Some Madden NFL 18 Game Style Details Revealed - Arcade, Simulation, Competitive

[OhMrHanky]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

This is quite literally the exact opposite of what was previously described to me by my colleagues who previously worked on Madden as late as M17. MUT has better retention due to better user onboarding, daily content updates, and special promotions. The first-time user experience is relatively short guided process which clearly explains the mode to new players, provides them easy challenges which are fun to complete (most of the time the first challenge has to do with replicating a scenario from the past year's Super Bowl), and gradually opens up more of the mode (sets, daily events, PvE challenges, PvP challenges, salary cap) to new players as more things are explained to them. This lets them get a feel for what they are doing without getting overwhelmed and without accidentally stumbling into an ***-kicking online at the hands of a MUT veteran. Further, Daily Events and collection building gives MUT players something new and rewarding to do every day, and pack promotions like Most Feared, Big Freeze, and the Easter Egg Hunt have been incredibly successful in bringing back old users as well. Salary Cap Ranked adds a level of complexity in team building for elder players to keep them in the game as well, as does the new Chemistries mechanic. MUT is actually incredibly well-designed from top to bottom. On the other hand, Franchise has suffered from a massive user retention problem because it was never built with new users in mind. As of Madden 16, half the mode's users weren't even getting through the first preseason. The first-time user experience was previously non-existent; the game dumped new players in the mode and basically told them "here are a bunch of options, figure it out, good luck". This is why features such as Big Decisions, Weekly Training, and Play The Moments were added: Big Decisions guides new users to different points of the mode easily and in a manner which helps them successfully operate their franchise; Weekly Training stands in for daily events in always providing players something to do in a given week with rewards upon completion; and PTM gets users further along in the mode faster. Retention has apparently improved 100% year-over-year according to Rex thanks in part to these changes. I still doubt it retains better than MUT because the first-time user experience, though better now, is still pretty overwhelming; the first thing you see in franchise once you get past setup is a massive screen with like 15 actions on it (be it Big Decisions, depth chart, news, or what have you) and unlike MUT there is no actively-guided on-boarding whatsoever. Admittedly we could be talking past each other as to what retention means; I come from mobile games, where retention is how long a brand-new player keeps playing a game. If CFM retains elder players better than MUT retains elder players, fine, but MUT is easily the better-built mode for general-case new user retention. To the general spirit of your post, Franchise is indeed important because it's the most-played mode by total users, and apparently by a large margin. To that end Franchise is probably responsible for more people buying the game in the first place - especially at release (Madden has two major revenue windows wrt copies sold, release week and Christmas) - and a user obviously can't spend money in MUT if he doesn't buy the game in the first place.

To each his own opinion on how 'easy' MUT is to onboard. From my experience with 17, which is the first time I bothered with MUT, the instant setup was not good. And, it's not madden's fault, it's just that mode encompasses a lot of random crap. I bought the game when it came out. I'm a total CFM guy. But, with 17, I thought I'd give MUT a shot and build a team, try to get a Julio Jones card or something. Why not? So, I log into the game mode. You're right that they have a tutorial, but it truly encompasses too much. U have to open a million packs to get started. Lol. That, right there, took me out of the zone. But, that being said, the connectivity between your actual team, the stupid team binder, gold, silver, elite, etc., that stuff is too much at the start. And, the adding/moving of players between the team screen and binder screen is a little off/clunky, imo. Once u get used to it, its fine, but still has clunky moments trying to move players around some. And, no tutorial can fully explain all of the upgradeable elements and the team challenges, the trade-in stuff, madden coins, etc. U kind of just have to experience it to get it, imo. After having to open so many packs and whatever else at startup and clicking through multiple tutorial screens, I still didn't have a team to play with, and the team I would've had sucked (lol, as all early MUT teams do), so I said, 'peace out' on this lame mode. I'm gonna start my franchise.

I totally understand where you're coming from and the video game models u tend to talk about (specifically, on the financial side of things), but for any avg, idk, teen and above? (Not sure what the avg age is of a madden newbie). That person is going to have some semblance of knowledge about a pro sports team season, regardless of having ever played madden before. And, as I've mentioned a few times here and there, madden should be picked up mostly by football fans. These people should be able to easily pick up season mode in any sports game. And, it's extremely quick to simply play your first preseason game, or sim to your first season game. If u sim, it will prompt u to get rid of players u may need to, etc. So, starting CFM, and simply playing your first game is much quicker than MUT and makes much more instant sense in that you're doing something that you've already seen in real life with a real life team.

MUT is this wonky conglomeration of card packs, team building, challenges, and card collections for trading up 'stuff' (that part of MUT is the strangest item upon first glance and a new user may lose a few cards in the wrong trade binder or whatever and get upset about, lol, as I did. [emoji6]). I think your args are mostly steered towards absolute newbies, maybe, and I understand from a money making standpoint, madden wants new users so they have to cater to them, some. But, I think something's missing in terms of what people already should know going into a game. And, no matter how much they want new users, there should be no reason to create a game for nonfootball users. Lol. U know? People who know nothing about football shouldn't want to play the game and shouldn't waste their money on it. Again, at its core, it's a football game based on real life football. It's #1 goal should be to replicate the sport. This is done through gameplay and CFM, first. After that, they can add more to CFM, they can create MUT, and/or more modes to engage users, new and old.

All that being said, MUT got me around Christmas with the Deion freeze pack stuff. And, ultimately I enjoyed the mode, although I never was able to get the Deion I wanted because it's impossible to simply do the challenges and get certain cards which I only learned after doing every challenge I could and was supremely depressed at that point, lol. No game should lose their core audience. Maddens core is football fans on a general level, so they should always include a franchise mode to accommodate the most basic aspects of football 'life'. They, and other game companies would be wise not forget this. There are other games, shooters, for instance that have moved away from their core and lost out. And, as a general opinion, the more any game tries to include everyone, the worse the game gets. Lol. Loses its uniqueness.


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[XtremeDunkz]

Paragraphs, please.

[Critical Kills]

Quote: Originally Posted by XtremeDunkz

Paragraphs, please.

Amen, cannot read a wall of text...

[howboutdat]

i would add this as well. If EA wanted more CFM people to try out MUT, it would have been wise to not be so seemingly wanting to throw it in your face every turn in game and every post they make for one. By doing that and by only adding small things to CFM, year after year, it actually has turned alot in CFM crowd totally against MUT all together and refuse to touch it, because they see it as MUT gets all EA attention while CFM is just left out there but not really much attention given to it .

Personally i understand how MUT can be useful to Madden. I dont play it,partly for reasons above,partly because i dont like playing people who just run gimmics and cheats of the ai all game because i see no fun in it.I dont have an issue with MUT being in the game, because it brings in more money which should at least slightly be put back into game to make it better, while still being able to turn a very large profit(GTA does this with shark cards,without breaking up player base but allows those wiling to pay more to do so without hiding parts of the game behind paywalls so all customers get full game( over 32 free DLC i might add)). My issues though lye with the bigger issues with this . Currently , EA is profiting millions per month between Madden MUT and Madden Mobile( i heard a gamechanger say this two years ago , not just making this number up). Millions per month. I get it , business is there to make money. No issue with that. What i take issue with is, the fact the more they profit, the more profit they want next year, this compiles year after year.The issue is its never enough. They make in profit enough already they COULD put a tiny .5% or even less and give it to making CFM better.

By creating a deeper franchise and better gameplay, that would draw back alot of customers they lost because they lost focus on their consumers for so long. Also , Verts mentioned they really want CFM guys to try out MUT( that was obvious when they announced Salary Cap MUT).Well, as i started off with, alot of the distain in the CFM community towards MUT is because of what EA has been doing. If they changed that tactic, showed CFM the love it deserves being the most played mode , and actually made big changes to it. I believe it would bring back customers lost in past and it would help remove some of the angst people have towards MUT, as being seen as all EA cares about. Show people the money being made from MUT is helping create a better CFM and that by more people spending in MUT how it will help CFM as wel. Show the community they really do care about CFM, and i bet they would have more people who play CFM trying out MUT than the current way they are going about it .


So while its easy to say, let us pay for some DLC's in CFM to fund it.Showing they actually care about CFM , and not asking us to pay more for it, but showing us the love a mode that is mode played deserves, would in turn open people up to dropping their distain for MUT, get them trying it out more, thus possibly spending money there. Which as stated , is their goal.There are other ways around it other than , hey lets toss them some more money for giving us a CFM and hope most that money goes to the mode. The problem to me there is, as i stated, no profit is ever enough, so they would always have the an excuse as why more wasnt given to CFM, even if we paid for DLCs.Not to mention those prices might start low, but once we open that door, in time they will only rise for same amount of content. At the end of the day, they will always only have a certain amount of time to add new things and test them before release, but that profit margin will only go up as will our costs to help fund that increased profit margin.

I just believe showing the respect to the mode it deserves, would go alot farther and EA would be surprised at how that would open the doors to more people in CFM playing MUT.Actually id say , asking us to pay for DLC in CFM will only do the opposite , as it will be seen as EA only trying to squeeze everyone for every penny they can, and MUT will be seen as the reason.That will make many walk away from Madden all together, people they have counted on buying it every single year with 0 chance of ever touching MUT. It will only keep people from MUT more than bring them to it.

[OhMrHanky]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Amen, cannot read a wall of text...

Lol. I actually prefer long posts to read. Not much can be said in a paragraph. But, in this particular case, I just happened to have a lot to say on the subject. To each his own. [emoji41]


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[roadman]

Quote: Originally Posted by OhMrHanky

Lol. I actually prefer long posts to read. Not much can be said in a paragraph. But, in this particular case, I just happened to have a lot to say on the subject. To each his own. [emoji41] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure they meant to break up your long post into paragraphs, so, it's easier to read.

I don't think they meant to keep your post to only a paragraph, but to break them up into paragraphs.

[OhMrHanky]

Quote: Originally Posted by roadman

I'm pretty sure they meant to break up your long post into paragraphs, so, it's easier to read. I don't think they meant to keep your post to only a paragraph, but to break them up into paragraphs.

Lol. I thought about that after I posted the last post. Yeah, I get stuck in 1 long stream of consciousness thought sometimes, and don't see/feel any breaks. I'll work on that. [emoji41]


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[T4VERTS]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

This is quite literally the exact opposite of what was previously described to me by my colleagues who previously worked on Madden as late as M17.

My understanding in conversations with developers, at least coming in to this year, was that CFM user log in deeper into a cycle and more often than an average MUT user. The idea that "half don't make it through preseason #1", I was told this was accounted for and was cautiously believed to be people starting them for roster, rating, etc. references not as people giving up and walking away which I can definitely believe. The person I was talking to may have not been correct, but I feel like he probably would have been.

Many casual MUT users "flame out" relatively quickly (try it for a while and move on to another game), or have spotty logins as the year goes. You will get late arrivers, but when you talk "august to August" CFM has better retention OVERALL (Obviously there is a hardcore MUT crowd).Things like the daily login stuff and the loyalty rewards they have done the last couple months I think are trying to force up the daily logins and retention. I think anytime your talking about a mode that has an "expiration date" and spending money is desired by the developer it gets tough to encourage spending as you approach the expiration date.

We could have different information, I am just going off what I heard in passing before this cycle from some devs. As you said though, the spirit either way is pretty obvious. Use CFM to on board MUT, and people should be okay with that as it means they are an integral part to the long term EA plan.