[canes21]

I haven't finished the survey, I will, but pretty much the entire 2nd page feels like it just a bunch of house rules that are intended to keep the game balanced for the purposes of giving the illusion of sim play. I don't consider rules that limit play calling or anything like that are sim, they are simply band aids to try and fix unbalanced and unauthentic gameplay.

Sim, for me personally, is the AI being smart enough to not let the user run the same play 10 times straight for a TD. It is the X's and O's being implemented in a way that proper football knowledge and strategy is key, not finding a meta play. If the AI was competent and a user ran the same play 3 or 4 times straight for a gain each time simply because the execution of the play was so well done on a realistic level, then I believe that remains to be sim. Real life coaches, college and NFL, will call the same exact plays multiple times in a row if they spot something they can exploit.

A rule that limits play calling is just that, a rule, it isn't sim or non-sim, it's an aid for a game that is imbalanced and a a buff for an AI that can't stand on its own. Similarly, limiting the user's ability to go for it on 4th, or to run up the score is not sim either, the game needs to have proper systems in place that make real life football risks translate into risky moves on the virtual field as well. Going for in on 4th and 3 on your own 33 is risky in real life because of obvious reasons. In Madden it isn't as dangerous because of how the game is structured and how it plays out.

Again, personally speaking, when I think of sim gameplay, I really think of authentic gameplay. When I say Madden isn't sim enough, I mean it isn't authentic enough. Seeing a QB in past Madden games scrambling around and throwing darts off of their backfoot across field 50 yards downfield is not sim to me because it isn't authentic. I am fine playing a kid online that tries to scramble every dropback and throw on the run consistently if the game is authentic and he suffers from the silly decision. That is sim to me because it is authentic and he is being punished in the proper ways and he is (hopefully) learning why real life QB's don't play that way.