Donny Moore, the 'Madden Ratings Czar', Leaving EA

[Yukon46]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

My take on it is that the two are not incompatible. There is no inherent conflict in creating realistic gameplay while "compressing" or manipulating team ratings. The more interesting bit was about increasing the spread of player ratings. That does seem to contradict the idea of competitive gameplay. I'm not sure how they could increase the gap while maintaining parity. The fact that X amount of players were rated 90 in speed does not really matter. It is only about the scale. If they take your advice and alter the scale there would be no changes in gameplay. That is, if they did it uniformly and without bias. They tend not to do that though, good players tend to become faster (or stronger, you get the idea) and underperformers drop speed. The point is that we view 90+ as being great. Madden says 90+ is good/needed for positions. What I would like to see, and Dan you may know the answer to this, is their ratings ordinal or interval? Is the difference in gameplay the same between 70-75 as it is between 90-95? Or does the difference increase exponentially?

Well it matters in the sense that to EA a 90 rating in speed equals a player running a 4.42 40 yard dash.

Having 460 players running under a 4.42 is not realistic, only about 175 players in the NFL have run under that time.

And the over inflation of speed goes beyond the 90 rated players.....

So when in reality you should have about 5-10 Running Backs with a 90+ speed rating.... you get 35.

I dont want them to alter the scale, I want the scale to be realistic.... this in itself will lead to more realistic gameplay.

[jerwoods]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCEBB2001

All they need to do is get real data and mimic the statistical distribution of that data. When you do that, you find out some very interesting things about your population of NFL players. Like how if you use the same methodology for every attribute, you find that NFL player have an average SPD of 68 (if you set the best to 99 and the worst to 1) and an average ACC of 65. Madden right now has an average SPD closer to 76 and ACC closer to 83. However, in their defense, I don't think they are using the data they need to use.

if they want to look players picking up and playing the game right off Madden 2000 was the closest thing very balened game it was a game so good u could play with default settings and the run game was near perfect

[4thQtrStre5S]

I think the people at EA need to grab one of the copies of rosters using Dan's ratings and see how well they play....There is a PS4 and Xbox One version here in the Roster section; they give directions on how to find them in the Madden share system...

[kehlis]

Dan,

Did you broach the topic of if you would be able to continue doing what you do (with your rosters, your site, etc.) if you agreed to either consult with them or even get hired by them?

[ggsimmonds]

Quote: Originally Posted by jfsolo

So every year when the game first releases and the overall team ratings basically range from 72-92, are they bumping up the lower teams when they really should be in the low 60's? or 50's? Are they making sure that every teams has a certain number of players with high ratings in every category? I'm trying to get a sense of what else "competitive gameplay" could entail.

I was pretty sure that the team overalls were just an arbitrary number Donny though the team deserved and not determined by a calculation using the roster.

Quote: Originally Posted by Yukon46

Well it matters in the sense that to EA a 90 rating in speed equals a player running a 4.42 40 yard dash. Having 460 players running under a 4.42 is not realistic, only about 175 players in the NFL have run under that time. And the over inflation of speed goes beyond the 90 rated players..... So when in reality you should have about 5-10 Running Backs with a 90+ speed rating.... you get 35. I dont want them to alter the scale, I want the scale to be realistic.... this in itself will lead to more realistic gameplay.

We are basically saying the same thing, I'm probably just being a bit pedantic.

Establishing 90 overall as being equal to a 4.42 40 time is scale. There is nothing realistic or unrealistic about that though. It is arbitrary. The problem you and I both seem to have is that EA does not follow the scale they seem to have set up.

As Dan points out, the distribution is key. Makes little difference (it does matter to an extent) what point you decide should be the benchmark.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Quote: Originally Posted by ggsimmonds

I was pretty sure that the team overalls were just an arbitrary number Donny though the team deserved and not determined by a calculation using the roster. We are basically saying the same thing, I'm probably just being a bit pedantic. Establishing 90 overall as being equal to a 4.42 40 time is scale. There is nothing realistic or unrealistic about that though. It is arbitrary. The problem you and I both seem to have is that EA does not follow the scale they seem to have set up. As Dan points out, the distribution is key. Makes little difference (it does matter to an extent) what point you decide should be the benchmark.

All there needs to be is a benchmark, and then have everything else fall in line from there...

The one issue is, anyone can setup a 40 yard dash in practice mode, as I have done too, and find out what constitutes a certain 40 time...

One thing is for sure, even if a 40 time is correct, acceleration is way off in Madden...All players accelerate too fast, within the first 5 yards all players are at full speed, but split times say that shouldn't be so..

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by DCEBB2001

The fact that realism and authenticity was 2nd on that list should answer your question.

That's discouraging.

[4thQtrStre5S]

Quote: Originally Posted by bucky60

That's discouraging.

What is even more discouraging is the fact that, in settings, there is an option for "even play" thus suggesting that ratings can be altered for equal teams...

Seems to me, that equal play option can be applied to any ratings, and thus ratings can be realistic to the scouting data of players, and then for competition online play, they can just use the "even play" option..then let the rest of us play with realistic rated player teams..

Cause for the life of me, why have an equal play option, when all the rosters are rated to be equal competition to begin with?