Author: jcalvert

I am on a 2 game losing skid (Cleveland and Tampa Bay – yikes!), my team rating has dropped to 63, and my chemistry continues to plummet, typically hovering anywhere from 39-45. I am about to have 2-6 contracts expire, and I only have 397 coins in the bank.

Prior to MUT, I had not really played Madden 10 for weeks, so I am just now getting re-acclimated to the game. When I did play, it was always offline, and always with the Falcons (a low 80’ish rated team). The bottom line is that I am struggling with my 63-64 rated GA TX Falcons (pro skill level), but I am having fun.

As soon as I finish off another offline game on pro, I will once again have enough coins to pick up another Bronze pack, which will once again replenish my depleted team. My only issue here is that Silver packs are out of reach. By the time I get to 1500 coins, even with some use of the auction house, I may not be able to field a team, which makes saving for a Silver pack unreasonable.

After a week into this adventure I can so that it is possible to sustain a team without throwing real money at the game, but it begs the question – “is this really fun?”

I’ll answer my previous question by saying yes, however I wish I could earn enough coins to actually purchase a pack of Silver cards and not completely deplete my team. I could just suck it up and pay – $0.25 per Bronze pack, $0.50 per Silver pack, and $0.99 per Gold pack. All perfectly reasonable, and of course this is where EA hopes they can earn a few more dollars. In fact, I bet EA has a gold mine going thanks to MUT.

I came close to “funding” my team with real money last night, and to be perfectly honest I probably will over the weekend just so I can once again see what Madden is like with at least a 70’ish rated team.

I mentioned earlier that I was not sure if cards disappeared from your deck once their contracts hit 0 games remaining. I ran across this MUT FAQ earlier this morning.

– It’s a good idea to have some Contract Extension Cards on hand when your player contracts start running low. If you have players that are down to a single game contract, the next time you exit a game they will expire.

– At that point, you’ll be asked to extend the contract before the player is removed from your team. If you are out of contract cards at that point, you’ll lose the player whose contract has expired.

That sort of makes sense; you can wait until the bitter end, but you better have enough contract extensions (of the right card type – Bronze, Silver, Gold, etc) on hand to extend anyone you want to keep around.

The FAQ also has some useful information on how team chemistry affects your overall ratings during a game.

As I write this, my GA TX Falcons are a paltry 2-4, I have ~1200 coins, and most of my original starter pack players are down to two contracts.

I did buy (with earned coins, not real money) one Bronze pack yesterday, but it was done right pathetic. The pack only amounted to two player upgrades, a d-lineman from the Carolina Panthers, and QB Josh Johnson. It is arguable that Johnson is much of an upgrade over Marc Bulger, who I received in my original starters pack. I also got a contract card, which will allow me to extend 4 Bronze players. The card will also extend some other card types, but those other types do not apply to my piss poor team!

So here I am slogging my way to my version of an “ultimate” team. I have read if you do not extend contracts, those cards “disappear” from your deck, rather than going inactive waiting to be renewed or discarded. I hope that is not the case!

At this point, without spending money, the most I can hope to accomplish is to diddle away with a 60-ish rated team. If I play two more game I will once again have enough for a Silver pack; possibly in one more game if I manage to win and get enough coins. The downside is that the vast majority of my players’ contracts will expire leaving me with a group of cards that cannot field a team.

I could buy two more Bronze packs, and hope to get some decent players that can buy me a little time on my depth chart. Based on my first experience, I doubt this route will be worthwhile, but if I get two more contract extension cards I will be able to extend around 12 cards, which means I will have a chance to continue to field a team and I will still have ~200 coins in the bank with two more games. After I play two more games, some of the contracts will expire, but I will once again have enough coins on hand to buy another Bronze pack. Hip, hip, horary! [BTW, that is sarcasm.]

Ultimate Team Ideas
Maybe if I were better at Madden 10 I would be able to earn a little more coins per game and be able to mix in a Silver pack every once in a while with my Bronze packs. That would actually be fun because my team would get a little better, and I would have a chance to get a few players that could upgrade my team and maybe even a card or two that I could flip in the auction house.  You need coins to make more coins.

Once you start, you do not get a “do over” – so if you struggle while learning the game, you are screwed. As I mentioned yesterday, I got disconnected and I decided to quit a game, which amounts to burning two (at this point) valuable contracts, and it means that I am down anywhere from 400-500 coins (or almost a Bronze pack).

It would help if Bronze cards had longer contracts, or 15-20 game contracts were included with cards from your original starter pack. Instead you start off with 10 game contracts, which does not leave any fudge factor for those of us new to the game.

It would also be nice if you could earn more points for certain statistics or milestones. Some of this compensation is already included, but it would be helpful to have more opportunities to earn more coins. Multiple sacks, interceptions, returning interceptions or kickoffs/punts for TDs, length of a play, etc. All would be opportunities to earn more coin, and the system could even be scaled to favor lower ranking teams. In other words, a 60-69 rated team would get more coins for these achievements compared to a 90+ rated team. That would help level the playing field.

Of course this is a free add-on late in Madden 10’s lifecycle. It is meant to be a cash cow (some gamers will drop a ton of money towards cards) and a proving ground for Madden 11, but it would be nice to have a few tweaks now vs. waiting for the brand new (and improved) MUT upgrade this August.

I do not care about online play, rankings, and leader boards, but I would like to have a chance to actually improve without spending real money. I think the economy of MUT may require some real money to be spent to build your foundation. I guess I will see if I crash and burn in a couple of games.

My approach will probably be to play one more game – either the Bucs or Rams, the only two teams I have beaten – and then decide if I should go with 2 Bronze packs, 3 Bronze packs, or maybe even go with a Silver pack, and spend a dollar of real money from some Bronze packs to fill out my depth charts. Lord I hope I did not just say spend real, cold hard cash.

My Madden Ultimate Team (MUT) pretty much sucks; still using my default starter pack team which may in some small way contribute to my awful record. I am currently 1-3, but have burned 6 contract cards. In other words, I only have enough cards left for 4 more games. That may not be entirely true, since I probably have not used all my starter set cards in all my games.

Why the discrepancy? One game I was disconnected; the server message said I would not get charged, but nonetheless I think I was still hit for a contract.

I did quit another game because halftime of the Vikings/Saints was over; I thought halftime would last longer than a regular season game, but I digress. Besides, I felt like I was getting a total cheese job from the Lions, so why waste my time to finish up such a dreadful game experience?

This brings me to another point. You know things are pretty bad with my default team when I am getting killed by the likes of the Detroit Lions. Detroit was up on my 21-0 in the first quarter with a whopping 51 seconds of total possession time. Three scores; one pick-six, one bomb where my players could not tackle the receiver, and one long run where once again my players could not tackle worth a damn. In my dotage I would do a rewind on some of these plays because I felt like they were total garbage. I do not have enough free time to feel like I am getting completely clowned by the CPU!

The one game I won was a FG fest; 9-3 against Tampa Bay. The only reason I won was because I went into completely clock management mode and attempted to protect my meager lead. This started when I was up 6-3, so that says it all!

That is not to say things are all bad; I actually like the concept and enjoy a decent (non stressful challenge). I am just not sure that I will have the patience to keep this up.

From my experience with the game, the more points you score, the less you give up and whether you win or lose the game are the biggest determining factors as to how many points you earn. Even if you lose and score 7-10 points a game, you will be rewarded with roughly 200 coins. With new card packs that include upper-echelon players costing 3,000 coins, some may find the task of building a team without resorting to spending real money a chore.

I don’t play Madden 10 online, and I don’t think I will start online MUT anytime soon, but at some point that may be better than getting beat over and over again by the CPU. Right now I am not interested in paying “real” money to upgrade my team, but if I want to be well represented online, it sounds like spending cold hard cash is the only way to survive.

Another issue is that this is obvious just a monetization effort for EA, by charging for player cards, EA stripped the skill out of this mode. All I need to do is spend $20 and I can instantly buy the Ultimate Team, which is very lame.

Where to from here? I have 1100 or so coins and most of my “good” players (OK, they are starters, but that does not make them good) only have 4 games left. Not sure what happens when you actually run out of players. I’ll either have to buy more Bronze packs, or watch my team get really bad (I can’t imagine being any worse!).

I really wanted to hold out and save for a Silver pack (1500), but I bet I end up having to go with a couple of Bronze packs (500) just to have enough players to field at each position. No doubt that Gold and Platinum packs are beyond my capabilities.

Of course MUT is only a few weeks old, but I am not sure if the developers considered the economy for average (to subpar) Madden gamers, that do not cheat, use money plays, try to trick the system, etc. I play for realistic statistics, and since I suck, I am mired in mediocrity.

At the risk of being told that I am talking to the south end of a north bound mule, or being called an EA Sports mouthpiece tool, I created my Madden Ultimate Team – “GA TX Falcons” (creatively yours, the Georgia Texas Falcons).

I have read all the negative opinions about this new “free” mode, but I find it somewhat interesting. It has the potential of being a very nice diversion. I doubt I will spend money buying cards, but I can certainly see the allure. If you are not good at Madden (raises hand), it is a little frustrating starting off with such a mediocre group of players.

After opening my starter pack, I was greeted with a piss poor group of players (and cards). I get the yucky Brown home colors when playing at the St. Louis Rams’ Edward Jones Dome, and the Redskins road whites. How bland can you get? I get a run heavy offense, and the Detroit Lions defensive play book. My team is QB’ed by none other than Marc Bulger. Jack Del Rio coaches my rag-tag set of cards.

Needless to say, the early going looks to be tough. Remember, I raised my hand when I said I was not very good at Madden? It is not as if I do not know how to play; I am just getting too old to press all the buttons in record time. I need to remember to turn off “fight for the fumble” one of these days; I never mass the buttons fast enough to win a scrum.

For my first game I took on Tampa Bay, which happens to be the default rival team for my Atlanta Falcons. I thought I was in high cotton after I took a 14-0 lead, but somehow (thanks to three turnovers) I gave up 17 unanswered points in a disappointing loss. For my second game I intentionally looked for a weak team, but still lost to the Chiefs 31-24.

The only good news is that I managed to get enough cards (just over 550 I believe) to buy a Bronze pack of cards, but I decided to wait since it was time for the start of the Jets/Colts game. BTW, the Jets just went up 14-6 with just under 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, but I digress.

It takes a lot these days to get me gaming, so it will be interesting if Ultimate Team continues to provide some appeal. I want to get in another couple of games tonight, and I have to decide if I am going to waste 500 points on some Bronze cards, or if I should just grind my way to a pack of Silver cards. At the rate I am going, I should be able to pick up a pack of Silver cards in another 3-4 games. Not sure what happens when all the contracts run out.