by Joe Gandolfo- jgand@pcfootball.net
08-06-02

In the past couple of weeks I have been getting some pats on the back for my last column. Some of you have been kind enough to express your appreciation for my efforts on these forums, and through e-mails. I would like to take this opportunity to say that your feedback is appreciated, and I am glad that somebody out there is listening. Thank you all so much for your kind words.

OK, that said, on with today’s column...

It is early August now, that means it is the homestretch for the release of the latest version of the Madden series. Unless you have been living in isolation for the past few months, you already know that Jeremy Strauser was kind enough to grant this site an extensive interview pertaining to the coming release. Well, he answered our e-mailed questions about the game. If we can ever get a sit-down with him or with anybody else over at EA that would really be cause for celebration. Who knows, if we play our cards right, we may be able to get him to go on camera and have it aired on “Sweat” on the G4 Network.

But, I digress…

There were a lot of points in the interview that I would like to take, starting with the possibility that we may be able to use the artwork from 2002 in the 2003 version. That is good news for a lot of people. For those of us who like playing our favorite college or defunct leagues it means that we don’t have to start our hard work all over again. The bad news is that our rosters may not be able to transfer over to the new game. That is not good. The prospect of having to go into the game and renaming players is not something I am looking forward to. I would hope that EA would come out with a utility that will make it possible for you to convert your current rosters so that the game engine and database in 2003 would be able to read them, and you can play the same rosters in the new game. Sierra had this for a time in their FBPro series, I would think that EA would want to score some serious points with their customers.

Now, I can understand why EA would not want to release specific numbers as to what platform sold how many. I can imagine that they don’t want their competition to know how they measure up. But as far as the PC platform goes, they have no real competition. They haven’t had competition since Sierra and Microsoft pulled out of the market. I don’t see the harm in bragging “well we’ve sold such and such in the PC platform of Madden”. I mean if anything it would serve as an ego boost for EA, so what’s the harm?

It’s good to see that after all this time that John Madden is still quite involved with the game that bears his name. With everything else he has on his plate it’s good to see that he still lends his expertise to the project. But honestly, how hard would it be to give us a well-made college game for the PC? Jeremy said that the sales weren’t high enough to justify the costs. If that were true in the PC platform, then wouldn’t it be true over all platforms? If it’s too expensive to produce, then why is it produced for the Xbox, PS and PS2, Game Cube and Sega Genesis systems? And if you make enough sales from those platforms, then you shouldn’t lose enough on the PC version to give us a port, would ya?

And another thing, if you do decide to someday give us an NCAA game for the PC, do us a favor, give us an option to have a playoff at the end of the season! Some of us who want to drag the NCAA kicking and screaming into the 21^st century can chose this option at the beginning of their franchise EEEEERRRRR dynasty. Those of us who are purists and like the Bowl system the way it is can choose the BCS method for deciding a national champion.

Now, clarify something for me – is the on-line franchise feature included in Madden 2003 or not?!? First we heard that it was gone, now we hear that it’s not. Can someone at EA please tell us one way or another if the feature is available or not? First you turn one way, then the other, we’re gonna be like Sybil by the time this is done. Please, for the love of God, tell us if the feature is available or not!

It doesn’t surprise me that there is a lot of trouble securing rights to names and images for this game. With all the money that could stand to be made from other sources it doesn’t surprise me that certain individuals and organizations would be reluctant to give those right away to a software company. Let me give you an example – EA would like to use the LA Coliseum in their game, so they have to go to the Coliseum Commission in order to get the rights to do that. Now growing up in SoCal and knowing the Coliseum Commission the way I do, I can imagine negotiations going down like this:

EA: Can we use the Coliseum’s name and image in the next version of our Madden series?

CC: Sure! No problem! Only too glad to help such fine, upstanding gentlemen such as yourselves.

EA: Fantastic! Thank you!

CC: Just sign there on the dotted line and give us a check.

EA: A check? A check for what?

CC: Well for the licensing fee of course! We expect to be compensated for the use of the image and name of this NFL-caliber facility.

EA: Uh…..Okay.

CC: Oh, and did we mention that fee will also include a donation to the historical society of Los Angeles?

EA: Uhhh, a donation?

CC: Yes, a donation for the rights to use the name and images of our fine stadium, which also happens to be a historical landmark. The historical society is very firm on this issue.

EA: How much is that going to run?

CC: I have the figure right here.

EA: WHAAAAAAAT?!? ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?

CC: Oh yes, quite. Oh, and don’t forget the perpetuity clause in section 37a of the contract.

EA: Perpetuity clause? WHAT PERPETUITY CLAUSE?!?

CC: Well the clause that says we also get a share of the profits from the sale of the game as compensation for using our name and image. See it says right here, for every sale of every piece of software and every console cartridge, you will pay us a percentage of that sale so that we may be able to maintain our luxurious lifestyle EEEEERRRRR our NFL-caliber facility. See, the percentage is spelled out right here in black and white and it also includes compensation towards USC for their troubles...

EA: You know what? That’s it! We’re out of here!

CC: What do you mean? What’s going on?

EA: The deal’s off! Bye!

CC: Well wait, there’s got to be a way that we can work this out. I mean, we don’t want to deprive you of being able to be a part of the legacy of the LA Coliseum, our modern and fine NFL-caliber facility.

Now imagine that scenario being played out all across the country, and its no wonder that EA doesn’t feel like banging their head against the wall trying to get old stadiums into the game. Imagine that same scenario being played out as they try to get the rights to use the names of all the retired players featured in the teams of the past or on their all-time teams. I can see where it wouldn’t be worth it to EA to give up some of their profits to have the Bears RB#34 renamed Walter Payton. And as for Elway being on the All-Madden team but not the Broncos, I think that may be because the Madden team is put together by John Madden, and since this is his game he is already being compensated.

Here is what I am hoping for come August 13^th:

• The game performs well out of the box. No glitches, bugs or freeze-ups preventing me from even playing the game.

•  Access to a number of stadiums so that we don’t have to struggle for codes in order to unlock EA Sports stadium or Tiburon Stadium. Or for that matter all the past teams and All-Time teams.

• All of the artwork I have gathered will work in 2003 so that I won’t have to start from scratch.

• The rosters from 2002 will somehow, miraculously work in 2003 so I don’t have to re-create the Instigators and the Maniacs all over again.

• The passing game is easier to run when coaching mode is off. When patch 2.3.1 came out it was too difficult to complete a pass unless you punched up the sliders and played in Coach mode.

• The running game gives us NFL-caliber stats and performs realistically.

And the one thing that I am hoping for most of all:

• On August 14^th, Jeremy Strauser comes onto this site or he e-mails Bret, myself, or anyone else on this site with that one magic code that will unlock all of the All-Time teams, historical teams, stadiums and specially created teams so that we don’t have to kill ourselves at our computers trying to get them the hard way.

If Strauser can do that, he will be our hero.

If he can include the Maniacs and the Instigators in the game as special teams to be unlocked like EA Sports and Tiburon, then he will be a God. 

Until next time…