Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

[REDRZA]

I remember Ian and Co. talking about making the game as realistic as possible, touting "Everything you see on Sundays, see it in Madden NFL". Seems only a year later, and the philosophy has become more "casual gamer" friendly.

Everything about this game from it's new "features" like Gameflow and the Strategy pad (I know, i know, they are patching in the old controller scheme) seems to cater to the "pick up and play" gamers. You can see Gameflow is just ridiculous, letting the CPU pick 1 play instead of you calling your own play.

I assume the idea behind the strategy pad was to make it more accessible to the casual gamer also, with all the assignments and hot routes written on screen.

The thing that really bugs me so far is the lack of defense at times. Too many high scoring games, and one play scores. Too many broken tackles lead to big plays and scores. Just seems a bit arcadish at times.

EA's slogan this year is "Simpler, Quicker, Deeper", well real Madden fans don't want SIMPLER, or QUICKER. Deeper, sure, but this game doesn't seem any deeper than previous versions. So, goes back to the original question, why the philosophical change?

I'd be happy if they patch the amount of broken tackles, and make the coverage a bit better.

Guess they don't realize the decrease in sales has nothing to do with the game being "too complicated" for the masses. Dumbing the game down will not increase sales, making a better quality game will.

[canes21]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

You complain about things that are options such as GameFlow and Strategy Pad(soon anyways) and also things that can be fixed through sliders.

[thssanders]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

I changed around the sliders and have made it much more about defense now

[REDRZA]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

You complain about things that are options such as GameFlow and Strategy Pad(soon anyways) and also things that can be fixed through sliders.

I love guys like you. Reading comprehension is key. Where did i complain about those features? If you cared to read i stated that those features are casual gamer friendly, and the game this year seems to cater to those gamers. Not once did i complain, or say we were forced to use them.

Also, i only play online, so sliders are useless to me. The game should play good out of the box, so there would be no need to mess with sliders, which don't effect online play anyway.

[G-Men_in_Mass]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

The game feel more like Sunday then last year, now myself I dont waste my time online, so I can tweak sliders and have defensive struggles.... Its to bad they dont have a Cheese slider for online play...

[canes21]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

I don't love guys like you and it seemed to me you were complaining about them going more Casual and you mentioned some features you thought made it more casual. So I used a logical thought process and came up with you complaining about those features too.

And if you play online only, then you're out of luck with the sliders helping. But user vs user games have always seemed to play a lot better all around than CPU games, but that may just be me.

[bxgoods]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Defense can be fixed with a patch. So I'm not worried at all.

[REDRZA]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

I don't love guys like you and it seemed to me you were complaining about them going more Casual and you mentioned some features you thought made it more casual. So I used a logical thought process and came up with you complaining about those features too.

And if you play online only, then you're out of luck with the sliders helping. But user vs user games have always seemed to play a lot better all around than CPU games, but that may just be me.

Well no offense Canes, but your "logical thought process" is called assuming. I never complained about the features, because they are optional, and as a matter of fact, i kinda like the strategy pad. Just made the point that there seems to be a philosophical change in their development process.

I've always hated sliders because i have always been a head to head competitive gamer. I never play the CPU, it gets boring. If im playing a single player game its never a sports game. Sliders don't help in tournament play, or onlne play. They need to make the game play great out of the box.

[REDRZA]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Defense can be fixed with a patch. So I'm not worried at all.

Hope you are right. They just need to make tackling better, and tone down broken tackles, and just make the coverage a little tighter.

[cowboykmoney]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

The game is good enough to get us through till next year ,just add in superbowl wins in players award history so we can have a reason for trying to make it to the superbowl.[PLEASE ADD IN PATCH].

[canes21]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Maybe they are trying to make a great game, but the game is just a huge mess behind the scenes. I am not sticking up for them, that would be kind of ironic for me since I don't know if I am going to buy the game because how much I dislike EA and how terrible the demo was.

Anyways, my assumption wasn't just out of nowhere though. It was very logical. If someone appears to be complaining about A and B is and option that helps the game become more like A, then would you not assume they dislike B since they dislike A?

Who really cares though? Point is, the game has problems that affect online players like yourself and they should be fixed.

[REDRZA]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Maybe they are trying to make a great game, but the game is just a huge mess behind the scenes. I am not sticking up for them, that would be kind of ironic for me since I don't know if I am going to buy the game because how much I dislike EA and how terrible the demo was.

Anyways, my assumption wasn't just out of nowhere though. It was very logical. If someone appears to be complaining about A and B is and option that helps the game become more like A, then would you not assume they dislike B since they dislike A?

Who really cares though? Point is, the game has problems that affect online players like yourself and they should be fixed.

Thank you, wondering why we are arguing about what we both agree on.

[TNT713]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Forget sliders... Anybody ever thought about adjusting their skill?

I'm all for a realistic experience, but I take some of that responsibility on my own shoulders. When I'm a better player, my experience will be more realistic. Til then, I'm sucking up the unrealistic play as a mere price of the unfamiliarity with Madden 11. When I've mastered the intricate details of playing the game, my results will reflect it.

Til then, I'm leaving my sliders where they are.

Later

[Valdarez]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

Forget sliders... Anybody ever thought about adjusting their skill?

I'm all for a realistic experience, but I take some of that responsibility on my own shoulders. When I'm a better player, my experience will be more realistic. Til then, I'm sucking up the unrealistic play as a mere price of the unfamiliarity with Madden 11. When I've mastered the intricate details of playing the game, my results will reflect it.

Til then, I'm leaving my sliders where they are.

Later

You're hilarious. The only way to make Madden somewhat realistic last year was to modify the sliders. 'Skill' does not change how the game plays.

[Valdarez]

Re: Dev. team vision change in 1 year?

I remember Ian and Co. talking about making the game as realistic as possible, touting "Everything you see on Sundays, see it in Madden NFL". Seems only a year later, and the philosophy has become more "casual gamer" friendly.

Everything about this game from it's new "features" like Gameflow and the Strategy pad (I know, i know, they are patching in the old controller scheme) seems to cater to the "pick up and play" gamers. You can see Gameflow is just ridiculous, letting the CPU pick 1 play instead of you calling your own play.

I assume the idea behind the strategy pad was to make it more accessible to the casual gamer also, with all the assignments and hot routes written on screen.

The thing that really bugs me so far is the lack of defense at times. Too many high scoring games, and one play scores. Too many broken tackles lead to big plays and scores. Just seems a bit arcadish at times.

EA's slogan this year is "Simpler, Quicker, Deeper", well real Madden fans don't want SIMPLER, or QUICKER. Deeper, sure, but this game doesn't seem any deeper than previous versions. So, goes back to the original question, why the philosophical change?

I'd be happy if they patch the amount of broken tackles, and make the coverage a bit better.

Guess they don't realize the decrease in sales has nothing to do with the game being "too complicated" for the masses. Dumbing the game down will not increase sales, making a better quality game will.

Definitely a change in direction in Madden 11. Most of the gameplay changes we see are items that were supposed to be in Madden 10 including Locomotion, sideline catches, and proper line play (though this still isn't fixed). The other big item, blocking, which is better at the line, still isn't fixed beyond the line or in special teams (at least not in NCAA 2011).

This year's Madden definitely focused on the casual gamer. Seeing that they made no in roads with the hard core fans, they quickly retargeted their goals to casual fans or features with an immediate ROI (MUT, Scouting Reports, Live Madden Moments, etc). What's funny with the Madden Moments is you'll be getting the next year for free, so you are basically paying twice if you buy them this year. It makes good business sense, but most don't interest me as a gamer, or I find outright outrageous (charging 'coins' for Online Scouting Reports for example).