Pre-season games - meaningless?

[Grinder12000]

Is there a reason to pre-season games besides tweaking sliders and having injuries? Do ratings go up or down?

[HoundsOfHowl]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Just like the real preseason, to determine who you want to cut. If you have a RB race and want to check them out, there's your chance to check em.

[A_Quiet_Pro]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Just like the real preseason, to determine who you want to cut. If you have a RB race and want to check them out, there's your chance to check em.

I personally dont play franchise or anything, but I understand this and if I did, I would use pre season to find who I want/dont want.

[Hooe]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Weekly goals are active during the preseason so you also have the opportunity to earn XP for any players who perform well in games; i.e. you have an opportunity to progress players.

[Caveman24]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Pre-Season is meaningless which is sad. It should be an event just like real life.

[Number999]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Pre-Season is meaningless which is sad. It should be an event just like real life.

After the first week though people are already tired of it and want the regular season to be fair.

[Wrythm]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

If you want to lose 3 key starters for the bulk of the regular season, make sure you leave the injuries on.

Happens to me every year.

[Caveman24]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

After the first week though people are already tired of it and want the regular season to be fair.

Nobody is tired of it IRL it's football. Pre-Season should be represented better than it is currently is.

[Hooe]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

Pre-Season is meaningless which is sad.

There are at least three uses defined for preseason defined in this thread - evaluating your own team's players on the field, earning XP for player progression purposes, and dealing out preseason injuries which affect teams during the regular season.

Should the presentation during preseason be more robust, with Nantz and Simms highlighting position battles, players fighting for roster spots, rookies adapting to the pro game, and preseason injuries? Sure, it absolutely could be better in this regard. Is the preseason devoid of meaning in the game? I argue no via the above counterexamples.

[psychraider32]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

I'm gonna try out Blake's Bortles and tons of rookies in the preseason. I'm stoaked.

[Blue12]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

I wish the computer made more realistic substations. Also, this is weird, but I really think it would add to the atmosphere if they would have dynamic crowds. Have the stadium full for the first half, then have fans slowly disappear through the 3rd quarter, and play the 4th quarter in front of a nearly empty stadium.

[Caveman24]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

There are at least three uses defined for preseason defined in this thread - evaluating your own team's players on the field, earning XP for player progression purposes, and dealing out preseason injuries which affect teams during the regular season.

Should the presentation during preseason be more robust, with Nantz and Simms highlighting position battles, players fighting for roster spots, rookies adapting to the pro game, and preseason injuries? Sure, it absolutely could be better in this regard. Is the preseason devoid of meaning in the game? I argue no via the above counterexamples.

With out derailing the thread let's be honest speed is about as far as you need when evaluating players. The way EA ratings work it's hard to find that Victor Cruz.All of the players run,throw,catch,tackle the exact same way there's hardly a big difference between players.

XP should't be an reason to play any pre-season game. It should be because I have an new DC and need to see how his defense works with my guys. I had an injury plagued players on my roster and he's one wrong move from being cut. You are 100% correct when it needs to be robust to me though it needs to be overhauled. Fans are filled the exact same way for pre-season vs an NFC Championship which is laughable.

Only thing I'm saying is football is an event. Madden should find a way to separate the importance between pre-season vs regular season vs playoffs. Right now every CFM feels like an exhibition with little or no importance.

[azdawgpound]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

one thing I hate about the pre season is the cmp dosent sub its players out after the second quarter starts so u are playing 2nd string against your 3rd string guys if u edit your depth charts per quarter.

[A_Quiet_Pro]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

With out derailing the thread let's be honest speed is about as far as you need when evaluating players. The way EA ratings work it's hard to find that Victor Cruz.All of the players run,throw,catch,tackle the exact same way there's hardly a big difference between players.

XP should't be an reason to play any pre-season game. It should be because I have an new DC and need to see how his defense works with my guys. I had an injury plagued players on my roster and he's one wrong move from being cut. You are 100% correct when it needs to be robust to me though it needs to be overhauled. Fans are filled the exact same way for pre-season vs an NFC Championship which is laughable.

Only thing I'm saying is football is an event. Madden should find a way to separate the importance between pre-season vs regular season vs playoffs. Right now every CFM feels like an exhibition with little or no importance.

I really hate continuing to do this, but again going back to the show. In franchise mode, the early season is "empty" and as time goes on, the stands fill and stadiums change with the season (i.e. Wrigley's ivy goes from brown to green). That being said, I'd love to see Lambeau go from nice green field in the fall, to a brownish hardpan look in December because it gets so cold. But back to the show, and the playoffs especially the World Series, the fans are insane and loud and waving towels etc. Madden needs this kind of atmosphere. (especially since football fans are much more rowdy than baseball fans I mean come on.) WHY is baseball video game crowds more intense than football game crowds, inexcusable.

[Hooe]

Re: Pre-season games - meaningless?

With out derailing the thread let's be honest speed is about as far as you need when evaluating players. The way EA ratings work it's hard to find that Victor Cruz.All of the players run,throw,catch,tackle the exact same way there's hardly a big difference between players.

I strongly disagree based on my experience with the game over the past few years, but I'll leave it at that; that's not the point of this thread.

XP should't be an reason to play any pre-season game. It should be because I have an new DC and need to see how his defense works with my guys. I had an injury plagued players on my roster and he's one wrong move from being cut. You are 100% correct when it needs to be robust to me though it needs to be overhauled. Fans are filled the exact same way for pre-season vs an NFC Championship which is laughable.

Only thing I'm saying is football is an event. Madden should find a way to separate the importance between pre-season vs regular season vs playoffs. Right now every CFM feels like an exhibition with little or no importance.

I tend to think that evaluating who to start between two QBs is a reasonable use case for preseason. I also think that getting a young player prepared for the real season with preseason game experience - analogous to earning XP with him and increasing his AWR and/or PRC stats - is a reasonable use of preseason. Should coordinators be present to evaluate their systems? Absolutely, but they aren't present in the game whatsoever; that's a concern of CFM which isn't exclusive to preseason. Presumably one could evaluate the head coach's offensive and defensive systems with the personnel, though, since the two systems are attached to the head coach in Madden and not coordinators at present.

Presentation concerns in the preseason are all extremely valid; you're right that games in CFM aren't differentiated enough from exhibition games which take place outside of CFM. This is particularly noticeable in online head-to-head CFM games where any franchise-specific presentation elements which do exist in the game (outside of static things like things painted on the field or special HUD banners) are disabled outright.