Has the Madden team lost its innovative spirit?

[je_2512]

Personally, I find it intriguing that the 1 year we have a possible lost season, and EA openly admits they expect sales to drop drastically because of it, we suddenly get SO MANY of the things we've been begging for for years on end. Just makes me wonder why now??

[buckeye02]

I'd like for Madden to have something that would sync or have some kind of dynamic development to your dynasty. Usually the announcers, stat overlays....etc would refer back to the 2011 season even if you were in your 20th year in the franchise. It would be cool if they could implement something for the new classes to come in and talk about what kind of accomplishments they've had over their career.

The Tony Bruno radio show was a great addition for a few years, but once you got 10+ years into a dynasty they would still interview people that have already retired.


OT: What happend with South Park?

[PaperBoyx703]

It got to the point where I didnt even want to look on the back of the box to see what they came up with next, I began to wish the game would become more like the actual game in real life, the ins and the outs. I am glad were not getting any special features along the lines of a hit stick and QB cone but actually seeing attempts to improve core gameplay and the immersion of presentation and franchise modes to make the game replayable until the next release, well thats my hope to be able to have a "fresh" game until the new lease like I did in the last gen.

[CRMosier_LM]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

Not sure when it lapses but there's no reason to believe the deal won't be renewed. Given the NFL's propensity for exclusivity agreements, if what the NFL and EA have got is working, why would EA ever afford any other developer an opportunity to kill one of their prized video game franchises in one fell swoop? The exclusivity license is here to stay, IMO, and it's not a matter of if it gets renewed, but rather when.

The NFL wants EA to make the game as much or more than than EA wants to make the game I would venture to guess. Remember that ultimately with the exclusive contract the NFL has to agree on the content that is in the game.

[mjhyankees]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

My point is one of your statements isn't true. And I'm not that smart. Either they've done a great job, or they have no creativity. I'm trying to figure out where you stand, so I can have a discourse with you and the other members in this thread.

I love a good philosphical debate so i'm going to throw my 2 cents in here.

It is certainly possible to do a great job and not be creative. The term great job intimates that what they did, they did very well. Being creative implies innovation, going outside the box etc. And his statement on madden is quite accurate IMO. They have done little that was creative an innovative in many years. Yet i find the gameplay quality of the M11 to be pretty good (with a good set of sliders of course). I realize that my last statement (and the others in fact) are a matter of opinion.
To sum up I think they did a great job on the gameplay of M11. I play all the time and love the look and reaction of the players with each other. However I've been disappointed that they haven't made substantive changes to the game, particularly franchise mode. In fact it is so lacking in innovation and creativity that we long for them to PUT BACK old features as they would be an improvement. Great job in putting out a good playing football game, poor job on creativity.

[RogueHominid]

Lol @ the verb "intimates" making it into a Madden thread. Love it! I think what you're saying is that the idea that one can't be both good at one's job and relatively uncreative is a false dichotomy. I agree. I'd also say that the OP's praise for the game and the development staff at the beginning of the post fits within what rhetoricians call the "humility topos," which is a kind of affected modesty that precedes a deep critique of something, softening the blow a little bit before it comes. Reading it that way might help make sense of why the tone changes as the post progresses.

To the OP's point, I'd say that I think the gameplan and gameflow features from last year and the dynamic progression from this year are genuine innovations for the Madden franchise. I was very excited last year to see that I could put together a gameplan before each week and have it implemented in-game as though it were coming in from a coordinator. Unfortunately, the feature just didn't work right. The dynamic player rating system is probably the most significant addition to gameplay to date; it will make every game and every season seem unique if it works. So I'd say that they've still got some creative spark in them. It's just a matter of how well they implement their vision.

[ACardAttack]

Quote: Originally Posted by GGEden

If you ask me, I liken EAs Madden with AC/DC the rock band. AC/DC hit on a winning formula, and their records were raking in sales, so they just kept pumping out the same records, same lyrical content, etc. As AC/DC themselves said, many bands were too arty, trying to 'do' all these kinds of genres from album to album, trying to change from album to album, and only alienated their fans each time, and ended up losing 'themselves'. I think EA is similar in regards to Madden. They have a winning product (NOT due to EA itself, just due to the massive popularity of football itself). So EA just kept giving the fans the same kind of product, didnt want to mess it up by changing it too much, etc. From year to year they tweak this and that, take out then put back in this or that feature, polish up the graphics, give it something 'new', and you have a best-seller continuing to top sales due to the massive popularity of football. .

2 Problems here 1) Madden has removed a lot of features from the past, only to reintroduce them as new features....it would be like ACDC putting out a new album, calling it new and putting just old songs on there was a slightly different tempo

2) Video games cost 60 bucks, madden comes out every year....an album rarely costs more than 12 bucks

[Tyrant8RDFL]

Quote: Originally Posted by ryan36

How on earth can a game with no innovative spirit have an "excellent job" done with it?

Your missing the point here. You mean to tell me from what you read? This is the only thing that came to your mind?

Your quote to me says your on the defense of Madden.


I clearly see and agree with everything he has said. Last gen Madden has some great features that added to the gameplay itself.

What we have now is vanilla, and really holds no weight. It is not a bad thread at all, and hopefully opens the eyes of EA, and see what is more important.

Vision cone was always a huge debate here, and a featuer that should have never been removed.

All that needed to be done was not to make it a default feature, but a option. This could have been done with all of the features in the past.

Removing them only made the brand feel like a game made by rookies. Madden should have had all the features that was present in the past, along with what they have added in the next gen era.

Good thread.