trying to be a jerk, but either way I don't think you've thought this out that well, and if you have, I don't think your idea is a good one.

Yes, this. Of course players have to have ratings in a video game, he just wants it hidden. There is already a thread on this and the devs said in podcast 3, I think, it was too easy to do.

So hopefully, this OPTION makes it into Madden 12, with the caveat that they show ALL players combine data. Like 40 times, bench press, shuttle, etc, like they do for the draft picks. However, I shouldn't have to scout NFL vets, this data should be already available, IMO.

I do think it would be interesting to have different drills and test you can put players through while controlling them to make your own talent assessment. However, this should affect individual NFL vets willingness to sign or re-sign with your team, since they despise being treated like the still need to prove themselves.

[Clutch masta]

just give out grades, not a specific number. Like speed, Reggie wayne (B)(like an 86 speed) . Do it according to position though like if you have an athletic O-lineman his speed would be about 78 (A).

[oneamongthefence]

And keep it relative to position. An A speed to a WR would be different than an a speed for a NT.

[fhhs63]

What Krioniq said, I meant hide the ratings from users.

[mr_president]

i thought the way APF handled their players was well done, i would like to see them adopt that method or build upon it.