Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

[StL_RamZ]

Too me it's looks like this took a week 2 finish and put up...I still prefer online Fran.

[SHAKYR]

ChaseB, thanks for the not letting EA off the hook comment. EA producers are going to defend a decision if they agree with it or not.

[RogueHominid]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

More people played OTP than OF? Wow! Is that in terms of raw numbers of people who actually logged on and tried that mode once? Over time? If that's a legit statistical statement, then that's fine. You have to cater to your user base. I found that statement surprising, though.

I'm not sure I buy the argument that what OFs are about is playing together, therefore Communities effectively meets that need while also negating the drawback of scheduling difficulties. OFs are about playing together, but they're also about year-over-year GM moves in FA, the draft and trades, competition for division titles and playoff births, SB wins over the years, and such. It's certainly true that scheduling can be a bear, but I don't think Communities as its described is a proper surrogate when all those things are taken into consideration.

Honestly, I get tired of picking up and playing games online outside of the online franchise context after a month or two because the teams don't change. By that time in an OF you're looking at a draft and an influx of new players.

[jyoung]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

Exactly, most of the fun of online franchise comes from the managerial aspect of it.

The actual week-to-week games are the weakest part of the experience.

Which is why I never bothered to play regular ranked games in Madden.

Plus you mostly just see the popular teams over and over again (Eagles, Patriots, Cowboys). At least in a full online franchise, you face a different team every week instead of just playing against the same handful of top teams all the time.

[Danimal]

Again I have this feature already it's called a friends list and you know why it works better? Is I know everyone on my friends list. There is no way to actively make sure community members play the way you want them too no matter how many configuration options they give you.

[number1thumbs]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

online communities would be great if they werent done halfway. As of now, there is nothing stopping a cheeser from joining a sim community and exploiting the game. If you have hundreds of members it will be really hard for the manager(s) to decipher who is telling the truth when it actually comes down to kicking someone out.

Also, Like others have stated, there are many, many different definitions of sim. As it stands now, it will be extrememly hard to get the specific rules across to everyone unless they're the rare message board frequenter. But even then it will still be a "he said, he said" debate.

EA should have set up a number of different types of communities ( sim, tourney, beginner, etc.) where rules/policies are already set.
And If they(EA) were really ambitious, they could have made it so that league managers have a numerous list of options to choose from to customize the rules of the league(same playcall frequency, run/pass ratio, etc.) Think customizable '05 fair play but with a lot more options.

But the fact that yet another barebones feature took precedence over giving an already installed feature more much needed depth seems like a poor decision

[CreatineKasey]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

More people played OTP than OF? Wow! Is that in terms of raw numbers of people who actually logged on and tried that mode once? Over time? If that's a legit statistical statement, then that's fine. You have to cater to your user base. I found that statement surprising, though.

I'm not sure I buy the argument that what OFs are about is playing together, therefore Communities effectively meets that need while also negating the drawback of scheduling difficulties. OFs are about playing together, but they're also about year-over-year GM moves in FA, the draft and trades, competition for division titles and playoff births, SB wins over the years, and such. It's certainly true that scheduling can be a bear, but I don't think Communities as its described is a proper surrogate when all those things are taken into consideration.

Honestly, I get tired of picking up and playing games online outside of the online franchise context after a month or two because the teams don't change. By that time in an OF you're looking at a draft and an influx of new players.

Even with roster updates EA's football games hold very little replayability when it comes to ranked matches. I wish they'd do something where people would select their team before entering matchmaking, and maybe each user was allowed to "ban" one or two teams so they don't face the two teams they play so much.

I think OTP and online franchise hit two polar opposite demographics for EA. They chose casual this time around for online modes. Fortunately, Derek Adams' website kind of saves us in a lot of ways. If it wasn't for that, I think OS would be blowing up with rage posts.

Hopefully the OS community makes the most of the feature by tracking weekly leaders, creating leaderboard seasons, and designing ideal settings for sim football. We ran that APF leaderboard and it went pretty well. Maybe this one can hold some weight. The key will be finding someone willing to put the time in and run the community.

[TNT713]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times... Online Franchise doesn't have the participation numbers to justify massive amounts of development at the same time that Offline Franchise and Online Ranked Games were in disarray. There simply aren't enough resources to address all modes adequately so someone had to make a tough choice.

EA made the right one... Improve the most popular modes that we know for a fact people are playing and save the modes they "might" play for another time.

Here's the problem though... The people who love the idea of Madden Online Franchise are looking at NCAA's Online Dynasty as a comparison. While the analogy may seem sound, the comparison doesn't take the differences in the audiences into account. There's only a 10% cross-over audience between Madden and NCAA.

The hard part is stepping away from the passion... It's easier to discuss it in terms of widgets. If "ACME Widgets" sells 40 million total widgets, but Offline Franchise widgets and Online Ranked widgets make the bulk of your sales - it makes sense you would devote R&D resources to making your best selling widgets better - especially when there are complaints about your best sellers. If Online Franchise widgets make up less than 3% of your sales, you might not devote tons of R&D to improving those until your best selling widgets are perfect.

As a business, it's tough to justify allotting resources to improving what you can't sell when you KNOW EXACTLY how to improve what you sells like hot cakes.

While it seems like Online Franchise is HUGE everywhere - it's not. The vocal majority of Online Franchise fans are here. Outside of the OS community, it's hard to find another community that is as vocal about the lack of improvements to Online Franchise.

And in defense of the 'excuse,' the biggest knock on Online Franchise is the same reason most leagues fold before finishing a season. People!!! It's tough to get 32 guys together to complete their games. Like most leagues, losers quit and leave the entire league/franchise holding the bag. EA can't fix this because they don't have access to the root cause. No software in the world will make the unreliable reliable or sore losers instant sportsmen...

That said, I'm eager to see what Communities will do to progress the Online landscape. Hopefully, it will heal many of the rifts between players or at least build a platform from which trust can develop.

Maybe once that happens Online Franchise can get some love.

Later

[NAdkins01]

As EA should note from EVERY response on here. Nobody plays the team play for any extent of time. This community feature is a complete waste of resources. I will stick with NCAA and their REALISTIC online dynasty this year. Looking forward to Madden 13 (if they get off their asses)

[XtremeDunkz]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

You just have to find the right franchises. I play in 4, yes 4, OF's that are filled with 32 people each, advance every 3 days, and finish 5 seasons each madden edition with full free agency and salary cap system. It can easily be done.

[Icarus2k9]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

And in defense of the 'excuse,' the biggest knock on Online Franchise is the same reason most leagues fold before finishing a season. People!!! It's tough to get 32 guys together to complete their games. Like most leagues, losers quit and leave the entire league/franchise holding the bag. EA can't fix this because they don't have access to the root cause. No software in the world will make the unreliable reliable or sore losers instant sportsmen...

I think I was in the last board discussion when you brought this up, but one of the major sticking points it seems is this constant reference to 32 player franchises. I know that's the dream, but why does it have to be? You might not be able to scoop up 31 diehards, but you would agree a number of people have a small friends list of players who may be interested in setting one up.

If EA was willing to make the mode robust and allow full offline customisation online (I'm talking sliders, either universal or tailored for each player) then you wouldn't mind playing the CPU and that 32-player dream becomes less important. I'm a Packers fan, my friend is a Steelers fan. We would have to organise five games maximum in four seasons. But because there's no locker for saves any more, we're not allowed to have a good shared franchise.

If EA are saying that the mode can only be a success if you can get 32 players rolling and rocking in the wild west that is the internet, no wonder it was doomed to failure in its current state.

On topic, thanks Chase for getting this nugget out of him - though I occasionally wish you guys would go one step further and call them on it then and there rather than later as part of your analysis. I don't know how possible that is, but nice work anyway.

[GiantBlue76]

You just have to find the right franchises. I play in 4, yes 4, OF's that are filled with 32 people each, advance every 3 days, and finish 5 seasons each madden edition with full free agency and salary cap system. It can easily be done.

You nailed it. All of this stuff is just the same old excuses. I'm also getting really tired of the argument that OF is not used. That's complete and utter nonsense. To be blunt, the mode was implemented poorly. It's incomplete and offers nothing resembling a franchise mode. I think it would have been better suited to not even post these types of articles. Tiburon blew it (again). I think the online communities is a good idea, but I still don't see how this revolutionizes how I will play madden online. Online leagues introduced in 2000 by ea and in 2004 by 2k revolutionized how I play sports games, this will not. I also don't see how they are going to regulate how someone gets booted from a community. Once again an incomplete mode. What would have been better would have been built in rules and fair play rules that force you to abide to them. That's what I thought this was going to be. This is not much different than a regular lobby.

[TNT713]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

Regardless of whether we like the decision or not is irrelevant... EA has given us access to the hows and whys of their decision making process and their decisions make perfectly logical business sense. When did telling the truth about your decision process amount to being an excuse?

Later

[iamgramps]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

As EA should note from EVERY response on here. Nobody plays the team play for any extent of time. This community feature is a complete waste of resources. I will stick with NCAA and their REALISTIC online dynasty this year. Looking forward to Madden 13 (if they get off their asses)

I understand your frustration, but OS is only a small voice in the Madden community, and I believe EA makes decisions based off telemetry; therefore, they may go with what the numbers show. Can the numbers be skewed? Maybe, but there is no other justifiable way to measure the success of a games feature.

Remember, Madden sells millions, and out of those people only a small amount even know that these types of forums exist, at least in St. Louis. I know at least 30 people who play Madden on a regular basis and not one had ever heard of sites like this one. So, for every person that want online franchise, there are possible 3 that don't care or don't know how and where to voice their complaints. I'm not excusing EA, but I understand why they made this decision.

[ChaseB]

Re: Online Communities Took Precedence Over Online Franchise in Madden NFL 12

On topic, thanks Chase for getting this nugget out of him - though I occasionally wish you guys would go one step further and call them on it then and there rather than later as part of your analysis. I don't know how possible that is, but nice work anyway.

What would you like me to call Anthony on here? He's not the one that made the sole decision to not update Franchise mode. My analysis after is not really hard hitting or really combative in nature in this case either. They know they are/will take heat for not updating Franchise mode.

And this isn't me being defensive here either, by all means tell me what you think you would want to see more out of with certain interviews?