Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

[G-Men_in_Mass]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

No I dont want to go that route and I shouldnt have to. I appreciate your efforts but I didnt come here to get suggestions...They have a gamers manual for that. I came here to express my concerns with the gameplay. Ive played with sliders for the last 3 Madden installments that Ive bought.....they ameliorate SOME of the problems, but they are hardly a panacea for the games many problems. At some point I expect a game developer to actually listen to what players are saying and address the problems with solutions that dont involve basically telling the user to reprogram/reformulate the game himself.

Sliders, imo are simply putting a bandaid on the shotgun wound. They arent as effective as they should be, and they shouldnt truly be necessary. Clearly they work well for you, and thats excellent. But for me, they arent ideal after Ive already bought what has been marketed as a ready to play, complete professional football game. Ive done my share of holding my tongue, beating around the bush about how I feel about the game and holding out faith/waiting for next year's installment to address the myriad of issues. If what I say about this game is offensive, too bad...no one can say that I, of all people, havent been loyal to the brand, and no one can say that I havent improvised when gameplay was less than optimal. But at this point, I have the right to expect the same respect and effort in return from EA.

Good luck to you as well though.

Try enjoying the game and stop looking for things wrong and you might find out that its a really good game...

[harlequin782]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

Try enjoying the game and stop looking for things wrong and you might find out that its a really good game...

Id actually rather EA try and make a playable professional football game...If they actually did this they'd find out that Madden 2011 is really a pretty poor representation of professional football. Besides, I bought the game fair and square. I didnt pirate the game or anything - I spent my money just like everyone else. So I have the right to demand customer satisfaction. They can either hear my concerns or tell me they dont need my money and to get lost. But somethings need to be said. At least when my hard earned money is involved. The day I get a free copy of Madden will be the day that Ill have no complaints whatsoever about the gameplay. But barring that scenario, being an ostrich doesnt do anything to improve the realism within the game, nor does it absolve EA of the responsibility to TRY and LOOK for things wrong and fix them.

EA is a multimillion dollar company filled with grown men and women. They dont need me to stroke their egos nor handle them with kid gloves. They make more than enough revenue off of this poorly developed franchise to be able to handle hearing an objective opinion every once in a while. They get all the unwarranted "attaboy's" they need from fanboys and media bedfellows. Well Im neither, but I am a disgruntled longtime patron of the franchise and an avid fan of professional football.

But rest assured, next year, this forum wont have to worry about all of my griping..lol..I can tell you that now. But until then, Ill voice my concerns like any other consumer who has paid fair price for a product.

[dirtguru]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

As for franchise mode...I don't think gamers want a real franchise mode.

For instance players ratings fluctuate year to year in Madden a great deal more than they do in any franchise mode ever created. How do people suggest this is handled? Are you okay with ratings jumping up and down by as much as 5 to 10 overall points?

Can gamers really contend with the intricacies of the NFL salary cap?

I understand EA's reasons for having a watered down franchise mode. Only a select few are using it.

I suggest EA starts to push for an ala carte approach to their games. Spend resources on more add on-external niches like Teambuilder. I would love to see a complete roster editor and most important a complete playbook editor. Charge $5 to $10 extra for these and have them be continuous products that evolve year to year outside of the "main" build of the game. Franchise mode could be one of these extras.

May cost the gamer more but I would pay a premium for these extra things I want.

I am a 46 year old hardcore offline franchise sim player. Managing intricacies of NFL salary caps would not be a problem, R.F.A and U.F.A. and year to year ratings fluctuations would be great.
Yes,I would love to see more realistic A.I. interaction, more challenging/realistic gameplay without having to adjust sliders which may be asking too much at this time, short off a complete rebuild of Madden.
That being said, I agree with Dewie 12, I would gladly pay an additional $60 bucks for an add on like H.C. 09 to integrate into Madden 10 or 11.

[MattIntellect]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

this is what I am tired of hearing already (see big RED text above)..

Yeah, but this year we have GamePlanning. I guess you just can't have both in one year. It really doesn't matter that much to me as of now, because Madden 11 is a pretty solid game this year. I haven't encountered all of my usual problems with the game, but of course, I'm not looking for them either.

[harlequin782]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

Am I the only one here who remembers a semblance of gameplanning from last gen? Whats more, you could go even further to create your own plays and playbook if you wanted. I forget which version, but I had drawn up some pretty sick plays on PS2 madden. And now Im supposed to climb on my roof and do the stanky leg just because we have a watered down version of a feature that was far more integrated into a last gen iteration? Perhaps you couldnt designate the situational probability of when to use those plays, but game planning is NOT an entirely new feature..Goodness, where are the standards.

[MJenness]

Re: Robert Flores Goes One-On-One With EA Sports Madden NFL 11 Game Designers (ESPN)

'When' we decide to announce a detail does not change the fact that we did announce this fact well in advance (2 months) of product release. I would say that my statement is true. We announced it just before E3 simply because we felt like our community was expecting a Franchise announcement @ E3. The news would not have been out of the bag @ E3 because we had our game modes locked out in that particular build. The more likely scenerio is that the information would have been out there in late July when we start sending out review code.

We don't typically announce 'bad stuff' at all during our PR calendar and only chose to do this after reading the forums. It was clear people were expecting changes that we were not going to deliver on. It's really as simple as that.

Phil

Ok, so other than my remark that it would have been known at E3, we agree...thanks for the honesty, Phil.