How do you know that the game isn't filled with crappy ref calls already?

The game is fun, challenging and excellent overall - just not yet a fully realistic simulation. Unless you ignore the facts about IR in the NFL, neither kingofbling nor you can argue the fact that the game doesn't emulate the NFL in that respect. Sorry if that sounds condescending, but if you look at our conversation carefully, at least a couple of times I was told that the NFL IR real life situation that I described did not exist. I'm just tired of being told it's not true without at least a smidgen of evidence to the contrary. As they say, you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

BTW- I have checked another league in process and after 15 games and it doesn't appear that a single player was put on IR. Fortunate die rolls? Unlikely.

More injuries=less fun. That is a fact

To the rest of the MFN community:

As I am new to MFN, I apologize for taking up your time in reading the posts on this thread. I should have made my point only once. Instead, I got dragged into a discussion about "facts" when it really evolved around opinion. Everyone is entitled to one.

I will continue to make observations from time to time about the game. When I do, I will preface them by stating "IMO" or lay a foundation with facts, as I tried to do in this case. My only goal is to try to have the game live up to its mantra of "Manage your own virtual professional football franchise."

Therefore, IMO, whenever possible, the game should not sacrifice reality in the name of "fun". Just in case you were wondering where I am coming from. :-) See you on the field.

Wow, not seeing where you 'got dragged' into anything. Points and counterpoints were made. There are plenty of injuries in this game as numerous teams have 20% of their roster suffering some sort of injury.

To want more season ending and career threatening injuries hardly seems like a positive thing to incorporate into a game meant to be played for enjoyment.

I understand the 'realism' vantage but temper it with fun or you'll likely end up driving people away from the game.

IMO I like it the way it is currently. I dont want to see a team with star players loose a few of them and then drop in the draft and continue to stockpile young talent. The NFL has it a lot easier when going after FA's and also the resigning of top talent is a lot easier in this game so most of your building is done from the ground up.

Now maybe looking into hiring a trainer to the teams coaching staff might be helpful with how long it takes a player to come back from injury. I wouldnt mind that being looked into

If that is true, shouldn't the remedy be to tweek the game so that it isn't quite so easy to resign your own top free agents? In RL, according to CBS Sports (http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/transactions/free-agents) only about 25 of the top 100 free agents resigned with their former team in 2014. I don't know how MFN compares.

I think your really pushing this comparison to the NFL. I dont know a game on the market that can match the realism of the NFL. Even Madden with all the $ and people that work on those games cant even come close to it. I do understand your interest in realism but IMO there really is a point to what is a online game and what is the NFL. If we are really going into realism then should we then also start using what market a team plays in as there are lots of players that love the big market teams, or what about League suspensions for whatever the player has done? The suggestions you make are legit but I would rather play a game that is fun then a game where the realism hurts the fun factor. I know I dont want to have a player on my team get a lifetime suspension for punching his wife or whipping his kid with a switch.

I think we are vacillating between what is technically possible and what is desirable. I understand and appreciate that you and others desire to play a game that doesn't incorporate some of the extreme calamities that occur in the NFL. I prefer a game that does. That difference in preference does not mean that either view is right or wrong.

I played the original Madden. Well before it was purchased by ESPN. Perhaps you did too. If so, you might recall that the original Madden had a coaching only mode. Unfortunately, practically all of the money poured into its development since then has been spent on its video presentation. Consequently, it's more of an arcade game now and success to me is defined as one's ability to physically master a controller. Admittedly, Madden's video presentation is a wonder to behold. But it doesn't now offer a true coaching mode.

My point is that the same computing power that Madden now requires is far more demanding than what is necessary to drive statistically oriented games like MFN. i am not a programmer so I can't assess how difficult it would be to incorporate more realism into the MFN game. But considering that the average pc can easily beat the average chess player (and probably perform more calculations more quickly than what is required to run an MFN game), my intuition tells me MFN can be incredibly deep in presenting a primarily statistical football simulation, and well beyond anything we are discussing here.

At least, it is my hope that the developer has the same vision.