Madden NFL Superstars Collections: Everything you need to know

Card Collections
Finally, Elite Cards have made their way to Madden NFL Superstars. But if you want to get the best of the best, you'll have to collect the rest. Unfortunately, Elite Players can only be unlocked after completing a Tier Three or Four team in the new Collections. Don't worry, it's 100 percent worth it. These special Player Cards all have a personal rating of 99, will boost your team's overall rating by three points or more and never expire. (And you'll need all the help you can get in Pro League II.)

In other words, you might want to start buying those Player Packs--but not before reading our guide on how Collections work after the break.

Elite Players
The new Collection feature is where to get the best players, but you'll need to have at least eight friends access to all four NFL Player Books. Essentially, these collections work much like collections in other social games like FrontierVille and Cafe World's new Collection Cabinet, but we're dealing with items that directly affect your performance here. So, it would be in your best judgment to choose which players you trade in wisely.

My Collection
The collections your aiming to complete are actually the NFL's 32 teams' rosters with your own Player Cards found in Player Packs. Not to mention some of which are only available in Gold and Ultimate Packs. Our advice is to only trade in extra or weaker players that you're absolutely sure you won't be using until you become more savvy to potential gains versus losses. While it will take longer to complete a particular team's roster this way, you'll have a much smaller chance of shooting yourself in the foot, so to speak.

Philadelphia EaglesThe first two NFL Player Books only reward sums of 50 thousand coins or higher for completing each team's roster, but would be an ideal place to start to get a feel for how the system works. It's not until you reach Player Books #3 and #4 that you'll have access to the stars of the show: the Elites. Completing a Tier Three or Four Collection for Elite Player Cards--like, say, the Minnesota Vikings' Randy Moss or the Cincinnati Bengals' Chad Ochocinco--will also reward players handsomely with coin rewards of up to an insane 1 million coins.

Unfortunately, there are no Playfish Cash shortcuts to completing the Collections, but that might be a good thing for those who suffer from the infamous Burning Wallet Syndrome. Just remember, when you turn in a Player Card that there's no turning back. Choose your trade-ins wisely and you'll be well on your way to the best players Madden NFL Superstars has to offer.

EA's Peter Moore: Paying players spend an average of $56 on sports Facebook games

That's a lot of Facebook Credits. In a recent conference call, EA Sports President Peter Moore revealed that interesting tidbit, which gives some indication of just how adamant sports fans are about their games, both on and off of Facebook. To be specific, EA / Playfish's Madden NFL Superstars, FIFA Superstars and World Series Superstars Facebook games pull in an average of $56 per paying user over their lifetime experience(s) with the games.

That's not saying that each and every player shells out money, but of those that are willing to open their wallets, the number adds up to a $56 average - almost the price of a full retail sports game on consoles. What's more, this high of an average means that some players are clearly investing far more money into these games to pull the number up, when there are surely other groups of players that may only invest a few dollars.

Moore confirmed that there are far more people (a "majority") playing these three games for free, which "add[s] to the ecosystem of that type of game." EA CEO John Riccitiello adds that they believe the low number of paying players may be attributable to the previous need to enter a credit card for each purchase. Now, with the widespread adoption of Facebook Credits, allowing users to keep a credit balance on their account at all times, he says that it "is a growth engine for us and, if you will, a playfield leveling program for Electronic Arts and social."

With Facebook Credits being a hot topic amongst most Facebook developers, it will be interesting to see if Riccitiello's prediction comes true, resulting in a higher average from paying players down the line. Only time will tell.

[Via the Associated Press]

Do you actively play any of these three EA Sports Facebook games? Have you ever invested money in these games, or any other Facebook game? What would EA / Playfish need to do to make you want to invest in these games with real money of your own?