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Former Madden Developer's Epic Rant on Twitter Stuck
Posted on December 3, 2012 at 06:16 PM.


A few of you may know AJ Dembroski. He worked on the last two editions of Madden and before that, he was one of the top members of the sports gaming community.

Well last night he went on an epic mad rant about EA, how they treat games, and how they see games. In his own words, he feels EA treats games in a 'robotic' type of way.

Adem's biggest complaint of his time at EA seems to be that management simply doesn't seem to get games and instead wants to make money (aka the bottom line). He also seems upset at one of his fellow designers on Connected Careers for what he says messed the whole mode up.

Regardless, AJ leaving EA is a big blow to the team in my mind. He's one of the most passionate people in sports gaming historically, so there is no doubt losing that means there's big shoes to fill on the Madden team.

**caution for language, I'm presneting AJ's tweets in unedited fashion from start to finish.**

Quote:
It's funny... you get some real gainful employment, and the friends flock. You lose that, and they ****in' scatter.

I left EA recently... and boy howdy, did mother ****ers disappear. Fake *** friends.


I know everyone's gonna want me to dish the dirt on EA. I ain't about to do that. Good friends I left behind. I'm not going to **** on them.



and honestly, EA treats their people well. They really do. The EA Wife letter... I dunno, I didn't experience that. Good people there.


But I AM glad to be rid of them. It wasn't what I'd imagined. It wasn't what I'd hoped.


Sadly, any corporate involvement in a creative business is doomed to fail.


Because creativity is stiffed by corporate culture. It's sad that so many brilliant people at EA are held back by corporate structure.

There are great... GREAT people at EA. I wanna call out John White and Patrick Bellanca in particular...

You'll be hearing a lot from Pat, I think he's going to be the media focus going forward for Madden... and deservedly so. He's awesome

point is, if you're following me for my connection to Madden, please unfollow, I'm done with Madden, and happy about it.

like Phil Frazier and Ian Cummings, I found myself questioning my own ****ing self-worth because of it.

Ian, for the record, was awesome. I feel like if he hadn't moved on, I'd still be there. I miss his *** so much.

we'd have never been friends outside of work. He just wasn't my kinda dude. But he KNEW his team, KNEW what his people were capable of.

And knew not to push them further then they could be pushed.


Ian Cumming is going to be a legend in this business when it's all said and done.


but Sports is not the place to make that happen.

EA is held back by being a publicly traded company. that'll never change.


I'd go so far as to say J.R. is a good dude, but he doesn't understand GAMES. He thinks of them as a collective of statistics.


I think Metrics are the worst things to happen to gaming.


Breaks everything down to numbers, without the benefit of reason.


So a football game wants to reach feature parody with Call of Duty... without the realization that theyre different ****in games.


"Call of Duty Numbers" is the be-all-end-all of the industry. And genre's other than realistic FPS's suffer.


Games like FTL (go to steam, look it up, BUY IT!!!!) suffer because corporate America wants the "design by numbers" bull****.


There were 4 designers on CCM... 3 of them competent. The incompetent one undid most of what we did and ****ed it all up.


Micah Brown is still there, still kicking ***, and appreciate that dude, because he'll move on to something FAR better eventually.


@Matt_Doza I'm glad to not be at EA. Very glad. The culture really sucked me dry. I found myself missing driving taxi, of all things.


@rudyjuly2 I am not willing to get into specific things like that. Looman works hard. I don't agree with many of his decisions. ( continued


@rudyjuly2 ... but he works hard for you guys. he does.


@rudyjuly2 @Bgamer90 That was SOO stupid. The NBA life team is SOO good. Like, really, really good.


@Bgamer90 @rudyjuly2 I do too. Most of the team that's making it agrees. So much to redo. The team wants greatness, they rare dedicated.


NBA Live is going to be AWESOME if the team that's making it is not interfered with. As long as the GAME people make the decisions.


That said, the moment "corporations" get involved, all bets are off.


@rudyjuly2 @Bgamer90 I ****ing know, right! NBA Live 10 was a HUGE step forward. Understandm the guys working on the game know that.


I'll be serious, I might be SERIOUSLY ****ing myself over just saying what I have. I don't want to screw whatever chance I have to...


.. remain in gaming... but I'm so frustrated right now, and YOU people get lied too so much, I kinda feel like I'll find something on Karma.


but seriously... don't trust EA. Not because they're bad. They do good by their people, really. But because they're robotic.


Paint by numbers. They see video games as a collection of features. They don't understand the artistic aspect of it.


And they NEVER ****ing will. EVER! Nor will any corporate entity.


I'm not going to sit here and dump on people who worked their asses off on CCM, no matter how much I dislike them. It's not their fault.
What do you all think? What do AJ's comments mean to you? Do they confirm anything? Do you think it's only half of the story? Sound off by commenting!
Comments
# 1 McNutted @ Dec 3
Wow. Sad to say but we all have known this for awhile. While there are great people who work on these games the corporate side is more concerned about profit margin. Some idiot in an office that probably never played a game console in his life is making the final call on decisions. Same with almost any workplace. Big difference between what looks good on paper and what a great product is in it's full form.
 
# 2 AC @ Dec 3
Wow. That was epic, haha. As long as I get my NHL year in and out I'm happy, lol.
 
# 3 Kushmir @ Dec 3
Not EVEN gonna sit here and act like this was the straw that broke the camels back for me...Madden 13's "more videogames than football" was enough for me to put Madden down forever.

Very interesting to read this tho, and know that I made the right decision retiring as a Madden player.

that said, I really hope there's no backlack against this guy. With the legal aspect of NDAs coupled with his desire to remain in the industry I hope this doesn't negatively affect him.
 
# 4 sydrogerdavid @ Dec 3
I wonder if the corporate side of gaming will ever get better. I imagine that it will, just because all of the future generation people who will be running EA and other companies play video games today. They understand what gamers want.

In today's world, you are in the minority if you are male and don't own a gaming system or don't play video games at all. Your peers will think you are incredibly weird for never playing video games.
 
# 5 kjjnesb @ Dec 3
As long as COD moves the units it does these depthless "popcorn games" so to speak sadly will be status quo.

My main concern was the CC info he dropped if one of the team members was so widely incompetent why was he/she allowed to continue?
 
# 6 Motown @ Dec 3
I think it's really sad, & at the same time I'm totally PO'd that we the consumers work our A**** off,& they continue to take our hard earned money in return we get the same crap, w/ different coat of paint...& some can care less...it's just sad man.
 
# 7 SHAKYR @ Dec 3
He has confirmed what I have been saying for years.
 
# 8 hanzsomehanz @ Dec 3
I think Metrics are the worst things to happen to gaming.

Breaks everything down to numbers, without the benefit of reason.

---

[EA...] Paint by numbers. They see video games as a collection of features. They don't understand the artistic aspect of it.
On point. I look at the sliders and the gameplay and it reveals this is a gaming company that abandons reason and logic and just stuffs a bunch of numbers into the code and let's the game play so robotic. Instead of giving the game it's electronic ART - they abandon that huge responsibility of taking care of the artistic development of the game and totally eff up the animations and total gameplay of the football experience.

I was a fan of EA NBA Live 10 and EA Madden NFL Football '05 and '06. With so much available to them on the next console though, It's a total lack of attention to detail. So many things are backwards in the game. I'm so happy to see a former EA member speak out. Yes, you will receive good luck in your karmic future - anybody who speaks out in the face of oppression will receive their award.

Thanks for taking a stand for the community and being a baritone voice for our outcries over here.
 
# 9 UntilTheNxtRnd @ Dec 3
Get pushed to the limit....almost seems like he was gonna go Michael Douglas from "Falling Down". But he speaks the truth. It's a business and money talks and until fans stop feeding the money machine for wash rinse dry add in something repeat it will never change
 
# 10 Jeremy_Stein @ Dec 3
Oh Tiburon.
 
# 11 The_Wise_One @ Dec 3
We are all being lied to huh?
 
# 12 Jimbo614 @ Dec 3
Does it confirm what we've been saying?? Are you kidding?
This is proof positive, exhibit number 1 why EA needs to get out of the Football Business.
 
# 13 Bharp17 @ Dec 3
This guy is awesome. Madden need change and Josh Looman is not the man for the job.
 
# 14 don28 @ Dec 3
Kind of disheartening to hear, but not at all surprising at the same time. People who know the least seem to have the most power to make the decisions. The corporate way; no surprise companies are failing all over.
 
# 15 KrossRoad @ Dec 3
Not surprising at all. I think a lot of people who buy EA Sports games know this and have for some time. Reasons like this, are why I buy their games every 2nd year (aside from NHL, even though that game never changes and I'm sick of it....)

Oh 2K Sports.... or anyone. We need some competition for EA... so they stop playing Monopoly and start playing Sorry!
 

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