Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

[RaychelSnr]

A new series of articles from a Backbreaker developer on the design of Madden NFL Football. In part 1, we take a look at the core experience and audience of Madden: Just who is EA Sports seeking to please with the franchise anyways?

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[maccano]

A really insightful article, its good to see another perspective on the way that these games are made.

[jpdavis82]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

I've got 13 as a MAJOR win for the Hardcore, I don't know about ya'll.

Infinity Engine
No super lbs/psychic db's
Read and React
Pass Trajectories
Connected Careers
Nantz and Simms-could be considered casual by some, to me it's for the hardcore because it adds to the experience making it more like Sundays.

[Juce734]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

Interesting article there. I would probably fall in the middle between casual and hardcore.

I do not have the time to perfect a game like I once did. I do however like the smaller details that take a lot of time outside of the game like setting my team up and stuff like that. Some features I've liked and some I've hated in previous years.

GAMEFLOW I sort of liked because I could just play with whatever the coach called. Sometimes I would audible out of the play but for the most part I just ran with it.

This new infinity engine looks nice in the retail version and CCM looks fun too. Really excited to check them out. Hopefully they deliver or I will be trading my game in pretty quickly.

[Bgamer90]

Very good points and great chart at the bottom. Love the article.

[jmurphy31]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

Good Article. One question is did EA ever take advantage of Tuner Sets in Madden 12?

[jpdavis82]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

So do you guys see Madden 13 as breaking the trend in this chart and being more for the hardcore or do you think it's more for the casual?

[Cre8]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

Good Article. One question is did EA ever take advantage of Tuner Sets in Madden 12?

Game. Set. Match.

Perhaps one of the most infuriating issues most hardcore fans came across in Madden 12.

I never saw a thing about the game being tuned. Ever.

[StrawHat Patriot]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

So do you guys see Madden 13 as breaking the trend in this chart and being more for the hardcore or do you think it's more for the casual?

A bit of both,

[SHAKYR]

WOW! This reminds me of a project I'm working on. The chart itself is exactly what I was aiming for;

http://www.operationsports.com/SHAKY...rs-interested/

I wondering how marketing knows what each fans want and they can implement it in the game without scaring the other kinds of players away? I always they core plays come first(default) then the other kinds of players come as options.
EA is notorious for creating a hybrid game as default to please everyone.

[Big FN Deal]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

"The first thing you have to identify when analysing a video game is this: “What is the Core Experience the developers are trying to deliver?” Since the inception of John Madden Football back in 1984, Madden himself has stubbornly protected the Core Experience of the series: A realistic representation of NFL Football."

I hope this puts to rest any notion that attempting to achieve optimal NFL realism should take a backseat to anything in Madden, especially subjective notions of "fun". I don't really know what I think of the article overall because it seemed to suggest that EA/Tiburon has been trying to make Madden an optimally NFL realistic football game that casuals can access this console generation but I totally disagree. They seem to have been doing the opposite, imo, making a casual football game with just enough NFL realism to justify the NFL label.

Reading that chart of Casual vs Hardcore additions, it was really disappointing thinking about how poorly implemented and/or fleshed out the additions for both have been, up to this point.

[jpdavis82]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

A bit of both,

LOL, I'm surprised you didn't say it was a win for the casual. The only thing M13 did for the casual was probably piss them off, no fantasy drafts, no option to control all the teams in Connected Careers, trying to remove nanos.

[StrawHat Patriot]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

LOL, I'm surprised you didn't say it was a win for the casual.

What does that imply

[McNutted]

I think the ball was dropped on the tuners. While NCAA hasn't blown people away with the tuner feature, it was at least used. I can't say I remember a Madden tuner last year.

[jpdavis82]

Re: Breaking Down Madden: Core Experience and Audience

What does that imply

You don't give Madden much credit for when they do something for the hardcore.