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The folks behind Madden 2002 Virtual Playbook give you a glimpse on how it was done
By Michael Lafferty

It takes dedication, attention to detail and an overwhelming love for the sport. Oh yeah, and some writing talent as well.

Putting together a game guide is never an easy undertaking. Anticipating what game players are going to need to help them, as well as sorting through the variables that the game can toss at players and giving strategies for overcoming them also takes part magician or fortune teller. Now imagine that the game guide is for a sporting contest, where each previous play opens up numerous possibilities for the ones to follow.

That was the task confronting the folks at VG Sports when they decided to put together an ebook for Madden 2002, the popular football game from EASports.

Bert Ingley of VG Sports, Inc., took some time to talk about the massive undertaking of putting together a playbook to help sort out some of the intricacies of Madden 2002.

Question: Explain a little bit about what exactly you have published and how those who are interested in the playbook can get a copy.

Bert: “The Virtual Playbook 2002 is an electronic strategy guide covering the Madden 2002 gaming system. The guide provides valuable information for all levels of player, from the beginner to the tournament veteran. Defensive strategies include a breakdown of the coverages with commentary on their strengths/weaknesses, enhanced blitz packages as well as techniques for defending against sweeps, slants and various formations. Offensively, the guide covers methods for attacking different types of coverages, tips on perfecting the inside running game, laying out a game plan and an overview of over 1200 different plays. Forms are available for developing your own call sheet and scouting the opposition. Those interested in purchasing the guide can order online at http://www.maddentips.com or by calling us toll free at 866-626-6662.”

Q: When looking the number of titles available that may have been considered for this kind of companion guide, what made you choose the Madden title?

Bert: “Many of the walkthrough-type guides for games like Tony Hawk, Halo and others do a solid job of helping players proceed through the game. As gamers ourselves, we were disappointed with the offerings available for sports games. We wanted to create something that would really dive into the game, provided the same kind of feel that a team playbook would have in the real life NFL. We have been playing the game since the original John Madden Football for the Apple II. The game has improved dramatically over the years to become one of our personal favorites. Football in general provides such a great opportunity for X’s & O’s breakdowns that it was a relatively easy decision to go with the Madden title.

Q: How do you go about putting together a guide like this? How many people are involved, and about how many hours of game playing? Is this strictly a straightforward, no-nonsense guide, or does it offer entertainment value (I know we covered this is previous e-mails, but I want to get a quote out of it)?

Bert: “Putting together the Virtual Playbook 2002 was a massive undertaking. The first book utilized a two-man team spending several months of continuous effort (over 1,000 hours) to bring it to life. We have since added another member to the team and are looking at several other prospects to help us expand. We examined the current offerings on the market and combined with extensive research in the multiple Madden community forums, we determined the areas of concern to players that were not covered in the retail guides. We made this our core focus and began development from there. We wanted to strike a balance between information that helped in understanding the concepts and strategy of football as well as specific techniques and plays that would be effective in the game itself.

“The outline of the project went through multiple drafts to transform it into a manageable size that still thoroughly covered our target areas. In addition to the strategies in the guide, we were able to spend several hours interviewing NFL Legends Ted Hendricks, George Blanda and Curly Morrison. Ted & George both played for Coach Madden and the Raiders. Curly played for coaching legend George Halas and Paul Brown and brought some ‘old school’ philosophy to the book. Not only was it a thrill to speak with each of these men, but also the stories and strategies they provided to us greatly enhance the entertainment value of the book.”

Q: A game like football has so many variables, how can you pinpoint what works and what doesn't?

Bert: “By understanding the concepts behind coverage schemes and offensive philosophies, players can develop a knowledge base that allows them to adjust to what their opponent throws at them. The book explores the strengths and weaknesses of different types of defensive coverages. While it does give specific plays that work well against each type of defense, it also teaches general concepts so that the player can take what he has learned and adapt it for himself. Basically we teach concepts and then give specific examples using diagrams to illustrate our point. The idea of the book is to create better players who understand the game in depth and are not just dependent on one or two plays to be successful.”

Q: How is this 'playbook' continuing to expand?

Bert: “In addition to the ebook, we have created an add-on Web site called the Virtual Filmroom. The Filmroom provides on-going strategies including videos, screen shots and diagrams. Until the June 1, 2002, access will be provided for free to all purchasers of the ebook. At that time, the Filmroom will become a pay-for-access product. We will of course be producing a book for the Madden 2003 release as well as looking at branching our line out to the NFL Fever & Sega NFL game series.”

Q: Is this book platform-specific?

Bert: “The ebook is cross platform in that its strategies and concepts apply to the console and PC version of Madden 2002. The forms, call sheets, philosophies and game planning ideas will work for all systems. The playbooks and specific play diagrams are taken from the console version of the game (Xbox, PS2, GameCube).”

Q: What was the biggest hurdle to overcome in putting this project together?

Bert: “The biggest hurdle to putting this project together had to be the sheer volume of information that could be included. Madden 2002 is so deep that we literally could have written 300 plus pages instead of the 180 or so included in the book. In order to create a product that is manageable for download and did not overwhelm the reader, we had to determine what was most important and make sure that information was covered in depth. The Filmroom allows us to expand the strategies to an even deeper level that the book did not pemit. The second biggest hurdle was sleep, or the lack thereof. When you really dive into a project like this it becomes consuming. You think about it constantly, I even ran plays in my dreams at times. We’ll have a great jumpstart for next year’s version, but for now we are very excited about the Virtual Playbook 2002.”