An article about Madden 2004 and EA Sports in general:

[ODogg]

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jmood88 said:

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ODogg said:
There is some truth to that post but it's overstated. EA does do what they can in the short time period they have yearly to improve the game. I think alot of what we ask for would require EA to go to a 2 year development cycle instead of the current 1 year schedule and I doubt that would go over too well. Like most of you I don't like to see them wasting time on bells & whistles such as they do but by the same token the game isn't just for hardcore people it is for everyone so I understand why they do it.

EA certainly has some issues but they catch more flak than is deserved for their games and how they develop them IMO.

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All the other developers have the same amount of time yet they can chage most of the problems that were in the game the year before.

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That's debateable. Lets look at EA's major competitor, Sega Sports. Every year since NFL2k has appeared on Sega Dreamcast they've corrected a crapload of problems I agree. Problem is there is always signifigant new ones. They do a great job of doing major overhauls but major overhauls create signifigant problems elsewhere. EA does do more tweaking and polishing which results in less noticeable progress but is also less apt to create signifigant problems elsewhere in the game. So it's a tradeoff.

[undertow1969]

Pretty long read just to say that you don't like Madden/EA.

You must of had some extra time on your hands.

Thanks for posting this in the Madden board!

[BTG]

I must have had time on my hands? Yea, pretty much.

But pretty much everyone has time they can spare. Some people use that time to play video games (as I do occasionally), some go hunting, some work on cars, others write articles for their website.

I'm one of the people who enjoys writing and I DO have plenty of time on my hands...I just got out of the navy and I'm waiting for my college money to kick in.

Look, I apologize if I ruffled some feathers by posting this on the Madden board, but I really didn't know where to put it. This was published on the front page of Madden Mania for a while so I only assumed it would work well here also. Apparently I was wrong. People thought I was "flaming" Madden or attempting to provoke a fight. I was not. I only posted it to see if there were others who felt this way about the game, I guess I'm the minority.

[Jistic]

That's why I suggested you go to the ESPN Football forum. Trust me, you'll find PLENTY of people who feel the same way you do.

[FSU_Animal]

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BTG said:
I must have had time on my hands? Yea, pretty much.

But pretty much everyone has time they can spare. Some people use that time to play video games (as I do occasionally), some go hunting, some work on cars, others write articles for their website.

I'm one of the people who enjoys writing and I DO have plenty of time on my hands...I just got out of the navy and I'm waiting for my college money to kick in.

Look, I apologize if I ruffled some feathers by posting this on the Madden board, but I really didn't know where to put it. This was published on the front page of Madden Mania for a while so I only assumed it would work well here also. Apparently I was wrong. People thought I was "flaming" Madden or attempting to provoke a fight. I was not. I only posted it to see if there were others who felt this way about the game, I guess I'm the minority.

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BTG, great post

I fully understand what you are trying to say and obviously for some people, the full understanding will come slowly for them.

He's not flaming Madden...he was flaming EA Sports in general in how well they converse with their fans/customers

Let me see if I can point it out in Layman's Terms for you people who are blind to the truth:

"Madden sucks" is a direct opinion about the actual game itself (or John Madden himself)

No where in his writing does he mention that Madden sucks. Instead, he mentions that the company does not listen well to their customers/fans.

[BTG]

YES...someone gets it!

You're the man FSU Animal.

[Neolithic]

and ummm....he's totally right about Tiberon(sp?) not taking risks. EA probably has a hand in it. But...Look what they did with Triple Play. Now, I understand Triple Play was not the top seller every year and could be risked but. I think Madden is headed in that direction. They won't risk it NOW because they know they got sales. However....they could do what they did with MVP Baseball. You set a 2-3 year plan.

year 1: overhaul engine from scratch, get all basic fundimentals of game in place. Iron out bugs. Maybe lacking super depth at places (dynasty, and such)

year 2: tweak things from year 1, and overhaul/deepen any modes that were lacking

year 3: tweak everything to customer satisfaction


they won't do this because they can't stand losing some sales and fans that first year because the game might be losing features and [censored] it had now, and wouldn't be the BEST!!! game out there. But, it would be set up for being the best again in a year or 2. This is the problem with EA/Tiburon(sp?)

however I know you will see a totally new Madden game in the next few years. it's on the Triple Play path now, and everntually will be considred to SUCK like TP did, because the competition overhauled their games and got ahead of them. THEN, when the risk is low enough, they will overhaul.

Oh well.....

[Cardot]

Personally, I like Sega Football much better than Madden, but why would EA go out of their way to change a title that sells a kajillion copies every year? I would like to see EA make some changes to the game, but that probably won't happen considering that they have a pretty loyal fan base that only gets more dedicated with posts like these.