EA, hit that casual pie even harder!

For a long time EA’s stately Madden franchise has been a glaring exception to what could be classified as a casual game.  How many times have you been to a friend’s place and been surprised to seeing a gaming console?  Then, you see a library consisting of about four Madden games.  Your friend is a casual gamer.  And it’s okay.

It turns out that a game doesn’t have to contain a bright palette of primary colors, a landscape of geometric shapes, two-button oriented gameplay, and be published by Nintendo to be classified as casual.  However, the release of Madden’10 on the now very well-developed current generation of consoles could certifiably mean that EA is ignoring a profitable block of consumers.

Madden’s evolution, a focus on managerial tasks as opposed to developing gameplay, has been more akin to an RPG series.  Yes, online functionality is present, but it is 2010; online modes are fleshed out in many games. Nevertheless, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?  People are still gobbling up copies of the newly released Madden ’10 like angst-ridden teens read Stephanie Meyer (or like children and literacy handicapped adults read J. K. Rowling).  Choose your own damn simile.  The problem with Madden ’10 might be analogous to a 19th Century time traveler sitting down to a game of Gran Turismo 3.  Not only does the person have to become accustomed to video game controllers, he or she also has a helluva lot to learn about cars to even remotely have a good time with the game.      

Playing a game of virtual NFL football is still too damn random.  Hell, if you don’t know much about football, it’s a confusing exercise is frustration.  With each subsequent installment, enjoying Madden becomes more unlikely for some players.  You can send hate mail here.  How about dividing up the confusion?  Can’t a player just be responsible for one player without having to worry about AI teammates standing out in no man’s land eating worms and sticking dirt in their pants?  Why not offer true online modes?  If online shooters can allow a staggering sixty-four players, why can’t a football simulation offer a scant twenty-two?  I’d pick up and play online with twenty-one others if I only had to worry about one guy.  Stat-tracking could best determine a player’s suitable role.  Positions could be rotated during quarters.  Hell, a brief explanation of a position’s duties during a loading screen would just about do it. 

Confused?  This is all I’m saying.  EA, if playing Madden doesn’t have to be an aspiring coach’s micro management simulation, more players just might hope onto to your little monopoly boat (is there a boat in monopoly?).  Opening up some innovative online options could do just that.