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| Not even the out-of-this-world awesomeness of Jairus Byrd could psyche me up for the upcoming Madden NFL 11. |
Madden season is almost here, and you know what that means...the real NFL season can't be too far away, either. Around this time of year, virtual pigskin fanatics eagerly await the opportunity to play with their favorite NFL (or NCAA) squads, creating their dream Franchise Mode roster to the last detail and attempting to attain some online bragging rights (hint: "cheesing") in the process. It's an exciting time of year in the sports video gaming subgenre, especially in the forum culture. Operation Sports, a sports gaming community I have participated in since 2002 (yes, since age 12), is often times the center of all Madden and NCAA buzz, a forum where game developers often meet face-to-face with their fans and customers.
Well, the OS forums haven't been quite chipper this Madden season. All this because this year's title won't be as groundbreaking or as revolutionary as promised. In an eye-opening, retrospective article on ESPN's website (click here), Madden creative director Ian Cummings describes his job as an arduous one:
"I've been out to dinner with my wife, and I check my phone [for online fan feedback]. It's all, 'You suck; you're terrible; give up the NFL license."While I certainly sympathize with Cummings's perspective as a developer, as well as the long hours he's put into improving the game, I can't say that most of the Internet shares the same amount of empathy. Here was a man praised as a hero for his visionary initiative in last year's impressive Madden NFL 10 and quickly belittled after release day. Ian's vision was to turn Madden into the new standard in football gaming, dethroning ESPN NFL 2K5 (my personal all-time favorite football title), the sports gaming community's so-called "benchmark of excellence" in the football subgenre. 2K5 did the impossible in one yearly development cycle: it was the culmination of Sega and (former Madden developer) Visual Concepts' licensing agreement with ESPN, and it showed. 2K5 is still groundbreaking in its broadcast aesthetic, even six years after its release.
