I would say that, yes, it takes alot of games and tweaking and testing to get sliders to work. The amount, however, is being exaggerated in this thread. I've never used 100 variations and then 100 more or anything close to that.

I can nail most sliders down in a few games and then it becomes a matter of fine tuning the rest to get the stats I want. From there, I track my stats and make sure the numbers are staying in the ranges that I want.

A good example of how it can be is my most recent season on MLB. I didn't touch the sliders for the last 100 or so games and my stats were fantastic, there were great variations in the stats and results, it was fun and the W/L% was something that I felt was a good reflection of the quality of team that I had.

Just as easy as someone can say, "offline is no fun, sliders are a PITA, human element is missing", I can say, "online is no fun, sliders are worth it, human element means cheese, etc."

Sliders are not the great mystery that most purport that they are. The statistics will tell the story and as long as the numbers are good and you don't see anything ridiculous (including results), they're easy to work with.

Playing humans, for me, is shit.

PS Rudy, where did your statement that it's another year of sliders not being touched come from? Is there evidence of that or was it just a negative comment without basis for M16? Serious question because I'm considering getting Madden this year.