The Madden Series Just Keeps Proving That EA Doesn't Care Anymore

(This hilarious picture is courtesy of a twitter account named @MaddenNeedsHelp)

Electronic Arts has gotten more and more backlash for their Madden series in the last couple years than I think they ever have before, and it is 100% warranted. Playing this game has become more and more frustrating year in and year out, and as someone who loves the game of football and wants to play a football video game that they can enjoy, I can't stand it anymore. I've been able to tolerate it in past years, but this year was the final straw. Literally after a month of owning the game, I uninstalled it as I raged to my friends in our Xbox party about it. Whether it's the franchise mode that they put no effort into, the face of the franchise mode that everyone agrees is a horrible experience, or the actual gameplay itself... I am tired of this game and tired of giving my money to EA every year. This game is going to continue to go downhill, and there are many reasons why. 

Franchise Mode

As someone who is a Franchise mode player mostly, there is nothing more disappointing in life than loading into a Madden franchise mode for the first time when each game comes out. Every single year is a copy and paste of the previous year. Same home screen, same layout, same relocation options for your team, same everything, literally not one difference. Now, I will give them some credit, this year they added some things to how you scout players for your team, how you upgrade your coaches, and they even finally changed the layout. Usually, you would be happy about changes like that, but these changes only came because the consumers of the game were so fed up with the lack of effort on franchise mode, that they started a hashtag on multiple different social media outlets named #fixmaddenfranchise. Even with all the backlash, they failed to put all of the changes they planned to make into the game before it launched in August last year, but us consumers weren't too disappointed about it because we were told that these changes were coming in a post launch update later in the year. But we were disappointed yet again when those updates were cancelled, and we were shown yet again, that EA doesn't care about their consumers. 

(Video Explaining the Copy and Pasting of Franchise Mode- Sports Gamers Online on YouTube)

Face of the Franchise

Face of the Franchise is a career mode in the game, that attempts to tell a compelling story about your created character, but as you guessed, it fails, and it fails miserably. The best way that I can describe it is as such: imagine an interactive movie that got a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes. Anyone who has played this mode will tell you that it is the worst thing they've ever experienced. The storylines have all been really stupid ever since they introduced the story mode in 2018, which originally was called "Longshot." Most of the time, the story is about an undrafted player earning their shot in college, then ultimately getting drafted, but every story line is just very unrealistic. There are also some aspects of each story that just don't make sense at all, and there are many glitches in the game mode that make it unplayable. 

(The Title Speaks for Itself- RyanMoody21 on YouTube) 

Ultimate Team

I'm not too much of an Ultimate Team fan, so I can't really speak much about the mode itself, but what I do know is that Ultimate Team is EA's main focus is each of their Madden games. It is their main focus because it is the main money maker. Basically, in Ultimate Team you collect packs and get players that can help your team win. You can also purchase those packs if you don't feel like doing challenges or putting in the work to get the packs, and that is where the money aspect of it comes into play. So, it's understandable that they want to focus on it because every business wants to do what makes them money, but it is annoying to a lot of players that play the game for the other modes and don't play Ultimate Team very much, because they just throw all of the other modes off to the side to focus on one game mode. 

The Lack of Features

Don't get me wrong, there is a lot to do in Madden in their recent games, but there was so much more in their older games that were A LOT of fun to play that were removed without explanation. One glaring example is the features within the career mode. Back in the day, Madden had a mode called "Superstar Mode," and in that mode you would go through everything in the draft process. You would do combine workouts, such as the 40-yard dash, bench press, and drills based on your position. You would also have IQ tests, and team specific workouts, then you would get drafted based on how you did in all of those challenges and workouts, but in recent years, you either get the terrible Face of the Franchise mode, or you get basically a player lock franchise mode where all you do is choose whether you get drafted in the early rounds, middle rounds, or go undrafted, then you get an overall based on what you choose. 

The Gameplay Itself

The gameplay of Madden is so unrealistic that more times than not I feel like I'm not even playing a football game. There are so many movements or mechanics that honestly just disobey the laws of physics at times. For example, if you're running the ball and trying to go through a tight hole in the offensive line, it most likely won't happen because your player will get suctioned into a defender and get tackled, or if you decide to pass the ball, you can never throw it into a tight window without the fear of the defender straight up teleporting in front of your receiver to intercept the pass. And if we are sticking to terms of realism, there are a lot of plays in Madden that will work 100% of the time if you're on offense, which don't get me wrong can be fun if you're messing with your friends when playing, but it is very very unrealistic. All in all, the gameplay is what made me uninstall the game that fateful night when my rage finally got the best of me. 

(Gameplay Glitches- ABL 213 on YouTube)

Licensing

I think the main issue with EA and Madden, is that there is no competition, so they don't feel the need to try as hard as they used to. They own the exclusive licensing to the NFL and their teams so they are the only ones who can make a game for the NFL, meaning that if you want to play a simulation style NFL video game, then it HAS to be Madden. If their exclusive licensing were to go away and other company's started making games, then maybe they would try again.  

As you all can tell, I am very passionate about this issue because I want to be able to have a football game that I enjoy playing, and I just can't get that with Madden anymore. And I don't know if everyone has seen yet, but EA announced they are bringing their college football video game series back, and I'm really excited for it, but I can't help being scared that EA is the one making the game because if it is anything like Madden, I might actually cry. And to my professor that is reading this, I am very sorry because I am almost certain I went over the word count, but as you can probably tell, I've been waiting to explode over Madden and EA for months now, because like I've previously stated, I can't take it anymore.