‘Madden 22’ Will Include A New Feature To Try And Increase Homefield Advantage

With Madden 22 quickly approaching, we’re beginning to learn more about the latest installment in the long-running EA Sports franchise. They’re advertising a lot of changes to modes such as Franchise, and they’re going to attempt to make some much-needed atmosphere improvements on top of that.

One of the ways they’re working on improving the atmosphere is by adding some more ebb and flow to the games themselves. The last few installments of Madden had a problem where it didn’t really matter what stadium the player was in, who they were playing as, or what the current status of the game itself was, it just felt like two teams with different colored uniforms playing football in stadiums of different designs. In order to address these issues, the Madden developers are adding two big features to the upcoming game: Momentum and a home field advantage system.

Momentum is exactly what it sounds like, teams that play well will have a boost while ones who are struggling will be at a disadvantage. This should help make deficits feel larger and comebacks more intense. The home field advantage system, or “M-Factors” as they’re calling them, is going to be team-specific. Each team will have their own benefits to playing at home giving them different benefits and personality. In concept, this is a great idea, because we all want to feel the intensity that comes with playing in the NFL’s most well-know stadiums.

Unfortunately, the current homefield advantage buffs feel extremely imbalanced and the reasoning for why each team has them feels kind of random. A few of the, are going to be extremely frustrating to deal with, and not in a “this is a fun challenge” way.

An example: Players on the road facing the Washington Football Team will have to deal with the horrible field conditions that are associated with playing there. This makes it harder for them to change direction while running. It’s a cool idea, but in execution, that very well make playing away games more frustrating than fun. Then, there is the other side of it, where teams have an advantage but it’s barely anything — against the Houston Texans, for example, scoring a touchdown will only give the away team a smaller momentum boost.

In concept, this is a great idea and a way to make games actually feel like they aren’t just taking place in slightly different locations, but it’s also something that has the potential to backfire if it’s not done well. More than likely, there will be an option to turn off M-Factors, so at the end of the day, it’s really not a big deal. But when a significant portion of the player base has been saying for years that the act of playing football is becoming more challenging with every title, it doesn’t make much sense to add a feature that will only make things worse.