Beware of Slider Nazis – Madden 13

We are only a few days from the release of NCAA 13 and just over a month from Madden 13.  That being said, you can almost smell the football in the air.  Unfortunately, you can also smell  the elitist sports gamers over the internet.  Readying their little fingers to type angry messages in response to your excited Franchise Mode Connected Career performance updates that may or may not include winning a Super Bowl with the Cleveland Browns in 2013.

Usually your success with a ‘weaker’ team is going to be attributed to your Slider Settings.  These wonderful additions to sports games have been around for awhile.  They are meant to act as a way for you (the end user) to tune the gameplay in order for you to either make the game play like your opinion of simulation (or Arcade – which Madden is usually a fine example of every year).  It then becomes a war of words and Slider Settings in the messageboards and sports gaming communities.

Your typical interaction with a slider nazi could sound (read) like this.

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YouI just won the Super Bowl with the Browns!  It was amazing!  We managed to sweep the AFC North behind the amazing play of Trent Richardson (led the league in rushing and TDs) and our under-rated defense!  We beat the Cowboys 24-10 as Brandon Weeden connected with Josh Cribbs on a screen pass that ended up sealing the deal late in the game!

Responding (Hater) Slider Nazi – You obviously have to change your sliders!  There is no way the Browns will EVER win a Super Bowl, let alone this year.  You need to make sure your run blocking is tuned down if Trent Richardson is leading the league as a rookie.  Not to mention the fact that the Browns are terrible… wow.  big props to you on beating the weak CPU to a pulp.  Did you have the difficulty set to Rookie?

———

There are two ways to look at this conversation and neither of them is necessarily wrong.

1 – If you enjoy your game, no one should be able to tell you how to enjoy it otherwise.  If you truly have a good time winning the Super Bowl with ANY team, let alone a team like the Browns, Cavaliers,  Kansas City Royals, Western Michigan or Columbus Blue Jackets… more power to you.

2 – There is something to be said for a game giving you a challenge.  While the reactions of many sports gamers (such as the example above) are blown out of proportion, you should often consider if your sliders are providing you with the best challenge while still being fair to both sides.  I have played 18 Collective Seasons in Madden 12’s Franchise Mode with teams such as the Browns, Bears and Jaguars.  I won a few Super Bowls with the Browns and decided I wanted a new challenge so I switched teams and tweaked my sliders.  It was three seasons before I won a Super Bowl with the Bears and the Jaguars team I inherited after leaving the Bears is going to be rough to work with.

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