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Spite Bowl and Taco Bell: Ruminations on a More Social Madden
Posted by Owen Good at 3:00 AM on August 15, 2008
It's odd to talk about EA Sports' Madden franchise, with the features it's touting in the 09 release, now making itself more of a social gaming experience. For the better part of two decades it's been one of the top titles to play with friends, offline or, lately, online. But the pattern of features that were added, upgraded or unchanged from last year points to a major push that'll expand the game's social appeal, especially to demographics well outside the paunchy, balding thirtysomething. In other words, EA is going where the growth is, and its marketing of this game absolutely tips that hand.
In theory, the idea that the game's variable difficulty settings will make the game more accessible to someone like my mother is somewhat appealing. And then I think a bit and it's not. When I toast Mom's secondary for my sixth TD, I doubt I'll get up, dance around, and mime like I'm teabagging her. But after nearly 20 years at this, beginning with Madden 93 on the Genesis, it's almost an instinctive reaction.
I also seriously doubt guys' girlfriends are going to be interested in one of the game's great diversions -- creating 6-11, 300 pound solid muscle running backs of all-99 ability, and giving them names like "Ass Raper." My buddy David, from the Rocky Mountain News, and I did that on his Gamecube in 2003. (A.R.'s alma mater was Yale.) David brought him out against Jim's Seahawks and paused every replay so Jim (another RMN pal) could read the guy's name and number aloud. Jim responded the next week by creating his entire family as 99ers. His dog caught eight touchdowns.
In the new big-tent Madden community, you won't see things like Spite Bowl, Late-Hit Bowl, and Halfback Option Pass Bowl, complete perversions of the game that can only be dreamed up by two guys, playing on the same couch, at equivalent levels of skill and sobriety. Spite Bowl pits two guys playing as their friend's biggest rival teams. The object is more "do not lose to those overrated sons of bitches" rather than "I want my team to win." The 49ers and Dolphins are a hideous matchup this year -- unless they're being led by Bills and Raiders fans.
Late-Hit Bowl, the object was to get flagged for as many late hits as possible and if the other guy ended up on the one yard line or scored on the drive, you got his points. Halfback Option Pass Bowl was a game invented with two other friends in Oneonta, N.Y., on the Playstation version of Madden 98. The only play you could run was the option pass and the only defence you could call was a prevent. Naturally, when you employed drinking-game rules this game became a lot more fun.
And while you might be able to have an online league with 31 of your closest friends, who the hell is going to buy the Taco Bell? There's no league I could play that will top the Friday Madden League in 2004, with three other co-workers from the Rocky. Four-way, in-person cooperative play tells you just how strong your friendship is when your pal does stupid shit like whiff on three straight kickoffs. It forces you to invent your own hand signals and decoys. You dream up celebrations and end zone dances that didn't depend on motion capture, quicktime, or moving to an endzone hotspot and pressing the right button.
None of this is to say I won't enjoy Madden 09, and it's silly to resent others for enjoying it in different ways. But the tone of the game experience seems to be changing. Madden 09's new AI is meant to tell gamers of all skill levels that there's no wrong way to play the game. But my friends and I delighted in playing the game the wrong way, and I'm sure we weren't alone. Doing stupid things together online doesn't have the same appeal, and it no longer provokes the same reaction from the game. It's a little like your parents giving you permission to cuss all you want. After a few willful minutes on your own, you give up, and join polite company as a well-adjusted participant.
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Posted 3:27 AM 15/8/08
@Quilt: Ah, further memories of NHL '96 when I would take the Samuelsson boys and throw down. It wasn't a good game until I had broken at least six panes of glass from hits.
This does lead me to lament both the sheer goofiness of alternate play styles, as well as the shift towards online gaming as opposed to multiplayer-on-single console experiences. I'm sorry, but no Eye Toy or USB camera in the world can capture the expression on someone's face when they take the lead with :01 to go, only for the kickoff to get taken to the house and they have thorough ownage placed upon their face.
Posted 3:24 AM 15/8/08
There is nothing quite like rubbing it in your friend's face by doing the Victory Dance in person, whether it be for a touchdown, home run, flag capture, headshot, or anything in between. I will always prefer split screen or LAN multiplayer to the online experience. Maybe I am too old...
Quilt
Posted 3:23 AM 15/8/08
Though I never played Madden, you've brought back all kinds of insane memories I have of playing NHL 2000 with my buddy in the basement. The goon-squad we created will go down as my all-time greatest dream team.
Does it get any better then injuring literally HALF THE LEAGUE in less then a quarter of a season? So awesome.
Quilt
Posted 3:21 AM 15/8/08
Is it too much for you guys to proof read, I mean seriously the amount of grammatical errors have been on the upswing lately, what's up?
Posted 3:19 AM 15/8/08
Wait, what's preventing anyone from switching the game back to the old difficulty settings and doing the stuff you mentioned?
Posted 3:19 AM 15/8/08
I hear ya man. Really good blog post.
ChewyChew
Posted 3:17 AM 15/8/08
"In theory, the idea that the game's variable difficulty settings will make the game more accessible to someone my mother is somewhat appealing."
Edit out that someone before my mother ^_^
ChewyChew
jarjarwang
Posted 3:14 AM 15/8/08
I'm going crack open a cold Coors Light and give this game a go tonight.
jarjarwang
mysonsnameisnova
Posted 3:11 AM 15/8/08
vick in a post about madden 09? ok. i lol'ed.
mysonsnameisnova
NotoriousJnX
Posted 3:07 AM 15/8/08
I've played this ever since my mom wouldn't sign the permission slip to play real football.
NotoriousJnX
Posted 3:34 AM 15/8/08
Aww...I was really excited for a minute.
I assumed the headline was a typo.
But nope. No go.
There isn't, and there never will be, my beloved Sprite Bowl.
teh_joe
Posted 4:19 AM 15/8/08
I miss the late hits from earlier Madden games.
teh_joe
kasplat
Posted 4:17 AM 15/8/08
Let me guess, they are adding a feature to "Make Nachos" or perhaps just a "honey, get me another beer" command.
kasplat
kimsama
Posted 4:16 AM 15/8/08
@: Amazing! I thought it was a typo, too, but I ended up disappointed that there isn't a soda called "Spite" that I can wash down my Taco Bell with.
kimsama
cdammers
Posted 4:45 AM 15/8/08
I wouldn't call myself a new Madden gamer (I too started out on the Megadrive and have played it on every generation since), but I've become increasingly alienated by the growing complexity of the controls and the continued inability to contribute meaningfully to defence. I'm quite excited by the variable AI thing as a result. Give me a challenge on things I can cope with, and ease up on things I can't.
cdammers
wild homes on the range!
Posted 4:36 AM 15/8/08
@WiNG: It's "proofread", not "proof read"-- it's really not hard to look over your comment once or twice before you rebuke Owen's harmless mistakes.
wild homes on the range!
wild homes on the range!
Posted 4:31 AM 15/8/08
Owen, I too miss the local mulitplayer spirit of gaming. It's still supported, but online multiplayer has definitely become the focus. No gaming I'll ever enjoy again will beat getting together with a bunch of my friends and playing Goldeneye and having to pass off the controllers every round. Everybody leaning in to punch the nerd who insisted on using Oddjob, laughing because the host kept using the rocket launcher-- exclusively-- in close-quarter maps, playing the legendary MINES ONLY loadouts. Good times. Gaming's grown up and into the genteel mainstream, but I'll always remember the nerd-out eighties and nineties more fondly.
wild homes on the range!
WiNG
Posted 4:23 AM 15/8/08
The amount of typos, grammatical errors, and missing words is depressing.
Seriously, it's not that hard to proof read an article 1-2 times before submitting.
WiNG
pinoyunggoy
Posted 5:30 AM 15/8/08
@murph: I felt like they've had that feature already in the past, no?
pinoyunggoy
murph
Posted 5:11 AM 15/8/08
this year's Gamecast is a neat feature, you can watch your friends (or the Top 25 Madden players) games update on the screen, ala ESPN.com or Yahoo Sports.
murph
NeVeRMoRe666
Posted 6:00 AM 15/8/08
I too have shared the fun of making up our own rules as we go. For example, on Blitz: The League, me and a buddy would physically do things to each other, ie. pull the controller, punch each other, flash porn(since the little "buzz buzz" thing did NOTHING!) during kickoffs. During the game we will have a shot of vodka for every fumble, interception, big hit, or TD that we gave up. Sadly,after I completed a pass on my first go at it, I took a big hit (1 shot), fumbled the ball (2nd shot) and then had him pick up the ball and "Truck" my guy (3rd shot) and go in for the TD (4th shot). When I threw a pick after I got the ball back on my second attempt, I knew I was done.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that I woke up cold, wet and alone.
NeVeRMoRe666
Sundermania
Posted 5:57 AM 15/8/08
@teh_joe: No more giving him the business.
Sundermania
BenRad
Posted 5:49 AM 15/8/08
The "telestrator" feature on the Wii version of the game added an extra dimension that my friends and I always felt was needed: the ability to draw dicks on the screen after each play.
BenRad
teh_joe
Posted 6:08 AM 15/8/08
Oh, how could i forget about "Suicide Madden"?
I used to play with this tournament style madden with some friends. We dubbed it "Suicide Madden". It was more of just a clever name because it really didn't have anything to do with killing yourself anyway the rules:
- You could only play with unlockable teams. (like the 99 Rams or 97 Packers. but no All-Time teams)
- First to score a touchdown wins (Field goals do not count)
That's basically it. Some of the fastest games of Madden around. but lots of fun.
teh_joe
Ass_Cobra
Posted 6:05 AM 15/8/08
@mysonsnameisnova:
Did you notice Chris Henry in shot 2? I hope this selection of players is intentional.
Ass_Cobra
NeVeRMoRe666
Posted 6:02 AM 15/8/08
@NeVeRMoRe666: I had also torn two tendons in my foot and my ass hurted when I woke up...
NeVeRMoRe666
darthfergie
Posted 7:24 AM 15/8/08
Playing the game wrong was definitely the way to go.
B-Team games - Guys who I was on the B-team in football with would get together to celebrate our suckiness with B-Teamers from the NFL. How many interceptions can you avoid throwing?
Defense is the best offense games - Defenders subbed in for the offense. Cornerbacks really are the best athletes.
Record setting games - One player setting the records, the other player jumping out of the way. Eclipsing the 1000 yard rushing mark in a single game with 1015 yards...only to have it show up as 15 yards in the stats column after the game.
I have to say the best game that was designed for you to play it wrong was the mutant football game for Genesis. You could pick a play to kill the ref and players didn't get injured, they just got killed off. So on easy difficulty at the end of the game it'd be 11 vs 3 on the field and you'd rack up hundreds of yards in penalties after killing a bunch of refs.
darthfergie
Posted 9:25 AM 15/8/08
Seems to me you can still do all this stuff, just not when your mother is around.
And who says women wouldn't be interested in creating big, buff, athletic men? They'd just have different names.
GoonieGooGoo2
Posted 5:28 AM 16/8/08
I like a version created by my friends called THE PUNCH BOWL....for every touchdown you get to take a punch into their bicep....then say one thing you hated about one of their ex-girlfriends.
GoonieGooGoo2