Why do you work so hard to make this game un-fun?
First off, I'm going to say I have no illusions that my opinion isn't going to change anything. I strongly suspect there's zero chance that anyone that matters will ever read this. I'm still going to post it though, because it will make me feel a bit better that I at least tried. As someone who's been a gamer since the days of the Odyssey/Intellivision/Colecovision and even the little handheld football games where your players were just little dashes of light that could only move in 4 directions, I'd be remiss not to at least share my thoughts and try.
For me, Madden is all about MUT. I don't really care about franchise mode or playing online in any form against toxic people (and every one of the tiny number of matches in Madden I've played online has been against someone who's done nothing but literally scream nonsense, bile, and vitriol into their mic). I don't want to play through Superstar mode with its weird/frustrating camera angle that is either impossible to change or, if it CAN be changed, with settings that are needlessly obfuscated. I play because I want to build my ultimate team. I want to build a team full of the players I grew up watching, idolizing, and cheering for who would never have a chance to play in a game together, much less on the same team. As a former card collecting enthusiast, I love opening packs and searching for the players I want. I love the feeling of excitement I get when I get a lucky pull. I have no issues with paying for card packs, either, at least for some packs, assuming I have at least a tiny bit of information on what I might get and even a tiny bit of control when currently there's zero of either of those things.
WHY have you taken something that could be so much fun and be so exciting and turned it into such a complicated, convoluted drudge when it has so much potential? I mean, I ultimately know why. Because you can make more money this way, but that's so incredibly short-sighted because a well-designed MUT mode could make just as much money as this....::waves hands around::...thing, if not more.
I remember playing MUT and being able to go to Legends Challenges, find the players I want, play short little scenarios and eventually earn that specific player. Now? First off, if they are players that were included in the Season Mode before now, then tough luck. Apparently there's no way to get those unless I played from release day. If there is, you've made it impossible to find out how. Likewise, if I want an actual Legend, I just have to get lucky and hope I get the one I want AND hope that it's a card I can actually upgrade AND if I want certain cards, I have to get lucky multiple times and get multiple versions at different rating levels of that same player just to upgrade the one I have (assuming that's the one that is upgradeable) to 99. Almost the entire time I'm doing this, I'm having to collect and open packs whose names give almost no indication of whether they're the right pack, much less explain what they could possibly contain. It's like you've just said, "More pack options means more pack purchases, so make as many as you can!" and ignored explaining anything to the end-user. For example, there are 32 types of Collectors Series card packs. Not a single one explains what makes it different than any of the others, other than the rating number of the card that will come out of them. There's no info on what cards you can get in each pack, why a card is even in that pack, what makes each pack different, what the criteria is for a player being in a pack, or how to get the cards that are used to redeem those packs (other than buying packs in the store ($$$) or buying cards in the auction house). Which players are available in #THECOLLECTORS packs and why are there Champion, Elite, and two different Fantasy "flavors" of those packs? What the heck is an "AKA Champion" and why is that any different than a "Drip Champion" (why two versions of that?), "Holiday Highlight Champion", "Retro Champion" (why three versions?), or "Mythic Champion" (why three versions?) and why are all those versions different than the "Ultimate" versions of all those types of packs? This kind of stuff should be explained in the game. Sadly, I've never seen any Help info in the game that does anything more than repeat back the obvious info with no actual explanation or way to get to the right place where there is an explanation. Likewise, I've got no interest in having to stop playing Madden and either watch some needlessly drawn out YouTube video that could be 2 minutes long, but is actually 15 because it's full of filler and babbling and repeating the same stuff just to meet some monetizing threshold, nor do I want to have to spend hours digging through the internet like I'm back in school researching a term paper. Make it less complicated and/or explain it in the game. There's no excuse for not doing one or the other and you should do both.
Don't even get me started on how frustrating, confusing, and needlessly complicated the Team Diamonds packs are. There are 48 of those and I gave up trying to figure that nonsense out ages ago. For example, if I want the John Randle 99 DT card, I need his 98 DT card and 4 "NFC North Collectable" cards. Zero information about where to get those 4, but if I click on "Find This Item" for the 98 DT card, I get taken to the Auction House. If one's not there, then tough luck I guess? Why doesn't the game have an option that clearly explains how the heck to get the 98 card other than that? Show me what pack(s) the card is in or take me to them! I would probably even purchase a pack like that if I knew I could get one because I want John Randle on my team. At the very least, it should explain those NFC North Cards, how they work and how to get them if you click on them. It currently says nothing, with no option to "Find this item" or no Help option that reveals what someone at EA clearly thinks needs to be a mystery or a puzzle.
Then we have the 92 London Fletcher card I bought the pack for, thinking to myself, "Oh, I can start with the 92 and then upgrade him!". WRONG. His 92 card is a dead end with only one upgrade option. Why? No idea. How would I know that before I bought it? No idea. But then I see there's also a 93 London Fletcher card. Other than the higher rating, what's the difference? Can I upgrade THAT one? No idea, the game doesn't tell me unless I manage to figure out the unsolved mysteries required to earn the cards I need to redeem to get it.
Other than "to make more packs for people to buy", why are there Legend and Ultimate Legend packs and what's the difference? Why are some able to be upgraded more than once and why not others? Why isn't this clearly explained in the game? Why do I have 4 cards that are in the "Ultimate Upgrades Eligible", but none can be upgraded past the one basic upgrade? Why isn't this explained anywhere?
Why do I have all of these Team Captain series cards, but no way to get more Upgrade Tokens to upgrade more than 2 of them to 98 and why can't I even do anything with the the other ones that I can't upgrade? I can't quicksell them. I can't auction them. I can't use them in Sets. So what's the point and why isn't this explained?
Where are all the fun, flashy, wild uniform options that used to exist? Why are there "Alternate Uniform Fantasy" packs that just contain a handful of normal, boring uniforms? Where are all the Legendary Coach options? Why are there no fun/unique stadiums? Why are there no fun footballs?
Why isn't there an option to fill up a team with "normal" players of different/select skill-levels and redeem those cards for a Legendary player from that team? Why can't you do that multiple times and use the duplicates to earn to "level up" that Legend to true Legend status? Why can't you take Legends acquired in that manner and trade in one or two from a team you dislike to get get one from a team you do? A system like that would encourage the purchase of so many packs, it would give players something to do with all these cards they get out of packs they earn and end up quickselling because they are low level or on teams they don't support, it would remove about 17 layers of needless complications, it would allow players to acquire the players they WANT to have on their ULTIMATE team and build the team of their dreams. And then why can't I take that Ultimate Team into solo/offline-only Franchise mode and use MY actual Ultimate Team to have FUN destroying the league with the Expansion Team of Nightmares?
Why do you make the Challenges system so needlessly frustrating? Why am I forced to play 72 rounds of "throw a touchdown", "rush for a touchdown", and "make 2 tackles" and then get pulled out of the game after 3 minutes when I've done that one thing and then get put right back in and told to "throw a bullet pass", "rush for 15 yards", and "make a sack", when I just did all those things a second ago. Why not come up with hundreds of challenges/achievements and just let me play with my ultimate team and reward me for playing well at the end of the game. I'm so tired of loading menus, I'm so tired of unnecessary splash screens, and I'm so tired of all the stopping and starting. Just. Let. Me. Play. With. My. Ultimate. Team. Then give me my dopamine hit and let me do it again.
In short, back to the Subject title: Why are you working so hard to make this game so un-fun?
