"Master Series is the...backbone of the game"
Does “backbone” mean most hours spent playing? Then maybe yes ... seasons and OD are most likely same. It takes less than 5 minutes to do our lvl drives so that would appear minuscule if time is your gage. Add in a league tournament here and there and leagues account for minimal time no doubt - if that’s the data you’re processing. The important data is “why” are you playing. I have league mates who run 3-4 seasons a day to build power ... for league play. Does that mean they enjoy seasons or that seasons are better than lvl since it takes 3 hours to play them? As was said before - data is data and can be used in any manner to show predetermined results.
I think if they added a bonus for completing Mahomes, more people would've taken part. Maybe a MS reducer of -4 to all stats that was 2k power, or something like that. It would've enticed everyone to continue. I completed Mahomes, and eventually maxed him. But in the end, it was a complete waste of my time when 105 Wentz is way easier to get now. And Wentz is scheme select. MS is a great concept, just think they need to fine tune it, and make it a "must get" for everyone.
If I had to guess, 90% of players gave up before getting anywhere near Deion or mahomes
As someone who really only started league play seriously this season I have to disagree that LVL is the most important part of the game particularly in its current diluted form. For me this is primarily a card collecting game and adding shiny new toys to my roster will always be my main priority. I can only hope that EA can listen to our feedback and the greater data to create a well rounded user experience next season.
I'm a semi-serious player (101ovr) who checks in for LvL every day. I never finished Juju.
I barely finished juju and am in like stage 6 for Kamara, same as you 101 ovr in a 150ish ranked league
So I basically just play lvl, and grind the promos that are out a little
The backbone of the game is in my opinion collecting cool cards that look nice on your team and that give cool boosts, two things that have been lacking in the past few years.
If the master is a player you don’t want, MS gets ignored unless you’re really bored between promos. No way it should be considered the backbone of the game.
Def not the backbone, but also don't buy LVL being the backbone either. Back in the day? Sure, when rewards were good. Now? LVL is a PAIN to deal with most of the time.
The backbone to me is purely the team building concept, from sets to packs to the AH. Nobody is playing the game because ohhhh I need to unlock Master Series 7 or ohhh I have to do my drives today. They're playing because of the team building aspect. Most things are just monotonous and trivial things we have to put up with to get cards we like. Promos/programs are the backbone if we're talking purely from a game play standpoint because of the building.
Agree with this. LvL is over-rated by so many. It is a pain when you are part of the admin team, working out who is in/out or needs kicking. Then changing of boosts/reducers depending if you are on Off or Def all for just 3 drives a day. Effort/reward is not a great ratio.
I prefer MS to LvL (apart from OD events) as you do pick up rewards as you go along.
But I am here for the team building aspect, all game play modes are monotonous after a while, it is a card collecting game with some mini games attached.
Grinding to improve a player over the course of the season reminds me of Longshot from (I think?) MM18. I actually liked the idea of Longshot. Taking a player and improving that player’s stats over the season is what I would actually really like to do.
I really like how MS Witten has played for me, but I’m about to dumped him for some 100 OVR (then 105) TE from Cleveland.
I remember the weirdness of training from the past. I think all systems of team development have pros and cons. Personally, I’m excited to build Lamar over the season. Backbone of the game or not.
Oh, as long as he is scheme selectable. Why make the backbone of the game something a quarter of players would be interested in....
I'm not going to dispute what you're saying here, you are all my people, just know Muthead/Reddit/Discord are not the majority of players. Leagues are not the most popular mode in our game and it's not close. It's not to say they are not important, just know the data we see is from more than just our core players, which is why this doesn't relate here as much.
I'll talk on this next stream, it's a good point and an interesting conversation we can have. Feel free to drop comments. Def will speak to some more of the data if i can.
A little of my background: I am a high school English teacher, so I'm around a lot of kids (usually boys) who play Madden. I see what they're playing and get their perspective. I'm also a member of the same league for over four years. My league is consistently a top 500 team (but not top 100) and it is made up of adults who are whatever is between casual and hardcore with 2-3 of us being hardcore players. So I have that perspective. And I, like most Mutheaders, am a hardcore player (I already have my full 105 team, just have to train some up and my team is finished). With that said:
- I have played and finished every round of the Masters Series. As an FTP, I have to play almost every mode to stay on top. Every player, except for the TE round, has, for some time, been rostered. I usually finished the series in 3-5 days and then just played my 3 per day to make the daily goals. As I said, I like MS and am happy it will be there next year, and am looking forward to improvements, but if it weren't there, I wouldn't consider not coming back. Conversely, if leagues were gone or competitive H2H in some capacity were gone, my time playing MM would be through. I think a lot of hardcore players (people on these message boards) are like me, but as you noted, we are not the majority.
- My students play sporadically. There aren't too many of them who are hardcore. They play more during the football season. And their mode of choice is seasons. They love seasons; they like being able to win 76-0 (like I used to when I was their age and played the original Madden on Sega). Do they play MS? Sometimes, but it's not what they log in for.
- People in my league (mostly between casual and hardcore): Some have done the MS, some haven't, none look forward to it; it's just something they do.
- I don't have the data that you do and my "evidence" is purely anecdotal, but I've just never seen anybody who logs in for MS, and I've associated with a large variety of people who play MM. Some like it well enough (I mean, I like it well enough), but that's about it. I've known people who log in or have logged in for (that is, they see these modes as the backbone of the game) leagues, seasons, promos, getting their fave players, building a theme team, buying pro packs. Maybe I'm wrong but as somebody pointed out below, you can't take data in a vacuum. I, for one, am all in favor of keeping and building on MS, but I think looking at it as the backbone of the franchise is wrong-minded.
Edited by alnamiasiv
My experience has been almost identical to yours (less the high school exposure). I think the issue is word choice, which as an English teacher I am sure you will appreciate. Backbone communicates something about supporting structure, and in the way most of the readers seem to take it, equates to "heart and soul" or essential factor of the game. I would suggest that what was intended (though apparently not communicated clearly) was that Masters Series provides a linking structure intended to keep users involved in progression. I think the literary equivalent would be metanarrative or story arc. Just my two cents. BTW appreciate your perspective on here and have enjoyed our occasional in game matchups.
I think, though, that a lot of other posters have made the point that the backbone, or heart and soul, or linking structure, of this game is the card-collecting aspect--the building of one's team. To me, if we're going to continue this metaphor, that is the plot--it's not arguable, that's why we're all here, and I don't see how anybody could debate that. What's the point of playing this game if you're not interested in progressing your team in some capacity (whether via OVR or theme team)? I mean, everybody would like to improve their team; some just lack the means or skills. The theme (what you get out of the story), meanwhile, is arguable and individualized. For me, the theme is playing competitively via LvL and H2H (which, unfortunately, means OD) and interacting with my leaguemates (the limited social element). For some people, it's seasons. Others show up for promos. Some are here for working the AH. But, as I mentioned before, how many really show up for MS? I think very few even though most, of all engagement levels, do play it. The point you make is an important one, and I think you're right: "backbone" translates to "linking structure." But the linking structure is already in the game, it's always been in the game: improving and building your team. Which further goes to support the idea that EA has a flawed POV of their own game; they're trying to create some kind of synthetic backbone/linking structure when the true and organic backbone/linking structure (building your team) is and always has been inherently part of the game. Finishing this metaphor, MS is just like some moderately engaging flat character that adds to the story but could be replaced by any number of other moderately engaging flat characters.
Great post. It’s there. It gives good players so most players are going to play it to get good players for their team. But how many of those players is that the main focus of them on the game? Probably none. A lot of people play it to get good additions to there team so of course people are going to play it. They should focus on fixing what is really broken in the game (power, the auction house, complicated promos, overdrive) that matter so much more to most players and is more important to the structure of the game rather than master series.
Agree with this MS isnt the reason people play the game and honestly I think that grind this season was not worth the rewards. On the topic of what I think are important aspects: (H2H, LVL, Promos - just the the 4oj now!, OVR, Pro Packs, auction house) I think these features are what keep players playing consistently. Hopefully the team improves the next game. Thanks for reading
Edited by f3ar5
No disrespect to you Nick, you aren’t on the dev team so you can’t really control these thing, you’ve done a great job giving us info and stuff, but in the past, everyone loved tournaments in MM18. The dev team took it out. Super glad to see it will be back next year which is good, but if everyone plays master series based on your data, you probably don’t know any of these answers but how come some of the older stuff people have asked for hasn’t came true. Coin packs, limited time cards, a human ran or at least improved auction house? Great to see that they are looking at the data on what to improve on but why do they take out other stuff people liked in the past? Something like the auction house I understand, coin sellers ruined it for us all but other stuff I feel they take out and remove that we love and keep things that we hate, like power, and overdrive. I don’t understand why now Master Series is seeming like such a big focus now rather than like competitive modes which is what the game should really be meant for.
I actually am on the Dev team. I sit next to team, am in these kinds of meetings etc. It's for this exact reason.
Again you're not wrong, leagues are massively important.
There's a lot of replies here, excited to try and adddress these.
I can see how more people play MS because of all the super casuals out there, but likely those people will pick up the game for a few weeks and get tired of it and definitely won't be spending as much money as those who are competitive and play because of leagues. I think master series was a good addition to the game but to says it's the backbone and what the game is gonna be built around is a scary thought. Over the past few years many top players and spenders have quit because EA fails to make league rewards worthwhile for many and has failed to address matchmaking issues especially at the start of seasons. Hopefully this changes...
When overdrive was considered the main focus it was disastrous. The problem with master series is that people who start playing later in the year or don’t play it early on can’t catch up without grinding a ton. I started over after going to a new device Christmas, didn’t play it and a couple months ago realize I’m on the last one and can’t get to the later ones until I play the earlier ones.
Can you specify what data you are looking at? # of users only?
I would think the most appropriate metric to truly measure the importance of leagues is to compare total $’s spent by league members vs total $’s spent by non-league members. IMHO only other truly meaningful metric to measure importance of leagues would be to compare total hours of engagement by league members vs non-league members.
I can make any metric to justify any crazy idea I want to pursue in one of my product lines so if you could specify the specific metrics you are referencing it would at least help your long time users understand these statements that ea makes.
Thanks.
100% Disagree. I am playing this game since MM15. Maybe you have data that shows high number of users have played MS series and that's why you are calling it backbone. In that case would you call thanksgiving and most feared promo as backbone of this game too right? programs and promos we love to play but that is not the backbone. Do you know this is the first year in all of my seasons that I did not build the cover athlete. Reason master series Mahomes was not the high player for the significant time. Series was too long and I did spend stamina to use build max badges and got 105 Manning. So if your cover athlete through MS program is not even high ovr, how can you say it's backbone? You were a month late in MS series to release him The thing that have kept many users in this game for years is LVL, undoubtedly. I've seen series of blunders by EA from year to year and when MM OD came, LVL was the only thing that people had hope in. you can pull the data how many people stopped playing game in that period. many users were completely unknown to each other and with lvl, they started communicating on other platforms as well. many top 500 leagues are using Kik or other messenger apps to communicate.
I don’t particularly care for master series. The field pass ones were good for players and Max Badges, but the Mahomes one was never a priority of mine. Having said that, promo stamina hadn’t been invented yet. I never invested my stamina in it and fell way behind. I am on the cowboys one and haven’t played it in so long. I’d be fine with it as long as we have no OD
LVL is why majority of people stay
I'm not sure I'd cap it the backbone either. It was a nice addition but I don't think the app revolves around it. For me lvl us the backbone but I realize that's not for everyone. I guess for some od arena or seasons are the backbone
I was making similar point in the brief comment above.
What I see here, couple of years back during the release of MM OD I still remember wording of community manager. " The new engine will help us identifying and solving bugs faster" In last 2 years, I've seen those lines were only worked when bugs is causing issues to EA not to user.
So, maybe he is calling like market strategy. I've learnt reality with EA is totally different.
Shouldn’t H2H or tournaments be the backbone of the game? Like competitive modes and not, you know, something that was said when it was first in I think “Something to grind for when there is no content or anything to do”
Still better than overdrive being the backbone of the game
I played Master series all year but skipped Maholmes.
same here. he is calling it backbone and cover page athlete was released so late that people started building other max QBs. then, how can it be a backbone?
As I refuse to play OD, MS was a good source of gems and other collectibles. If only they dropped the OD element of MS it would have been very good.
What I believe he should have said, and I believe this is what he meant, is "Having our cover player as a grindable, and achievable Master is the backbone of the game."
Edited by SmackTalkinKing
I agree this seems extremely premature. It was a sizable part of the game sure, but like others have said it's been in the game for one season and I don't know of anyone plays this game for master series lol. Leagues is why I play and I think why many play and hopefully EA focuses on much better rewards for leagues in MM21.
99 Hester and whoever the rest were 😢
ahhh MM16 days.... Emmitt Smith, Rice and Hester were actually a fun experience to go and grind for
It's just so much a backbone that I never made it pass enforcers. How about "LvL is the backbone of the game."? Or "H2H is the backbone of the game."? The promos/programs are the real backbone of the game. Let's see them put more effort into those. Make them well thought out and glitch free. MS, sure, some people liked it. The OD aspect was a dealbreaker for me personally.
Edited by D_Stuffing
The full quote, said by Messina and conveyed by Crane, can be found here: -https://www.muthead.com/forums/madden-nfl-mobile-discussion/245241-madden-nfl-21-mobile-details/