April 29, 2008 - When it comes to sports videogames it doesn't get much bigger than the yearly release of Madden Football. Some complain it's the same game year in and year out, but that doesn't stop droves of pigskin fanatics from lining up outside of their local retailers in hopes of scoring a copy. With the announcement of Brett Favre as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 09 the ball has begun to roll heading toward the game's August release.
We recently sat down with Ryan Ferwerda and Daniel Castorani from the Design Team to get the skinny on two new features in this year's Madden: Online Leagues and the Virtual Training Center. Oh, and we also managed to snag the first ever gameplay footage for your viewing pleasure.
*Note: Since the video is of an early version of the game, Cris Collinsworth and Tom Hammond's commentary has yet to be implemented.
Video Here--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IGN: The words "online" and "leagues" have finally come together in one mode for Madden 09. Tell us why people should be excited about it.
Ryan Ferwerda and Daniel Castorani, Madden Design Team: First and foremost, this has been a feature that we've wanted for years and we finally felt that we had the game in a good enough place to be able to execute.
This feature is truly being built from the ground up with the help of nearly all the teams here at EA. It's something we are all really passionate about and can't wait to get into the hands of users.
That being said, we have support for up to 32 users, full player stats, player trades, a fantasy profile draft, news options and a myriad of other features.
IGN: Say I only have five friends, but still want to play in a full season with 32 teams. Is that possible with flex scheduling included?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Actually, you cannot. This was a conscious design decision by us. We decided it would be better to ensure that all teams are controlled by users which would allow for us to implement our flex scheduling. To be clear, there is not a 'set' schedule in our leagues. All schedules are flex.
IGN: We just mentioned flex scheduling, but some might not know what we're talking about. Explain why it's cool.
Ferwerda and Castorani: Flex scheduling is cool for a multitude of reasons. First off, flex scheduling is what we refer to as an 'open schedule' with no set order. What this means is that if you log online and ten members of your twenty member league are online, you can play any of your opponents that you have remaining games with. The nice thing about this is that it doesn't allow for leagues to get stale or held up waiting for others to play. If the stars align, and you have all of your opponents online, you can, in theory, knock out your entire league in one day.
IGN: Are multi-team trades allowed in an online league?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We do not allow for multi-team or multi-player trades. We made this decision for a few reasons. One, because of the flex scheduling, we have to make sure that players have played the same amount of games in order to be traded. By introducing multiple teams and multiple players, it muddies the waters quite a bit and makes it tough to get a trade done. Right now, we offer one for one trades of players that have played the same amount of games. Trades are a setting, as are the restrictions. If I have Randy Moss, play all ten games in a ten game schedule and have trades with restrictions on, I won't be able to trade him since he's played his maximum of games. If I have restrictions off, I can trade him to someone else who can use him for the remainder of their games.
Now, if users want to organize a multi-team trade, they can communicate with each other and then follow through with their plans.
IGN: Can people import their draft class and created players from NCAA Football 09 into the online league?
Ferwerda and Castorani: No, we don't support this as we don't support a rookie draft. We support the Franchise Profile Draft.
IGN: Will we be able to use altered rosters at the start of an online league or default-only?
Ferwerda and Castorani: In order to make sure leagues run as smooth as possible, we keep all rosters on the server and use the latest up to date NFL roster to start the league. Because of this, altered rosters are not supported.
IGN: Can we start our online league with a fantasy draft?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Yes, we created something this year called a profile draft. Essentially, on your machine, you'll pre-rank the entire list of NFL players and what round you'd like to draft them in. This is very similar to a fantasy football draft pre-rank system. Once your profile is set, the league will automatically run the draft and assign your players based on your preferences.
This is our first iteration of a draft, and we'll be looking to expand to a real-time experience in the future. However, this year, we decided it would be best to focus on the base experience and expand as we interact with our community and build features that everyone wants.
IGN: Can we play with more than one person on a console during an online league game? Meaning, can a buddy and I play on one system while two of our friends sign on to Xbox Live and play on another system 200 miles away?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Online leagues is a one on one experience, as is the rest of our online experience.
IGN: But what if the person I'm playing against in an online league game happens to get disconnected during the game. Is there some sort of forgiveness option to make it up or do I automatically win?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We will offer a full suite of GM Administration options such as force win and a multitude of other settings that will allow users to ensure that the results in their leagues are correct.
IGN: How will a dropped connection effect stats?
Ferwerda and Castorani: We're actually working on that stuff right now and will have more info on that soon. Rest assured we'll do our absolute best to guarantee the integrity of the league and its statistics.
IGN: Are there franchise options included in the online league? Things like hot dog and ticket prices? What about franchise features like players being upset with playing time and salary cap issues?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Online Leagues is a different feature from Franchise. We view them here as completely different, divergent features. We plan on building features for each independently in the future and to make sure that they are each the best features possible for their space. To answer your question directly, no, we do not have those features, as we feel that Online Leagues is a different beast from Franchise.
IGN: Is there any sort of handicapping involved? If we have a 32 team league someone has to be stuck playing as the Dolphins. Are they just screwed?
Ferwerda and Castorani: To avoid this we've included a setting called 'Unique Teams'. What this allows is the ability to have everyone play as any team they want. If you wanted to have thirty-two users control thirty-two versions of the Packers, with unique teams off, that would be allowed. However, with unique teams on, players are limited to teams that haven't been selected.
IGN: We understand that Brett Favre is a free agent at the start of the game. Will he just accept the first offer made to him in an online league or will there be real negotiations between users?
Ferwerda and Castorani: As there aren't any free agents, or free agent negotiations in online leagues, Brett Favre will not be playable in online leagues.
IGN: Talk about the Virtual Training Center. Say I've never played Madden before, how long am I going to have to spend on the Virtual Trainer to be able to beat the computer on the default difficulty? What kind of things will it teach me?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Madden has evolved into a very deep game, and while that is one of our greatest strengths it can also intimidate people new to the franchise. In years past a new gamer would boot up, jump directly into a game situation, and have to just learn everything on the fly. The Virtual Training Center will ease this transition by teaching the fundamentals of playing our game. We focus on teaching gameplay controls and isolating certain in-game situations for practice repetition. So this year if a new gamer has done the Madden Test and played in the Virtual Training Center, they already know the buttons and have had some practice reps in all the areas of gameplay.
As far as how long will you need to spend in the Virtual Training Center to beat the CPU? That really all depends on how quickly you can pick up on the skills required to succeed. Also remember that play calling and general football knowledge also plays a part of success -- the Virtual Training Center doesn't teach you to punt on 4th down or anything- so this will definitely vary by user.
IGN: There's a Madden IQ that will be assigned at the end of session in the Virtual Training Center. How will that change the way the AI plays against me? What is that number based off of exactly?
Ferwerda and Castorani: Your Madden IQ score is used to determine the difficulty level of the CPU when you are using the My Skills difficulty level. This score is based off the four main gameplay categories that we rate you in: Rushing, Passing, Rush Defense and Pass Defense. One of the neatest things regarding this feature is that we've broken difficulty up into these different categories to give the game a much deeper concept of difficulty. If you are a great runner but a bad passer, then your difficulty level will adapt and provide the right level of challenge for both areas.
The Madden IQ Score is set by your Madden Test performance and then constantly evaluated as you play the game in single-player games. This means that we are always tracking your playing abilities. What we love about this feature is that everyone talks about how great they are at Madden -- well now you can prove it by posting your Madden IQ.
IGN: Is there anything that Madden veterans could get out of the Virtual Training Center or is it purely for newbies?
Ferwerda and Castorani: One of the biggest misconceptions about making a more accessible game is that we have to lose our appeal with the more seasoned Madden players. This notion is completely false, and the Virtual Training Center is a good example. We definitely start the drills out easy, but I defy anyone to actually complete the Madden Test with a perfect score on their first try! There are three levels to each drill -- Easy, Medium, and Hard -- with the Hard level designed to test the skills of even the most hardcore Madden gamers. I definitely don't think anyone will be complaining about the Hard levels being too easy.
Aside from the difficulty factor, the drills were also designed with fun in mind. From the awesome new graphics and visuals to the actual drill mechanics, I think that even seasoned veterans will have a great time playing through the drills.
Thanks very much for your time!
