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Old 08-09-2011, 11:28 AM   #121
Big FN Deal
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Join Date: Aug 2011
Re: Why aren't people focused on improvement?

Quote:
Originally Posted by TNT713
BigFNDeal,

I wholeheartedly understand your point because I've stood where you stand... But I've learned through years of experience that the assertion you are making is missing a key element that is 100% necessary to create a SIM environment: Skill

In real life EVERYONE in the NFL is skilled at performing their role from players, to coaches, to the ball boys. If this were also true in Madden, this discussion would never have to take place.

Follow me here: There are 120+ colleges in the US with football programs. Each of these teams carries upward of 60 players on the roster. Yet, there are only about 1800 professional players. Meaning there are THOUSANDS of players good enough to play college, but not god enough to play PRO. Dare I say that of the 1800 professional players, many of them are hanging by a thread because their skill set makes them JUST GOOD ENOUGH to play...

But look around the OS community... Strategy is NOT the strong point of this community. The strategy section is a proverbial ghost town all year long. Indeed, there are about 5 people that post to OS forums that I trust to discuss X's and O's in a knowledgeable fashion. That said, there seem to be hundreds of OS'ers that can discuss 'fake football' endlessly...

When I mentioned earlier that I have been where you stand, I meant it. When Madden '03 went online, I got my head smashed in. After some soul-searching I discovered that I had the following strategic weaknesses:
  • A-Gap Blitzes
  • Scrambling Quarterbacks
  • Stacked Defenses
  • Compressed Formations
  • Motion Compression Offenses
  • Defending No-Huddle
  • Instantly Adjusting Assignments and Position
  • Reading Coverage
  • Throwing Passes with Control

So when I first went online to find some help with these things and discovered MaddenOnline.US, I felt relieved that others sought to gather and rally for many of the same reasons as I did. I was dismayed though by the blatant focus on pointing fingers at EA and opponents because this approach would NEVER help me reach my strategic objectives.

I searched far and wide for a website that encouraged strategic growth while discouraging gimmicks for gimmicks sake. I'm an X's and O's fanatic who eats, sleeps, and drinks the NFL. Unfortunately, I found ZERO. So I started my own site called MaddenUniversity.com for people who want to become better Madden players using real football tactics.

What I realized through my journey since my epiphany in the Madden '03 year was: I wasn't good enough at my understanding of football (even after having watched and played football since the '70s). So I sought to rectify my strategic knowledge weaknesses by consulting the only sources I knew would have good football information: NFL COACHES.

I started reading books written how to execute a West Coast offense, playing defense, and special teams and applied that to my Madden repertoire. I'm also pleased to announce that everything I tried worked EXACTLY like the coaches in the books I'd read said it should for the same reasons...

Needless to say, it's hard to say real coaches with real football concepts are off base when I've had 100% success implementing their systems for more than 9 years. It's far easier to say the members of a community that is filled with players who don't even average 1 strategy thread a month are off base...


Later
@TNT, I don't believe you do understand where I am coming from. You keep discussing how to compete while I am talking about the parameters of the competition. If boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. trained hard for a title fight, learning how to counter his next opponents best punches, then in the 1st round his opponent begins to kick as well as throw punches. Mayweather was clearly unprepared for a kick boxing match but he would still be one of the most skilled boxers, ever.

Ditto with Madden, when someone boots up a game and expects to play NFL football but instead find themselves in a pigskin grudge match, not adequately regulated by NFL guidelines. Everything from missing NFL rules, like remaining on the field of play to make plays/illegal contact to ineffective representation of basic NFL execution like player movement/realistic play and counter play.

Some people enjoy competing in Madden and you seem to be one those people, cool. However, competing in Madden using general concepts like personnel, position and tempo, an assessment which can be applied to any team sport and almost any competition, even musical chairs and red light-green light, does not equal NFL football.

I will gladly acknowledge it takes skill to be consistently successful in Madden against the vast assortment of unregulated tactics. What you seem to refuse to acknowledge is, that skill set has very little, if anything, to do with NFL football.

Every year NFL football gamers are marketed to metaphorically bring knives to what turns out later to be a gun fight, in Madden online head to head.

Last edited by Big FN Deal; 08-09-2011 at 11:36 AM.
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