In Defense of EA......

[ScaredyWalls]

In Defense of EA Sports

Hello, fellow Madden fans.
Im writing this post to share my opinion on why I think EA Sports deserves more credit and respect for their work on Madden NFL 24. I know this might be an unpopular or controversial opinion, but I hope you will hear me out and keep an open mind.

First of all, I want to acknowledge that Madden NFL 24 is not a perfect game. It has its flaws, bugs, glitches, and issues that need to be fixed or improved. I’m not here to deny or ignore those problems. I’m also not here to blindly praise or defend EA Sports for everything they do. I’m just here to offer a different perspective and appreciation for what they have done and are doing for the game and the community.
It dawned on me last night when I was watching a stream last where the guy is going on and on about how "Stupid" His CPU Players are, but he kept Playing as , and getting out of positiion as the Weak Side contain as the DE and leaving Shifting his Nose Tackle From overtop of the center. Which in turn left huge holes That the CPU took full advantage of. He was complaining that the Will linebacker ( the One he Called The Dude on the Outside ) should have filled the gap but he was in man coverage on the TE they had as a sniffer in the backfield.
It was obvious he didn't understand Coverage Concepts or Run Fits ( Which the latter is taught in PeeWee Football) but I would almost put money on the fact that he didnt know any of it, or why his Cloud Cornerback was always out of position in a Buzz Cv3. But instead of trying to learn them he went to some discord server leaving poorly worded Opinions that made him look like a fool in the eyes of someone that loves football and the nuances that make it such an amazing game to get into and really dive deep into it.

So that got me thinking.........
How Many of the people complaining about Madden 24 even Understand football.... I MEAN REALLY UNDERSTAND AND APPRERECIATE THE NUANCES OF THIS GAME MANY OF US LOVE SO DEARLY.
But thats my point Im slowly getting to, EA Has to cater to Me and my Psycotic Strive towards ultimate realism but ALSO Make a game you can give to your 7 ryr old nephew for his Birthday.
AND BOTH NEED TO ENJOY THE GAME
Thats a tough task, But until we get more game devs giving EA Competiton We have 2 choices , We can Learn some football, or learn how to code and make the game you want.
IDK About you but im going to go back and study film .

[Mcgibblets82]

Quote: Originally Posted by ScaredyWalls

In Defense of EA Sports Hello, fellow Madden fans. Im writing this post to share my opinion on why I think EA Sports deserves more credit and respect for their work on Madden NFL 24. I know this might be an unpopular or controversial opinion, but I hope you will hear me out and keep an open mind. First of all, I want to acknowledge that Madden NFL 24 is not a perfect game. It has its flaws, bugs, glitches, and issues that need to be fixed or improved. I’m not here to deny or ignore those problems. I’m also not here to blindly praise or defend EA Sports for everything they do. I’m just here to offer a different perspective and appreciation for what they have done and are doing for the game and the community. It dawned on me last night when I was watching a stream last where the guy is going on and on about how "Stupid" His CPU Players are, but he kept Playing as , and getting out of positiion as the Weak Side contain as the DE and leaving Shifting his Nose Tackle From overtop of the center. Which in turn left huge holes That the CPU took full advantage of. He was complaining that the Will linebacker ( the One he Called The Dude on the Outside ) should have filled the gap but he was in man coverage on the TE they had as a sniffer in the backfield. It was obvious he didn't understand Coverage Concepts or Run Fits ( Which the latter is taught in PeeWee Football) but I would almost put money on the fact that he didnt know any of it, or why his Cloud Cornerback was always out of position in a Buzz Cv3. But instead of trying to learn them he went to some discord server leaving poorly worded Opinions that made him look like a fool in the eyes of someone that loves football and the nuances that make it such an amazing game to get into and really dive deep into it. So that got me thinking......... How Many of the people complaining about Madden 24 even Understand football.... I MEAN REALLY UNDERSTAND AND APPRERECIATE THE NUANCES OF THIS GAME MANY OF US LOVE SO DEARLY. But thats my point Im slowly getting to, EA Has to cater to Me and my Psycotic Strive towards ultimate realism but ALSO Make a game you can give to your 7 ryr old nephew for his Birthday. Thats a tough task, But until we get more game devs giving EA Competiton We have 2 choices , We can Learn some football, or learn how to code and make the game you want. IDK About you but im going to go back and study film .

This is a fair argument. There is just one problem. They promised us the most polished version of Madden yet…and delivered the equivalent of a polished turd


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[Gotmadskillzson]

People need to stop with the whole they need to cater to everybody argument. That is why they have difficulty levels for and play modes for. Rookie, Pro, All Pro, All Madden. Arcade, Sim and Competitive. That is why they have mini games in the game to teach people how football works in real life.

The biggest problem with Madden is their sliders don't work like they suppose to. Play any other sports game, move sliders around and you can instantly see the difference. In Madden series you can max out stuff and nothing changes. You can give people undiscipline traits with maxed out penalty sliders and you still see the same number of penalties on default, which is around 1 or 2 a game. Zone coverage problems been a long problem in this series, for well over a decade. QB AI that are pocket and balanced passers doing dumb stuff long been a problem in this series for over a decade too.

If you know zero thing about football and are a 7 year old kid, you could easily put it on rookie and arcade and have a blast. Nothing is stopping a kid or casual player from doing it. However if you played football in real life or just a long time die hard football follower and want to play a sim game of football, you put it on sim and whatever difficulty setting you want, you don't get sim football, you just get Madden. Hell honestly sim and competitive play no different either.

Can you have fun with Madden ? Yeah. But is it a great representation of what football is ? Is it sim ? No despite every year they constantly advertising that it is. Or that they fixed something and when you get the game, it really isn't fixed at all. If their sliders worked like it suppose to, Madden wouldn't have a problem, but they don't, so like every year consumers are just at the mercy of Madden hoping and waiting for patches to fix stuff.

[Bondsfan]

Actually, they don't have to cater to both in Madden. They could make an arcade football game if they wanted. No one put a gun to their head and demanded they sign an exclusive license to be the only game that is a sim football game on consoles. This is the decisions they choose to make or have made. They could just as easily make a sim in the vein of NFL head coach with gameplay, and also release an arcade football game, and also release a MUT game, if they wanted. They choose to go this route, because people keep paying for it, despite it being bad. Its easier to maximize profits by releasing a broken game that barely changes knowing it will still make them billions rather than to choose to make games that actually accomplish catering to different audiences. Why cater to anyone really, when everyone will just keep buying a bad game?

[tg88forHOF]

Quote: Originally Posted by ScaredyWalls

So that got me thinking......... How Many of the people complaining about Madden 24 even Understand football.... I MEAN REALLY UNDERSTAND AND APPRERECIATE THE NUANCES OF THIS GAME MANY OF US LOVE SO DEARLY.

Even those that do understand it very well struggle at the beginning of every cycle as they react to new mechanics sloppily.

I was just playing 23 the week before last, so it's not like I'd gotten that stale. But just like every other year, I'm throwing way more dumb picks now, and will continue to for another week or so until I fully adjust. Happens every year like clockwork.

So the hysteria is always extra-spicy early in the release cycle. People just need to maintain their composure, maintain some perspective, and adjust....it's rarely quite as bad as we think it is.

It's just complicated by the fact that the real, actual factual flaws and bugs encountered early in the cycle are usually of the more frustrating variety, too.

So we have players who aren't quite as good (yet) as they think they are, even if they do know what they're talking about. Some real frustrations. And an internet culture that loves to drag developers and rewards those draggings with clicks and views.

Ugly combination. But it'll chill out some.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Part of the problem is that there's very limited clarity about how the AI is making football decisions, so blaming the user is not always correct. In the gameplay reveal stream they intentionally had the two users run the same offensive play 3x in a row against the same defensive play, intending to brag about how the defenders got smarter against repeats. But in actuality, the blockers were taking different guys each time, even though it was the same play on the same hash with the same teams. Talking about what guys "should" do in real football means nothing, you have to try and replicate Madden logic through repetition and labbing.

[Richie71]

None of that excuses the frequent poor QA. This years laggy menus (let's see what it's like in the draft...that was close to game breaking last 2 years) and the silly bugs that should never have got close to release, such as HFA switch not working this year.

[melodicmarc]

I'm debating on moving down to all pro this year instead of all madden and raising the CPU sliders, but I will say this game feels so much better to me than Madden 23 gameplay wise. Sure there are more inaccurate passes, but I am a fan of that. I am not a fan of the random 10 yard inaccurate passes in a clean pocket and I haven't experienced that yet. Sometimes my receivers even stick their arms up on passes just out of reach and that makes a huge difference. Tackling looks a lot better this year and catches make so much more sense contextually. The two biggest things though are that my players no longer feel like they are running in a pool of water. Also the run game is just so much better. The improved blocking is great, but I might love the adaptive AI even better. It is refreshing that games start with a strong running game and then the defense adapts and you have to run different concepts and it gets harder. Hopefully they keep building on that.

Franchise mode feels the same for the most part, and I would prefer realistic training camp drills vs. the fantasy ones they have right now. But I do think the backend changes they made with customization are vital. You might not feel them on a week to week basis, but I think when you are 5 years into a franchise, the immersion will be much better.

The biggest problem in my opinion (assuming we don't start seeing franchise breaking glitches) is that league immersion is at an all time low. The news tab is somehow even worse this year. We desperately need that revamped and a weekly show to watch. The scenario engine needs a lot of new stuff as well.

I also would prefer to have player development revamped. Keep the superstar and x factor system but separate it out from player development. Give players a Potential rating (their ceiling), a development rating (how quickly they get to their ceiling), and a durability rating (how long they will play in the league) and then start to upgrade the draft and coaching staffs and training camp to make impact on those ratings. Also I desperately want fog of war with ratings.

Lastly they gotta finish with getting roster management to a realistic level. Comp picks and front loading/backloading contracts should be at the forefront. Then multi year free agent signings, and contract extensions. They are slowly making progress but they need to arrive at some point.

Overall I think franchise mode is at a decent level and if they can get this stuff rolled out over a 2 year period then we will be back in the great category for franchise mode.