Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

[allnight]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

Lucky me I got backbreaker and madden 11

[Dewie12]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

EA in general does not consistently build on its titles.

Other companies do a much better job at evolving their game over and over each year to where you don't feel like you are playing the same game.

Everytime I play Madden all the games feel the same. Which could be because they haven't quite changed much of the core functionality. The demo with "speed" play basically increased that feeling.

The praise I give to sports video games is if I feel I am trying to win a game of that sport, or if I am trying to win a video game. When a company can make me forget about the latter and immerse me in the sport, those are the games I continue to play.

Madden and NCAA are not those games, and haven't been for most of their existence.

[AndyP]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

EA in general does not consistently build on its titles.

Exactly. It not only appears to have no vision - the focus seems to change on a year by year basis, often with the result that the big feature of the previous year is either left out the following year or left unchanged - but also they don't seem to know what they want in the game. Sim ? Arcade ? This straddling the line between the two just isn't working for me.

[goh]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

I just went for the in between solution with a long rental,anywhere up to 30 days. Madden 10 only lasted me about half as long as 09 so I decided to not buy this year but still wanted to do at least one season.

[blklightning]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

the only football-game-that-could

that's better.

come on now. it's not like they're the underdog out there. they're the only dog out there.

[EQuipT]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

i think Madden 11 will be the game that at long last delivers a semi realistic NFL experience from EA...and the funny thing is i haven't got it yet..NCAA is making me happy, and without the same expectations from a college game as i have for an NFL game, i am enjoying without feeling like i am being shortchanged..but if NCAA is any indication, then Madden 11 will probably be the best one yet...and will anyone notice???...EA has delivered too many unrealistic football games in the past and they may be paying for it this year......which is too bad as they may be on track now.hopefully 2k will be able to make an NCAA football game next year and we will have some choice again...i don't consider backbreaker a choice

its not, ncaa is alot better game. this madden is just a repackaged version of last years game and what was added sucks anyway.

[wallofhate]

This article is exactly how I feel and greatly written! It's almost to the point where I laugh at myself for buying the game day 1 because I know for a fact there are 1-2 patches that I'm goin to have to wait for weeks after spending my $60. I know the Madden team works hard its just it bothers me to instead of something made better they just change it to seemingly say "we did something" I'm 28 years old and like a lot of us that have been playing madden since the beginning its a strange love hate relationship with madden. It's a good game but not a great game and I'm getting the feeling that EA sports is fine with that but this marginally better Madden has ran its course with me.

[mva5580]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

There are problems with Madden, always will be. It's never going to change.

I just think that it's time for the user base at sites like this to accept that they are the EXTREME minority, and if anything should be grateful that EA puts as much effort as they do into making the game as realistic as it currently is. Because let's face it, most people just don't care. I'll bet you right now that a good percentage of the people who play this game aren't even aware that sliders exist, let alone care about going in and messing around with them. They just want to buy the game, play it with updated rosters/uniforms/etc, and have what their definition of fun is. Because their's is obviously different from people like us on this site.

To me, it's not fun to be able to drop back and fire 50 yard TD passes all day. To people like that, it's great. And some of it has to do with the age of those people playing, but some of it is just flat out not caring whether or not it's an ultra-realistic representation of the NFL.

And then you have to consider how far do you go with "Realistic?" For example say you're the Lions and you're playing against the Saints. Should you lose that game 99% of the time? ALWAYS, no matter what difficulty level the game is on, no matter how good you personally are at the game, etc? Because so often I hear people complain about "robo QB," defenders always batting balls down, too many injuries, and whatever else. Ok so if that stuff is actually set on a realistic level, we'd all be losing A LOT more than we do. If you really want the CPU AI to play you as the actual NFL team would play you, then you're not going 15-1, 14-2, 13-3 with very many teams in the game. If ever. And you'd rarely ever win the Super Bowl, as that's obviously REALLY hard to do. So are you ok with that? Or do you want it realistic, but realistic to the point of always being able to win? Where does it stop? And who defines where it stops?

It's impossible to navigate. It just is. And those people who some of us call "casuals" are probably going to get the most attention because they are the majority. Always will be. I just think that for how much people harp on demanding the game to be absolutely as realistic as possible, a lot of those same people would have a problem with how difficult the game was if it truly was that realistic.

[Hova57]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

There are problems with Madden, always will be. It's never going to change.

I just think that it's time for the user base at sites like this to accept that they are the EXTREME minority, and if anything should be grateful that EA puts as much effort as they do into making the game as realistic as it currently is. Because let's face it, most people just don't care. I'll bet you right now that a good percentage of the people who play this game aren't even aware that sliders exist, let alone care about going in and messing around with them. They just want to buy the game, play it with updated rosters/uniforms/etc, and have what their definition of fun is. Because their's is obviously different from people like us on this site.

To me, it's not fun to be able to drop back and fire 50 yard TD passes all day. To people like that, it's great. And some of it has to do with the age of those people playing, but some of it is just flat out not caring whether or not it's an ultra-realistic representation of the NFL.

And then you have to consider how far do you go with "Realistic?" For example say you're the Lions and you're playing against the Saints. Should you lose that game 99% of the time? ALWAYS, no matter what difficulty level the game is on, no matter how good you personally are at the game, etc? Because so often I hear people complain about "robo QB," defenders always batting balls down, too many injuries, and whatever else. Ok so if that stuff is actually set on a realistic level, we'd all be losing A LOT more than we do. If you really want the CPU AI to play you as the actual NFL team would play you, then you're not going 15-1, 14-2, 13-3 with very many teams in the game. If ever. And you'd rarely ever win the Super Bowl, as that's obviously REALLY hard to do. So are you ok with that? Or do you want it realistic, but realistic to the point of always being able to win? Where does it stop? And who defines where it stops?

It's impossible to navigate. It just is. And those people who some of us call "casuals" are probably going to get the most attention because they are the majority. Always will be. I just think that for how much people harp on demanding the game to be absolutely as realistic as possible, a lot of those same people would have a problem with how difficult the game was if it truly was that realistic.

very good post. as far as you question where does it stop as far as realistic. i think most would agree at this point getting the physics of the game where most would be happy. for example tacklin and not sliding off each other seeing the body move based on hits. ball have some weight yet being able to put it over heads and in breadbasket. stuff like that.

[Vikes1]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

Myself, and maybe some others, aren't even exactly sure why Madden just doesn't appeal to you any longer.

I don't know....is it just the same ole same ole feeling. Or pretty much knowing it'll most likely be a several weeks wait for patches to fix things that are hard to believe weren't fixed it the first place. Or how these issues ever got through to the retail version. But here they are again.

Personally, I believe Madden in two player mode is a dang solid gaming experience. But I spend the majority of my time vs the cpu. And to be honest...playing vs the AI, I always have the feeling I'm cheating...or being cheated. And that just doesn't provide a satisfying gaming experience. And no matter the settings I've tried for several years...I just can't shake that feeling. I think this more than anything has spoiled my Madden gaming.

I realize other sports game AI could use some work as well. But imo...Madden needs some serious AI attention, before I'll consider buying again.

[goalie]

just wanted to say that this is a good read... nicely written, good style...

[Dewie12]

Re: Out of Bounds: The Billion Dollar Elephant in the Room

I just think that it's time for the user base at sites like this to accept that they are the EXTREME minority, and if anything should be grateful that EA puts as much effort as they do into making the game as realistic as it currently is. Because let's face it, most people just don't care.

We don't ask EA to make the perfect game for us. All we ask is they give us the options to customize the game for our experience.

EA can make the gamers on here content by allowing to edit every player at anytime in every mode. Giving us true sliders that control every individual attribute and phenomena. Give the users the ability to "tune" the game to our liking.

All they have to do is give us the ability to "fix" our game. But every year they fail to open this up. That is why EA fails the OS crowd. They are the least open to the USER.

EA can cater to the casual gamer all they want but give us options to change the game ourselves. It isn't hard. But it is a philosophy that EA has not embraced.

[Gleebo]

"A time in which you know anyone and everyone who cares the smallest iota about sports video games will be playing the same game"

I care, I care by not buying it...

[J_Posse]

Very well written article and I can't wait to see more of this level of quality. Now, onto my opinion of the Madden series. Sadly, the exclusivity deal between the NFL and EA Sports really took a lot of my passion about Madden away. I was at one-time a die-hard Maddenite but always enjoyed trying out alternatives. Well, that all ended after 2004, yet I've learned to accept that we won't be seeing any alternative NFL titles in the near future.

I gave Madden 10 a legitimate chance after all the hype and blogs surrounding it's development swept me into believing the series was back on track. Well, I was excited at first but became frustrated that certain areas weren't improve or addressed (running game, animations/locomotion and defensive A.I. logic). I have read that Madden 11 does at least improve two of my complains, but I was led to believe that we would see these improvements last season. So, they've lost a customer for sometime or when competition returns.

[bullitt_711]

I liked your article, but it cut short of great when I see yet another borish tired annoying 2K reference I'm so flipping tired of 2K5 and it's brilliant presentation, uggh!!! I rented and played that game it was OK. All these people that refer to that particular game as a game of the football sports gods makes me ill because it's clearly not. I would bet half of these nutty people just say that because they hate Madden so much and they've heard 2K5 is brilliant eventhough they've never played it. Again good article with that one personal exception because it's a thorn in my respective side.