The Mainstream
Now, I know that you already know that *I* know that I am not in the “mainstream” when it comes to “video games.” I know we’re clear on that.
Here’s the thing. I know that you aren’t in it, either. (And chances are, you prolly know that, too.) The mainstream is neither good or bad; it is what it is.
I am reminded of this fact every year when EA Sports releases Madden. You can wax poetic about the good old days when we had alternatives for the heretics that preferred other football games to EA’s unstoppable force — but the fact is, this is a Madden World and we’re just living in it. I was reminded of this on several fronts.
- The local news last night mentioned that it was “Madden Day!”
- This morning I had some errands to run and went to get a newspaper (local) and grab some breakfast (at our small town diner that serves pancakes, three of ‘em, as big as your head…for $3!)
- On the drive into Columbus on sports radio. My CD player is broken so I was listening to “The Herd” on ESPN Radio (and yes, I feel a bit dirty now.)
The news last night mentioned the game, and that people were waiting at midnight to get it (Dan did this, because he’s an addict, and insane, and sooo mainstream…not that that’s a bad thing. We love Dan.)
The sports page of the Columbus Dispatch had the virtual Kellen Winslow Jr. staring at me — the article discussed how the Browns players love Madden so much that they implode from the excitement every year. Now, I guess if I had a game that I was the star …I’d be into that, too. Winslow said he edited his hands last year to a 99. (He’ll hate the 360 version then..) WR Frisman Jackson said he doesn’t use the Browns because he sucks in the game and wouldn’t want to see himself drop a lot of balls.
On The Herd this morning he had some ESPN Sports Financial guy on talking about the game and its financial impact (John Madden gets like 10 million a year from EA…whoa). He also said, “You have to start to wonder what else EA Sports can do to make this game better. It’s so amazingly realistic now, at some point they will run out of ways to improve it.”
Colin did the radio nod and said, “Uh huh..yeah. I agree.” (even though he said he never plays video games..)
It was at this point that it sorta hit me. Madden will never, ever, be the game that some of us want it to be. Ever. I don’t mean for that to sound like an indictment of Madden. I’ve barely touched this version and it seems pretty decent thus far. But it’s never going to take that bold step from mainstream icon to detailed, statiscally sound, football simulation. I think in the back of my addled mind I thought that one day…at least by 2004 or so, Madden would start to look more like FPS: Footbal lin terms of what it could do with league creation, stat tracking, etc.
It then dawned on me that Madden sorta buried FPS Football and that franchise died. I thought that by now the Mario Running would be gone and that suction blocking would be a thing of the past — something old gamers told younsters that they had to put up with back in the good old days. They’re still in Madden in 2006 and ya know…no one really cares. Some people care. We still play it and some of us like it, but the mass chunk of people that play Madden could not care less of the QB Accuracy slider works or if Superstar Mode is as silly as the Monty Python Cheese Shop sketch. They just don’t. They’re not gamers. They have lives.
Madden is the game that non-gamers buy. There are people, even sports fans, that only buy Madden every year. Not NBA Live. Not NHL 2K-whatever–MADDEN. Not even NCAA and Madden. Just Madden. This game is so ingrained into our society that it makes local news shows, newspapers and national talk radio — and more. And in a way, I can’t blame EA for it. Yes, Superstar Mode is still ass backward silly. The presentation is hilariously poor. Al Michaels sounds like he’s literally on the last train to Hell. But it’s Madden. This game is a mainstream institution and an immeasurable financial success.
You know what I didn’t hear on these shows or read in print? The fact that NFL 2K is gone. Not a whisper. I doubt that the NFL2K series was a serious threat to EA’s juggarnaut, but regardless, it put a stake through that franchise and I don’t think anyone in the Madden Mainstream could care less about it.
At all.
August 23rd, 2006 at 11:59 am
The funny thing is, one of the Sports Talk Show this morning (I forget if it was Mike & Mike’s Substitute or the guy on Fox Sports Radio), but they actually got into the NFL license and how great NFL 2k was. They got a lot of stuff wrong (at one point they inferred that ESPN and 2k were two different game franchises), but I was amazed to even here 2k brought up.
But that aside, yeah, I agree with you 100% on this post. If Madden was going to seriously change or evolve in the forseeable future, we’d have seen it happen on the 360 version.
August 23rd, 2006 at 4:26 pm
Bill, good post, but I disagree with you on some things.
First, I don’t think Madden killed FPS as much as Sierra did. You can’t release unfinished product without killing your sales. It’s the same reason why GameDay and QB Club couldn’t maintain the inroads they made against Madden. Their publishers got lazy and kept letting all kinds of crippling design decisions and bugs kill their momentum.
Second, and more importantly, I don’t thin Madden (or 2k5 for that matter) were ever destined to become the kind of game sim fans wanted — a football version of High Heat. The reason for this is because of the age-old tug-of-war between realism and player control.
HH was so realistic because it took a lot of things out of player’s hands. Much of the action was determined by ratings. Players could influence outcomes, especially hitting, but for the most part ratings influenced everything. That’s great for realism, but many sports gaming fans (myself included) felt a bit turned off by this. I especially hated pitching on that game because there were often times I couldn’t do anything to stop a bad pitching performance, which would lead me to wonder why I was bothering to even play the game.
The other end of the spectrum was GameDay. A fun game, but probably one of the biggest games where gamepad gymnastics had the greatest influence over the outcome.
Madden and 2k are somewhere in between. If anything, Madden has gotten a lot better in terms of ratings factoring into performance. Virtual Charlie Frye may play better than actual Charlie Frye, but he will be clearly inferior to Virtual Peyton Manning.
This isn’t to let Madden off the hook — there’s a lot of dumb crap that shouldn’t be in the game these days. CPU teams should play more distinctly (which 2k and Inside Drive both pulled off well). But it’s a game that’s more for people who want to play a fantasy version of sports — rooted in reality but not completely governed by it.
I guess it’s like making a game about archeology. You could make a realistic, challenging, and clever game about archeological digs that hardcore archeological enthusiasts might love. Or you can make Tomb Raider. Most will pick Tomb Raider.
August 23rd, 2006 at 7:17 pm
2K Sports is still working on a football game. They just haven’t decided on what to do to get around the license issue.
You heard it here first. (unless you heard it somewhere else first)
wig
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:16 pm
Last year i was mad, I boycotted Madden.
I said to myself i got to stop playing so much WoW so I bought MAdden 360.
I DO NOT knoe nearly as much about football as baseball. But I do know that I have played 2 5 min quarter games and
the second game there were 4 fumbles by me all made with Curtis Martin…hmmmm..does bad knee= 4 turnovers….has he had 4 to in the last 4 yrs combined?
WAit a fifth fumble! oh no lets check the replay! penning shuffles the ball to Martin and it hits a defensive lineman in the back before getting to martin and lands on the ground….the lineman falls on this (incomplete pass) or toss or “Fumble” as thios game called it YAAAA another turnover. This one was on the very next play after i picked off a pass from alex smith to get the ball on thier 30! GRRRRRRRR BTW my 4 int……hmmmmmmm
This game is uh digunstingly STUPID. Ill prbably keep it though because 60 bucks is just to much to throw away on a 30 trade in.
I am sure glad i dont care about the stats in football nearly as much as baseball.
On a side note the frame rate during play selection and cut scenes SUCKS WTF EA. I can believe i lost 2K for this POS
Mike
August 23rd, 2006 at 9:19 pm
I must add from the last post that when i saw the 5th BS fumble I contested the play….so they are reviewing and then i get really PISSED, they are freakin reviewing the ball placement!!!!!!!
WTF! WTF! WTF! I wanted to throw my controller on the floor so bad but 60 bucks for the game was all i could take….I would hate to tell the wife i spent another 50 on a controller
August 23rd, 2006 at 10:27 pm
Todd, at one point on the PS2 ESPN had their own game (not sure who made it) separate from 2k football.
August 24th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Yeah, you’re right about that, Brian. I totally forgot about that. But in the context the radio guys were talking about it, I still think they were talking about the same franchise. If memory serves, 2k went from being 2k, to ESPN Football to ESPN 2k Football (or something like that), so it’s easy imagine there being some confusion for the casual celeb player.