I have been writing this article for the last week or so but every time I get ready to publish it I receive more details about online play, online features, online leagues, and where EASW fits into all of this. As most of you know a couple of weeks ago I was able to attend EA’s Football Community Day where a handful of guys were able to play the new football titles (Madden, NCAA and Head Coach) for this fall. Although we did not get access to the game online we were able to talk to Ryan Ferwerda (EA’s Madden Online Guy) about online and what’s in store for us when Madden is released.
Not there ……at least not yet.
I’ve always been one of those guys who likes to get the bad news out of the way so I can end the conversation with good stuff. Before I start, please know that I’m an online guy and that I play online a lot so other than the gameplay; online features, online functions, and online stability, are right at the top of my list. So let’s get right to the disappointing stuff or lack of about online play. One of the most asked about online features that people asked me about when I told them I was going to play the game early was the ability to save depth charts online. Unfortunately this will not be available online this year. I talked to Ryan Ferwerda and Phil Frazier and they assured me that it would be in the game for 2010 (actually said they would take me to dinner if it wasn’t). I’m still disappointed about that feature not being in the game because depending on what team I play with, it takes a minute or two for me to make my adjustments and substitutions. The good thing about the game this year; that may help alleviate that, is that now you can make substitutions on the fly. Maybe that won’t be that bad, but still a bear that it’s not in this year.
Here are some other things that are not available online:
Ø Snapshots (Available in NCAA 09)
Ø Alternate Uniforms (Available in NCAA 09)
Ø No Fair Play
Ø No Selectable Weather
Ø No Selectable Stadiums
Ø No defensive assignments online (not offline either)
Ø No text chatting
Ø No weapon icons
No web component for Online Madden Leagues including NCAA Dynasty Leagues …… ouch!
I wasn’t going to include this piece of bad new but I felt it was necessary and if anything else to show how disappointed I am with this. This news just came out a couple of days ago but is a big blow to the online community. I still don’t understand why EA continues to put online features on the back burner. Once again the EA Haters are all over the place with “NFL 2K5 had online leagues with a web presence, this is what you get when you have a monopoly of the NFL License”. I can’t even argue with that because I truly feel that if 2K was in the mix that EA would have been had leagues, but it just seems that EA is more concerned with putting resources into “EA Rewind” and other things that cater to casual gamers. If you are reading this EA, “Stop trying to cater to people who haven't picked up your game in 20 years and give back to the guys who have been loyal throughout the years.”
I know that online only makes up about 10% of all Madden buyers but I’m just frustrated. This is a big blow to Madden leagues to say the least … sigh …. I mean what good is it to have leagues if you have to log in to your console every time you want to check the standings, schedule, or leading rushing stats. This is probably even worse for Online Dynasty which was supposed to track Heisman candidates and although you can probably sign on to your console and check, many won’t and many leagues will fold for lack of interest.
Ok, now on to the good stuff.
Online Leagues – YESSSSS!
Finally! Yesssss! About time!!! Those were the 3 things I said (not in that order) when I heard that EA was going to have online leagues this year. Now other than spectator mode this is probably one of the oldest wishlist items on every site. One of the problems with EA’s online leagues back in 2005 (I know you forgot about those) is that the commissioner didn’t have any kind of power. Well EA is giving the commish a lot of power.
Here are some online league features:
Ø Commish can set up a 2-32 team league
Ø Ability to have a flex schedule
Ø Commish can turn unique teams off or on. Meaning that you can have a league with all Dolphins if you choose or all AFC teams
Ø Commish can boot people
Ø Commish can award a trophy to Champion
Ø Commish can set the skill level of the league – all league members would have to play at that skill level
Ø Injuries do not carry over
Ø 1 for 1 trades
Ø Full player stats
Online League Q&A with Ryan Ferwerda (EA)
Q. Are the trophies customizable or just one generic trophy?
A. The trophies are actually the same ones from the front end. The commish sets the trophy from one of the 15 available. You can also have your own logo for the leaguee that is selected from a large set of logos.
Q. Does your online profile show how many trophies you won?
A. As of now, no, but we are still trying to get it in. Like I said, can’t commit to it now though.
Q. How much power does the commish have? Sim games? Reject trades?
A. Commish can Sim playoff games only, but they can kick someone who isn’t playing their regular season games. They can’t reject trades.
Q. As far stats, what exactly does that include? Defensive stats?
A. We basically use the full franchise stat db, so any stat you see in franchise, you’ll see in Online Leagues.
Q. Does the commish have to be a team in the league?
A. Yes.
2 comments:
EA Messenger is back and it’s on steroids …
So one of the big hassles for PS3 owners other than the lower frame rate was the fact that they could not interact with other Madden players on their friends list. Even on the 360, there was no way to go to your friend’s profile and just invite him to a game. Well EA has brought back EA Messenger and it’s on steroids. It’s now called the “Player HUB”. The following is a screenshot of the 360’s players hub but the PS3 will look very similar.
For the player HUB, under the right filter where it says ‘MY LEAGUE MEMBERS’, there are the following options to filter your friends:
Ø Recent Opponents – Your Recent EA Opponents
Ø Friends – Your XBL or PSN Friends List
Ø EASW Friends – Friends you’ve made on EASW
Ø EASW Recommended – EASW users that we recommend based on the profile you fill out on the website.
You can send messages to anyone in your filter. With the “Player HUB” and the 60 fps there is no reason for Sony PS3 owners to have any worries. I’ve played both versions and the PS3 is smooth and feels really good.
Online goodies for the road …
Madden Highlight Video – Last year in NCAA 08 I loved the fact that I could save photos and highlight clips to my EASW (EA Sportsworld) account. Well this year EA has brought the video function to Madden 09 and that’s great news for a number of reasons. There are so many possibilities, like using videos to scout players or to prove that someone cheesed you. On EASW you can only save up to 5 highlights, but you can always download those highlights to your computer and even upload them to MyMaddenPad.com so you can embed them on other sites.
12 seconds to call your defense – One thing that really bothered me last year was the fact that you only had 7 seconds to pick your defense. Well this year it’s almost doubled that and I think it’s a good thing. Some people think it’s too long, but with the ability to do formation substitutions from the play calling screen you may need 12 seconds sometimes.
Roster Updates – EA says that there will be a minimum of 8 Roster Updates this year. I would like them to do it maybe every other week, which would cover 16 weeks.
Finally
Talking to the dev team at EA a couple of weeks ago, having them fly me in early to give feedback, and just their overall presence on various message boards gives me real hope and assurance that EA does care. Most of the things that are not in the game that we all scream for are on the top of their list for 2010. With that said I want to thank Ryan Ferwerda and Phil Frazier for answering our questions. Some of us can get real heated about the things we want to see in the game and criticize these guys for not getting to it but these guys want it in the game just as much as anyone. I’m not going to make excuses for them but it’s got to be tough trying to please 6 million plus people.
Since i'm not a fan of Madden i'm hoping they will fix everything. BTW if anyone is interested in tourney wise Gamestop is hosting a madden tourney every saturday at certain location.
Post a Comment