What do you think? Madden NFL 13 - Not for the casual fan?

[prey2god]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr_truthman.com

EA had already dummied down the game for casuals. The guy in the article strikes me as a "arcade fan". Blitz , NFL street type of games. Madden is geared to casuals. Sim guys are not a top priority. And with EA holding the license, they pretty much got the consumer where they want them.

That is where they are aiming for, the online casual gamers of course with the "ccm" to lure the other Madden fans. But they are slowly taking away the control that the player has and forcing us to play it their way, which is online.

MUT was a successful money making gimmick for them, the online thing will be next. Nickel and diming is what EA wants to do since they can't fight the used game stores or the ability to restrict that.

Watch and see what happens.

[Mr_truthman.com]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I fiddle with sliders in NBA 2k just as much as I do Madden. It takes a long time to get it where I want it, at least a month before I settle on something. Plus, the rosters are so horrible, that you have users making all world rosters and they fininished with those around December or a bit later. Plus, there are much more football fans than NBA fans, I don't even know if NBA 2k does half the sales Madden does, although they do well for what they have, plus, they are pretty much exclusive too. Just putting things into perspective.

I know 2k11 sold over 5 million copies. And that number will only go up as LIVE is pretty much dead. 2k geared it game towards sim, LIVE towards casual, and the consumer spoke. Clearly, when it comes to basketball, the consumer wants sim. Madden, has no competetion so they have no incentive to make sim. There model suggests what they do is a success. Which is badly skewed because no one else can make NFL football.

[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr_truthman.com

I know 2k11 sold over 5 million copies. And that number will only go up as LIVE is pretty much dead. 2k geared it game towards sim, LIVE towards casual, and the consumer spoke. Clearly, when it comes to basketball, the consumer wants sim. Madden, has no competetion so they have no incentive to make sim. There model suggests what they do is a success. Which is badly skewed because no one else can make NFL football.

Live has been dead for 2 yrs, so, I don't see that number climbing much more.

Last year, NBA 2k sold a little more than 4 million, that's including PC.

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=nba+2k12

[rjsuperfly66]

Personally speaking, I think Madden is built around the "casual" gamer. It starts when the first play screen pops up .. Default setting is gameplan, and based on how broken gameplan has been since it debuted its clearly a casual setting. Most people who are "serious" gamers don't even use it and go into the conventional setting. The ballhawk features, another example for casual gamer. Any intense player doesn't need it. I've never even used it. Auto sprint and strafe? Definitely for the more casual gamer, not capable of strafing or sprinting at the appropriate time.

Now if people want to say CCM is not for the casual gamer, I can easily point out a similar amount of "sim" players that had a hard time navigating. It's a completely different mode, definitely an increased learning curve. Benefit of practice? New location of menus? It takes a few minutes of exploring to get comfortable with, not as easy as pick up and play franchise was in the past because it basically didn't change for 15 years.

Regardless, the least disappointing part of the game (and it is improved this year), is online. It is easier to stop money plays ... However, stop that clown on his 1st 4th and 16 and its almost always an automatic quit. I wish these players got punished more than just DNF, like losing more points based on time of the game. If you lost 40 points rather than 10, maybe you think twice, yet shouldn't be penalized if system deems it as lost connection.

One thing I wish for that would not appeal to casual gamer ... Adaptive AI. Learn players and tendencies (without cheating). I played someone in the top 100 who torched me out of 1 formation and about 3 plays. It was out of IFORM, and he would either run the ball out of this formation or audible to play where Crabtree and Davis run those difficult post routes, and a WR underneath with the running back. I could not find a defense to consistently stop this ... I can only control one player user control and those guys just torched me. However, I wish the defense would learn tendancies out of certain plays and adjust, rather than keep trailing the WR running the same route over and over and over. I user control one guy and he goes to the other. Play more pass defense and he runs. Tough.

Regardless, I think the argument should be that Madden is not enough geared towards the sim gamer ... That is the major reason why people spend days and days on sliders, to make the game actually play realistic to everyone else.

[SloeyEZ]

Quote: Originally Posted by rjsuperfly66

One thing I wish for that would not appeal to casual gamer ... Adaptive AI. Learn players and tendencies (without cheating). I played someone in the top 100 who torched me out of 1 formation and about 3 plays. It was out of IFORM, and he would either run the ball out of this formation or audible to play where Crabtree and Davis run those difficult post routes, and a WR underneath with the running back. I could not find a defense to consistently stop this ... I can only control one player user control and those guys just torched me. However, I wish the defense would learn tendancies out of certain plays and adjust, rather than keep trailing the WR running the same route over and over and over.

And you put ^that^ in and they all start screaming about cheating AI

[tfctillidie]

Quote: Originally Posted by wheelman990

Make it more casual so they can bring in a very few new people, meanwhile loose a ton of old faithfuls? Makes sense to me. Come on man, all they have to do is make this game for people that love actual football, and the consumer base will grow, just like the NFL fan base has. How much more casual can Madden really get and still be football anyway? I can see it now, the NFL announces it is removing all its rules because it is just to hard for the new fans to follow. Something tells me a lot of the current fans would loose interest. They expect football when they turn on the TV, and most people expect football when they want to play it. Instead of watering down Madden, I would suggest they simply keep making blitz for the one or two casual button type guys. If you consider Blitz to be a poor game, or not interesting, maybe you see the problem with making a football game geared for casual fans.

Where on earth did I say to make it for casual fans? I said to focus on football gamers who don't play Madden. They likely want a better football game....hence why they don't play.

[SteelerSpartan]

I would say Madden is far more geared for the "Casual" then it is for people looking for a Simulation.

As others have mentioned, This writer should just go play blitz


Really this whole "Casual" vs Sim thing annoys the hell out of me because I think its been used as an excuse to not to do the work the game needs to be labeled a sim

This just baffles me with a sport like football, which is almost universally loved here in America

I will admit that there are some morons in the NFL Offices trying to do some of the same thing with real football.....Looking to appeal to stupid Fantasy-Football Nuts who don't really care about the teams or NFL as long as they get to watch their Fantasy players put up high numbers and win them their league

[wheelman990]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I fiddle with sliders in NBA 2k just as much as I do Madden. It takes a long time to get it where I want it, at least a month before I settle on something. Plus, the rosters are so horrible, that you have users making all world rosters and they fininished with those around December or a bit later. Ya, I had to fiddle with sliders also. I am just saying a sim minded game can sell well. Not really comparing Madden vs 2k for game quality or anything. Plus, there are much more football fans than NBA fans, I don't even know if NBA 2k does half the sales Madden does, although they do well for what they have, plus, they are pretty much exclusive too. I agree, much more football fans. nba 2k is getting close to madden though. I believe they were near 5 million sales with 11, not sure about 12(there was a strike). I think Madden is near 6 million.I may be wrong, so don't take these as facts, i am pretty sure they are close though, and I remember charts showing NBA 2k was catching Madden quickly. I'll have to look it up to confirm. Just putting things into perspective.

Responded in bold.