Madden 11 Strategy Pad
ZFarls | Jul 30, 2010 | Comments 9
Evertime I hit Y and nothing happens, I die a little bit on the inside. -ZFarls via twitter.
Loading ...
Ahh, A new Madden couldn’t come out with out a little bit of controversy right?
We have broken down the worst Madden Gimmicks before and talked about the vision cone in all its glory.
But Madden has also scored with innovations as well!
20 Best Madden Innovations Where would we be without the hit stick?
Overall, the problem that many gamers are having with the strategy is the adjustment period. They are used to playing the game quickly and don’t like to make adjustments to their natural tendencies.
The community is buzzing over the controversial decision to put the Strategy Pad in Madden 11 without any warning. Basically the controls are mapped out to the d-pad now, instead of using the 4 face buttons on the right. This causes for an uncomfortable adjustment but also a clumsy way to make quick changes.
Does the strategy pad make things better?
NO, other than sounding nifty and making everything start out on one command, the strategy pad actually adds more steps to your adjustments then simplifying it. If you had never played Madden before, it may be easier to get into the adjustments, but it wouldn’t be the optimal way to make your changes.
What is the community saying? They are not liking the changes. Some common gripes are:
-You have to tap it just to activate it
- Why fix what is broken
- D-pad on xbox is horribly unresponsive
- Harder to stop off-tackle runs without time to set up defense
- They didnt make the change in NCAA football and switching back and forth is a pain.
- We have to accept it, but not embrace it
- EA is dumbing down the action for non hardcore fans
The only people who seem excited are people who think it will slow down nano’s but its clear that people will relearn the new pad and always find good blitz’s. When the only real response to the complaints is “get over it, its here to stay” I dont think that justify making such a big change.
People have been hitting Ian Cummings up via twitter but he seems dug in on the issue. Even the non hardcore sites like pastapadre and operation sports seem perplexed by the issue.
EA was plagued with a controller decision on Fight Night Round 4 and ultimately lost sales by not including buttons along with analog. Why not give people an option thought most in the community. They later patched the game to include these controls but many never purchased because of the late addition.
The Strategy Pad can be turned off, but this only takes it off the screen and doesn’t revert it to the normal way. Defense seems to be effected the most, but only time will tell if this is a bad move for EA.
I don’t think it can be considered an innovation because it wasn’t a natural progression forward. Innovations is defined as “Innovation is a new way of doing something or “new stuff that is made useful”. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations”
The processes for changing plays have now taken a step back and that’s not an innovation, the strategy pad sure sounds like a gimmick to me.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments and try to articulate rather than just saying “Strategy Pad Sucks”
Popularity: 18% [?]
Related posts:
Filed Under: Articles • Featured Content • Madden News
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ZFarls, Kevin Vaughn, Kevin Vaughn, Anton B, Anton B and others. Anton B said: RT @MaddenBible: Madden 11 Strategy Pad Thoughts http://bit.ly/c65vGF Comment and Vote now that we have had a few days with it! Communi … [...]
its been fixed…now optional http://maddennfl.easports.com/blog.action?blogId=GameFlowandStrategyPad
just got the news that EA will have a patch that makes his optional
thank goodness
I’m with you, ZFarls. It’s one of those things that make you say, “Huh? Really?” You just don’t see regression coming. You expect innovation . . . not a step back, despite the “spin”.
Ian Cummings’s post hints to the data showing issues . . . and I have to respect that they’re looking at this. Data tells the truth. My issue, however, is that not all Madden Gamers fall into the same bucket. I’m not saying that EA should cater to the 10% of the community that play tournaments or are highly competitive online (i.e. “hardcore”), but it’s nice that they’re in the process of reverting the controls for us.
There’s a little bit of a business study here – what happens to your brand (product, service, etc.) when you make changes that upset or alienate your most hardcore fans? I mean, after all, it’s us that interact the most online through blogs, Twitter, message boards, etc. Frankly, it’s us that drives demand – Madden Nation on ESPN wasn’t first-time players that were getting stuck in hot route mode. When they show MJD as the spokesperson in commercials, he’s not the kind of player that they’re catering to, either. There is a disconnect there.
Ultimately, perhaps you make changes based on the data for the other 90% of your consumers (i.e. the “mainstream”) . . . but you have to be real careful how you handle your 10% of most hardcore fans. The bottom line is that it’s us who drive the most demand for the game – not commercials or the EA blog.
It’s great to see EA learning their lesson here and reverting the controls back for us. And let’s be honest – if the Strategy Pad worked even halfway decent, there wouldn’t be this uproar. It’s poorly designed and cumbersome – the problem isn’t so much our rejection of “change”, but terrible design. History might not be written that way, but that’s the real deal.
It sucks. Thank god there fixing it!
I think its good that they will have a patch for the strat pad. I am an avid fan of madden but seriously, changes like this make it time for some competition in football video gaming. EA has clearly gotten complacent without any competition to push the envelope.
How do you drop individulas into coverage by assigning their man cover? I use d-ends to cover HB’s on Screens wiyth a saftey above, AAAAHHHHH?
they say its fixed but when i play the game i cant find the option to go back to the good ol Y button on Xbox anyone know exactly where to find this setting??