Like it or not, Madden continues to be a cash cow

I bought Madden the day it came out. I like the game overall. However:

There are no significant improvements

There are glitches and bugs that should not have made the gold copy of the game. They're stupid oversights, which is a testament to apparent lack of QC in the development of it. Why does the kick meter dissapear randomly? How come the majority of sacks I make are represented by my defensive guy running into the quarterback and then seeing them bounce off each other three stooges style? Why aren't there refs on the field? How come there are no FG nets? Why did my profile dissapear after putting a lot of work into getting my madden level up?

I won't be purchasing it next year.

Show me a link to those facts that you are "actually" pulling out of your ass.

:D
:)
;)

..and any other stupid smilies I can throw up there to be even more condescending.

this isn't really on-topic, but it makes me cringe whenever people talk about how the 32- and 64-bit games looked so much nicer than the SNES and Genesis titles. seriously, I know it was a technological marvel at the time, but that whole generation of gaming was just fugly beyond redemption. honestly, if I was Sony I wouldn't even want PS1 titles to be backwards compatible. great gaming experiences, sure, but when it looks _that_ bad, I'd prefer to just move on. (and that's even for games I LIKE! stuff like bushido blade, musashi, twisted metal, FF, jumping flash...) 16-bit gaming was a time of extraordinary accomplishment. 3d gaming hasn't approached that level of finesse yet. maybe, fingers crossed, in this generation we will.

Lay off the Madden fans y'all.

I'm not nor have I ever been a sports game fan.
With the exception of baseball traditional realistic sports games don't appeal to me. Arcadey ones or ones from the Mario series do but for those traditional ones I've never really have taken them to heart. And though I like baseball games I don't own a traditional one of those either (my Mario Superstar Baseball will just have to fit the bill).

So what if guys who play Madden ONLY play Madden?
They are not ruining the industry like so many make out. EA is sort of between a rock & hard place with that franchise that was always developed to resemble realism in American football.
Drastically changing the game mechanics may alienate this hardcore fanbase who are used to the way things are. And with realism you don't have much room for interpretation. It's more just photocopy what you see in real life than express artistic ideas. That's the problem with realism. Limits expression & creativity if focused on too much. Same thing happened in art. Study some art history.

Granted EA DOES get lazy & just barely add freshness to the series. I imagine SOME Madden players tire of this while others are just fine buying these marginally updated versions year after year. That's one reason I could never get into traditional sports games. Each year obsoletes the game I had. I tend to get attached to my games.
As long as this series seems to have more people who like things as they are then not then EA will do what's natural for a business: continue on.

I fault Madden partially because of the nature the game was created under (approach to realistic interpretation) & partially because of EA providing marginal updates to the series.
But I don't see it or Madden fans as necessarily destroying gaming overall.

They're sort of in their own pocket just like those who only play FPS's & RPG's.
I can see how Madden inspires other companies to be similarly lazy for easy profit in more free-ranging genres but I fault those particular developers more rather than EA.

But the kind of game Madden is just doesn't allow for much change & that's the core of the problem. I think the Wii version will finally remedy this. But those looking for a realistic football feel enjoy this homeconsole simulation of the games they enjoy on TV in real life.

Some people are just sports gamers. They only play NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, FIFA, PGA, NHL licensed versions of the sport they enjoy in the flesh. Some are more open to non-licensed sports games (good luck finding those nowadays) but the only thing that appeals to them are sports games.
At least they're playing games.

This dichotomy has always existed since the earliest consoles. Some who play videogames for the rich experiences & varying genres. And then those who just want their favorite sport in videogame form.

There's room for everybody in gaming. Get in where you fit in. The same can be said about those who only play Nintendogs & such. Even if it's just one game certain people play that makes it good for all gamers because that means that company is making money so they can continue to make more games for the rest of us.

If EA sucks with originality in more free-ranging genres, THEN fault them for ruining the industry.
Madden is just a different animal that's all.
Not my cup of tea but I can respect those who like it even if I'm weirded out by the yearly purchases of moderately changed versions.

John Lucas

"Um, why would so many people like it if it sucks? The suckyness of something is highly subjective. Why you gotta bring NASCAR into this?"

I think the point he was making is that just because a lot of people like something, or just because it earns buckets of money, doesn't mean it's actually good quality entertainment. Britney Spears is a millionaire, so hey I guess she must be a fantastic musician, up there with the likes of Mozart.

Hordes of stupid people buy into stupid enterertainment. Again, that doesn't mean it's good. Good for BUSINESS, yes. But good for culture or making any actual contributions to anything or improvements to the genre... no.

Popularity != quality, the same way that graphics != fun (unless you're an idiot and that's all you care about).

"If EA sucks with originality in more free-ranging genres, THEN fault them for ruining the industry."

EA sucks for buying exclusivity rights to produce NFL-licensed games. They couldn't count on the quality of their games alone, so they had to take the cheap way out and effectively make themselves the automatic winners by buying out the exclusive rights.

I think it is generally accepted that healthy competition produces more and better quality options for the consumer, yet because of their own selfish interests EA opted to make themselves literally the only game in town, and then they have the audacity to go around claiming they're the "best". Wow, great accomplishment, guys. So it is at least arguable that EA has, in fact, ruined the industry in that sense.

I'm probably just as guilty because I usually will buy a new football game every 5 years. Still, Only 3 of the ones I have are Madden. I just don't understand why people buy it new every year. Or, I suppose more specific I can't believe that many people buy it new every year. I can see a some situations like frat boys pitching in to get the newest version each year. I still don't think it would be enough to sustain the Madden franchise though. Oh well, I'm sure I've been wrong before.

55- Actually the NFL sucks for selling exclusive rights to EA.

The real point here is, why don't 2 million fat, lazy Americans get off their asses and play real football??

Just get one of your pit stained white tees and a red sharpie... and write Joe Montana on the back!
Girls will think you're way hotter doing something truly physical.

Bob.