[Armor and Sword]

I will say it yet again.

We are dinosaurs guys. The 12-25 year old demographic plays the ultimate team card modes. It has totally taken over sports games and is a huge market. Just huge.

I am just happy I still have franchise modes in games these days.

The landscape of sports gaming has drastically changed since the move to the PS3 and now PS4. It’s just reality. We can pound sand all we want. But mainstream sports games are not going to be deep text simulation franchise mode games.

Never ever.


And they don’t have to be. I am a huge fan of The Show and 2K18 and those franchise modes also have their share of bad AI and issues. And go into those forums and you will see the venom as well. Yet for me they function well enough for me to have fun and make “it” work.

I am done thinking and day dreaming about amazing franchise modes in sports games. Just give me great AI.....I want top of the line AI in this day and age (to me with the power the consoles provide it should be better for offline solitaire gamers like us).

Features? They are far and few being added cycle to cycle. Why? Because the resources are clearly going into online/card modes. It is simply reality.

So for me coming to grips with that (and this was the year I did) has liberated me from worrying about more being added into franchise mode and my energies have gone into 32 team control, house rules, and creating a robust universe for myself at my pace (no more will I be purchasing yearly sports titles....done done done). I don’t have to race and finish a season before the next version comes out anymore.

Nope. I have turned a new leaf. I am not giving them anymore money for years. I have spent thousands on sports titles since my earliest days of playing games.

Adapt or die. Simple as that. You can’t fight the overwhelming momentum of this new generation of sports gamers who love card modes and don’t even sniff franchise modes.

It’s BS. Kids are playing card modes. Not franchise mode. That is where most of the resources and focus goes into sports games.

Fortunately IMO 2K and The Show have competent and deep franchise modes (although go into the general forums and you will read a different tune of how they suck).

Madden just needs to make moderate improvements with CPU progression being balanced with the human player and re-wriitng CPU AI. Until that happens Madden is now dead to me moving forward. M18 is my last hurrah unless the AI is greatly re-worked. I can simply play M16-M18 for years and years.....they are all basically the same game to me (and I have loads of great classic rosters for all 3).

Adapt or die.

Pounding sand to me is futile and a waste of energy. We are not the target market at all. Come on guys.....wake up.