My experience quitting Madden

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

ProlateSpheroid said:

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

I am on it so much bc it keeps me from much worse addictive things like gambling and overeating.  I'm nms so this just sucks up anxious time for me

Congratulations on your sacrifice. no one should be forced to play a game that they hate!

it gets better my brother

ProlateSpheroid said:

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

Nailed it. Good for you bro

ProlateSpheroid said:

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

Totally understand. 
 

I’ve been racking my brain trying to qualify for an MCS event I’ve been Top500 a couple times and top 1000 several times. They make this game to where the only way to compete is either be obsessive about grinding, upcoming content, playing the market, or EXTREMELY good at the game. OR throw In $100s of dollars multiple times a year. 
 

im over it. I figured it all out. I’m cool with playing 20hours a week . Throwing in a little money here and there. but I’m competing with people who play 40hours a week and throwing in 10x as much money as me.

the way this mode is setup for competition is anything but fair. You should only be able to make coins by playing football and there should be weekly caps which don’t encourage gaming for 40hours a week. 
 

also, theybtook out salary cap because it allowed people to chill on a team and not have to upgrade as often .

lemme ask you this. if there were OVR based divisions ir salary cap Modes would you play? 

also , who’s idea was it to make a mode where to be the best you just auto download the next best player? absolutely no thought necessary to building the best team.

I appreciated reading this. I've been and will continue to be NMS. My family has other needs, and the money I've already spent on one year of Madden is something of a luxury.

I dithered on buying Madden 25 wondering if I needed to confirm that I was not in fact suffering an addiction of my own. Years of video gaming have previously revealed to me that I have something of an OCD streak that has an affinity for exactly what EA does with Madden. Knowing this, I've been keeping an eye on how much time I spend doing this. To be honest, I shouldn't have to spend so much time operating the game so that I can enjoy the few minutes I spend playing it.

happy for you brodie. having the self awareness and will to act ain’t easy.

ProlateSpheroid said:

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

Well put, I started MUT back on Madden 25 (2013) I've always been NMS but didn't become a true mut head (running meta schemes and truly utilizing all available cheeses) until M23.

I play because I find an overwhelming 'trollish' sense of joy about beating top 100 players that I know have spent $$$$$$. 

Running a better scheme and beating better teams/players is why I play.

 But, it very easily can become addictive even for nms players.

I had to sweat out every game, every half, quarter, play... I. Have. To. Win.

It's just a game.

Even beating top 10 players, I have a life, kids,  job, wife... I could never devote the time to traveling and trying to get into these tournaments.

All that to say, again, it's just a game.

Take a break when you need to, figure out how to manage it, and please waste your money on something else 😂.

Well put op. I've known a lot of folks over the years that really should have taken the same advice internally. Me personally, I enjoy it. I enjoy the low level I'm at and I don't crack the bank card out. I do love a good obsessive grind though, without it I'd just be on something else but in your position. 100% doing the right thing and when I see some of the 0-100 reactions of players I wonder whether they'd appreciate a read of your post

ProlateSpheroid said:

Hello, folks.

I hope y’all are having a great day. I haven’t been on this site for a while and haven’t bought M25. Neither of these things will likely change in the near future. I just wanted to share my experience not playing Madden. Before you read this, I am not trying to convince you to quit Madden or not buy it. If you are truly enjoying the game, go for it! I wouldn’t want to convince you otherwise.

However, my experience playing Madden was far from enjoyable. It was an addictive. Now, I am not using the term ‘addictive’ lightly. I was hooked on the game. The constant deals in the store convinced me to spend unnecessary money, and all I could think about was the upcoming players that would be dropping. It was not enjoyable. I knew what I was doing wasn’t benefitting me; to the contrary, it was negatively affecting my mental and physical health. And yet, I still did it despite wanting to quit. Addiction.

Near the end of Madden 24’s life, I made a decision. I was not going to buy the new Madden unless I had a GOOD reason to. It was hard at first; I came very close to caving in. But the longer I went, the happier I felt. I started getting more active, tried to be more social, but didn’t quit video games either. I finally finished games like Tears of the Kingdom and tried out new games I hadn’t played before. I have been more confident and I feel like my life is fuller.

I still go back and play Madden 24 from time to time. I love football and love the idea of Madden. I’ve stayed off Ultimate Team, however, and have stuck to playing with friends. I might even buy Madden 25 if it gets to be really cheap. But I am not going to go back to that addictive cycle. Ever. If you are experiencing similar things around Madden, please think about why you play. Why do you invest so much money, time, and effort? Are you truly having fun? And if you have a good answer to all of these, please don’t let me discourage you. I do know that there are people who would greatly benefit from quitting, however, so this message is for you.

Thank you for listening to what I have had to say. Have a great rest of your day!

Oh man, oh man... thanks for popping in to share such a wonderful success story.  I used to (half) jokingly suggest I needed to start a support group for MUT Recovery, because I, too, am a full blown MUT-junkie.  Sucks we have to preface, or qualify these type statements, because addiction is no laughing matter.  Sure, Madden isn't out there taking lives, liek fentanyl, but the behaviors are extremely similar.

EA knows exactly what they are doing -- that the game is addictive, that is by design.  They have decades worth of data on customer behaviors and have filed patents surrounding how to keep engagement high.  Actual gambling is a highly restricted space, but by suggesting these are just "fun little surprises" for players and definitely not an unregulated casino for kids, well... only Uncle Sam regulators are dumb enough to fall for that nonsense.

I wish i weren't wired this way, but I also have extremely addictive (bordering on obsessive compulsive) tendencies, myself.  This shit is no laughing matter.  Thankfully my family isn't going hungry at the moment, but i've without a doubt pissed away an obscene amount of money over the past couple/few years.  That persisted through Season 1 of Madden 25 cycle.  I still recall popping my NMS cherry, back in January 2023 (during M23 cycle), after having scooped the game for $35 during Black Friday sales -- spent twenty-five dollars on a 49ers Theme Team pack and that was money well spent.  However, after that, I just couldn't turn it off.  M24 was far and away the most egregious.  Don't tell my wife, but i probably have a thousand+ dollar MUT24 squad.  Never again.

I'm finally trying to scale things back, still playing casually and trying to find brief bits of fun here or there, but this is NOT a good game.  I'll never understand how anyone can regard this as a competitive type game, the ridiculous inconsistency is absolutely insane.  I couldn't imagine "investing" hundreds, if not thousands of dollars into my MUT squad, only to have some random asshole catch every break.  At times, the game feels barely playable, nothing about this is fair, nor balanced, let alone fun and competitive.

Stay strong, brother.  Retiring is unfortunately the only real solution.  Looking forward to the day (May 2026?) when the exclusive NFL licensing agreement with EA Orlando / Tiburon is no more.  Not that 2K Games would be much better, but I do not see how things could possibly get any worse.