The only reason I'm glad I'm not the Madden Ratings guy - ddsmith3's Blog

ddsmith3's Blog

The only reason I'm glad I'm not the Madden Ratings guy

Posted on July 25, 2009 at 04:55 AM.

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I�ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately, and recently I've started following members of the development team of Madden 10. Lately, the ratings guru of Madden, Donny Moore has been tweeting a lot, and the tweets have reflected a struggle that I think would be a pain in the ***. Don�t get me wrong, I would love to have his job. He gets to sit and watch football and play video games, and get paid. I mean, there�s a lot of really intricate analysis and crazy unknowns in the ratings game that would probably make me want to tear my hair out at times, but still, overall that�s a pretty sweet deal. But over the past few years I�m sure the intricacies and the unknowns have been cranked up to 11. With Madden 08, there was the Vick debacle and the return of Ricky �Because I Got High� Williams. Last year there was Episode 1 of the Favre saga and the return of �Pac Man� Jones. This year, Favre: Episode 2 (Will he? Won�t he? Tune in next week to watch him bomb it down field to a few high school kids and keep thousands of Viking and Packer fans waiting with baited cheese and sausage breath.) There�s the return of Vick. (Moore has tweeted for input on what Vick�s speed rating should be. Who knows how fast he can run after two years in prison, or if he will even play.) There�s Dante Stallworth�s indefinite suspension, Plaxico Burress� ongoing situation and several players such as Marshawn Lynch and Calvin Pace serving suspensions to open the season. (no action will likely be taken in the game to reflect this, but still, if you play the Bills or Jets in the first few weeks of your Online Franchise and one of these players is the difference maker in a loss, imagine how frustrated you�ll be.)
I hope that Moore doesn�t lose sleep over this kind of thing, but I�m sure it�s an aspect of his job that he would rather do without. I mean, injuries, roster cuts and trades are one thing, but this kind of drama is so unpredictable. Not to mention the fact that if these players would realize how lucky they are to be playing a game and making more for one days work than many people make in a year, these types of things wouldn�t be necessary, but I digress�
Video games are supposed to be an almost cathartic escape from reality, and they still fit this role, but imagine trying to explain to a kid that Michael Vicks speed rating dropped 11 points since 2007 because he spent two years in the federal pen, or that Brett Favre may or may not be in the game because he just can�t make up his mind, or, like last year, that the reason Plaxico Burress is injured in his (or her) franchise isn�t because he got knocked into next week by Troy Polamalu trying to come over the middle, but because he shot himself in the leg�
While on the subject of kids playing Madden, I�d like to spend about eight paragraphs explaining why I think the parents who hate violent games like Grand Theft Auto because of what their kids may learn, should also be somewhat wary of sports games that first of all invite them to stay indoors rather than going outside and throwing the ball around, but also might teach them that if they do, they will someday be able to demand $100 million over seven years with a $20 million signing bonus, and then when they don�t, they just may pull a Grand Theft Auto and go completely postal because of the unsatisfied expectation. But, I won�t go into all that.
The moral of the story is that it�s tougher than it has to be for poor Donny Moore. I mean, the guy already has enough stress worrying about the possibility of a 230 pound linebacker waiting for him outside work because Moore only gave him a 68 on his hit power rating. He doesn�t need this yearly soap opera on top of that. So please, think of that the next time you almost spike your controller because you just got burned up the sideline by Chris Johnson and you know you could have caught him if only his speed were a 95 rather than a 99.