[quan15]

Quote: Originally Posted by MarketingWiz

quan15: Your preaching to the choir. I am a DEFENSE GUY at heart. The problem is, EA and their philosophy of how to maximize their sale of Madden. Notice that the cover boys are primarily, if not exclusively, offensive playmakers! There is a reason behind this. The game is tuned, the game logic is coded and stacked toward their sweet spot, DUDES who want to see LOT's of ARCADE STYLE offense. You are aware that EA will sell close to 2 fricking MILLION copies of Madden or more! Now chew on this, how many "true simmers" do you believe there are trolling OS forums and Madden slider threads? Possibly 30,000 blokes? 50,000? That is less than 3% of the total universe of Maddenites playing Madden. Now, as the head cheese in charge of EA Madden decision making, do you try to please 3% of the total universe and piss-off the other 97%, or do you please the 97% and blow fart dust on the 3% of hard core simmers? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. As others have confirmed, speed threshold was introduced in M10 as a way for speed to NOT be the end all be all in Madden. The idea was that the higher the threshold, the less difference there would be between faster & slower players in the game. That doesn't mean that DeSean Jackson is all of a sudden Tony Siragusa re-incarnated as a wide out, or that McFadden can't burn past a run stuffing Middle Linebacker. A high SPEEDTHRESH means that pursuing defenders won't be running in quicksand 40 yards behind the ball carrier. Bottom line, EA MENSAS must have put the SPEEDTHRESH slider into the game to appease hard core simmers, the 3%, who crave, demand and deserve a more realistic game experience. As unpopular as it sounds, I believe I was among the first (first?) to throw down the gauntlet for a HIGH SPEEDTHRESH setting and have tried to move this forum toward the concept that the higher the threshold, the more realistic the gameplay. In fact, I have proved to myself in my Madden lab (Slim PS3, Panasonic 60" VT50, wall busting surround sound, LazBoy recliner, Coleman ice chest full of Sam Adams, bag of chips and dip, and my lazy a.ss dog farting by my side), that 40 times are more realistic at HIGHER THRESHOLD. And while I may modify the SPEEDTHRESH down in V.2, it will always be HIGHER rather than LOWER. In order for a M13 defenses to reflect their true to life NFL counterpart, the LB's and Safeties cannot look or feel that they are stuck in sand as a burner rips it up by them. In other words, the separation gap between ball carrier and on coming tackler(s) must be realistic and not cartoonish. As I have correctly argued,by default, EA MUST make Madden come out of the package to be tuned to play insanely fast. This is why the logic does not add up that by tweaking the SPEEDTHRESH slider down, in other words giving even a greater advantage to the inherent speed of the game, you are going to achieve better realism? It just doesn't make sense. SPEEDTHRESH is the ONE SLIDER that impacts separation. TOO MUCH separation and the game is no different than NFL Blitz that I play against my nephews at the local arcade. The reason that the defensive angles suck typically in Madden is once again based on the 97% majority, they want high scoring games NO MATTER what team they choose. They pick the Browns. Weeden is on par to the Mannings. They pick the "Fade"ers, Palmer is Brady in silver and black. I don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's just a concept that seems so obvious to me. 97% vs. 3%, you do the arithmetic.

As much as what you just wrote was eloquently stated and though I agree in part with your assessment of the intention on the part of the Madden "makers" I must disagree with your original premise.

The concept of "speed threshold" could very well be in line with what you're saying but of course there is a perspective that one must consider when thinking about it in this way. What about the concept regarding "speed threshold" that because it has a large affect on all parts of the game there is another "battle" you have to take into account when adjusting this part of the game. I am referring specifically to the "battle" between not only the o-linemen and d-linemen but the linebackers as well.

In your argument above you refer to the speed separation between a running back and a linebacker. This once again (with no disrespect) is not taking into account the other aspects of the "run game". As a blocker (o-lineman/tightend/fullback) your job is to block the d-linemen in front of you and depending on the play attempt to get to what is called "the second level" as I am sure you are fairly familiar with this term. Now, that battle is dependent upon whether the "blocker" can for example with a toss/sweep hook around the defensive end (takle/tightend) and linebackers (guard/tightend/fullback). If he can not then essentially the play is doomed as long as the corner/saftey does his job and contains the running back. Most times this is why (as you stated previously) in the NFL these types of plays do not translate well by default because the defense is just to fast at that level (mentally=reaction time/physically=speed threshold;linebackers vs o-line).

The only way to successfully carry out this play is by first convincing the defense that you are going to run inside, you do this by wearing the front seven out and making them adjust to the middle (which I have seen done by the cpu with my sliders).

You also speak about the company EA and how they want to appease the 97% that is the what I call "casual gamer" and leave the 3% out to dry that being the "true simmers". I disagree for one reason only and that is, Madden 13.

This game focuses much much much more on appeasing that 3% (evidence by your delight with this installment) by evidence of the "infinity engine" and new "passing trajectories" along with the attention to detail regarding the route tree (receiver routes) and when a receiver looks for the ball. To me there would be no point in focusing on these areas as the "cheesers" couldn't care less about these things. All they want is to play one another on a Saturday night drinking a cold one and blowout their friends by 50 points and brag about it the next day. The "simmers" like yourself and me of course appreciate deeply what they have done and are trying to do.

Now, though when it comes respect that would be nice to consider a measly 3% but from a business perspective that will not translate well (just playing with words lol) to sales. But in fact this Madden has been the top selling one ever in these beginning weeks!! Could it be because this installment is more than just a roster update and some over hyped features. The complaints mostly come from the "true simmers" as we actually care how the game plays relative to the NFL. Even if it is 3%, I'm sure EA realizes that 3% of a few million translates to the lost of a lot of money if they are fed up with the game. Say it's 1 million, that would be 30,000 which equates to almost 2 million dollars in sales with a 60 dollar game..and guess what, the 97% percent won't care either way because they just want to play a football game and in this case whatever new Madden game comes out regardless of it's realism. It's all about perspective bro.