Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[LiquorLogic]

Quote: Originally Posted by Garrett67

...and look at Madden. Perhaps they should start hiring people with degrees and knowledge instead of hiring internet forum posters because they are suck asses. Sorry but its true.

Tell me about it. You would think, with something as technical as developing video games, that you'd need a degree in a related field, or at least some sort of experience that demonstrates your competency. EA is a huge company, and Madden is it's flagship title. You would think a degree in a related field is a given, and that it would be impossible to get your foot in the door as a game tester. Maybe those people, with degrees and/or experience, command higher salaries, and it's kinda hard to pay top dollar when you've already committed to spending over a half a billion dollars on licensing fees.

[Bgamer90]

Quote: Originally Posted by WTFitsDaveyJ

It's not about popular opinion, in my case. Yes, he made fun NFL games, but fact is the same things missing from when he got the Lead Designer title back in 09 are still missing from the game at the current time. Show me franchise depth and deep Superstar mode...Show me the initiative to do more than Play Now. It's not about him doing a BAD job, it's just that nothing has really changed outside of improved gameplay and new menus/fonts. That said, I'm still interested in Madden 12, just as I'll be interested in 13.

Remember though, Ian did have a "3 year vision" and Madden 12 is his last Madden [which will obviously have Franchise and Superstar mode improvements (madden 12 blog outline)]. I mean, while I did think that Madden 11 would get franchise improvements, I also on the other hand knew that it was going to take more than 1 game to get Madden on the level of other sports games this gen.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Yeah Josh was the lead deigner for Head Coach 09.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by tazdevil20

What good would it be to hate/bash Madden just to do so?

That's a really good question.

Quote:

Most people on here are not 10 year olds. However, many folks are just realists. They call it like they see it, that includes the good with the bad. There are plenty of folks who would rather convince themselves that the game is something it isn't so they feel better.

So my enjoyment of Madden 11, along with the vast majority of its consumer base, was artificial? Was I missing something that these people clearly smarter and more observant than I am easily saw? Forgive me if I don't believe this. I know game opinions are subjective, but there's a certain demographic on here that goes out of their way to find things to complain about in these games.

Quote:

The fact is that Madden is still light years behind the other sports games. Many things that have been broken for years are still completely broken, and anything new that was added was simply left incomplete and unpolished.

"Completely broken" is up to interpretation. I don't see a game that frequently crashes, I don't see a game with features that don't work, I don't see a game that is horribly unbalanced. "Completely broken" is not what Madden is.

I will give you that Madden is a very shallow game with regard to off-the-field offline modes. That is my biggest complaint with the series right now. My point is some people take their points of criticism with the game way too far.

[HealyMonster]

well, things like these are bound to happen, its isnt like Ian was going to work there forever. Id say he was around for a long time there compared to some of the other representatives that have come and gone over the years. Hard to imagine going from Madden to making Facebook games, I know its all about family and $$ and quality of life and not all about Madden and the big time, but the fact that they are making this choice raises my ears to whats going on behind the scenes at Tiburon

[RedZoneD25]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bgamer90

Remember though, Ian did have a "3 year vision" and Madden 12 is his last Madden [which will obviously have Franchise and Superstar mode improvements (madden 12 blog outline)]. I mean, while I did think that Madden 11 would have franchise improvements, I also on the other hand knew that it was going to take more than 1 game to get Madden on the level of other sports games this gen.

Absolutely. I never thought it would be an instant transformation either. It's not even Ian's fault that those things were missing, they were missing long before he got the lead gig too....but I'm still beyond dumbfounded there was literally minimal effort put on the offline modes last year. Especially when you take the guys who made such a beast of a franchise game in HC09 and put them on MUT.

My main issue with Madden is not it being a "bad" game, because it isn't. As CHooe said, it's just shallow.

[Gotmadskillzson]

If Josh and Donny stays.....one of those two going to be the new creative director. IMO Josh is the front runner because he had held that title before in other games.

[GiantBlue76]

Quote: Originally Posted by LiquorLogic

Tell me about it. You would think, with something as technical as developing video games, that you'd need a degree in a related field, or at least some sort of experience that demonstrates your competency. EA is a huge company, and Madden is it's flagship title. You would think a degree in a related field is a given, and that it would be impossible to get your foot in the door as a game tester. Maybe those people, with degrees and/or experience, command higher salaries, and it's kinda hard to pay top dollar when you've already committed to spending over a half a billion dollars on licensing fees.

You are hanging on this degree thing far too much. I'm a software engineer at a large company. There are many folks I work with here who are brilliant programmers and do not have a college degree. I also went to college with some guys who were brilliant and left college because they were recruited by companies to work for them immediately for large amounts of cash. I'm not saying the guy was great at his job or bad at it, but whether or not he had a degree doesn't make him any less capable.