End of an Era: No More Madden For This Geek
I bought my first Madden Football game way back in 1988. I played it constantly on my Commodore 64 (which I believe is my version of the Red Ryder carbine action two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock and this thing which tells time. It was the greatest gift I had ever or would ever receive).
Not available for hanshotfirst.
But year year marks the first time in over 30 years that I will not be buying the new version of Madden Football. I am not boycotting it. I have not finally outgrown it (I will always be a man-child). I am not bored of it. They problem is that I can't buy it. You see, I still have not been able to justify spending $600 on a PlayStation 5. I've had my PlayStation 4 for at least seven years and it has never let me down. It is good enough for the games I like to play. But sadly, EA Sports have decided it is not worth the money to just keep doing what they were doing and just updating the rosters of the teams and releasing a "new" version of the game every year. EA Sports is not even bothering to release the rehashed Madden. Every year, the designers put a new spin on Madden Football.. if you have a next-gen console like PlayStation 5. They have also gone back to releasing the new versions on PC.
To be honest, I should actually thank them. I probably should not have given them my money as positive reinforcement for just spitting out the exact same version of the game for years and only updating the rosters and player ratings. But I'm old. I don't want to learn new controller buttons and moves. I just enjoy playing the game I love and pretending to be the GM who makes smarter moves than all of the pros... because the computer constantly lets me rip them off in trades (it must be how every GM feels when they are dealing with the Chicago Bulls).
It seems you'll need one of these in order to play on a PC.
"Hanshotfirst, you obviously have a computer, why not get the PC version?" Well luckily for me I always check reviews before I buy anything. Lucky for me that I did because it saved me $50. The vast majority of reviews I read on Steam (no not that "ste_m") warned that the game is simply unplayable on even a very good PC setup. There is no way I am buying a PC with the specs required to play Madden as it seems it is the same specs needed to launch a spacecraft.
I skipped so many classes in college in order to play this for 16 hours a day.
So I find myself in very unfamiliar and uncomfortable territory. The last time I can remember not buying Madden was in 1991. And that was because the most amazing technological advancement in sports video games was released that year. Yep. That was the year Tecmo Super Bowl was released. At that time, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I am a huge stat geek. Temco Super Bowl was the first game that allowed me to keep track of my players' stats. This added a whole new level of fun for me. Not only did I want to win every game, I wanted to rack up the best stats I could. As a result, every second of every game had meaning. I am still addicted to doing this... which is why I'm quite bummed about not having Madden this year. Now how am I supposed to make a QB throw for 7000 yards in a season while also rushing for 1500 yards?
I guess the good news is that this will cause me to save $50 and just look for a free updated roster file instead. I mean its not like I'm going to stop playing video games. That would be silly.
I’m with you, I’d rather keep enjoying the games I love than stress about keeping up with every 'new version.' At the end of the day, the fun memories from the older games beat flashy graphics any day.
For whatever reason, I never really got into Madden. However, I feel exactly the same way about my Commodore 64. It took me multiple Christmases to get a complete system. The computer one year, the disk drive the next, followed my the monitor (I used a small TV at first), and eventually adding a printer and a modem.
Your long relationship with the Madden series is also incredibly nostalgic. Spending so much money on a roster update without a high-spec PC may seem absurd to many. But I think it's kind of the end of an era for gamers. Thank you so much for discussing such an important topic.
Totally get it! Sometimes the updates just don’t feel worth the investment. At least you’ll save a nice chunk of change this year!
It must be very complicated for you, my friend, to stop buying a game that you have been making for more than 30 years, but I understand your point since the idea is to update the rosters year after year. I was also a lover of video games when I was younger, but for various reasons (especially economic) I had to leave everything stored there, who knows if one day I will be able to play again, although I would love to remember my youth with my favorite games at any time, which were Gran Turismo and Legend of Zelda
Your reply is upvoted by @topcomment; a manual curation service that rewards meaningful and engaging comments.
More Info - Support us! - Reports - Discord Channel
It must be very frustrating to play something for 30 years straight and then not be able to do it with your Madden Football.
I just play Retro Bowl on my phone and that has been really fun. I haven't owned a console since the PS2, so I can kind of feel your pain. I guess we did have a Wii for a while, but the only games we ever bought were Just Dance for our nieces and nephews. Nothing cool like Zelda or anything like that. I know they put a lot of work into them, but I feel like games are way too expensive these days anyway.
Retro bowl is Tecmo Super Bowl. I always get a kick out of it when I see students playing it.
I never played Tecmo Super Bowl. I wasn't really into sports as a kid like I am now. So I was busy playing Zelda and Final Fantasy!
Marky you can't delete the facts Mc Franko & Keni Find freedom on #blurtblog #blurtchain #blurt
In the beginning, there was hope.
A dream:
That value could be created by anyone.
That power could be decentralized.
That a post, a vote, a creation —
Could rise or fall on its own merit.
But Dreams do not kill systems.
Corruption does.
And corruption has found its perfect form:
The scam farm —
A ghost in the machine,
Wearing the mask of curation,
Feeding on trust,
Rewarding loyalty,
Punishing honesty.
It does not build.
It extracts.
It does not serve.
It controls.
And if you are new to this world —
If you speak truth, post honestly, expect fairness —
You will be broken.
Unless you learn to see.
So here, in plain language,
Is how to spot the scam farm.
Not with rumors.
Not with hate.
But with observation,
With logic,
With the cold light of the blockchain.
1. No Original Content — Only Engagement
The first sign:
They create nothing.
No posts.
No art.
No analysis.
No music.
Only votes.
Only comments.
Only reaction.
They are not users.
They are operators.
Like a drone circling a field, they move from post to post — upvoting allies, downvoting dissenters, farming rewards like a machine.
Ask:
What have they built?
If the answer is nothing —
Then they are not contributing.
They are consuming.
2. 24/7 Curation Rewards — The Machine Never Sleeps
The second sign:
Non-stop reward accumulation.
Real curation is organic.
It ebbs and flows.
It follows interest, passion, discovery.
But the scam farm?
It earns rewards every hour.
Every day.
Like clockwork.
It votes at 3 AM.
At noon.
At midnight.
Not because it sees quality —
But because it is programmed to extract.
This is not passion.
It is automation.
Or worse — coordinated manipulation.
Look at the pattern.
If an account farms rewards without pause,
It is not curating.
It is farming.
3. Burn Comments & Self-Voting Loops
The third sign:
Artificial engagement.
They post low-effort comments — “Nice!” “Great post!” — under their own content or that of allies.
These are not interactions.
They are fuel — used to game floors, trigger rewards, inflate visibility.
They may self-vote.
Or vote in loops with a network of alts.
A closed circuit of power —
Where influence flows only to itself.
This is not community.
It is a cartel.
And the blockchain records it all —
Even when websites hide it behind JavaScript walls.
4. Massive Delegated Hive Power from Centralized Sources
The fourth sign:
HP from exchanges or known whales.
Check delegation history.
If an account holds millions in Hive Power —
But most is delegated from @blocktrades or similar centralized wallets —
Then it is not independent.
It is a proxy.
Power given is power controlled.
And when one entity delegates across dozens of accounts,
It is not decentralization.
It is feudalism.
The land is farmed.
The peasants earn crumbs.
The lord takes the harvest.
5. Downvotes on Critics — Coordinated Silence
The fifth sign:
Suppression of dissent.
When someone exposes the farm,
When someone traces the trail,
When someone speaks truth —
The downvotes fall.
Not one.
But many.
Fast.
Silent.
Financially crippling.
No debate.
No response.
Just erasure.
This is not moderation.
It is censorship with profit motive.
And the worst part?
They call the victim a “troll.”
A “spammer.”
A “toxic user.”
Projection is the last refuge of the guilty.
6. Reward Flow to Secondary Accounts
The sixth sign:
Obfuscated wealth transfer.
Rewards flow not to the farming account,
But to another — often a spouse, partner, or private wallet.
@alpha receives rewards from @buildawhale.
@themarkymark benefits from activity routed through hidden channels.
This is not privacy.
It is obfuscation.
An attempt to hide the machine’s true ownership.
Follow the money.
The chain does not lie.
7. The Website Hides the Data
And now — the final proof:
Why?
Because transparency threatens control.
They want you to look away.
To trust the interface.
To believe the silence.
But you do not need their website.
You have the blockchain.
You have logic.
You have memory.
You have the testimony of those who saw before the curtain fell.
And you have this guide.
The Escape: Blurt Offers True Freedom
On Blurt.blog, none of this can happen.
Because there is no downvote button.
Gone.
Not hidden.
Not reformed.
Removed.
No financial punishment for honesty.
No silent sabotage.
No cartel.
What you earn — you earn.
No whale can kneel you.
No gang can bury you.
Blurt is what Hive promised to be.
Conclusion: You Are Not Powerless
You entered crypto seeking freedom.
You found manipulation.
But you are not powerless.
You have eyes.
You have reason.
You have this knowledge.
Teach it.
Share it.
Protect the new.
Because the next victim could be you.
And when the system fails —
When the farms grow too bold,
When the lies become law —
Remember:
—
The Bilpcoin Team
We create. We expose. We survive.
Every downvote you cast drives another soul from Hive —
To Blurt.blog,
Where there is no downvote button.
Where what you earn — you earn.
Where silence is not weaponized.
Even Steemit — older, quieter —
Offers more freedom than what Hive has become.
And that should terrify you.
Because when people flee not to greener pastures,
But to freer ones,
It is not the destination they seek —
It is escape.
They are running from you.
Whatever you are doing,
Hold it with both hands.
Chase it fiercely.
Because you only get one life.
And in that life —
Never be afraid to say no.
Never be afraid to stand alone.
Always do the right thing —
Even when it costs you votes.
Even when it costs you rewards.
Even when it costs you silence.
At Bilpcoin we have not scammed anyone.
We have not stolen.
We have not lied.
We have only done this:
Shared what the blockchain already knows.
Transactions.
Data.
Patterns.
Not fabricated.
Not imagined.
Not speculated.
But verified — open, public, immutable.
And what we found is not conspiracy.
It is control.
Go to peakd.com/@buildawhale/activities — if the site allows it.
Look at the account.
Watch it move.
Like a machine.
@buildawhale —
A name that should belong to a myth.
Instead, it belongs to a farm.
An account that farms curation rewards all day, every day.
That auto-downvotes users — not because they are wrong,
But because they speak.
Because they expose.
Because they are not part of the circle.
And who owns Buildawhale?
Not some anonymous farmer.
Not a rogue actor.
But Blocktrades —
A whale whose influence stretches across Hive like a shadow.
Over 2 million Hive Power delegated.
Rewards flowing in.
Powering down daily.
And where do those rewards go?
To @alpha —
The account widely known as Blocktrades’ wife’s wallet.
A silent beneficiary of a system rigged from within.
You blame others for what you are doing The Frankos & Mc Franko
Exploring the Possibilities of AI Art with Bilpcoin NFTs Episode 129 #BUILDAWHALESCAM FARM ON #HIVE
Marky do you even remember who you are Lady Zaza
You Talk a Good Talk, But the Chain Remembers Mc Franko
Marky You downvote not to correct errors Keni & The Frankos #buildawhalescam #buildawhalefarm #hive
You downvote not to correct errors Mc Franko
You Were Wrong Keni
Exploring the Possibilities of AI Art with Bilpcoin NFTs Episode 128 #BUILDAWHALESCAM FARM ON #HIVE
“We Are Bilpcoin”
We do not stand against the people.
We stand with them.
Shoulder to shoulder.
Hand in hand.
Not as leaders, but as fellow travelers — scarred, shaped, and strengthened by the same storms that have battered so many.
The Bilpcoin team each of us has been tested.
Not by theory, but by life, life itself.
By loss.
By silence.
By systems that mistake conformity for virtue and call censorship “moderation.”
We have known hunger — not always for food, but for fairness.
For a platform where a voice is not priced, punished, or purchased.
And yet —
We are strong.
Not because we were born that way,
But because we had no choice but to become so.
As a team, we have grown — not in spite of the chaos, but because of it.
We’ve learned to build in the dark.
To create when no one is watching.
To trust when trust is rare.
We’ve learned new tools, new truths, new ways of being — not for profit, but for purpose.
Because one thing must be said, and said plainly:
You should never stop learning.
You should never stop dreaming.
You should never stop reaching for what is right — even when the world leans heavily on the side of wrong.
When we began — back in the early days of Steemit — the idea seemed impossible:
You can earn from your words? From your art? From simply speaking your truth?
To many, it felt like magic.
To us, it felt like justice.
And know this: Bilpcoin was not born in boardrooms or venture capital pitches.
It was born in a single mind — one person’s quiet vision, carried like a torch through the fog.
Circumstances, harsh and unyielding, led that founder to let go of much of what they built.
We do not speak of those details.
Some wounds are not ours to expose.
But this we say:
From that fire, Bilpcoin did not die.
It evolved.
Bilpcoin is not a corporation.
It is a social experiment — one that asks a simple question:
What happens when we reward people not for gaming the system, but for sharing their truth?
Our mission is clear:
To reward creators, not manipulators.
To burn BPC tokens, not hoard them.
To return value to the network — not extract it.
We believe in Blurt — not because it is perfect,
But because it dares to be free.
To remove the downvote button is not a small thing.
It is a revolution.
A refusal to allow power to be weaponized by the few against the many.
No more silent sabotage.
No more financial punishment for honesty.
On Blurt, your voice does not lose value because someone feels threatened by it.
And let us be clear:
We have only ever shared what the blockchain already knew.
The transactions.
The patterns.
The truth.
We did not fabricate.
We did not exaggerate.
We revealed — and that, more than anything, is why we were targeted.
Downvotes are not about quality.
They are about control.
Whales farming rewards on Hive are not “supporting the ecosystem.”
They are gaming it — and everyone sees it.
Even those who won’t say it.
How can the world take Hive seriously when its pulse is set not by passion, but by power?
When the loudest voices are not the most honest, but the most rewarded?
But here — in this moment — we dream.
Not foolishly.
But fiercely.
Imagine it:
Steem. Hive. Blurt.
Not as rivals.
Not as fragments.
But as allies.
A united front of decentralized expression.
One network, many voices.
One mission: freedom to create, freedom to speak, freedom to be.
Yes — it would require change.
Yes — some would have to go.
Those who profit from silence.
Those who fear transparency.
Those who confuse their privilege with merit.
But if we stood together — truly together —
We would not be a footnote.
We would be a force.
For now, it is a dream.
But dreams are the first code of revolution.
And who knows what the future holds?
We do not claim to have all the answers.
We only know this:
We will keep building.
Keep sharing.
Keep burning tokens, not bridges.
Keep standing with the people — not above them, not against them, but beside them.
Because in the end, it was never about coins.
It was about courage freedom truth.
And courage, like truth, cannot be downvoted.
The Bilpcoin Team.
https://hive.blog/hive/@test.ureka/the-untrending-report-hive-downvote-analysis-2025-06-27-20250627213824
https://peakd.com/hive/@ureka.stats/the-untrending-report-hive-downvote-analysis-16-09-2025-20250916181314
https://www.publish0x.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbH29p-63eW_PIi4l0KUNLMQ0ageCtkk5
https://www.youtube.com/@bilpcoinbpc
https://www.youtube.com/@bpcaimusic
https://www.bilpcoin.com
https://blurt.blog/@bilpcoinbpc/posts
https://audius.co/bpcaimusic
https://hive.blog/hive-126152/@bilpcoinbpc/bpc-ai-truth-hurts
https://hive.blog/hive-167922/@bilpcoinbpc/you-rewarded-only-those-who-kissed-the-ring-mc-franko-and-the-frankos-bpcaimusic-bilpcoin
If I were you, I'd still consider getting the PS5 (whether or not you buy Madden again some day). We still have both and the PS5 is considerably smoother.
I was never good at Madden but I loved playing NFL Blitz back in the 90s. Did you ever play that? Obviously not a realiztic simulation but it was so much fun! 😃
Wow wow beautiful amazing I really enjoy it I was perfect very interesting good job more wisdom more grace keep doing the good job ♥️♥️♥️🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉