Madden NFL 11: Indoctrination, Obama Style

What's he gonna be, a tackling-dummy?

What's he gonna be, a tackling-dummy?

What's he gonna be, a tackling-dummy?

I will buy it. I will play it. And I'll be pissed if NCAA 2011 ends up being the better.

Besides, I'd file this one under "Marketing 101" and not "Indoctrination 101."

You have to wonder if this is going to have an opposite effect. As Obama becomes more and more of a clear joke, seeing his image everywhere you turn can start to mirror that as a joke. My 13 year old has already had debates with her friends over Obama and the majority see his overexposure as lame. This is in an admittedly conservative area, but I think it goes to show that his attempt to indoctrinate the youth is really just more of preaching to the converted, those who are lemmings will continue to run toward the cliff while everyone else is pulling up short of going over the edge.

It wouldn't bug me, if all presidents were treated so respectfully.

Sad sight when a President's governing fails so miserably that he has to rely on "marketing."

I'm still not sure I need to get exercised about this … Super Bowl winners meet the president regardless of who is in office right? Did earlier versions of this game show Dubya (or Clinton) with super bowl winners?

Sports games bore me to tears so its not like me not buying Madden will matter (now if they could combine football with Call of Duty, I'm there!).

I think it's all overexposure, but narcissists don't know what that word means. And is there a bigger narcissist on Earth than Barack Obama?

The MSM insisted that John Kerry would be our president in 2004 because they love him so much and didn't know anyone that was going to vote for Bush. In 2008, some indecisive and obviously easily misled voters decided to give Obama a chance, and obviously now they are regretting it (or sobering up) and are souring on him.

But I never underestimate the stupidity of the American voting public (or the people who nominate GOP presidential candidates), so we could very easily suffer through another four years of the federal government expansion and reckless borrowing and spending that are quickly sinking us.

*Sigh* It's like they're trying to insult me personally. I'm so tired of this nonsense. Was thinking about getting this game. I'll save myself the $60.

My husband has almost all of Madden NFL games and I wonder if he'll continue to buy these games once I tell him about this. We'll see.

Just so I understand the logic at work here:

The Presidency of The United States is the single most powerful, influential and frequently reported-on public office on the planet Earth. Thusly, the person currently occupying it being widely seen in media is evidence of… what, exactly?

I mean, I get the "idea" of the paranoia here, but did you have the same problem with Bush II getting his own GI Joe-type doll? Hell, even the video game thing isn't new: Reagan was in "Bad Dudes": http://robertlbryant.com/gaming/pics/arcade_bad_d... (yes, that is a real thing.)

I'm not exactly Obama's #1 fan. I'm not even his #235,658,924 fan. But if you want to make a computer game simulating a realistic football season, you'll have to include a visit to the White House by the winners of the Super Bowl and during the 2011 season, the winning team is going to have a photo-op with Obama. I'm not going to get too worked up over this unless George Bush was deliberately excluded from earlier versions. If that happened, only then will I scream holy hell.

There's no shortage of things to boycott these days.

Think of the money we'll save. Maybe that's why the economy is floundering.
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My guess is some ideological Brainiac over at EA Sports last year came up with the idea of inserting Obama into the Madden 2011 game, never even imagining that Obama's poll ratings would drop faster than the Vikings' Super Bowl chances did on Tuesday.

They ordered an Obama scene be created because they thought when the game came out, Barack would still be hovering around that 60 percent approval rating. Instead, they would have been better off inserting vuvuzela noises during the background of all the game action, for all the buzz/extra sales they're going to get out of sticking the president in the middle of their biggest-selling video game.

You instantly know this clip is a sham and a lie rolled into one because it has the Jaguars playing in the 2011 SB. Politics needs to stay outta my video games Whats next Green Zone?

Stalin's picture in the USSR? Ubiquitous. Castro in Cuba? Everywhere. Saddam in Iraq? Unescapeable. Kim Jong Il in North Korea? Everywhere you look.

Obama in the USA? Soon to be removed – 2012 – see ya. No mas` bud, no mas`.

I am confused as to what this video is showing us. Do people who play Madden 11 actually play the sport of football within the video game? Or is Madden 11 now about how to best celebrate a Super Bowl victory responsibly?

Press triangle and L1 to lift trophy…good….now hit R2 repeatedly while shaking Obama's hand. Use secret 4-key combination to high five Joe Biden and leap into air. Hot damn, this is more fun than pretending to play football!

I remember back before the election there was a racing game for the Xbox 360 that featured a Obama campaign billboard on one of it's courses. A slight stink was made about it and the fear of videogames, especially online games, becoming political forums. In this case I don't see Obama appearing in the game as step toward that. If he's making speeches, then we might have a problem.

I agree Shinsnake. I believe that the statist progressives might have conviced those currently aged 22-34 to join their ride to socialism, but for those aged 12-22, I have never seen, in my lifetime, and group of kids who are so throughly independent. They have grown up with the freedom of the internet and making lots of decisions very early in life.

My 16 year-old runs his own Internet business. I don't see these video game players falling for the progressive agenda. Clearly I am generalizing with both groups, but kids these days seem quite sensitive to control issues– and the government is not to be trusted. They constantly complain about the police state at their school and know how much more relaxed life was when their parents were in school. End of school water gun fights were a part of life, now they represent a trip to jail. Teenagers resent this overbearing authority.

No indoctrination from a video game will affect them. If anything, they will laugh with wild abandon….that is if they even have the patience to watch this drivel after "winning" the Super Bowl.

The sad part here is the fact that EA thinks we'll stick around long enough for the WH visit. So I win the Super Bowl? Yawn, now on to the next season, or better yet, on to the online play. That's the real draw for this game anyway.

Besides, I prefer NCAA anyways. I like the fact that my school has one of the loudest stadiums on the list.

I was disappointed in the video. I thought he was going to appear as a ref who blows every call.

Remember NBA Jam? Two of the characters you could unlock were Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Lame!

Sure, if only they'd let the user insert his or her own preferred president. If you want to leave the Worst. President. Ever. in there, go right ahead. But let us choose our own president. Me? I'd put in Reagan.

Me too. I have most of them. Maybe I didn't buy two over the course of ten years. It's going to be 3 now though.

The point i'm trying to make is that this is NOT about politics so don't waste any time trying to make a conspiracy of it.

Did earlier versions of this game show Dubya (or Clinton) with super bowl winners?

Nope. As far as I can recall, this is the first time they've ever showed the Presidential congratulations in a Madden game. Kind of weird that they'd start putting that in all of a sudden.

I find it fitting because (in previous versions) Madden NFL cheats like a Socialist.

What do I mean?

Well, you can go into half-time with a 56-0 lead over the computer-controlled team and end up barely winning the game 70-63. It's like the computer team has Knute Rockne in the locker room for half-time ("I know you guys are down 56 to nothing, but you can do it!"). It seriously makes no sense – just some programmers' notion of "keeping the game interesting" or, worse, the dreaded "leveling of the playing field".

Oooh…got me started. There is so much wrong with the EA games, too…but they do minimal work, upgrade the rosters, and roll out the "new" release. There are so many bugs (i.e. the "swing stuttering" bug in Tiger Woods Golf) that have been in version after version after version. Jackasses have exclusive deals with the pro sports and, due to their nigh monopoly, roll out some pretty inferior stuff. Yes, I would take 3D0's High Heat Baseball (which died due to terrible corporate management in 2004), play wise, over anything EA has put out.

Obviously, Obama has more "media exposure," partially because the media "likes him" but mainly because that's more where he "lives." Reagan, a creature of Hollywood and a master operator, had more exposure than Carter or Bush I by the same principal. In terms of the "expected ubiquity" of the modern presidency, I don't see much unusual about Obama.

FWIW, I'm with you about the Presidency seeming "diminished" somewhat by a president who does his thing via social media, twitter and chat shows; but thats a generational thing – people probably said the same thing about FDR's radio chats. To the people he's reaching with this stuff, re: first time and soon to be first time voters, it's the exact opposite: To them, he's ELEVATING politics to the level of stuff they DO care about. That, more than anything, is how he won: McCain ran a campaign from the mid-90s, Obama ran one from "the future."

Conversely, it's also why Palin remains so ubiquitous despite publicity meltdowns that would cripple pols in earlier times – she may not be especially brilliant, but she "gets" the power of gossip and social media. I don't like it, but thats the world now.

Total badassery on that; of course frying with a BFG is always satisfying.

I'm curious—don't Super Bowl Champions typically visit the White House? And, while I know it pains many people here terribly, Obama is currently president of the United States. So you all have a problem with a video game reflecting reality?

Remember NFL2K? That was a good game, and it cost $20 on day one, instead of $60 like Madden.

Too bad EA's huge checkbook bought exclusive rights to the NFL license and put NFL2K out of business. I really liked that game. I loved how you could listen to 'Sports Radio' and hear real people talking about what your team did the week before, like a call-in show. Everything about that series was innovative, from it's pricing model to in-game features. I wish Madden wasn't the only option to play an NFL game.

Sometimes we have to choose our battles and this is one I choose NOT to waste any time on.
Some of the people who posted above me are getting thumbs down, but c'mon folks, we're all on the same side here.

Remember how we hated how the left jumped all over anything Bush did or said?
Let's not repeat their mistakes and be hypersensitive.

Let's focus on November!

Clearly, John Madden should be lynched, and the people at EA Sports should be forced to only play their game as the Browns.

"The Presidency of The United States is the single most powerful, influential and frequently reported-on public office on the planet Earth."

Aaaand… it shouldn't be. We don't have a damned king in this country. Almost every political problem we face can be traced to this bizarre phenomenon of president-worship. It's been going on for far too long, with presidents from both parties, and we'd better kick the habit soon or we might as well go ahead and chuck the other two branches of government.

The position of president was designed to function as a glorified sheriff, the highest enforcer of the laws in our country—laws not established by him, mind you, but by congress. We seem to have forgotten that fact over the years in our casual drift back towards quasi-monarchism.

This story is just the latest in a long, sad line of examples that reinforce that truth. Any more, we're not nearly as different from other countries as we often like to think. Plenty of winning teams in England get to meet the queen.

And if you punch in the secret cheat code, you can have Biden shout "This is a big fu#kin deal !!!!"

I find it fitting. Madden is now the Obama ONE Health care of NFL videogames. Let me explain. In the good old days, you had two major companies publishing a NLF game (three if you count the Sony produced exclusive for their particular Play Station system), Sega (then to 2k Games) and EA Sports. Both companies produced sports games of Baseball, football, basketball and hockey and all was right and good with the world. Then in about 2004, 2k Games dropped a big bomb, they released their NFL 2K5 for $20 on the major platforms, undercutting Madden NLF 05 by thirty bucks. EA wouldn't have it. So they dropped a bomb themselves, in late 2004, they brought 'exclusive' console and computer game rights for 5 years (now expanded into 10) for the NFL. Only EA could make a NFL licensed game. That's when the problem started and it mirrors democrats.

Before the exclusive, both companies strived year in and year out to make a good game. Trying new things, new control schemes, new ways to look at the game. After EA, they have just put out the same game year in and year out with no major changes and no innovation. They have also had a 'my way or the highway' attitude about the rules and the law. Sound familiar?

In the end, having one choice is bad for customers. EA has given up innovation for gimmicks. I for one will not be buying any EA sports game ever again. Again, sound familiar?

So you're not sold on the idea of this coming season actually building on the surprising success of the last part of last one's, huh?

This is rather underwhelming. In NBA Jam Bill Clinton was a playable character. Ever dunk on our 42nd president?

I have.

I think they'd make more money with THAT.

Around the time of Obama's election I believed the forthcoming Obama Derangement Syndrome was going to eclipse the previous BDS by orders of magnitude.

I consider articles such as this and most of the responses as further proof of my theory. So many people are so consumed with hate they are almost literally are losing their minds.

People, people. We should be celebrating this news, not decrying it! After all, this is the first time in years that EA has put anything new into Madden. Who knows? Maybe next year they might actually fix the gameplay too.

Um, he's still the president of the US, ideology aside, and if they put him at the end of Madden NFL, it shouldn't be that big a deal. This isnt indoctrination.

Bob I see where your going but there are some major flaws in your logic.

First the game you mentioned with Reagan, "Bad Dudes", received funding from the Federal Government as part of the "Just Say No" campaign. It was a pretty effective part of the youth outreach campaign.

Now the problem with putting Obama in Madden, aside from the fact that no other President has ever been put in a Madden game, is this. When you win the Superbowl you are doing so in what is called "Franchise" mode which puts you in control of a given team for up to 15 years. This as you can imagine presents a problem from a realism standpoint in that you can't have the same President in there for 15 years (unless this is one of the "fundamental changes" he had in mind". Clearly it would have made significantly more sense to have a fake President that changed every few years.

As for the dolls you mentioned every president has those, I even have a 1943 doll of PM Churchill, heck serial killers get dolls so that is certainly no symbol of stature.

I agree, and i share in your negative "reputation" by doing so

Honestly, I think there's too much whining on this one…

Obama is the President of the US.. the team that wins the SB meets the president, so the game happened to add a cut-scene with the SB winners meeting the President… Bad battle to try to choose to fight against.

Okay, i realize this is going to be unpopular as i say it but….

1. meeting the president is standard for a superbowl winner so this isnt surprising
2. its not like they present the president in a political context
3. protesting unsubstantial things like this distracts from real things the president has mishandled (i.e. see everything else)
4. to expect him not to show up in pop culture is to expect the president, any president to not be a part of pop culture, which in our society is erroneous.
5. its not like this doesnt happen in the other direction, in ultimate avengers joe biden just got assassinated after he turned into a demon, by the punisher who reveals he voted for sarah palin in the last election.

p.s. about number 5. on my list, even as a liberal i gotta say, it was awesome.

You are correct … it was "Burnout Paradise," also released by Electronic Arts.

I agree completely, why waste time protesting something this superficial when there are so many real issues to spend resources on.