Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

[Cre8]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

This doesn't consider the possibility that maybe he left on his own accord to be his own boss and work on games he designs at this new startup. He wouldn't be able to do that at Playfish.

And how is getting fired an "amicable" split, in any capacity?

Sometimes (on occasion) a person can be in a position where they reach a point of their boss being such a pain that they don't really care when they get fired, if they do.

Just saying.

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

Besides the bolded being false as SPEED was the overall factor once again, I can see him leaving because wanted to limit his creativeness and innovation with this game, if thats what it was. people do it all the time when they feel they're talents or ambitions are being held back for either money or whatever.

Uhhh...it wasn't false. They did stretch the numerical ratings that were awarded to the players. There were fewer players that were given 95+ ratings with more players being in the 70s and 60s. This was all done in an attempt to make elite players stand out from the average, and it didn't work. That's why, again, speed was the determining factor because the ratings weren't programmed properly, which was my point. It's why I think that the lack of talent was more to blame than lack of cooperation from the "suits." All of the things that were implemented in Madden 10 were "sim" in theory, but they weren't implemented correctly. In my opinion, that falls on directly on the developers and not the suits.

[RGiles36]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

I guess I should no longer be surprised at how brash and bold people are behind a keyboard. I wonder how many people in this thread have the stones to tell anybody that they lack the talent to do a certain job in a face-to-face scenario.

It's one thing to be upset with the quality of a product you love. But people sound border-line deranged when they appear to take a videogame so personally.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

Considering how Madden hasn't warranted my money the last two years, I still think Ian did a very good job considering the engine he had to work with.

It will be interesting to see what direction they take the game now.

[Cre8]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

I guess I should no longer be surprised at how brash and bold people are behind a keyboard. I wonder how many people in this thread have the stones to tell anybody that they lack the talent to do a certain job in a face-to-face scenario.

It's one thing to be upset with the quality of a product you love. But people sound border-line deranged when they appear to take a videogame so personally.

I think when you pour $60 a pop into a piece of entertainment year after year and see minimal improvement in the product (IE - offline franchise mode) and you have no other choice for an NFL game you should be granted a lil grace in complaints.

As far as telling someone to their face rather than over a keyboard (as I type this), I must say I have NO problem telling anyone to their face exactly how I feel at any given point.

Which is probably why I don't have many friends.

At least I'm not fake... lol... As far as you know by my text.

[spankdatazz22]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

The Pro-Tak in Madden 10 was especially prone to the "group hugs", haha, but it still added a significant something to the game, IMO.

To me the implementation of Pro-Tak showed just how out of touch Ian and that team were to the gang tackling/player interaction problem. I don't see how it could be considered a significant addition when you're watching helplessly as a [supposed] 190lb running back is breaking free from 6+defenders engaged in a group hug/rugby scrum. The animations of players warping into the "gang tackle" was bad. And the long breakaway runs that sometimes occurred afterward were even worse.

One of the things the Tiburon devs touted that year was how many players could be involved in a gang tackle because of the Pro-Tak technology. And I got the distinct feeling they were implementing the feature from the perspective of trying to outdo what had been done in [other football games], instead of how it should work from a practical standpoint. They were trying to make a necessary improvement but the implementation was wrong. Tiburon's history is littered with weird choices like that.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Ian Cummings is out

Honestly... this doesn't surprise me at all.

Despite being a "decent" game the last couple years, this franchise in general is just a mess. If I were Ian, I'd want out too, lol.

[Smoke6]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

I guess I should no longer be surprised at how brash and bold people are behind a keyboard. I wonder how many people in this thread have the stones to tell anybody that they lack the talent to do a certain job in a face-to-face scenario.

It's one thing to be upset with the quality of a product you love. But people sound border-line deranged when they appear to take a videogame so personally.

Personally? Man this game is what got most of us into gaming so we have every right to take it personal. As far as telling someone they have no talent over the met as opposed to face to face. I has no problem with if its true. I just feel there was no passion put into making madden like it used to be.

Remember when Jim brown did the halftime reports. That lady did the injury report during the game and updated us on the situation along with what the coach said at halftime.

I could go on and on just to prove either how cocky or lazy madden has become while at the same time trying to cater to several different crowds. I can and will get more extensive in the morning as I am at work. If those vids or images I provided served no justice to how backwards madden went this gen when they seem to listen to the minority when it comes to complaints and stuff. Then I dunno what to say PR do.

It's real easy going thru all the wishlist threads and easily seeing that the elements being asked for get str8 up passed on and neglected in favor of some marketing crap like rewind.

[djordan]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

To me the implementation of Pro-Tak showed just how out of touch Ian and that team were to the gang tackling/player interaction problem. I don't see how it could be considered a significant addition when you're watching helplessly as a [supposed] 190lb running back is breaking free from 6+defenders engaged in a group hug/rugby scrum. The animations of players warping into the "gang tackle" was bad. And the long breakaway runs that sometimes occurred afterward were even worse.

One of the things the Tiburon devs touted that year was how many players could be involved in a gang tackle because of the Pro-Tak technology. And I got the distinct feeling they were implementing the feature from the perspective of trying to outdo what had been done in [other football games], instead of how it should work from a practical standpoint. They were trying to make a necessary improvement but the implementation was wrong. Tiburon's history is littered with weird choices like that.

The entire pro-tak deal was a sham! I remember Ian saying Madden 10 was the foundation for Pro-tak and they would take it to another level with Madden 11. Once Madden 11 news began to surface there was no mention of the additions of Pro-tak and if they fine tuned the technology for the better. Between certain devs falsely stating Pro-tak and halftime show being improved with Madden 11 at the end of Madden 10's development I began to grow weary of EA Tiburon.

Till this freaking day I don't understand how true gang tackling isn't in a EA football game. DAMNIT! lol

[Smoke6]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

The entire pro-tak deal was a shame! I remember Ian saying Madden 10 was the foundation for Pro-tak and they would take it to another level with Madden 11. Once Madden 11 news began to surface there was no mention of the additions of Pro-tak and if they fine tuned the technology for the better. Between certain devs falsely stating Pro-tak and halftime show being improved with Madden 11 I began to grow weary of EA Tiburon.

Till this freaking day I don't understand how true gang tackling isn't in a EA football game. DAMNIT! lol

I mean bring back some real "nostalgia" back in this game. You guys have everything you need in going back thru the archives of madden past to get what u need to do this. Madden should never be "mediocre", even to the casuals and this is the crowd that gets all the attention leading the hardcore behind to make due of the situation

[SageInfinite]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

To me the implementation of Pro-Tak showed just how out of touch Ian and that team were to the gang tackling/player interaction problem. I don't see how it could be considered a significant addition when you're watching helplessly as a [supposed] 190lb running back is breaking free from 6+defenders engaged in a group hug/rugby scrum. The animations of players warping into the "gang tackle" was bad. And the long breakaway runs that sometimes occurred afterward were even worse.

One of the things the Tiburon devs touted that year was how many players could be involved in a gang tackle because of the Pro-Tak technology. And I got the distinct feeling they were implementing the feature from the perspective of trying to outdo what had been done in [other football games], instead of how it should work from a practical standpoint. They were trying to make a necessary improvement but the implementation was wrong. Tiburon's history is littered with weird choices like that.

Another good post.Idk if it's the implementation or the direction at Tiburon, but somewhere things get crossed up.

[Pared]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

Personally? Man this game is what got most of us into gaming so we have every right to take it personal. As far as telling someone they have no talent over the met as opposed to face to face. I has no problem with if its true. I just feel there was no passion put into making madden like it used to be.

Remember when Jim brown did the halftime reports. That lady did the injury report during the game and updated us on the situation along with what the coach said at halftime.

Because it's not like Madden attempted to implement a halftime show... right?

I could go on and on just to prove either how cocky or lazy madden has become while at the same time trying to cater to several different crowds. I can and will get more extensive in the morning as I am at work. If those vids or images I provided served no justice to how backwards madden went this gen when they seem to listen to the minority when it comes to complaints and stuff. Then I dunno what to say PR do.

Save yourself the post. There's no need to rehash any of this. We've been there and done that.

It's real easy going thru all the wishlist threads and easily seeing that the elements being asked for get str8 up passed on and neglected in favor of some marketing crap like rewind.

It's also just as easy to gloss over the things that were attempted to make your point more valid than it really is. Saying they "passed and neglected the wishlist thread" can be said about many sports game developers. In fact it has - many times - despite what they do year in and year out. The same non-sense is said about MLB:The Show's dev. team at times (and that's quite the disgusting injustice, IMO).

[ryan36]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

Because it's not like Madden attempted to implement a halftime show... right?



Save yourself the post. There's no need to rehash any of this. We've been there and done that.



It's also just as easy to gloss over the things that were attempted to make your point more valid than it really is. Saying they "passed and neglected the wishlist thread" can be said about many sports game developers. In fact it has - many times - despite what they do year in and year out. The same non-sense is said about MLB:The Show's dev. team at times (and that's quite the disgusting injustice, IMO).

This is just it. I've never criticized EA's work ethic. I also have never criticized their ability to listen to the community. I criticize the product, certain decisions, the limitations of whatever code they already had, etc...

It's not fair to say the team isn't trying

[LiquorLogic]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

is. It was a group hug. Exactly what, in your opinion, did Pro-Tak add to the game ? IMO, it should have allowed for double hit tackling. It was an extremely shallow feature that allowed EA to say "hey, we've got nine man gang-tackles. The feature never improved, in Madden, and seemed to regress a bit. It should have, in Madden 10 or at least Madden 11, made consecutive hit tackling possible. It should have allowed players to effect plays were two other players were involved in a tackling animation, but it didn't.

Wasn't game speed adjustable if one played any mode but ranked online? I enjoy the slower game speed.

Yes it was adjustable, but online play is big, and putting the default speed at slow basically made you play at slow unless you want to play the CPU or you same circle of friends.

I remember seeing a really intelligent post on here about that whole ratings assertion in that the apparent uselessness of the ratings is moreso a function of the game sliders than ratings. I personally have never had problems differentiating between good and bad linemen in my time with M10 and M11, though admittedly I've never tried to put kickers and quarterbacks on the line because that thought always struck me as kind of silly and pointless.

So if I want to play franchise mode on All-Madden, ratings, other that speed, mean nothing, and there's no reason to pay for highly rated olineman because any run of the mill lineman will do. The punters and kickers on the olineman made the point that, in the trenches, ratings are meaningless.

If he indeed left for a startup, presumably the risk he's taking is trading relative financial stability at EA for the chance to be one of the top people on the ground floor of this new company, should it succeed and take off. This could be worth more money than anything Tiburon could offer, and obviously he'd have more creative freedom as he will no longer be limited to making only football games.

And if the company doesn't succeed and take off ? In this economy, trading financial stability at EA to be one of the top people in a start up company doesn't seem worth the risk to me. What about you ? I could see if he was accepting a better position at another company that was also established, like Mike Wang, but he isn't.

[RGiles36]

Re: Madden Creative Director, Ian Cummings is Leaving Tiburon

So if I want to play franchise mode on All-Madden, ratings, other that speed, mean nothing, and there's no reason to pay for highly rated olineman because any run of the mill lineman will do. The punters and kickers on the olineman made the point that, in the trenches, ratings are meaningless.

You and I had a ratings discussion a couple weeks ago, and you conceded that they did mean something. Now they're are back to being meaningless? Suh doesn't dominate in M11? . 90+ OL don't stonewall defenders?

I guess my point is that there are SO many variables to ratings that it's really inconclusive (and inaccurate) to continue to blindly say they don't work.

Edit: and please give me something other than Tom Brady playing safety. If I was video-savvy, I could show video of WRs getting burned when playing corner.