How EA Should Handle Matchmaking

Cizzle said:

That's a very american answer. Just duck down and take it.

To say it in the words of Cassian Andor. "Do I look thankful to you?"

Please don’t bring politics into it. Threads with discourse are good. As soon as someone turns it political, it goes south and the thread gets locked.

Gooddcking said:

,,,,,offer suggestions for a better overall experience.....

....aimed at making the games more realistic.....   ......forcing punting on 4th and long (in qtrs 1-3), not calling the same play multiple times in a row, not flipping the entire line of scrimmage every time before a play, making QBs who roll out and run fumble more, deleting plays that are known insta-shed plays.....

Forcing punts against the team wishes? Not realistic. Not allowed to pick any play you want? Not realistic. Forcing QBs to fumble on scrambles and roll outs? Not realistic. Deleting plays? Not realistic. 

Exactly zero of these ideas "make the games more realistic" nor do they make a "better overall experience" for anyone except you. Because you have decided to play the game one way and think every other way is wrong or "manipulating the programming". 

Is play action "unrealistic"? Are RPOs "unrealistic"? Is running Cover 3 from a 2 High look "unrealistic"? Each one of those things are purposely designed to "manipulate the programming" of the other team.  Every NFL, college, high school, and peewee team in the country doesn't play "realistic" football according to GotLilSkillz.

"Forcing punts against the team wishes"

Kindly tell us all how many times in NFL history during the first quarter of a football game has a team not punted on 4th and 17 from their own 19. We all know this happens in Madden because it's not terribly difficult to get 17 yards on the plays where the RNG gives it to you, and in a lot of these games, they'll quit out if they fail, which is never what happens in the NFL. But this isn't really where you're going with this argument. You're a part of the problem when you argue that you should be able to do whatever you want without restrictions, even if it means exploiting the game's code as well as playing completely outside the spirit of football.

And if you've been listening to anyone here, you would have seen that this is about providing a football mode that is more like football. No one is trying to take away your coin-minting competitive modes. We just want our football back from the clutches of the egocentric snot-nosed basement-dwelling degenerates that can spend hours on end calling the same plays again and again with impunity against anyone who hasn't already read the hot eBooks and watched all of the key podcasts. If you want to continue enjoying that sort of monotony, you would get to. And you would have already proven by your playcalling what sort of player you are. If you happened to not like what Artificial Intelligence was doing to your matchmaking, well, play football with a shred of intelligence for a change.

No one is asking for the game to call your plays for you. But there's a reason players like you lean into about four plays on either side of the ball, and make all sorts of pre-snap adjustments that individually have merit in a specific context, even when the context says that is not a football move. There's unorthodox, and I praise anyone who is truly unorthodox when it comes to blitz timing or play design. RPO play after play doesn't win in Madden because it's unorthodox or unexpected.

Why did you even reply? Because you weren't replying to anything anyone actually said. It's like you were trying to convince yourself that you were somehow playing a football title like it's a football title.

xXcGilmer18Xx said:

Please don’t bring politics into it. Threads with discourse are good. As soon as someone turns it political, it goes south and the thread gets locked.

I don't see it as a political issue. More a human issue. It's unfortunately very often that people are getting used to just accept what's happening and do nothing against it. Maybe you are right and this is not the place for such a discussion. But it should be. That's really part of the problem.

It's sad when you play ppl that just spam the same OP plays like QB Zone. It's really hard to stop even if your defense is super fast

Cizzle said:

That's a very american answer. Just duck down and take it.

To say it in the words of Cassian Andor. "Do I look thankful to you?"

Well, we are in America. The greatest country in the world.

Look, EA sold the entire Madden community on the idea of “EA Sports… it’s in the game.” But for years now, what they’ve actually given us is a football game that can be manipulated and exploited to the point where the outcome isn’t even about football anymore.

If you don’t learn the glitches, the loopholes, and the meta cheese plays, you practically have no chance to win, no matter how well you actually understand the sport. And that’s the problem — Madden isn’t rewarding football IQ, timing, or strategy. It’s rewarding whoever memorizes the broken mechanics the fastest.

People aren’t being negative just to complain. They’re frustrated because a game that claims to be “in the game” has moved farther and farther away from actual football. And truthfully, EA created that frustration by ignoring it year after year.

phatalerror said:

"Forcing punts against the team wishes"

Kindly tell us all how many times in NFL history during the first quarter of a football game has a team not punted on 4th and 17 from their own 19. We all know this happens in Madden because it's not terribly difficult to get 17 yards on the plays where the RNG gives it to you, and in a lot of these games, they'll quit out if they fail, which is never what happens in the NFL. But this isn't really where you're going with this argument. You're a part of the problem when you argue that you should be able to do whatever you want without restrictions, even if it means exploiting the game's code as well as playing completely outside the spirit of football.

And if you've been listening to anyone here, you would have seen that this is about providing a football mode that is more like football. No one is trying to take away your coin-minting competitive modes. We just want our football back from the clutches of the egocentric snot-nosed basement-dwelling degenerates that can spend hours on end calling the same plays again and again with impunity against anyone who hasn't already read the hot eBooks and watched all of the key podcasts. If you want to continue enjoying that sort of monotony, you would get to. And you would have already proven by your playcalling what sort of player you are. If you happened to not like what Artificial Intelligence was doing to your matchmaking, well, play football with a shred of intelligence for a change.

No one is asking for the game to call your plays for you. But there's a reason players like you lean into about four plays on either side of the ball, and make all sorts of pre-snap adjustments that individually have merit in a specific context, even when the context says that is not a football move. There's unorthodox, and I praise anyone who is truly unorthodox when it comes to blitz timing or play design. RPO play after play doesn't win in Madden because it's unorthodox or unexpected.

Why did you even reply? Because you weren't replying to anything anyone actually said. It's like you were trying to convince yourself that you were somehow playing a football title like it's a football title.

Tell me how many times in the history of the NFL a team has only had 2-3 possessions per game. Do you suggest we change it to 15 minute quarters with no accelerated clock? Possessions are too valuable to punt in H2H, even on 4th and 17. Punting in madden, except very specific scenarios, is basically a turnover.

phatalerror said:

We'll agree to disagree on the merit that community matters. When the Git Gud elements of the community offer no solutions to community, maybe someone else will rise up and do the job that needs to be done.

For now, you've accomplished only exactly what I knew your potential was here.

Brother, the game is not making any of the changes you are asking for in this thread, and you know it.  Unless you create a custom league with your buds with custom rules, you're not getting what you want. 

There are a lot of REALLY SIMPLE adjustments you can make on defense that will make you much better. Below are some of the things I do every single game. This isn't even "meta". This is just basic stuff to make you more competitive. Besides the pass protection tip, these are all pretty defensive adjustments. Defense isn't like offense where you can make almost any play work. You have to have an actual scheme with a base defense and a handful of secondary plays you throw in to mix it up. 

1. Get corners on the outside who are good at playing man and change your base defense to cover 4 palms out of nickel and dime sets. User the middle hook zone. 

2. If you think theyre gonna pass, pick a d line stunt. Personally I always pick 2 man stunts on one side and qb spy the other side. 

3. Change your flats to 5 yards, hooks to 5 yards, curls to 20, safeties close and tight.

4. Always fake blitz so the opponent doesn't know what defense you are in. They'll have to motion a receiver to figure out if its man or zone. 

5. Shade underneath every play when running cover 4 palms, shade individual receivers inside / outside depending on where you think they are going

6. Run your base cover 4 palms defense 70% of the time but also mix in some cover 3 cloud or cover 3 match. I throw in some cover 2 sometimes but its more liable to give up big plays. On 3rd and long or 4th and long, run the same defense but also feel free to find a nice man blitz or zone blitz to mix it up and hopefully surprise the opponent to throw a pick or get a sack. 

7. BEND BUT DONT BREAK. You're still going to give up yards and first downs doing all of this, but dont change the plan. Once they are in the redzone, change it up and run a cover 2 play, I like cover 2 Tampa out of nickel or dime (dont forget to qb spy the DE). If they are at the 20, change flat and hook drops to 15. If they are at the 15, change them to 10. If they are inside the 7 yard line leave them at 5 or default. Always shade underneath and continue to fake the blitz. 

8. For better pass protection on offense, always reset the pass protection every single play to base. I dont know why but it will give you more time. If the blocking assignments have someone blocked that you think is dropping into coverage, untarget them to free up an extra blocker. Do this every play to make sure the opponent doesnt have an unblocked lineman that can rush in for instant pressure. If they do, keep in a TE or RB to ensure everyone is blocked. 

You can try it out if you want and hopefully it'll make the game more fun for you. If not, maybe you should make a custom league with your friends where you can implement unwritten rules like having to punt, not calling certain plays, etc. Cheers!

jholiday77 said:

Tell me how many times in the history of the NFL a team has only had 2-3 possessions per game. Do you suggest we change it to 15 minute quarters with no accelerated clock? Possessions are too valuable to punt in H2H, even on 4th and 17. Punting in madden, except very specific scenarios, is basically a turnover.

Punting is always a turnover by your narrow definition. And yet winning NFL teams may punt multiple times in a single game. In the NFL, there's this concept of defense, which is largely non-existent in Madden, unless you correctly guess in sequence exactly what plays your opponent called and executed well. To suggest this is indeed the way things should be is positively daft.

If defense didn't suck, punting wouldn't soon be followed by a touchdown acquired by mindlessly spamming RPO plays.

'Learn to cheese the way the pros do' is never the answer, and should never be accepted as a viable answer. Just admit you don't care and are fine with the state of the game, and skip the topic altogether. Your answers were nonsensical.

jholiday77 said:

Brother, the game is not making any of the changes you are asking for in this thread, and you know it.  Unless you create a custom league with your buds with custom rules, you're not getting what you want. 

There are a lot of REALLY SIMPLE adjustments you can make on defense that will make you much better. Below are some of the things I do every single game. This isn't even "meta". This is just basic stuff to make you more competitive. Besides the pass protection tip, these are all pretty defensive adjustments. Defense isn't like offense where you can make almost any play work. You have to have an actual scheme with a base defense and a handful of secondary plays you throw in to mix it up. 

1. Get corners on the outside who are good at playing man and change your base defense to cover 4 palms out of nickel and dime sets. User the middle hook zone. 

2. If you think theyre gonna pass, pick a d line stunt. Personally I always pick 2 man stunts on one side and qb spy the other side. 

3. Change your flats to 5 yards, hooks to 5 yards, curls to 20, safeties close and tight.

4. Always fake blitz so the opponent doesn't know what defense you are in. They'll have to motion a receiver to figure out if its man or zone. 

5. Shade underneath every play when running cover 4 palms, shade individual receivers inside / outside depending on where you think they are going

6. Run your base cover 4 palms defense 70% of the time but also mix in some cover 3 cloud or cover 3 match. I throw in some cover 2 sometimes but its more liable to give up big plays. On 3rd and long or 4th and long, run the same defense but also feel free to find a nice man blitz or zone blitz to mix it up and hopefully surprise the opponent to throw a pick or get a sack. 

7. BEND BUT DONT BREAK. You're still going to give up yards and first downs doing all of this, but dont change the plan. Once they are in the redzone, change it up and run a cover 2 play, I like cover 2 Tampa out of nickel or dime (dont forget to qb spy the DE). If they are at the 20, change flat and hook drops to 15. If they are at the 15, change them to 10. If they are inside the 7 yard line leave them at 5 or default. Always shade underneath and continue to fake the blitz. 

8. For better pass protection on offense, always reset the pass protection every single play to base. I dont know why but it will give you more time. If the blocking assignments have someone blocked that you think is dropping into coverage, untarget them to free up an extra blocker. Do this every play to make sure the opponent doesnt have an unblocked lineman that can rush in for instant pressure. If they do, keep in a TE or RB to ensure everyone is blocked. 

You can try it out if you want and hopefully it'll make the game more fun for you. If not, maybe you should make a custom league with your friends where you can implement unwritten rules like having to punt, not calling certain plays, etc. Cheers!

I will say, apart from my other answer, you put some serious time into this. I appreciate it to an extent, but I'm doing a lot of this already. To the extent that I'm doing this within the parameters of football behaviors, and not leaning into subtle moves to pre-snap player positions to glitch out offensive linemen responses, they're of limited value.

I could summarize the essential part: Bend-Don't-Break is the way to win on defense: Don't give up the shot play, and make them win on short fields. The problem is generally that when someone spends hours a week executing various RPO plays, it's actually really hard to stop them enough times consecutively to prevent a touchdown. It's not because I don't know football. It's because I have to set thirteen switches in a game to stop one play, only to have the solution to one play open up vulnerabilities in other circumstances, which is absurd.

Someone will say in response, "It's not that hard if you learn and practice." And that brings us back to the initial point of the whole discussion: I'd like to leverage my football knowledge in order to win at Madden, and not have to leverage knowledge of Madden's glitches to win games against people who have almost zero knowledge of football.

phatalerror said:

Punting is always a turnover by your narrow definition. And yet winning NFL teams may punt multiple times in a single game. In the NFL, there's this concept of defense, which is largely non-existent in Madden, unless you correctly guess in sequence exactly what plays your opponent called and executed well. To suggest this is indeed the way things should be is positively daft.

If defense didn't suck, punting wouldn't soon be followed by a touchdown acquired by mindlessly spamming RPO plays.

'Learn to cheese the way the pros do' is never the answer, and should never be accepted as a viable answer. Just admit you don't care and are fine with the state of the game, and skip the topic altogether. Your answers were nonsensical.

No, my answers are not nonsensical. You just dont like the way it is and want the game and everyone that plays it to conform to what you think it should be and how you think it should be played. Most people who play the game are just fine with it. I wish I didnt spend the time to give you some tips to make it more fun for you. 

Teams in REAL nfl games can have 10 or more possessions... you're lucky to get 3 or 4 H2H games against good players. More often than not you need to score each possession in order to win, thats just the way it is. 

You said the community doesnt offer anything other than "get better". I tried to give you some tips brother. Take it or leave it. I gave you what you asked for and youre still complaining. Lol. 

Time to start a buddy league with custom rules where everyone has to play by your rules.  Enjoy.

phatalerror said:

I will say, apart from my other answer, you put some serious time into this. I appreciate it to an extent, but I'm doing a lot of this already. To the extent that I'm doing this within the parameters of football behaviors, and not leaning into subtle moves to pre-snap player positions to glitch out offensive linemen responses, they're of limited value.

I could summarize the essential part: Bend-Don't-Break is the way to win on defense: Don't give up the shot play, and make them win on short fields. The problem is generally that when someone spends hours a week executing various RPO plays, it's actually really hard to stop them enough times consecutively to prevent a touchdown. It's not because I don't know football. It's because I have to set thirteen switches in a game to stop one play, only to have the solution to one play open up vulnerabilities in other circumstances, which is absurd.

Someone will say in response, "It's not that hard if you learn and practice." And that brings us back to the initial point of the whole discussion: I'd like to leverage my football knowledge in order to win at Madden, and not have to leverage knowledge of Madden's glitches to win games against people who have almost zero knowledge of football.

Well, madden is football but its also a video game. Is call of duty like real war? Is GTA like real life? Is NHL like real hockey or 2k like real basketball? They are not. Its not REAL football brother. Youre going to have to learn how to deal with certain plays that people abuse. 

My point is you dont need to run RPOs and use glitch plays to score. You do need to learn to stop them though and then use your football knowledge to score on offense.

I’ve read this thread multiple times, and I honestly have to laugh at the people saying “just enjoy the game for what it is” or “complaining won’t change anything.” That mindset is exactly why the game never improves.

EA has no real competition in this space, so the only pressure they ever feel comes from us, the people who buy and play the game every single year. When players just accept whatever we’re given, EA has absolutely no incentive to fix issues, innovate, or actually listen to the community. Why would they? If people keep purchasing the game regardless of quality, then from their perspective everything is already “good enough.”

And let’s be clear: criticism isn’t negativity. It comes from players who actually care about the game and want to see it reach its potential. Pretending everything is fine doesn’t help anyone, not the devs, not the franchise, and definitely not the community that has been asking for improvements for years.

So the next time you say “just enjoy it for what it is,” take a second to think about what you’re really supporting. Blind acceptance doesn’t lead to a better game... it only guarantees more of the same. If anything, that attitude is part of the problem, not the solution.

jholiday77 said:

No, my answers are not nonsensical. You just dont like the way it is and want the game and everyone that plays it to conform to what you think it should be and how you think it should be played. Most people who play the game are just fine with it. I wish I didnt spend the time to give you some tips to make it more fun for you. 

Teams in REAL nfl games can have 10 or more possessions... you're lucky to get 3 or 4 H2H games against good players. More often than not you need to score each possession in order to win, thats just the way it is. 

You said the community doesnt offer anything other than "get better". I tried to give you some tips brother. Take it or leave it. I gave you what you asked for and youre still complaining. Lol. 

Time to start a buddy league with custom rules where everyone has to play by your rules.  Enjoy.

Most people who play the game are just fine with it.

I'm not sure how you would begin to evaluate the truth of that statement, or what the prime meridian is that defines "fine with it". This site is full of anecdotal examples from dozens of unique users about how things are not "fine", and while there are dozens of users here that are also "fine" with MUT, I think we can agree that many MUT users don't participate in these forums. I'd love to see the statistical breakdown for hours player per user. I would infer from a relatively large number of users with a relatively low number of hours logged on MUT as a signal that they didn't enjoy MUT. Even then, your claim never really gets to the heart of the issue raised: The win-at-all-costs contingent of MUT users ruins the football experience for everyone else. Sportsmanship used to be a thing. It's sad that there's a generation out there that has cast aside the concept because winning rewards a user so much more than sportsmanship.

But as for the other issue raised regarding the number of possessions per game, I didn't mean to ignore that. You have conceded that you pretty much have to score on every possession if you are to win. So I'm putting the ball in your court here: Why is it necessary to score on every possession, and to be the last to possess the ball in every half to win in MUT? Your rational answer to this question will constitute the admission that everything is not alright with MUT.