Impressions on First Year MUT Player

I've almost exclusively played Madden franchise-mode for years. This was my first year playing MUT for a significant amount of time. Here are my impressIons:

PROS

- I enjoyed the concept of collecting cards and building teams with certain themes, etc.

- I enjoyed the online competition and some of the game modes, particularly H2H Seasons, although I wish there was a more organized structure (perhaps more mini-tournaments or the like). 

CONS

- The cards themselves do not bear much, if any, relation to the players they purport to represent. This is my biggest problem with the game mode. Walter Payton is an 89, but Peyton Hillis is a 94? And don't get me started on OOP. William Perry is the best QB in the game? It's silly. I thought I would be able to build a team of Chicago Bear greats with relatively accurate representations on the field. But the cards are, in some cases, almost entirely make believe. You might as well just make up fictional players and play with them. 

- There's way too much grinding necessary to get decent players without spending money. I don't have a problem earning coins to get packs and players. But the challenges are repetitive and tedious. 

In any event, to me the "CONS" outweigh the "PROS." I'll go back to franchise and regs H2H. That's unfortunate because, conceptually, MUT could be awesome.

I agree with you in that it is annoying when you have a Walter Payton 89, and he does not get upgraded, so when they release a 94 OVR Peyton Hillis he is so much better in the game than Payton. They progress players until we reach 99 OVR, so this issue is a function of the players they decide to release each week.  

I also agree that William Perry as the best QB in the game is ridiculous and it takes away from my enjoyment as well! While Ultimate Team is somewhat fantasy because we will never be able to actually have all the greatest players throughout the history of the game come together and be on the same team, I want it to be realistic as to the players and their abilities.  

At first, I was curious as to how H2H will be when everyone has a 99 OVR team. I thought if everyone is a 99 OVR it should be fair competition and the best player would win, but now I am thinking OOP and special chemistries, and crazy X Factors/abilities will be annoying and make me want to avoid H2H. 

It is still cool to be able to play using Terry Bradshaw, Marino, Montana, Bettis, Franco Harris, Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Mean Joe Green, Ted Hendricks, Ray Lewis, Nitschke, L.T., Ronnie Lott, Troy Polamalu, etc.

Chris1129 said:

I've almost exclusively played Madden franchise-mode for years. This was my first year playing MUT for a significant amount of time. Here are my impressIons:

PROS

- I enjoyed the concept of collecting cards and building teams with certain themes, etc.

- I enjoyed the online competition and some of the game modes, particularly H2H Seasons, although I wish there was a more organized structure (perhaps more mini-tournaments or the like). 

CONS

- The cards themselves do not bear much, if any, relation to the players they purport to represent. This is my biggest problem with the game mode. Walter Payton is an 89, but Peyton Hillis is a 94? And don't get me started on OOP. William Perry is the best QB in the game? It's silly. I thought I would be able to build a team of Chicago Bear greats with relatively accurate representations on the field. But the cards are, in some cases, almost entirely make believe. You might as well just make up fictional players and play with them. 

- There's way too much grinding necessary to get decent players without spending money. I don't have a problem earning coins to get packs and players. But the challenges are repetitive and tedious. 

In any event, to me the "CONS" outweigh the "PROS." I'll go back to franchise and regs H2H. That's unfortunate because, conceptually, MUT could be awesome.

Fantastic post, happy to hear you tried MUT.  I think all of your takes are extremely well-founded & grounded.  This is my second MUT season, first time I ever played since day one (i grabbed the game during Black Friday sale last year and created my first MUT roster shortly there after).  Game was absolutely overwhelming at first, i was coming in fresh, not having touched much Madden in decades.  However, not too dissimilar from your initial goals, i thought i was signing up for fatball simulation.  This has been anything but.  My primary goal when i started last year was to be able to recreate my childhood fantasies, Joe Montana to Jerry Rice was THE primary goal.

It never panned out during `23 cycle, although i got my Golden Ticket Joe Montana towards the end of the year, but the 98 OVR Jerry Rice was released as a "Supporting Cast" for the Ring of Honor content drop.  There is no universe where Jerry is a supporting cast to anyone, especially not to diva Randy Moss who barely cared to try.  It's almost as if the folks at MUT don't really understand the game of football.  And they definitely don't play (nor test) their own game.

You're right to simply walk away, or to move on / back to parts of the game you find enjoyable.  MUT is downright awful, especially for newer players.  This is a casino for kids and adults alike, not a shred of simulation football anywhere to be found.

peatrick said:

Fantastic post, happy to hear you tried MUT.  I think all of your takes are extremely well-founded & grounded.  This is my second MUT season, first time I ever played since day one (i grabbed the game during Black Friday sale last year and created my first MUT roster shortly there after).  Game was absolutely overwhelming at first, i was coming in fresh, not having touched much Madden in decades.  However, not too dissimilar from your initial goals, i thought i was signing up for fatball simulation.  This has been anything but.  My primary goal when i started last year was to be able to recreate my childhood fantasies, Joe Montana to Jerry Rice was THE primary goal.

It never panned out during `23 cycle, although i got my Golden Ticket Joe Montana towards the end of the year, but the 98 OVR Jerry Rice was released as a "Supporting Cast" for the Ring of Honor content drop.  There is no universe where Jerry is a supporting cast to anyone, especially not to diva Randy Moss who barely cared to try.  It's almost as if the folks at MUT don't really understand the game of football.  And they definitely don't play (nor test) their own game.

You're right to simply walk away, or to move on / back to parts of the game you find enjoyable.  MUT is downright awful, especially for newer players.  This is a casino for kids and adults alike, not a shred of simulation football anywhere to be found.

For all of its flaws, I generally enjoy the franchise mode. Thing is, MUT is such a time-suck (unless you pay for your cards) that I haven't been able to play much franchise mode to date. But once I realized that these cards are basically "made up" in the sense that they don't bear much relationship to the actual player they depict, I decided to go back to playing with "real" players. (I know, I know, it's a video game regardless.) Like, I said, MUT could be awesome if they released cards that made sense, both for the player depicted and relative to other players -- who wouldn't want to play games with great players from the past? -- but that's not MUT. MUT is people paying money for cards that bear the name and likeness of "real" players but do not have much relationship to the real players on the field. (The Fridge is not any real attempt to portray the actual player, but just a fat guy playing quarterback with really great attributes whose name and picture are William Perry. You could use any name or picture you want. It's not William Perry.)

Chris1129 said:

For all of its flaws, I generally enjoy the franchise mode. Thing is, MUT is such a time-suck (unless you pay for your cards) that I haven't been able to play much franchise mode to date. But once I realized that these cards are basically "made up" in the sense that they don't bear much relationship to the actual player they depict, I decided to go back to playing with "real" players. (I know, I know, it's a video game regardless.) Like, I said, MUT could be awesome if they released cards that made sense, both for the player depicted and relative to other players -- who wouldn't want to play games with great players from the past? -- but that's not MUT. MUT is people paying money for cards that bear the name and likeness of "real" players but do not have much relationship to the real players on the field. (The Fridge is not any real attempt to portray the actual player, but just a fat guy playing quarterback with really great attributes whose name and picture are William Perry. You could use any name or picture you want. It's not William Perry.)

You are so very wise, my good man.  My 10 year old son started tinkering with various Superstar modes and was asking about franchise mode.  He often simulates seasons in NBA2K.  I've totally snoozed on the potential Franchise mode in Madden could potentially offer... someday i'll force myself to retire from this damn casino for kids and adults aliek.  Unfortunately, over the past calendar year, i've become a full blown MUT-junkie.  Struggling to get away from the damn game.

I've already forced myself to have a conversation with my wife about how irresponsible i've been pumping cash into this damn game.  I just want to cobble together a semi-realistic (heh, i use that term loosely, i know, this might as well be NBA Jam) 49ers theme team with all my favorite dudes from over the years... alas, that isn't possible.  Hell, simple football simulation isn't even possible.  Not sure what i'm still doing waiting around.

This community has been fantastic to help teach me the finer points of the game.  The few that exist, at least.  I continue to have brief bursts of fun, in between the extremely maddening and beyond frustrating experience that MUT has become.  At this point it's causing me physical pain watching certain content streamers rip through endless series of packs in hopes of getting some "good" feelings.  Whatever that means.  I suffer from the same affliction, oof.  Guess that stuff is starting to hit a little too close to home.  We all deserve so much better.  EA just isn't capable of putting forth effort.

After taking last year off from mut I feel the same way as you. The game isn’t much different from then sadly as rewards are not too good. If you truly want to not spend money you can’t make much. It forces you to buy things. and now with this new fatigue stuff, making it worse, it’s just dull. It seems EA only cares about money and it shows. It’s sad but I’m spending nothing and am only playing due friends wanting me to.

jameesmccarthy80 said:

After taking last year off from mut I feel the same way as you. The game isn’t much different from then sadly as rewards are not too good. If you truly want to not spend money you can’t make much. It forces you to buy things. and now with this new fatigue stuff, making it worse, it’s just dull. It seems EA only cares about money and it shows. It’s sad but I’m spending nothing and am only playing due friends wanting me to.

Yeah. And you have to continually spend money or grind every spare minute of your day, because EA progressively releases better cards (which, again, bear little relation to the actual player they depict).

Chris1129 said:

Yeah. And you have to continually spend money or grind every spare minute of your day, because EA progressively releases better cards (which, again, bear little relation to the actual player they depict).

Agreed. I wish Payton got better cards quicker. or like with some players for team diamonds or high overalls we get like Dri Archer or Darius Heyward Bey, who sucked in real life! And plus in the FP giving us a 92 doesnt help us much and for a ”special” offer they give us a 92 legend which will be useless soon! Except for me but it’s sucks! I hope it gets better, but that’ll only be when they lose tons of money.