What Do You Consider to Be an NFL Experience?

[davel]

being fired if your team performs badly.

[scoonie05]

Quote: Originally Posted by Franchise408

The NFL experience to me is players in which ratings matter, where you actually have to gameplan for opposing personnel and matchups. Gameplay that doesn't include cheap "make up" or "psychic" AI to cover for the lack of CPU gameplanning and matchup capabilities, or the lack of impact that ratings have on the game. I hate playing franchise mode against the CPU, and watching as they rely on "cheese" to simulate a challenge, because the AI isn't good enough in and of itself to produce a quality gameplan and execute it. With that addressed and taken care of, I can truly enjoy the features of the game, which even I will admit that Madden always has been and probably always will be pretty feature heavy. Even with the removal of Tony Bruno and newspaper headlines, I always thought that Madden had a pretty well done franchise mode (yes, it could stand to see improvements and extra additions, but AS IS I believe it to be a good franchise mode), and as far as I know they were innovative in being the first sports game to offer a Superstar Mode (not as good as I'd hoped it would be, but still an interesting feature)

Lol, I thought he said not to mention any names?? Dude, do u wake up hating Madden or something?? Lol, you're a funny person.

[Franchise408]

What names did I mention?

I didn't compare it to any other game and say it should do it like that game. I simply stated what areas I would like Madden to improve upon to make it more of an "NFL experience" to me, while giving it credit for the things I do enjoy from it.

[BlackJackRabbit]

I want to feel intimidated by star players on the other team. If I don't account for those players on every play, then I should get burned. In Madden you have to account for speed and certain plays, but never certain players.

I want pass rushers that have to be doubled. I want nose tackles that disrupt my running game. I want receivers that force me to play certain coverages and avoid other ones.

I want the game to simulate poor execution. Yes, there are many times where teams don't execute in Madden, but that's due to faulty AI, and good and bad teams are plagued by faulty AI, so you have good teams doing the same stupid things, with the same frequency, as bad teams. Poor execution should happen more on bad teams than good ones, and it should happen more with bad ( or young) players.

Oh, I also want some INNOVATION! I want something that I have to learn or practice in order to be successful. Right now there's nothing new to learn in Madden; all one has to do is adjust to the slight differences in the newest version of the game. I shouldn't be able to beat the CPU on the first day playing the demo on All-Madden after some practice. I mean this is a game, right ? What attracts people to a game is that it's challenging. It's something they have to learn, then master. Once they've mastered the game, it loses the appeal that it once had. Who wants to mess around with a rubix cube after they've already mastered it ?

A big part of video games, for me anyway, is similar to figuring out a puzzle. You first learn intricacies of the game, practice and master them, then figure out how to use them against your opponent. That's the essence of a game !

[PGaither84]

@BlackJackRabit If I could make your entire post my new signature, I would.

[89OneHanded]

Quote: Originally Posted by Franchise408

Gameplay that doesn't include cheap "make up" or "psychic" AI to cover for the lack of CPU gameplanning and matchup capabilities, or the lack of impact that ratings have on the game. I hate playing franchise mode against the CPU, and watching as they rely on "cheese" to simulate a challenge, because the AI isn't good enough in and of itself to produce a quality gameplan and execute it.

To expand on this, I want an AI that will adjust to my team's strengths and weaknesses on offense and defense. If I have a poor secondary, I want to see them throwing medium and deep more often than they normally would. If my interior d-line is awful, I want to see them pound it up the middle, even if they're a pass first team. If I have a shutdown corner on one side, I want to see them flooding the other side of the field and moving their stud wideout around the formation to get him away from that guy. If my outside passrush is destroying them, I want to see them keep TEs and backs in to chip the rushers. On defense, if I'm running it all over their butts, I want to see safeties creeping in closer and closer. If I get off a long pass play or two to AJ or Megatron, I want to see a safety rolling over to give the corner help. As someone else said, I want the ability to gameplan against opposing players on offense and defense. I want to be able to double team Jared Allen or Vince Wilfork on passing downs, I want to have a gameplan centered around keeping the ball away from Polamalu or Reed, depending on where they line up on the field each play. I want to be able to gameplan my pass rush to take advantage of a rookie RG. Run stunts and twists over top of him, etc..

But I don't want the CPU to come in with a gameplan and stick to it no matter what. I want to see them ADJUST during the game, when something I'm doing is working, I want to see them CHANGE what they're doing to compensate for it. I despise seeing the CPU psychically run blitz on the side of the field I'm running to (a run blitz would be okay if it didn't happen every time in the direction of the run), big blitz every time I choose a play action, blitz a corner and still get perfect man coverage on my stud WR. As the guy above said, compensate for poor CPU AI by allowing the AI to basically cheat. They artificially inflate the frequency of fumbles when you're beating an opponent at their house by 10 points or less, so even if you're playing as safe as possible, the CPU gets a chance to win. It just feels cheap.

Off the field, I agree with every suggestion here so far, but I'd like to add something that's been one of my pet peeves for a while. I want schemes to actually matter. I want to see a differentiation between a passrushing 3-4 OLB and a strongside 4-3 OLB. I want to see a difference between a space hogging NT and a 4-3 gap shooting DT. I want to see a difference between a run stopping linebacker-esque safety and a coverage safety. I want to be able to throw all over the former when he's trying to cover my huge tight end. I want to be able to break the tackle of the latter 9/10s of the time when he tries to take down LeGarrette Blount in open space. I want to see them differentiate between zone blocking tackles and read blocking tackles. I don't know, maybe all that is too much to ask, but at least make 3-4 and 4-3 matter. I hate the fact that I can take a 6-2 267 lb DE and put him in a 3-4 and his overall stays the same. Hate it.

I also heavily agree with player personalities, demanding trades, hold outs, and I also love the storyline stuff. Just like Jm0ney said, I shouldn't have to make up the storylines in my head. They should be telling them for me. That's what the ESPN license should be used for!

Lastly, PGaither84, of course everyone thinks the Niners are overachieving, Alex Smith is still your starting QB after all.

[Big FN Deal]

NFL risk/reward, ebb/flow and ying/yang. The experience should cause anxiety to produce relief, cause fear to produce respect, cause adversity to produce accomplishment, cause mistakes to produce discipline, cause heartbreak to produce appreciation, cause sacrifice to produce humility, cause imagination to produce immersion and cause levity to produce prospective.

[jkra0512]

BlackJack, I like the idea of being intimidated by opposing players...