HOT TOPIC - Length of Games

My personal view is that any game under 8 minutes does not allow for authentic/SIM style football to be in place (and the accelerated clock is just away of furthur shortening quarters)... The NFL plays 15 minutes quarters (i think - correct me if I am wrong) - hell my highschool team plays 12 minutes quarters... I would love to play in an Online Franchise with 12 minute quarters (no excel clock) - but I realize this is too far from the medium game length -so i compromise with an 8 minute quarter Online Franchise...

Any quarter length less than 8 minutes (with no accelerated clock) will limit the "game-planning" options - this will take us farther away from SIM football... It seems games with clocks less than that - its more like both teams get 1 possesion and than its the 2 minute drill!!!! Ball control offenses are a LEGIT and PROOVEN offensive scheme (coincidentally I like to run - LOL!) - I have had posesions that have been over 8 minutes long! - If we had quarter less than 8 minutes - this would make this sort of offense ABSURD!

I understand what DEN_24 is saying - 1 hour can be viewed as a long time to play a game... I am hopeful that the the new gameflow in Madden 11 will help speed up games regardless of quarter length...,(see this link below for details:

http://maddennfl.easports.com/blog.action

I would like players to put the quarter length into perspective... Your Online franchise games ARE NOT TO BE VIEWED AS YOUR TYPICAL ONLINE GAME - this team is your "baby" - you drafted it, you played GM and made trades to benefit your team and you are developing your players... If you have to devote 1 hour to an Online Franchise game - every 2-3 days to compete in our online franchise - IS THAT REALLY A BIG COMMITTMENT? - Sure their are going to be times when the score differential makes the outcome of the game certain - but this gives you time to work with your tream - (afterall there is no practice mode with your Online franchise team) - In addition, situations like this are great opportunities to play "younger" players - help them accumulate stats which inturn will aid in their overall progression! As a 3rd option - Its no disgrace to "concede" a game if you feel a loss is a certainty...

Let me know what you guys think about this... I am interested to know what you think...

Ok....ummm...lol I have never played a 8 minute game without accel clock...I understand that sim ball is different but I think it depends on ur playing style...u play slow so the score won't get out of hand...I personally play very fast I pick my plays fast because I'm always a play ahead I hike fast to not let the defense get set up and I throw down the field when I do pass to wat up yards. Now I am sim but when I am executing my high octane offense in a 8 min quarter and no accel clock game would get out of hand quickly if my opponent doesn't score...I'm not saying I am unstoppable by no means but with turnover and stuff I hope u can see where I'm coming from.

With all that said I am not oppose to 8 minute quarters with no accel clock. I only plan on really being in 1 franchise anyway maybe too but this 1 is enough for me. With the new gameflow feature maybe the games will be shorter but that has yet to be seen. My question is are we just using the gameflow feature or are we doing what ever feels better to use. Sim is about gameplanning what is more sim than using ur gameplan and using the gameflow feature ya know see who's gameplan execution is better.

i like the accel clock cuz i think its more sim cuz u never see some1 line up ready to hike it with 35 secs still left on the clock. the 2 other franchises i was in madden 10 was i believe 1 was 10 mins and the other 12 mins both with accel clock on tho

duqsidebooger wrote:i like the accel clock cuz i think its more sim cuz u never see some1 line up ready to hike it with 35 secs still left on the clock. the 2 other franchises i was in madden 10 was i believe 1 was 10 mins and the other 12 mins both with accel clock on tho

I am leaving these individual decision up to eaCH COMMISH - AND i AM ASKING THE COMMISH TO SOLICIT INPUT FROM THEIR MEMBERS...

I am oppose to the excel clock - because you never seem to be able to do all the things that a REAL NFL TEAM DOES BEFORE THE TIME CLOCK EXPIRES (when the excel clock is on) - what i mean is:

- once you have scrolled through a few pages on a playbook and picked the play you had in mind for that down and distance (10 seconds can be gone - depending on your familarity with your playbook)

- Once you selected a play it takes 5 seconds for the team to get to their assigned positions on the field

(between these 2 points were 15 seconds has alapsed - add another 15 seconds for the excel clock) - now we have 5 seconds to do the following:
- pre-snap read (sometimes for 2 or 3 positions)
- Motion receivers
- Adjust blocking assignments (based on pre-snap read)
- Call an audible
- Hot Route a receiver

* - i know football well - and there is NO WAY I can do these things in 5 seconds in Madden or in real football!

Now - some guys aren't going to CONSIDER all of these things - BUT SOME GUYS DO (and i am 1 of those players - and perhaps I should dedicate more time to my stick skills than reading tendencies based on the pre-snap read of defensive players allignment - I am sure I would win more Madden games!) but this is 1 of the intriguing aspects of Madden - the depth to the game...

So in closing - I hope you understand why I am not a fan of the excel clock - ALTHOUGH - with the NEW Gameplanning/Game-flow feature - the time sorting through the playbook may be minimized - thus making a 5 or 10 second excel clock feasible - in this case - our games could be EVEN CLOSER TO SIM WITH 10 MINUTE QUARTERS! LOL (although I understand moving the quarter length past 8 minutes would be a tough sell) - BUT IF YOU CONSIDER MY POINTS ABOVE - A 1 HOUR COMMITTMENT TO PLAYN OUR ONLINE FRANCHISE (every 48-72 hours) - shouldn't be seen as a BIG DEAL - and more like the highlight of your gaming week!

My opinion is 8 min quarters with Excellerated clock. I also played in the 12 minute quarter league games waaaay tooo long final scores in the 60's and 50's. just not cool

im cool with 8, i wouldn't go more than 8 with out an accelerated clock tho

I am also a fan of 7 or 8 min gameswithout accel clock. Although with gameflow we are going to have to see how the first week online goes with scoring and time. Games 49 to 41 every week is not sim so maybe with gameflow games in the 7 min mark might be feasible. I guess we will just have to see.

I'm good with 8 it seemed to work well last year it made it feel like it was acctually game. With 5 minute clocks it seems like I'm trying to comeback and then it would end .

Yea I minute quarters will do...it has time for ppl to come back get some good stats and use their full offense if the score is close

I've never seen so many different ways to spell accelerated. lol. anyway 8 min no accel. clock works great. Unlike, the woefully deficient Donovan McNabb (good riddance) I need time to read the defense and make adjustments.

I like 8 minutes. Anything over may need accelerated clock.

I think 8 minutes no accelerated clock is good place to start and then we can adjust it if gameplanning really speeds up the game as much as ea claims it will, i personally dont think it will have much effect because barely anybody will use it all that much. i actually plan to use it though because i think its actually a good way of varying your play calling and avoiding the 20% rule

"I think 8 minutes no accelerated clock is good place to start and then we can adjust it if gameplanning really speeds up the game as much as ea claims it will, i personally dont think it will have much effect because barely anybody will use it all that much. i actually plan to use it though because i think its actually a good way of varying your play calling and avoiding the 20% rule"

I want to try the full game "game planning" out for that reason too, but if it is like demo, it doesn't work well yet.

Some things about sim video game football vs the NFL.

1. We could play 12 minute quarters and still have sim scores, hardly any one scored more than 24 on me last year. The main reason that the scores got high is we don't play Madden like Pro Coaches and Coordinators coach football. This is not a glitch in the game that makes it less realistic, this is our love of offense and scoring! Most of Madden players are WAY more aggressive then the Pros. We play more like a combination of college and arena football. However, like you hear on Sundays and Saturdays, the best way to keep the opponent from scoring is to keep there offense on the sideline. I like to play a ball control game, run and keep the clock moving. Rest assured, that if we took over the NFL in real life, the scores would shoot way up. Why don't they play like this in real life? Cause the object is to win, not to score a lot of points. Some NFL teams do try and run up the score, but most of the time it is because they don't trust there defense. Football is as much a game of time as it is a game of points. One problem on video games is that if some one else is running out the clock on you when they have the lead, you seem to think of them as a punk. Some of us understand that and try to run some clock while not making it obvious that we are trying to get the game over with and get the win. This is not sim though, and I think that a lot of us need to grow up in this area. If your opponent is winning, it is as much your fault for not playing better and there is no reason you should think that if you some how got the ball back you would magically fix your mistakes up to that point and win. So consider it a plus that they are letting the clock go down and end the game with some class. I am not saying, let them win. You should still take time outs and try and stop them from getting first downs if there is a chance to win. However Football is a very balanced, fair game. If some one scores, the other team gets the ball and a chance to score.

2. If you can't stop your opponent from scoring, you don't deserve to win. There were not a whole lot of lopsided wins in those high scoring games you guys refer to. You need to learn how to play Defense! As I stated above, not many people (not named boywonder) would score more than 3 touchdowns on me. Of course Madden 10 had a problem with man coverage being very under powered and zone being a little overpowered against the pass. So if you thought run you would use a blitz with man coverage, if you thought pass you would play zone. I was pretty affective with a D-Line man , so could play zone even more. In the demo, these seam to be better, especially on all madden settings. The defense as a whole play more realistic, try and remember what a player did in real life, not in Madden 10. Cromartie was great in real life, but he wasn't perfect. This is captured in demo. Try to remember this during your franchise, just cause some one has cover 90, doesn't mean he is going to make every play ! It means that he is better then guys ranked lower, but there is a human side to simulation games like Madden. Everybody makes mistakes, even video game characters (if made well). This will let you have a lot more fun!

3. We control the coaching and the players. On most plays, we call the play and execute it. There are communication break downs in NFL games and misunderstandings. These are not present in video games (accept by a random false start). Watch the NFL this year and count the number of times a coach or QB yells at a WR for not doing what they expect. Yes we have animations of that, but it happens when we the gamer throw into coverage or the CPU decides we fumble the ball, not cause there was a genuine mistake by the WR running a completely different route then his QB expected. Plus, if EA put this in, non sim fans would get furious. They think that players should do everything perfectly. You wouldn't believe the reviews of basketball games that are mad when a player receives a pass and is standing out of bounds, despite the fact that I saw it in real NBA games (even the playoffs) last year.

4. We see things that no one is real life sees, because of our aerial view. Real life quarter backs don't see open WRs as well as we do, they have 6 foot tall, 300 pound Line man in pads blocking there view. It won't truly be sim till we are looking through a helmet at our cross bars on our face mask and at the rear end of a mammoth with sweat all over it. If you want realistic, you need to go out and play the sport for your self. Unfortunately my health doesn't permit me to any more, but I still have vivid memories of me, my brother, and our friends out there sweating and smiling from ear to ear!

For all you haters of the demo, I LOVED it. Sideline catches with toes dragging, some times making it but not always! Unnecessary roughness, for hitting someone out of bounds! The line blocking who the play says they will. Is the blocking what you want, maybe not. For that we need to make our own plays. The point is, they are doing what the play says they are supposed too! Are they going to make every block perfectly, NO! They shouldn't, once again we are talking about simulating a human. Humans are not perfect!

No I don't think that the game is perfect, but it is an awesome video game! If the servers online are any better then last year, I may not be able to stop playing this til Madden 12 comes out. That being said, the servers were not as bad as other games. Yes I had lag sometimes, but not every game. Most games I played were incredible and I wasn't bothered by lag.

See you all on the field in 2 DAYS, I may not be able to sleep for a week, lol

WOW - great post - fantastic - dtigertron would you mine if i used this in our Madden school SIM section? (of course I will referewnce you as the author),,,,

Any one wants to quote anything I put on this site or any other forum may do so in any way, as long as you don't make any one pay you. I know some of you are laughing, but you would be surprised. So any user in our group may repeat what I said on any other site or to any other person, it's all good.

If you haven't tried it yet, set the game to all madden for the demo. Then after the game starts, pause it and go to game options and set speed to NORMAL. This will look the most like the game we are all watching tonight! LOL, Ocho can't get open, good thing T.O. is out there, lol !