A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

[Art01]

EA Sports has chosen to place a number of restrictions on the Create-A-Team option in Madden 10 for 360, including:

1. Rosters cannot be edited in the Create-A-Team function.

2. Created Teams can be imported into Franchises, where Rosters can be edited to some degree (player data, but not ratings).

3. Created Teams edited in the Franchise mode can be exported for use in Play Now games, but Exported Teams can then no longer be edited at all in the Create-A-Team screen.

4. Under some conditions, Created Teams become un-editable in the Franchise Mode (it is not clear to me what causes this condition to occur).

5. After the initial Roster is filled during the Create-A-Team process, it is not possible to alter the Roster with any players other than current NFL players (NFL Greats are no longer available after the initial Roster has been completed).

There are also other restrictions, but the point of this email is that for some reason which I completely fail to understand, EA Sports has provided the Create-A-Team feature, but has made it obtuse and difficult to use and very limited with regard to permitted modifications.

WHY??

When I purchase the license to use software, I expect to be able to use the software in ways that most appeal to me and I do not expect to be placed under arbitrary and severe restrictions by the software developers.

The net result for me is the feeling that I have wasted my money with the purchase of Madden 10. Unless these restrictions are removed and others not imposed, I will not purchase future editions of this game.

Perhaps the EA Team would respond to this email with an explanation of these limitations, so that I might understand their rationale.

Art

[Victor Fox]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

One need only look as far as EA's own NCAA 10 to see a Create-A-Team done impressively in their "Teambuilder" function. You can create a team using their online teambuilder website, can name each and every one of your players, manually adjust every rating, go in-depth with uniform creation, stadium design, etc etc, all without losing any of the functionality of a normal Dynasty (NCAA's version of Franchise) mode.

I hereby second Art01's open letter to ask EA to please give a little love to Franchise Mode. It is the only thing that keeps me playing madden from February through August.

[Victor Fox]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

In furtherance of the lack of functionality with created teams, let's look at this picture of a team in the superbowl, one season after relocating to Los Angeles from St. Louis.

Notice the following:

1) Instead of a superbowl patch, there is a nasty scar of "color."
2) Rather than a "Bulldogs" logo, or even a simple "Los Angeles" there is an old St. Louis Rams logo.

[Azcardinal32]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

Another thing is when relocating a team in franchise if i use the modern open endzone for my stadium, no matter what logo i pick for my new team there is always a shark statue in the corners of the modern open endzone.. please fix this EA. It should be a statue of what ever i pick to be MY teams mascot not tibouron's shark. thanks.

[dannerparty]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

yeah, I noticed this too with my franchise. Really takes away from the experience! Is it me or was designing your new uniforms painfully cumbersome...I mean, we're not even allowed to have your typical 3 striped sleeves...all the options they give you make your team look arena league-ish! EA, please fix this..or expand on the idea. How about a logo generator where they let you bitmap your own design!!! that would be sweet! who's with me?!

[cam780]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

The sad part with this is that it is something that has been freshly broken. Create A Team at least worked somewhat last year. There are several issues with relocating during a franchise
- the superbowl patch
- dark visors show up as white
- secondary gloves show up white
- no alternate jerseys and the inability option to mix and match.
-

Another thing is when relocating a team in franchise if i use the modern open endzone for my stadium, no matter what logo i pick for my new team there is always a shark statue in the corners of the modern open endzone.. please fix this EA. It should be a statue of what ever i pick to be MY teams mascot not tibouron's shark. thanks.

This too but its fixable. If you edit your team and reselect the logo that you want it will show up.

[Victor Fox]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

This too but its fixable. If you edit your team and reselect the logo that you want it will show up.

The sad thing is that there are so many other workarounds or minor glitches/bugs that it's a shame they don't simply patch it. None of what we're asking for is drastic by any means. A patch could easily fix most/all of these problems.

[Valdarez]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

Do not export your team in franchise mode, once you do, you can no longer edit it in Franchise, OR from the Creation Zone. Mucks up everything it seems. Not sure why that feature / capability is even in the game. It's clearly broken and effectively serves no purpose other than to break team package editing.

[Art01]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

Seems like I have touched an issue which has bothered a number of people.

It really is curious that the EA team released the game with the issues noted in the Create-A-Team discussion and did not address them with patches.

EA knows how to make Create-A-Team work properly. Madden 09 for the Original XBOX provides a fully functional Create-A-Team feature, including the ability to edit Player Ratings in Created Teams. Created Teams can be accessed under the Historic Teams game option for full Roster edit capability.

Speaking as a retired technical business executive from the electronics manufacturing services business, it seems to me that these issues do not occur by chance. I vey much doubt that EA does not know of these issues, since they are so obvious. There is a long history of issues being released within these games each year, then either being patched or, more likely, improved upon in the next year's game.

It appears to me that EA believes that implemeting fixes and improvements enhances sales for next year's game. That approach may work for EA, since so many people continue to buy the game year over year.

It does not work for me.

Art

[Azcardinal32]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

Seems like I have touched an issue which has bothered a number of people.

It really is curious that the EA team released the game with the issues noted in the Create-A-Team discussion and did not address them with patches.

EA knows how to make Create-A-Team work properly. Madden 09 for the Original XBOX provides a fully functional Create-A-Team feature, including the ability to edit Player Ratings in Created Teams. Created Teams can be accessed under the Historic Teams game option for full Roster edit capability.

Speaking as a retired technical business executive from the electronics manufacturing services business, it seems to me that these issues do not occur by chance. I vey much doubt that EA does not know of these issues, since they are so obvious. There is a long history of issues being released within these games each year, then either being patched or, more likely, improved upon in the next year's game.

It appears to me that EA believes that implemeting fixes and improvements enhances sales for next year's game. That approach may work for EA, since so many people continue to buy the game year over year.

It does not work for me.

Art

They are not addressing these issues with patches because i believe they are just going to use teambuilder from NCAA for M11. So it would be a waste to fix something in this game just to replace it in a few months. I remember hearing that ian wanted to get Teambuilder into M10 but there wasnt enough time.

[pointNumberOne]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

They are not addressing these issues with patches because i believe they are just going to use teambuilder from NCAA for M11. So it would be a waste to fix something in this game just to replace it in a few months. I remember hearing that ian wanted to get Teambuilder into M10 but there wasnt enough time.

This would be AMAZING

*fingers crossed*

[Victor Fox]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

It would essentially solve every problem ever. No joke.

[Hooe]

Re: A Question To EA Sports Regarding 360 Madden 10 Create-A-Team Design

Speaking as a retired technical business executive from the electronics manufacturing services business, it seems to me that these issues do not occur by chance. I vey much doubt that EA does not know of these issues, since they are so obvious. There is a long history of issues being released within these games each year, then either being patched or, more likely, improved upon in the next year's game.

EA probably does know about these issues with the next-gen Create A Team function. That said, given that you are a retired technical business executive, you probably also know that EA has to prioritize features, bug fixes, etc. and only has so many man-hours to make Madden each year.

I'm going to guess that, compared to revamped presentation, streamlined franchise mode, Pro-Tak and other gameplay improvements, online franchise, etc., that create-a-team was very very low on the priority list and as such was cut from being addressed significantly in this past year's development cycle. Would you rather that Pro-Tak completely not exist and/or have some huge unaddressed bug in it that murders the game's guise of realism in exchange of having create-a-team working? Would you rather have Madden 09's dull-as-dirt presentation back, thus giving each game a rather "meh" feel?

People act like EA just has infinite resources and time to make these games and to make them perfectly in every way ever. Quite simply, they don't and thus they can't.

Don't get me wrong, I think that Create-A-Team has been underwhelming in Madden for years, but I understand why EA hasn't made any significant changes to it in a while, as well; compared to the rest of the game, it's not very important for the vast majority of their customer base.