The Two Sides of the Madden Mind : MADDEN PLANET - The Home of Madden Gaming and Madden News

By Tyler Menssen

Ever heard of the phrase that there are two sides to everything? There are two sides to every issue, two sides to every argument, and two sides to every person. The phrase is overused so much that it makes one get a touch of nausea and want to hurl all over the producers of those cheesy commercials. These commercials in trying to sell a man a great sex life or trying to encourage them to buy a diamond seem to think that there is a compassionate side of a man. Yeah, it's there, but it's giving all of its compassion to that wide screen television that just happens to be hooked up to a console with Madden in the drive. There are, however, two sides to every Madden player. There is the side that wants a great, competitive, close, and accurate simulation of the real game. We'll call this side the NFL realist. Then there is the side that wants a one-sided, high scoring, air or ground it out till the even the computer animations get sore type of game. We'll call this side the radioactive junkie.

The NFL realist is the side that sets the difficulty to Madden level, spends at least three hours every day on trying to find the most realistic sliders, and then manages to involve himself in a 17-14 back and forth struggle against the AI. This side gets wrapped up in the emotion and thrill of the close game. It prefers that the stands still be full at the end of the game, and that the AI actually put up a decent fight. The radioactive junkie side is as uncontrollable as any radioactive material. This side spends three hours trying to create the most dominating team ever seen. This side creates a halfback that is seven feet two inches tall and weighs four hundred pounds. It then gives that half back a perfect set of lineman and sends him out to face the hapless Colts defense. Three hundred yards and a cloud of dust later this side manages to gain a sixty to nothing halftime lead. The two sides are as distinct and as separate as Red Sox fans and Yankee fans yet somehow both are contained in one human and in one brain.

How is that even possible? How can one person play the same game on the same day in entirely different fashions? Well, because it's fun of course. It is very similar to the RPG gamer playing a good wizard one day, and a conniving thief the next. It brings fun and excitement to the game. It gives the gamer something new and fresh to do. Believe it or not, even Madden can get boring at times, and people need to find creative ways to entertain themselves. Being creative as in creating that four hundred pound running back, or creative as in doing a fantasy draft. You may think the radioactive junkie side of the brain has an edge in the shock and awe department, and most would agree. However, the NFL realist side isn't far behind. There are of course many ways for each side to be creative and interesting and all out nutty, but there is one way for each side that come to mind. One gives you a great chance to relieve some stress, and the other provides a challenge of epic proportions.

We all know people that annoy us, with whom we hold a grudge, and then there are just people we simply don't like. They stole your girlfriend, they're married to your ex-wife, and they didn't give you that promotion. Now here's your chance to get even, to settle the score in a most fair and balanced way. Not to mention, it's blood and hit man free. Create a team of super human players with perfect ratings for all traits at every position. Make them as tall, burly, and as muscular as possible. Name them however you want. Make them your alter egos. Now create a team filled with your enemies or arch rivals. Make those people as short, tiny, and as puny as possible. Set all of their ratings at one for every attribute. Do this for all positions. Pit those two teams against each other on the field and either play the game yourself or watch the CPU battle it out. Smile and enjoy watching your enemies get crushed, humiliated, and utterly destroyed. Try to score one hundred on them. Maybe even two hundred. Embrace your radioactive self.

The NFL realist as defined in this piece could also be described as a hard-core simulation gamer. This side of the brain is always looking for a challenge. Once you've mastered the Madden difficulty level one must come up with new ways to get a challenge besides spending years working on more difficult sliders. One interesting suggestion may be to find the lowest rated players at every position. Create you're own team and move those lowest rated players onto the created team. Make sure that you are starting the lowest of the lowest rated players and have the next level as the back ups. Take that team into franchise mode with all of the difficulty settings and sliders set to the point where it is most difficult for the user. Just try and see how many games you can win in your first season. Maybe you'll win a championship? Some of you are probably that good. Others may quit after the first snap. Try it once. See what happens. Sure this is more insanity than reality, but the NFL realist should know that the true NFL is by no means easy.

You may think the above suggestions to be a little over the top and crazy, but try them once. You may be surprised. If you don't have any enemies just create a bunch of clones of myself to be on the small, puny, and short team. It wouldn't be that far off. In the end you may enjoy the experience, or you may wish that you had never come across this article. Either way the two sides of the Madden mind are about experience and fun. They give us a chance to find millions of things to do with a game that only has one set of rules. There are two sides to everything. Maybe those commercials aren't so far off after all. Someone who is so compassionate about writing as to write about the two sides of Madden must have a side that is at least a bit sane. It's the side that watches television and sees those commercials. That's the realist side. The side that actually goes out and buys a two hundred dollar console to play a forty-dollar game, that's the radioactive junkie side.