Madden 23 - An Example of Why Monopolies Are Bad

This game continues to be 80% functional going into the 6th - 7th week of user game play. EA is raking in massive revenues off of a game we continue to play despite the fact the rewards systems are broken, Solo Battles are broken, challenges have the same stupid obstacles as every year (get 2 tackles in 3 plays, but the opposing QB will throw 2 passes away), and the EA BAN BOTS being out of control.

It's amazing how fast EA will take action to confiscate coins from an account, but when an issue exists on their end support doesn't respond for weeks. Users are banned for rapidly buying and selling items in the Auction House, using the applications they provide (compaion app) and posting items within the price parameters EA allows. Start making too much coin, boom, banned immediately. You appeal and almost immediately it is denied, with no explanation. 

Yet when issues exist on their end, it takes a month to respond. There's nothing like grinding all day long to get an 88 overall Gridiron Guardians player, in order to achieve the GG goals, yet not receiving the reward until a random moment 4 days later. There is an 88 overall reward I still have not received despite opening a ticket for the event on 9/25. There is no response at all on my case. Yet when they felt I made too much $$$ on the auction house flipping TOTW cards, immediate action was available. 

I can't help but put on my capitalist hat and think about how much better this game would become if a secondary or God forbid a tertiary company had the ability to create an NFL licensed game. EA wouldn't be able to get away with the same crappy animations, buggy gameplay, and poorly laid out infrastructure for MUT, if they weren't the only company allowed to make an NFL game.

With all this said, I'll spend several hours playing MUT today :(

This is the root cause, the lack of competition and accountability.

They can do and charge whatever they want with no accountability to the NFL, players they misrepresent or customers.

EA is a very good example of why tighter regulation is needed on gaming features like loot boxes which they shamelessly exploit.

pixelqb said:

This is the root cause, the lack of competition and accountability.

They can do and charge whatever they want with no accountability to the NFL, players they misrepresent or customers.

EA is a very good example of why tighter regulation is needed on gaming features like loot boxes which they shamelessly exploit.

EA has literally pushed me to the point that I hate their leadership and support teams more than I hate modern day politicians and journalists. 

Let that sink in.

pixelqb said:

This is the root cause, the lack of competition and accountability.

They can do and charge whatever they want with no accountability to the NFL, players they misrepresent or customers.

EA is a very good example of why tighter regulation is needed on gaming features like loot boxes which they shamelessly exploit.

They actually are following the current guidelines. Thats why they put the percents on each pack. They used to not be there. Thats good enough currently. Idk how else youre wanting them to tighten it... Theyre never going to make it "worth it" to buy.

Back in 2005 i was playing ESPN 2K5 and absolutely loving it. First time i had ever played a competitive online game and i was pretty darn good at it. Sure it had bugs like a pause glitch, but overall it was great. Later that year the NFL signed exclusive video game rights to EA and they shut down the 2K5 servers. It was a very sad day for me and so many others that loved that game. i had no idea that almost 20 years later we'd be having these problems with Madden and still not have an NFL game from a different studio!

I agree that monopolies are bad, in every industry. I'd like to believe that if 2K had another shot at an NFL, they'd knock it out of the park. And it would light a fire under the asses of the Madden team because then they'd finally have something to lose.

kaotikords said:

They actually are following the current guidelines. Thats why they put the percents on each pack. They used to not be there. Thats good enough currently. Idk how else youre wanting them to tighten it... Theyre never going to make it "worth it" to buy.

I really think EA should face some type of federal regulation as a "currency". When they confiscated ALL of the coins from my account (1.2 million) because I'd made 300K sniping fools TOTW posts on the auction block, I had absolutely no recourse outside of contacting my bank and reporting all of my game transactions as fraud.

Which I am going to do at the end of the season. PlayStation will ban my account, but Madden is all I play, so next year? New account, right back at it again.

You can't just confiscate with no conversation what I've paid for and earned through gameplay. I've spent at least $150 on MUT packs beyond the $100 I spent on the game. They stole my property is how I see it.

So no, current oversight is certainly not good enough, and not all packs (training packs specifically) have stated odds.

BungSmuggler said:

Back in 2005 i was playing ESPN 2K5 and absolutely loving it. First time i had ever played a competitive online game and i was pretty darn good at it. Sure it had bugs like a pause glitch, but overall it was great. Later that year the NFL signed exclusive video game rights to EA and they shut down the 2K5 servers. It was a very sad day for me and so many others that loved that game. i had no idea that almost 20 years later we'd be having these problems with Madden and still not have an NFL game from a different studio!

I agree that monopolies are bad, in every industry. I'd like to believe that if 2K had another shot at an NFL, they'd knock it out of the park. And it would light a fire under the asses of the Madden team because then they'd finally have something to lose.

Man absolutely the 2K games were a staple in my household growing up. We never played Madden (the early versions were terrible) until we were basically forced to by default. 

Maybe it's time for Pirate Gaming companies to create new games outside the boundaries of US regulations. I mean nobody has to pay for PPV anymore because off-shore sites offer free streaming for advertisement revenue. There's almost nothing US authorities can do about this either. 

Gotta be something similar that could be done in the gaming world.

ThatOneGuyFrank said:

I really think EA should face some type of federal regulation as a "currency". When they confiscated ALL of the coins from my account (1.2 million) because I'd made 300K sniping fools TOTW posts on the auction block, I had absolutely no recourse outside of contacting my bank and reporting all of my game transactions as fraud.

Which I am going to do at the end of the season. PlayStation will ban my account, but Madden is all I play, so next year? New account, right back at it again.

You can't just confiscate with no conversation what I've paid for and earned through gameplay. I've spent at least $150 on MUT packs beyond the $100 I spent on the game. They stole my property is how I see it.

So no, current oversight is certainly not good enough, and not all packs (training packs specifically) have stated odds.

Actually they can in the TOS you just click through. If they even think its fraud or coin transferring, they can ban your account completely. And yeah if you charge back youll get banned but if you smurf accounts that shouldnt be a big deal.

ThatOneGuyFrank said:

Man absolutely the 2K games were a staple in my household growing up. We never played Madden (the early versions were terrible) until we were basically forced to by default. 

Maybe it's time for Pirate Gaming companies to create new games outside the boundaries of US regulations. I mean nobody has to pay for PPV anymore because off-shore sites offer free streaming for advertisement revenue. There's almost nothing US authorities can do about this either. 

Gotta be something similar that could be done in the gaming world.

Thats streaming versus an actual copy. That would cost a ton of money to access servers to play games that way instead of outright pirating them to play them.

kaotikords said:

Actually they can in the TOS you just click through. If they even think its fraud or coin transferring, they can ban your account completely. And yeah if you charge back youll get banned but if you smurf accounts that shouldnt be a big deal.

You sound like an EA agent, referring to the openly worded TOS.

I've been through this with them before. They confiscated and even banned me for two weeks because I'm smart at their auction house. But in the end I won and will win again because I'll continue playing the rest of the year, enjoying the content as I like. Then Bank of America will cancel all Madden charges on my behalf once I'm bored with the game. 

And they will do it because I have a legitimate explanation of fraud.