Wake up guys

jholiday77 said:

If I was 10 years younger I might agree with you. I used to do exactly what you are talking about to get the best players back in the day when I was younger. But guess what? I dont have 4 hours per day to grind challenges and shit in order to unlock every player in the game. I barely have time to jump on for 2-3 games per day. If I didnt have the option to drop $150 every couple of weeks to keep my team top tier, i literally wouldn't play. At 34 yeara old I have responsibilites. I dont have time to "grind" fucking challenges against the CPU. That doesn't make me wrong. Plus it's not like you can't buy any player you want off the AH with coins, right? You just have to put the hours in and earn the coins. Sounds like you dont want to do that. Sounds like you used to do it, just like I did when I was younger. 

What you are really mad about is that people who don't have time to play a video game all day long have a pathway to have a better team than you by spending more money.

I get that not everyone has hours a day to grind, that’s not the issue I’m talking about. The problem is that MUT 26 doesn’t properly support either group anymore.

• Casual players rely on spending, but packs don’t show up, servers crash on promo drops, and Twitch/season rewards often don’t even track.
• Grind players get almost nothing for their time because solos and level paths barely give usable cards now.

So it’s not “grind vs. spend.” It’s that MUT removed meaningful grind rewards and still doesn’t offer a reliable paid path because the service itself is inconsistent. In older MUTs, you could be competitive by either playing or paying. Now, neither path feels fair or functional.

I’m not mad that busy players can spend money, I’m frustrated that MUT 26 has regressed so far that time doesn’t matter, money doesn’t guarantee what you paid for, and the gameplay/meta relies on glitches instead of football.

This isn’t about wanting people to “play all day.” It’s about wanting a mode where progressions actually works again.

jholiday77 said:

If I was 10 years younger I might agree with you. I used to do exactly what you are talking about to get the best players back in the day when I was younger. But guess what? I dont have 4 hours per day to grind challenges and shit in order to unlock every player in the game. I barely have time to jump on for 2-3 games per day. If I didnt have the option to drop $150 every couple of weeks to keep my team top tier, i literally wouldn't play. At 34 yeara old I have responsibilites. I dont have time to "grind" fucking challenges against the CPU. That doesn't make me wrong. Plus it's not like you can't buy any player you want off the AH with coins, right? You just have to put the hours in and earn the coins. Sounds like you dont want to do that. Sounds like you used to do it, just like I did when I was younger. 

What you are really mad about is that people who don't have time to play a video game all day long have a pathway to have a better team than you by spending more money.

.

ryanwolbert3 said:

He's right it's a joke and absolutely ridiculous. You spend 23 bucks and don't even get a card over 83 and the kick to the nuts is that not even one of those cards was a card for the blitz promo.

People will tell you “$23 on packs, you know nothing is guaranteed with how the odds are idk why you’re upset.” But it’s like, $23 is not chump change for the average user. EA has this game set up to where the numbers are so high for new players (Deion Sanders costing $1700????), $23 doesn’t look like anything. And that’s how EA has brainwashed everyone.

jacebuck40 said:

People will tell you “$23 on packs, you know nothing is guaranteed with how the odds are idk why you’re upset.” But it’s like, $23 is not chump change for the average user. EA has this game set up to where the numbers are so high for new players (Deion Sanders costing $1700????), $23 doesn’t look like anything. And that’s how EA has brainwashed everyone.

So you are saying i got a chance.   That is all i needed to hear, time to buy more packs......

jacebuck40 said:

I genuinely don’t understand how a company as massive, profitable, and supposedly “respected” as EA Sports can release Madden year after year and somehow make it worse every single time. And the worst part? We all fall for it. The content gets lazier, core Ultimate Team features disappear, the divide of Madden community players for not releasing specific TT players every week, and on major promo days the servers can’t even handle the traffic.

And look, I know I’m going to get hate for saying this, or be hit with the classic “Then don’t play the game.” But that’s exactly the problem. People don’t realize that their experience could be so much better if the community stopped letting EA walk all over them, taking advantage of their loyalty, and monopolizing the market with zero accountability.

What makes it even more absurd is that Madden has turned into a game where spending money is REQUIRED to be competitive. There should never be a video game, especially a sports game, that demands you spend real money just to keep up. You can spend $500 one week, only for the players you get to be outdated in a month. Why can’t devoted, consistent players earn access to top-tier cards through gameplay? Why are the best players hidden behind paywalls that only wealthier users can realistically afford? It’s completely backwards.

Recently Ive seen people are trying to open their Blitz packs, and EA still fails to deliver what customers PAID FOR. That’s literally theft! And you guys think it’s okay? They know they can get away with it, because as long as there’s even the illusion of a competitive edge, people will keep buying. It’s insulting.

I’ve never played another game that functions as poorly as Madden. The glitches, the exploits, the random errors, it never ends. Ten years ago, it was a simple, fun football game. Now it’s a blatant cash grab targeting fans who think buying better players will automatically translate to more wins. Spoiler: it won’t. You can spend thousands and still lose to an 85 overall team because the game just doesn’t work.

I’ve played Madden since Madden 13, but after this year, I’m done. EA should not be allowed to keep getting away with this. And you guys should all feel the same way.

I don't deny you the right to say this, and, in fact, in many respects I agree with the points I read. I didn't read it in its entirety because I've read posts like it before, and you didn't grab my attention with something truly new in your introduction or summary. Take this merely as advice for effective writing in a world where people don't have time to read more than a blurb or a few bullet points.

In any case, Madden has massive room for improvement, whereas MUT as a separable component of Madden will always be a money game. I do feel that the best form of MUT allows cash players to skip the grind, and that NMS players can access the same material given enough time on the Auction House. I hope it pleases you that I've never spent money on a Madden microtransaction.

I hope you find an enjoyable alternative in your time away from Madden.

cackster38 said:

So you are saying i got a chance.   That is all i needed to hear, time to buy more packs......

Yep! You have a minuscule chance at pulling a player from a $50 pack that will be outdated in 2 months… and you’ll get to repeat the cycle all over again. EA LOVES customers like you. You get a gold star buddy.

You can be incredibly competitive just with having a better knowledge of the game mechanics, or "glitching" "cheesing" which is fine if you hate that and don't want to advocate that, but I'm very little money spent and basically play the game 2 promos behind everyone else to conserve coins. The one half decent thing they have done this year is not gatekeep abilities behind 3 million coin LTDs, you do not NEED to use those cards.

This is one of the easiest offensive maddens of all time, a little bit of an attempt at managing clock goes a long way.

Don't hear what I am not saying, this game is a flukey arcade piece of trash. You will lose games to inferior players off of a bad animation. Whether their team is bad or they just play poorly, every game is losable and the game for sure gets worse every year.

my one big opposition to the original argument is, Scheme over team any day of the week, you don't have to run the cheese garbage but you do have to understand it well enough to beat it. It does not take money to win at the game this year, but like any skill in life it takes a little bit of time and effort. Nobody is going to hand it to you.

So it’s not “grind vs. spend.” It’s that MUT removed meaningful grind rewards and still doesn’t offer a reliable paid path because the service itself is inconsistent. In older MUTs, you could be competitive by either playing or paying. Now, neither path feels fair or functional.

Well said, totally agree.

jacebuck40 said:

I get that not everyone has hours a day to grind, that’s not the issue I’m talking about. The problem is that MUT 26 doesn’t properly support either group anymore.

• Casual players rely on spending, but packs don’t show up, servers crash on promo drops, and Twitch/season rewards often don’t even track.
• Grind players get almost nothing for their time because solos and level paths barely give usable cards now.

So it’s not “grind vs. spend.” It’s that MUT removed meaningful grind rewards and still doesn’t offer a reliable paid path because the service itself is inconsistent. In older MUTs, you could be competitive by either playing or paying. Now, neither path feels fair or functional.

I’m not mad that busy players can spend money, I’m frustrated that MUT 26 has regressed so far that time doesn’t matter, money doesn’t guarantee what you paid for, and the gameplay/meta relies on glitches instead of football.

This isn’t about wanting people to “play all day.” It’s about wanting a mode where progressions actually works again.

I feel like you're actually way off the mark with the NMS complaint. I feel like I have better options for rewards players than I had in MUT 24 or MUT 25, but the mechanism for receiving the better players has changed. I don't get the choice of an Auctionable Hero or a BND Champion as in previous MUT iterations, but the Weekly Spotlight Tokens accumulate pretty quickly. I have 188 of them saved up, good for about 7 Champions. I'm not forced to choose a champion from a particular program, one where the position or the theme team doesn't complement my current lineup. The Solo Season Tokens have netted me a champion (on a bad draw) and a Crystal player (allowing me to recover more than 500k coins I had tied up in the one I purchased at the Auction House).

If you have years of pent-up frustration with how EA administers MUT, I get you being where you're at. MUT 26 is just not the example I would use to bolster complaints about NMS access to items strong enough to let you be competitive.

Now if you want to complain about the Head-to-Head experience, I'm all ears. But I've probably already written about that myself.

TheNickSix said:

You can be incredibly competitive just with having a better knowledge of the game mechanics, or "glitching" "cheesing" which is fine if you hate that and don't want to advocate that, but I'm very little money spent and basically play the game 2 promos behind everyone else to conserve coins. The one half decent thing they have done this year is not gatekeep abilities behind 3 million coin LTDs, you do not NEED to use those cards.

This is one of the easiest offensive maddens of all time, a little bit of an attempt at managing clock goes a long way.

Don't hear what I am not saying, this game is a flukey arcade piece of trash. You will lose games to inferior players off of a bad animation. Whether their team is bad or they just play poorly, every game is losable and the game for sure gets worse every year.

my one big opposition to the original argument is, Scheme over team any day of the week, you don't have to run the cheese garbage but you do have to understand it well enough to beat it. It does not take money to win at the game this year, but like any skill in life it takes a little bit of time and effort. Nobody is going to hand it to you.

If the only way to stay competitive is to learn how to exploit glitches, metas, and broken mechanics, then MUT isn’t rewarding scheme , it’s rewarding who abuses the game the best. That completely defeats the idea of “scheme over team.”

You can call it “understanding the mechanics,” but let’s be honest, stopping things like speed-boost glitches, scum kicks, fake-FG exploit plays, or instant-shed blitzes isn’t football IQ , it’s just learning how to counter broken gameplay. Why should players have to study exploits just to play a mode that’s supposed to be football?

If the game is designed so that:

• the perfect defensive call still loses to a glitch
• meta plays override actual scheme
• animations decide games
• and understanding exploits matters more than fundamentals

…then that’s not a skill issue. That’s a design issue.
 

And if the only path to winning is “learn the cheese or lose to it,” then you’re proving my point exactly: MUT rewards manipulating the game more than actually playing football.

That’s the problem, and pretending that’s healthy for the mode is part of what keeps it from ever improving.

phatalerror said:

I feel like you're actually way off the mark with the NMS complaint. I feel like I have better options for rewards players than I had in MUT 24 or MUT 25, but the mechanism for receiving the better players has changed. I don't get the choice of an Auctionable Hero or a BND Champion as in previous MUT iterations, but the Weekly Spotlight Tokens accumulate pretty quickly. I have 188 of them saved up, good for about 7 Champions. I'm not forced to choose a champion from a particular program, one where the position or the theme team doesn't complement my current lineup. The Solo Season Tokens have netted me a champion (on a bad draw) and a Crystal player (allowing me to recover more than 500k coins I had tied up in the one I purchased at the Auction House).

If you have years of pent-up frustration with how EA administers MUT, I get you being where you're at. MUT 26 is just not the example I would use to bolster complaints about NMS access to items strong enough to let you be competitive.

Now if you want to complain about the Head-to-Head experience, I'm all ears. But I've probably already written about that myself.

Here’s the thing you’re missing: all that talk about Spotlight Tokens, Solo Season tokens, or “better options than MUT 24/25” goes straight out the window the moment EA drops cards like the new Shadeur Sanders and Deion Sanders Blitz cards behind a flat-out paywall. Those cards are only obtainable in packs, and the odds are so low that people are literally spending thousands just to have a shot at them. That’s the issue.

It doesn’t matter how “generous” the free players are or how many Spotlight Tokens you saved up, none of that gets you within the same universe as a 7M coin card that’s only accessible through paid packs. Those cards don’t just “upgrade a team,” they break the game with the advantages they give. No NMS team can compensate or come close for teams with these kinds of players hidden being a paywall.

So when I point out a flaw in MUT, this is exactly what I’m talking about. You can feel like the day-to-day NMS grind is better this year, but promos like this prove EA still locks the truly elite cards behind paywalls. And when the top-end meta is determined by who buys packs and who doesn’t, it’s impossible to realistically argue that MUT is balanced or friendly to NMS players.

jacebuck40 said:

If the only way to stay competitive is to learn how to exploit glitches, metas, and broken mechanics, then MUT isn’t rewarding scheme , it’s rewarding who abuses the game the best. That completely defeats the idea of “scheme over team.”

You can call it “understanding the mechanics,” but let’s be honest, stopping things like speed-boost glitches, scum kicks, fake-FG exploit plays, or instant-shed blitzes isn’t football IQ , it’s just learning how to counter broken gameplay. Why should players have to study exploits just to play a mode that’s supposed to be football?

If the game is designed so that:

• the perfect defensive call still loses to a glitch
• meta plays override actual scheme
• animations decide games
• and understanding exploits matters more than fundamentals

…then that’s not a skill issue. That’s a design issue.
 

And if the only path to winning is “learn the cheese or lose to it,” then you’re proving my point exactly: MUT rewards manipulating the game more than actually playing football.

That’s the problem, and pretending that’s healthy for the mode is part of what keeps it from ever improving.

Well, you need to understand who you're talking with. To him, Madden's not intended to be a football simulation, it's a video game. Apparently when it's just a "video game", you don't need scruples.

jacebuck40 said:

Here’s the thing you’re missing: all that talk about Spotlight Tokens, Solo Season tokens, or “better options than MUT 24/25” goes straight out the window the moment EA drops cards like the new Shadeur Sanders and Deion Sanders Blitz cards behind a flat-out paywall. Those cards are only obtainable in packs, and the odds are so low that people are literally spending thousands just to have a shot at them. That’s the issue.

It doesn’t matter how “generous” the free players are or how many Spotlight Tokens you saved up, none of that gets you within the same universe as a 7M coin card that’s only accessible through paid packs. Those cards don’t just “upgrade a team,” they break the game with the advantages they give. No NMS team can compensate or come close for teams with these kinds of players hidden being a paywall.

So when I point out a flaw in MUT, this is exactly what I’m talking about. You can feel like the day-to-day NMS grind is better this year, but promos like this prove EA still locks the truly elite cards behind paywalls. And when the top-end meta is determined by who buys packs and who doesn’t, it’s impossible to realistically argue that MUT is balanced or friendly to NMS players.

I get what you're saying. I haven't played a game against these items. If the game is really broken because of them, I suppose it greatly restricts your ability to enjoy MUT 26 head-to-head, at least for a few weeks.

I'd probably be most upset if I had spent a few hundred since August, and now have to spend almost $2000 to keep up in the arms race.

Realistically, the other guy earlier put it very clearly: Just cheat (my words, not his). Problem solved.

I wrote this long reply that got deleted. Basically madden is a bad relationship but we are still in love and can't leave.

Thats  it bro, social media and cash tourneys also took it to another level, we will never quit