Another year, another installment of EA’s abandonware known as Madden NFL 21: Franchise Mode. The team at EA Sports has been repeating the same mantra for the past several years – they are going to focus on franchise mode to give Madden players the franchise experience they deserve and expect from the title. Instead, franchise mode players like myself have been neglected once again in favor of another throw away mode known as The Yard which is powered by loot crates and fueled by micro-transactions.
I have been a Madden loyalist for years, decades, and even I feel as though the crew running EA Sports has spit in our faces this year. What are being peddled as features in a game they are now marketing as a “live service” amount to little more than a title update with current NFL rosters. The fixes outlined on the developer blog alone read like patch notes rather than a list of new features (EA Developer Blog).
How has EA Sports allowed the Madden Franchise to fall so far? The answer is simple, when EA inked the exclusive deal with the NFL in 2005 the pressure to innovate was no longer there. From that point on, EA knew they would have the only NFL game in town, guaranteed cash on the table from gamers who wanted the NFL experience, and we as gamers could only watch as it happened.
What came to pass and is the current state of the Madden Franchise is well-worn territory, so instead of piling on I would prefer to offer some suggestions that could be implemented this year, and perhaps return a sliver of credibility to EA Sports and a crumb of hope for Madden fans, perhaps even encourage EA to live by their slogan-now-punch line, “It’s In the Game.”
- Fix the Schedule: The last time divisional rivals played one another in the preseason was back in the 80s. It doesn’t happen anymore, it shouldn’t happen in Madden NFL 21. Instead, every year since the early 2000s, the 4th week of the preseason in Madden has resulted in divisional rivals playing one another. A better option would allow players to select their own preseason schedule with bonus XP offered for marquee matchups.
- Presentation Part 1, Play by Play: The play by play engine is tired and has been for several years. After just a few games play by play lines are already being recycled, often times within the same game. The play by play has been the same since Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis have been the duo. The same issue was the case when Sims and Nantz were calling it, the same when Colinsworth and Johnson called it. Updates to the engine have been half heartedly rolled out at best and it should embarrass EA and their QA team. Did they learn nothing from Visual Concepts and the NFL2K series?
- Presentation Part 2, Halftime Show/Game Recap: Related to my previous suggestion, why is there no half time show? I have to once again point to the NFL2K series, especially NFL2K5. A game that is 16 years old has a better half time presentation than the current version of the Madden Franchise, and NFL2K5 was developed for hardware that was state of the art two generations ago (soon to be three). NFL2K5 had highlight reels from games around the league, a rundown of statistics from key games, and let us not forget, the charisma of Chris Berman. Even Joe Montana II: Sports talk Football had a halftime presentation that went over the stats, and that game was on the Sega Genesis! We get still photos, a couple of stat screens and Jonathan Coachman. If a halftime show could be done 16 years ago, it certainly should be possible now. EA is producing a video game, not landing a man on the moon.
- Presentation Part 3, Weekly News: In the mid 2000s, the Madden series of games would have a newspaper mockup that provided the high points of the game, snippets of news from around the league, and how the fans react to the team’s performance. Newspapers have gone the way of the dodo, but that doesn’t mean that EA couldn’t do something interesting with web page mockups of stories around the league. The pseudo-social media feeds in franchise mode are okay, but they suffer the same recycled feel of the play by play commentary. Why not use the Morale stat to greater effect in game? Players become disenchanted with their coaches, their teams, their seasons and often voice their opinions on social media. Why can’t something like this play a role in Madden? Morale could help generate stories in franchise mode and provide insight into trade opportunities or game plans going into weekly matchups. Along the same lines, the media questions in Madden serve no real purpose. Why not tie the owners response to the media to player and fan morale in a more tangible way? If the owner/coach makes a statement that drives morale down, maybe negotiations get more difficult w/players and vice versa.
- Player Progression: Player progression should be tied to training and game day performance. Even with the XP sliders cranked “up to 11” (300%), player development is inconsistent at best. Playing as the Packers, AJ Dillon received a single development point despite being a focus player in training and going off for 110 yards rushing, 47 yards receiving, and 4 total TDs in two quarters of play. ONE POINT! Jordan Love was also a focus player in training, was statistically perfect (158.3) in that same game, went 13/15 for 160 yards and 2 TDs, and also netted a single point for development. On the defense, Za’Darius Smith had 8 tackles, 4 sacks, and an interception, and, you guessed it, only a single point of development and he’s in the prime of his career right now (age 26). Performance doesn’t matter in Madden NFL 21, it never has, and it doesn’t appear to be in the cards any time soon. Worried about the development of players getting screwed up? Fine, introduce hot and cold streaks from week to week. They happen in the NFL, they should be a part of the Madden Franchise. Tecmo did this with their Super Bowl series of games to excellent effect, and those were cartridge-based games!
- Custom Uniforms: A small but significant feature would be the ability to create custom uniforms for our favorite teams would be a nice addition. Madden used to allow the customization of team uniforms awhile ago, but sadly that fell by the wayside. The ability to recreate classic uniforms from bygone eras would be a lot of fun for players and also give more power to the players to control their Madden experience.
- Player Size, Momentum, and Physics: The most important measurables in Madden right now boil down to Throwing Power (QBs), Strength (OL, DL), Speed (DBs, WRs, and LBs), and Carrying (RBs, WRs). Size essentially plays no role in Madden whatsoever. Having a nose tackle that is 6’4″ and weighs 343 pounds has no effect on the outcome of a given play. The only thing that matters is if that nose tackle has a Strength of 85+. His mass plays no role. Every other measure of the nose tackle can be coached or earned except for his brute strength, his key attribute. The same holds true for other players key attributes QB accuracy plays second fiddle to arm strength in Madden. As long as your QB has a THP of 90+, you can develop every other stat that matters. Again, his height doesn’t matter. I’ll take a 5’9″ QB with a THP of 94 every time over a 6’6″ QB with a THP of 85 because THP is the only measurable that matters. Speed for WRs and DBs is self explanatory, no need to dive in here, you get the point. Physical dimensions should play a role in the game just as much as their attributes. Size should matter. Why? Size matters because it creates mismatches throughout the game! A 6’6″ receiver like Calvin Johnson has a size advantage over almost every CB. His size and abilities together made him “Megatron”, not just his abilities alone, and not just his size alone.
- Coordinators and Other Staff: Having the ability to hire a coach, a scout, and a trainer is another area of Madden that feels under-utilized. You can develop the head coach and “level up” using XP earned during games, but the scout and the trainer are static and never change. They are just there to absorb finances from your bottom line and have little, if any, affect on the season. There is no real reason to scout players at all during the season – the combine states tell you everything you need to know. Look at 40 times, look at bench reps, and you are all set. In the case of a tie breaker, defer to the composite combine score and draft a player that has at least a 6.6 score, higher if possible. Rinse and repeat. Scouts could be beneficial if they awarded extra scouting points, or provided extra insight to the player, but right now, they are unnecessary. Trainers are equally unimportant – in several seasons of Madden played, there has been no real difference between a level 30 trainer and a lower level trainer, this begs the question “why are they even in the game? Here again, why not introduce offensive and defensive coordinators along with position coaches?
- Coach Carousel: One of my favorite features implemented in a football game was the Coaches Carousel mode in NCAA 13 and NCAA 14. It was so satisfying starting out your career as an offensive or defensive coordinator and working your way into a head coaching position at a Division III school then building that into a head coaching position at a Division I or Division II school. It would be amazing to introduce this to the Madden series, but not limit it to OC or DC, expand it to position coaches as well. Start as a position coach and work your way up to HC through the development of different skill sets earned through different position coaching roles or trees. Instead of having control of both sides of the ball all the time, you would run the offense or the defense, then work your way up to controlling both sides of the ball. The carousel aspect would come in at the end of the year when you would field offers from other teams to fill different roles and join other franchises.
- Celebrations: How can you have an NFL game without the Lambeau Leap, the Dirty Bird, the Who Dat, or the Mile High Salute? Celebrations following big plays are a staple of the NFL, but more importantly, certain teams are known for their celebrations. Celebrations tie teams to their fan base, to their identity, they are a large part of what makes football so much fun to watch. When the celebrations are vanilla, not tied to the team, it takes something away from the gameplay experience. EA needs to address this in an upcoming patch, it is long overdue.
There you have it, 10 items that EA Sports could implement this year with title updates, the lone exceptions being offensive/defensive coordinators and the coaching carousel mode of play. Most are common sense, quality of life changes to Franchise Mode that is surviving on the very real fact “they are the only game in town”.
Please EA, do better…
Regards,
Johncow
2cowsgaming.com 