Madden NFL 12 to Kick Off Another 3-Year Plan

[BezO]

Quote: Originally Posted by hickhitchell33

yeah of course it sucks, but whatr else would you rather them say?

For my personal preference & curiosity, I'd like specifics. "By 2012, we'll have much more realistic animations & player interactions. For example, edge rushing & double teams on gunners will look like what you see on Sundays."

In other words, my problem is with the 3-year plan being a secret. Let me know what I can look forward to. Let me know the direction you plan on taking. Let me know what you can or want to accomplish for the 2012 release.

A 3-year plan can mean anything. How do we know where they plan to be at the end of those 3 years? How do we know they're on schedule?

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

It's not necessarily even social loafing that's the cause for the diminished productivity. When a dev house adds ONE new programmer to a project, that programmer has to be brought up to speed on: what exists in the current code base and how to properly use it; the programming practices, standards, code organization, and paradigms the studio subscribes to; and finally, the programmer's own place on the team, i.e. he feels into his spot and gets comfortable interacting with others on his team with related responsibilities. Beyond that, there's also the debugging aspect; the new programmer, and any programmer ever, is not going to write flawless code on his first try, and as such time will need to be spent to check back on this developer's code, be it writing test cases or holding code reviews or what have you. There's a number of hidden costs here, and though the mentioned social phenomenon is a concern, I'd contend the programming logistics concerns are greater. Again, though, this isn't EA's first time around the block; I'm sure they've taken all this into account when making this decision. For those interested, there's an entire book dedicated to this issue.

Yeah don't get me wrong. There's multiple reasons why it might not turn out to be a good thing. I was just using social loafing as an example since it states the fact that sometimes members of groups put less effort into tasks as more people getting added to the group.

[LingeringRegime]

I think it is a wise move for the long term to go back to the drawing board. They have no competition, so they can afford to make slow, deliberate progress.

Especially if a new physics engine get implemented.

[LiquorLogic]

Quote: Originally Posted by CHooe

It's not necessarily even social loafing that's the cause for the diminished productivity. When a dev house adds ONE new programmer to a project, that programmer has to be brought up to speed on: what exists in the current code base and how to properly use it; the programming practices, standards, code organization, and paradigms the studio subscribes to; and finally, the programmer's own place on the team, i.e. he feels into his spot and gets comfortable interacting with others on his team with related responsibilities. Beyond that, there's also the debugging aspect; the new programmer, and any programmer ever, is not going to write flawless code on his first try, and as such time will need to be spent to check back on this developer's code, be it writing test cases or holding code reviews or what have you. There's a number of hidden costs here, and though the mentioned social phenomenon is a concern, I'd contend the programming logistics concerns are greater. Again, though, this isn't EA's first time around the block; I'm sure they've taken all this into account when making this decision. For those interested, there's an entire book dedicated to this issue.

Everything you've said is a possibility, but is everything you've said a probability or certainty ? I would say no. What is a certainty is that if they just promoted someone, who was under Ian, from within, and just kept on rolling, there would very little chance for a positive change.

For now, this is great news. It signals not just a change in leadership, because last time, in my opinion, that got us nowhere. It also signals a change in philosophy.

[spankdatazz22]

Quote: Originally Posted by DEFTFUNDAMENTALZ

I think it is a wise move for the long term to go back to the drawing board. They have no competition, so they can afford to make slow, deliberate progress. Especially if a new physics engine get implemented.

It they're asking people to wait three more years, then I'd view a physics system as a baseline must. I don't see how anything less than better-than-what's-come-before-it should be accepted; Madden/NCAA 11 should've been the best most feature-rich football games to date by default.

[Dazraz]

Well then guys, let's get ready for another 2 years of minimal upgrades, then in the 3rd year another staffing crisis followed by a brand new 3 year plan. We get it EA. While you have the exclusive license to the NFL you in turn have the exclusive right to screw us year on year.

[Broncos86]

At this rate, I might only be purchasing NCAA 12 this year. The demo for Madden will need to blow my socks off.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by LiquorLogic

Everything you've said is a possibility, but is everything you've said a probability or certainty ? I would say no. What is a certainty is that if they just promoted someone, who was under Ian, from within, and just kept on rolling, there would very little chance for a positive change. For now, this is great news. It signals not just a change in leadership, because last time, in my opinion, that got us nowhere. It also signals a change in philosophy.

I was referring more to the doubling of the size of the Madden team more than anything else. Obviously anyone who was internally promoted already has an idea as to what is going on, at least I would hope