ian or anyone else from ea im sure your tired of hearin about this but...

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Quote: Originally Posted by Gridiron

LOL. You guys are kidding yourselves and misunderstanding my point. I never said one time that franchise was unimportant, but the idea that it's the "backbone" of the Madden franchise is a ridiculous idea. No--and understand this well--the "backbone" of the Madden franchise is, always was, and always will be, the GAMEPLAY ON THE FIELD. Period. If Madden dropped franchise tomorrow I'm sure you'd all think the game would fail, but boy you couldn't be more wrong. I'd bet the sales they'd lose would be so minimal by comparison it wouldn't even make a dent and plenty of you would still buy it anyway even though I'm sure you'd say you wouldn't right now, lol. If you think that the majority of the people who buy this game care about franchise anywhere near the level that people at a board like OS would, then you have some wild illusions about the overall market of who buys this game. You've lost touch with reality. I've been to every popular Madden community online, and I've seen very few threads screaming about franchise. Threads about everything else FAR outweigh it. FAR. It's not even a contest. But again, if you wish to live with illusions be my guest, it's just that the proof of it disproves your belief. Just check around for yourselves, tally it up and compare it to everything else. EA on the other hand understands it much better, which is the reason they've publicly made mentions about making the game more accessible to the casual gamer. They know where their bread and butter sales are coming from. The casual gamer is not playing season after season after season after season of franchise mode, and doing a bunch of micromanagement tasks, but the fact that you actually believe they do is pure comedy. Keep the laughs coming though guys. It's entertaining. LOL. And to Ian: just keep in mind that Madden '08's franchise was indisputably broken, yet the game still sold Millions between 360 and PS3. So obviously, its failures didn't derail the train. It didn't help, but it didn't derail it either. I'm pretty sure that at the end of the day, you would have to agree that the gameplay on the field is what Madden's most important aspect is. If not, I'd be worried. Gameplay trumps all.