Madden 13 Review, or: When Good Intentions Aren't Enough

I'm going to start out in defense of EA by fixing a common misconception regarding Madden 13: Franchise Mode is not gone.  It's simply been repackaged as coaching in Connected Careers. 

Madden purists claim that this new career mode strips out so many features of franchise mode that it's effectively destroyed it, and I'd argue that this is an exaggeration.  Here's what's missing, and why I'm not upset that they weren't able to fit it into the newest version of the series:

• Fantasy Draft: No more starting your team from scratch with the entire NFL as your draft pool.  It was a fun mode, but not an essential for franchise--team management is still there.  It can create parity for a large league, but that's not a realistic view of the NFL.  Teams are never perfectly balanced--sim ahead a few years, and you may find the powerhouse teams are starting to lose to new up-and-comers.
• Player Editing: This includes everything--stats, numbers, and position.  With the new focus on online leagues, I can understand why they wouldn't want anyone to have the ability to max out a player's skills.  Losing the ability to move people to new positions is unfortunate, but you can still alter the depth chart, so it's not a huge loss.
• Multiple Team Franchise: Previously, you could take on every single team in franchise mode if you really wanted to.  The focus has shifted from building teams to building your legacy as a coach, so this has taken a hit.  But from a realism standpoint, there's no reason to give you control of more than one team.  I admit that it was nice to have, but I don't think it's at all essential to the franchise experience.
• No Hiring/Team Relocation: The ability to hire coordinators or trainers that affected your team has been replaced by the ability to enhance players with XP, and team relocation never worked properly to begin with and led to announcers always calling you "the home team."  I'm glad they just got rid of it this year, rather than stick it in once again as a broken feature.
• Local Multiplayer: It's not a feature I've used, but I'll come back to this at the end of the review.

Also gone this year is the potential grading, replaced with a new experience points system that allows players to progress based on their performance rather than a static A/B/C/D letter grade.  I was thrilled when I heard about this new system--it means that a 7th-round pick can still work his way up and become a great player, whereas previous games would grade him with a C and cap him off at a 79 overall.  They also revamped scouting, allowing you to seek out players based on the traits you place the most value in, and even tweaked the way the ratings work.  Players now have a scheme trait that tells you which playstyle they'll best work with, and their overall rating can change based on your system, meaning there's a little more depth to free agency than just grabbing the highest overall player.

If you were getting bored, here's the part where I stop defending Madden 13 and get into the bad.

The new XP-based progression system sounds amazing, but in practice,  it falls flat.  Your backups are the players who would benefit most from some custom progression, but if they don't actually play, they come home with 0 XP.  You can get them some experience through weekly practices, but the practice scenarios put you up against a generic team with no music, announcers, or crowd, and aren't exciting to play.  There's no way to sim practices, and on top of that, they don't even get you that much XP.  Even if you get experience, progressing every player individually will take forever as you open each menu one at a time, and the game still progresses (or regresses) some stats every year just like it did in previous Madden games without many hints as to how or why.  I imagine most gamers will elect to let the CPU handle player progression except for a few players they're especially interested in, which defeats the purpose of the XP system altogether.

Scouting has a similar problem--the ability to check every player's individual stats is great, but it takes a lot longer than scouting ever used to.  And speaking of things that take longer: everything.  Madden 12 chose to hide the franchise menu, requiring a button push to bring it up every single time.  But once it was up, it was fairly clear--there was a section to manage your team, a section to check out details of the NFL, a section to look at your stats.  The menus in Connected Careers are all over the place, hidden behind other categories that take far too long to move between.  The news and Twitter feed was a fun addition that I really did enjoy reading through, but before long it starts to just feel like an obstacle between me and the screens I'm trying to get to.

But change is going to take some getting used to, right?  We should at least reward Madden for taking a chance and trying to move in a new direction instead of holding on to their "$60 roster update" reputation.  So what if they didn't have time to bring some features back?

Here's the thing with Madden 13.  For years, gamers have been crying out that EA just uses the Madden franchise to print money, and I don't entirely believe that.  I have to believe that there are members of the Madden team who really do care about the product their making, and that the decisions of what to change in the narrow development schedule they're given are difficult.  The narrative the Madden 13 team has been pushing this year is that they worked really hard this year to make a new product, and some cuts had to be made for that progress.

Which is why it's so baffling at how flawed Connected Careers still is.  Overall player ratings change between screens instead of accurately reflecting your team's scheme, and if you try to change your scheme, the game just changes it back for you.  They added the ability to check out your Connected Career from online via maddencareer.com, but apart from some interesting stats, the site doesn't really do much other than say "play the game to do x, y, and z."  Settings like when to progress players and whether or not to use GameFlow don't save.  Player numbers are duplicated if you pull someone out of free agency whose number is already taken.  These are basic issues at the core of new features Madden 13 promises, and they were still present at the game's release.  Even if they're fixed in patches, it gives the impression that almost nobody actually played the new mode.  If they're going to cut features that couldn't be ready in time, it stands to reason that the features that made the game should be ready.  But they're not.

Maybe this is a step in the right direction for the series, but as a game, Madden 13's new direction falls flat.  I put way more hours than I'd like to admit into Madden 12's franchise mode, and I don't see that happening in this game.  Props to the EA team for trying something new, but they don't get any points for execution.  To be even pickier, the addition of an instrumental-only soundtrack was welcome, but the music cycles through very quickly and somehow manages to get tiring even faster than some of the terrible songs of the past few games.

Of course, if you don't play for franchise mode--if you're the type who just plays head to head matches with friends, or even in Ultimate Team, I'd say to go for it.  The new game engine is nice, and despite a few hiccups, it really does play better than any previous installment.  Likewise, if you liked Superstar mode, the new Connected Careers features will probably add a lot to your experience.  But in terms of franchise, it's somewhat disappointing and if anything, I'd recommend borrowing or renting it first to see the changes for yourself before commuting any money to it.

For a final thought, I'll return to multiplayer complaint I promised I'd come back to.  Madden has been more of a single-player game for me, but I can understand why this would be upsetting (especially with Madden pushing the connectedness of the new modes, and then forcing you to use them on different consoles without sitting next to your friends).  I understand that to keep a career mode fair, you can't allow local multiplayer because it's so easy to abuse, but it's still a little depressing that Madden won't allow gamers to make that decision themselves.  Again, it's a non-factor for me, but if you want local multiplayer in any fashion other than single head-to-head matchups, take it into consideration before buying.

EA, I want to believe you're not the greedy, monopolizing, apathetic company the internet makes you out to be.  But if you keep releasing half-finished games on a yearly basis, it's going to be pretty hard to keep defending you.  Kudos on allowing a little innovation into the Madden franchise, but if you aren't going to commit to it and do it well, is it even worth doing?

MADDEN 13 OVERALL:
90 - New Engine Scheme
60 - Connected Careers Coaching Scheme
85? - Connected Careers Superstar Scheme
40? - Local Multiplayer Scheme

2008

2008-me thought that one summer would be ample time to finish a first novel.  Technically, that was true.  2008-me was working full time for the first time all summer long, but there was still plenty of time during nights and weekends and even the downtime at work, if nobody else was around.  But 2008-me didn't write a novel.  2008-me barely wrote a chapter.  It wasn't until 2008-me turned into 2011-me that anything even close to a full manuscript was produced.

I'm beginning to become afraid that I've become (or always been) a let's-do-that-someday guy.  These are the people who have large ideas and are especially receptive to new experiences--in conversation.  "Yes," they'll tell you with a smile, "I'd love to go camping sometime this summer."  "We could absolutely make our own short film."  "I think I'm finally going to write that book."  You get the idea.

It may be my greatest fear as a so-called creative person--that all along, I've simply been in love with the idea of being a writer and the idea of being a musician.  If that's the case, wouldn't it make more sense to drop the artistry idolship and move on with my life?

But then I think back to 2008-me, and the reason he was able to believe he could handle writing a novel over the summer.  Because he felt the desire to do something with the ideas in his head.  The same feeling 2003-me had when he first stumbled upon the ridiculous notion of NaNoWriMo.  The same feeling I get now, that not even the most pragmatic of adulty real-world thoughts can strip away.

It's the feeling that says you've got something you need to be doing, and it doesn't care how many excuses I feed it.  The trick is to realize that feeling isn't there to make me feel like a useless person.  It's there to push me forward and remind me doing nothing leads to nothing.

I've said the same thing a dozen different times over the years--sooner or later, the message has to sink in.  It's late and the living room is excessively warm, and I'm going to put in some genuine keyboard time instead of laying down and wondering why I didn't.  Have a good night, internet.

Nil Nil Draw

Leave it to John Green to comment on exactly the sort of thing I've been posting about right after I do it.  In the most recent Swindon Town video (I'm a dedicated Swoodilypooper fan), John had this to say about life after college:

I felt this false sense of immediacy, this sense that things were going to either work out or not, and it would happen soon.

 There's something refreshing about that.  Seeing successful people in your twenties is a lot like looking at giant signs that say YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG and it's nice to occasionally remember that pretty much everybody else is doing it wrong too.

Words words words words words

I managed to squeak by with a post in April, but alas, monthly posting was not to be.  Sorry to leave you out, May.  Better luck next year.

So I've been thinking about creative output, and come to a realization that's encouraging as it is depressing.  Since graduating, writing/videomaking/musicmaking has had a radically different feel.  Now that my only obvious identifier is my full-time job, it feels more and more crucial that I hang on to these creative outlets since letting go of them will mean surrendering to the terrifying (but realistic) vision of a mundane office worker life.  Writing feels more urgent, but there's also a distinct sense of what's-the-point when it's not going towards a class.  Now the driving force behind it needs to be me, and that's a challenge.  Procrastination is far easier, and frequently more enjoyable.

I tried to do the numbers in my head, and it's the results that give me mixed feelings.  Since graduating and moving to Madison, I've defeated my first every NaNoWriMo and I've started trying to get used to singing for an audience.  I've done some gaming-related writing, which is still better than no writing at all.  In terms of non-academic work, it's the most I've probably done ever.  Go me!

Then I look back at the list, notice how short it is, and realize that it's the most I've ever done.  It doesn't make this year any better, it just shows how pitiful the years before were.

I'm just going to assume that this is a good thing, and that shame and pride have some sort of perfect balancing point that can drive you forward without worrying too much about what's behind you.  Because, well, it's better than the alternative.

Technicalities

It's not midnight yet, so with this, I've technically updated every month this year.

Success?

Biography of an Autobiography

My senior seminar was on the topic of autobiography and memoir, and one of the things we frequently discussed was the fact that you can never really write an autobiography, because inevitably, you're writing about a different person--a person who existed before you, who was you but in certain ways no longer is you. You write autobiography from your memories, which means that at best, you're writing a biography of the person you remember. It's impossible to get it all exactly right.

So let me introduce you to the person who used to write on this blog.

His name is Chris. He tends to stay up late on his computer and not accomplish much in the process, and he has absolutely no idea what he wants to do in the future. That will still be true in 8 years, when he eventually writes this post.

Chris is in high school, where he's involved in math, drama, and band (the nerd trifecta). He's also learned that being in all three of those traditionally unpopular categories doesn't really matter if you don't let it and you're a little lucky, and while he's by no means a popular kid, he's got a strong group of friends. He's hopelessly kind of maybe sort of in love with one of them, but instead of doing something about it, he's mostly going to complain on the internet because doing difficult, scary things is difficult and scary.

He lives with his parents, unsurprisingly, and it upsets them when he's still awake at 4:00 in the morning or when he stays over at a friend's place without telling them. He's gotten skilled at pretending to be asleep (and actually being asleep well into the afternoon).

Chris is a little odd. He claims to lack any confidence, but it's clearly there when he speaks on social situations. He applied to only one college, knowing that it only accepted 20% of applicants and that he'd have no backup plan. But still he insists in his belief that a lack of confidence is one of his biggest flaws.

There are some things that Chris has no interest in doing--he doesn't want to play D&D, he doesn't care about sports, and he has absolutely no desire to go to college in La Crosse. He doesn't drink or smoke--both because it's not legal and because he has no desire to. He doesn't know if he would ever get married, though he isn't opposed to it.

There are some things he doesn't tell anyone about. On warm nights, he likes to sit outside at 2:30 in the morning and look at the stars. He's recently learned to play the guitar, and if nobody's around, tries to sing while playing. And when he's near the girl from a few paragraphs ago, he doesn't tell her how he feels even though it's the thing he most wants to do.

As much as I like to think of myself as being a master procrastinator, Chris may be even better at it. He doesn't have YouTube or Facebook or Netflix--no high speed internet at all, in fact. Procrastination comes mainly in the forms of games, late-night TV, and instant messaging clients. He's got a talent for putting things off that will stretch into and beyond his college years.

It was a fun topic to talk about in class. Chris is me, but I'm not Chris. They're my stories to tell, but they happened to a different person. He didn't keep very good records, so the memories I have now are all I have, complete with any flaws that may have come up since then.

The reason I bring up Chris from then is because I've been thinking about Chris from then lately. There are things that annoy me about him. But it's not his lack of action or his stubbornness that I've been thinking about. It's just this:

What would he think of me?

Alternate Futures

I've talked a little about this before, but part of the reason I enjoy the Madden games is the franchise mode that allows you to take a GM-type role with a team, making personnel decisions as you take them through the season. Not only can you come up with your own narratives based around the decisions you make, but the choices made by the 31 teams being simulated by the game lead to some entertaining stories as well. Here are some of the scenarios that have played out in future seasons, according to Madden:

1. The 2018 (I believe) Packers hit 11-4 before Aaron Rodgers is out with an injury that will extend into the playoffs. Desperate, they sign Michael Vick, who had been a free agent all season after several years of bouncing between teams (rated a 68 at this point). But Vick comes through--he gets the Packers through the playoffs before letting Aaron Rodgers take back over for the Super Bowl, which they win. Vick retires afterwards with the only Super Bowl ring of his career.

2. After spending his entire career with the Colts, Peyton Manning is released as a free agent and picked up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who have a solid receiving core and a strong O-line, but lack a reliable quarterback. Manning goes on to have his strongest season in several years, and faces his brother Eli in the NFC Championship. The Bucs win and go on to take the Super Bowl, allowing him to retire with one last ring.

3. Serious salary cap issues (before I learned how to manage it better) force the Packers to release two of their veterans, QB Aaron Rodgers and CB Tramon Williams. Rodgers goes to the Dolphins, where he stays for the duration of his career but unfortunately never makes it back to the playoffs. Williams goes to the Bears, who release him a season later. The Packers pick him back up and he proceeds to save the NFC championship game with a clutch interception late in the fourth quarter.

It's kind of silly and it's (if anything) a secondary concern for the developers, but the opportunity to come up with little stories is probably the reason I keep playing the game. People say that sport games lack depth, but the fact is, sports lack depth when you look at them as simple physical competitions. Passion in sports comes from the little stories--the loyal veterans, the player stories, the dedicated fans. You may have to work a little harder to find it in a video game, but I like to think it's still there.

Ways Not to Write a Novel

It's a tricky thing, not writing a novel, and you may need some helpful advice to get you through the process. Fortunately for you, dear reader, I have a great deal of experience in not writing a novel, and I'm going to share with you some of the top techniques. Be warned; some of these are not for beginners.

1. Netflix. If you're not subscribed, you should definitely sign up--at least for the online streaming. Sure, you can probably find everything on Netflix elsewhere and save $8 a month, but Netflix has a magical invention that is almost essential to not writing a novel: the instant queue. In less than twenty minutes, you can have the next 250 hours of viewing planned and lined up, ensuring that you'll even have to think about what to watch next, lest you be tempted to give up and get back to work. Need a place to start? I recommend diving into something with more than 200 episodes, like Law and Order: SVU.

2. Discuss your story. This one's a classic--writers have been using it to not write for centuries. At every opportunity, tell your other writer friends about your novel; talk about your characters and the brilliant narrative that will bring them all together. If, somehow, you manage to exhaust those topics, move on to talking about your eventual search for an agent and things you'll talk about on your book tour.

3. Video Games. You're bound to be getting burnt out, and video games are vital for restoring the creative process. Just shut off your brain for a while. It's for the best.

4. Research. It sounds boring, but don't be fooled. You have no idea of knowing what you might need to have experience in when you first start your novel. Dedicate yourself to at least 2 hours every day hitting random Wikipedia articles and reading Cracked.com.

5. YouTube. Just start with one two-minute clip of something you enjoy. A song, or perhaps a kitten slideshow. Then, follow the related video links until you have been completely enveloped by the YouTube vortex. Once you're in the vortex, don't worry about putting off your novel--there's no way you'll escape.

You may have noticed that many of these techniques require access to technology, but don't think they're your only options. If you're trying not to write a novel, it may be the perfect time to pick up a new hobby like origami, or lawn darts. Is your kitchen stocked? Closets clean and organized? Bills paid? When in doubt, just take a look around and you're sure to find something. Perhaps a blog post.

Now, if you're actually looking for ways to write a novel, I'm not sure I can help with that. I mean you could, in theory, just not do all those things...but I fail to see how that could be at all possible. You're probably doomed.

50,228 Words

That, I am proud to say, was my word count for November, though the word verification on the site only gave me 50,051. After years of feeble efforts and failure, I finally beat NaNoWriMo. I had a strong start (4500 words on day one) and then started to fall behind at the halfway point, but I managed to hit 50,000 a day early after a staggering (for me) 12,000 words in 3 days.

NaNoWriMo proved something to me that I thought was impossible. Not that I could write 50,000 words in a month--I knew that was something I could do, it was just incredibly unlikely. Rather, it proved that I could find the time to write 50,000 words in a month without sacrificing everything else. I certainly made more time for writing than ever before, but it's not like I had to become a shut-in to do so. Having completed NaNoWriMo makes the idea of finishing the novel seem like a much less daunting process.

But that's where the self-congratulations end, because since December started, I haven't upped that word count at all. I'm not sure if it's because there's no longer a community for encouragement or competition, or if it's simply that I'm not sure what to do next, but despite defeating NaNoWriMo, this draft is only about 60% completed. And after that comes the editing process.

One of the dangers of NaNoWriMo is that it allows you to get a little too caught up in your achievement, and you forget how much more work is left to be done. I'm getting back to work on the novel, albeit at a much slower pace--if I can have the first draft done by the end of February, I think I'll be doing okay. But who knows? Those 4000 word days were kind of fun, in a psychotic sort of way.

Please Don't Quit While You're Ahead

I'd like to share with you, if I may, a brief history of my dealings with NaNoWriMo.

I don't know for sure what year I began, but I know it was when NaNoWriMo was still relatively unknown--I think 2003, which would make me a junior in high school. The concept was new and exciting, and I found myself really looking forward to November, when I would tackle my first ever novel-length writing project. I'd write the novel I started developing in junior high and had written an opening chapter to once before. Most of the book (I thought) was already planned out, so it was just a matter of writing it down. How hard could it be?

My first NaNoWriMo, I wrote roughly 200 words.

I tried again (with the same story) the next year. And the year after that. I managed to crack into 4 digits, writing probably 1000 words each year. 2% of the 50,000 required for NaNoWriMo. It was around that time I decided that NaNoWriMo was not for me--though oddly, I still believed I was capable of completing a novel. Just not in one month.

I stayed away for a few years until, late in the summer of 2009, I mentioned NaNoWriMo to my writer-type friends, forgetting that not everyone spends as much time online as I do and assuming they already knew about it. After I hesitantly explained to them the wonder and madness that is NaNoWriMo, they decided this was something we would do.

At first, I was adamant that I would not be participating. I knew better. I'd been where they were--the excitement that comes from a ridiculous, but plausible goal--and I knew the disappointment that lay ahead. But they were persistent. It would be different--I was older now, and my writing had matured. We'd be doing it as a group, so I'd be pushed to carry on. So against my better judgment, I went for it. But this time, I did things differently. I went in completely blind, making up my plot on the spot November 1, 2009. That year, I made it to 10,000 words. A vast improvement, to be sure, but another failure.

By fall of 2010, I knew what to expect. Again, they talked me into it (my wife, in her rookie NaNoWriMo year, was the only one of us to reach 50K). So I tried again. My 2010 count? 20,000. Still better, and still failing.

So this year, I convinced myself that I was going to give up the dream that NaNoWriMo was something I could accomplish. I told my writing friends that they'd be doing this one without me, and I stuck with it. Until a week before November.

I decided that I wanted to--needed to, even--try again this year. (Why I decided that is another post in itself). So at midnight on November 1, I again dove in.

And I don't know what it is--maybe I found the perfect combination of an idea that I had invested in but hadn't planned much, or maybe now that I'm out of school I can finally feel like writing is not something to be feared and avoided--but this year, for the first time, I feel like I have a chance at winning. At just over a week in, I'm already caught up with last year's all-time high word count.

It's today that worries me. Today I wrote only 100 words.

The key, I know from experience, is to get back to it tomorrow. And maybe I have nothing to worry about. Let's face it, I'm not exactly a prolific writer, and for the last week I've been putting in an average of 2300 words a day. To borrow an analogy often made by Mur Lafferty, it's like deciding to run 2 miles a day after years of sitting on a couch. You will burn out if you push too hard.

So I'm hoping that today was just the break I needed from the fatigue that comes from writing more in a week than you have in the past year. I'm not in any danger, since according to NaNoWriMo's handy graph I can actually go another two days without writing and be on schedule, but I can't let myself fall into that trap as I have in years passed. Tomorrow, it's back to work.

And somehow, that idea no longer fills me with dread.