That seemed kinda eery, lol like the voice of god chiming in saying "I'm always watching" lol.
Anyway, I've been reading this thread in total disbelief of you, JP. I really do appreciate all that you do for the community and have told you that numerous times, but I really have to comment on the Ian stuff. First off, I have to say this, I have never been as excited for ANY videogame as I was for Madden 10. It wasn't because of hype. It was because of Ian and his transparency. It was because we knew what his vision was, not because he TOLD us, but because he SHOWED us. There are all kinds of vids that were made within the Madden engine showing better wr/db interactions, pass blocking and all kinds of stuff that was just amazing at the time. He definitely was sim focused.
There were times when he would tweak the game real time as we gave input. I remember specifically chiming in during a thread were Ian was tweaking the pass rush as we gave input. It was almost as if we were part of the development process. No, we WERE part of the process. I'm glad Senator Palmer posted those vids and quotes because that is just a small fraction of what was going on around here then.
I work nights sometimes and I distinctly remember on more than one occasion at 1 or 2'o clock in the morning Ian is on the forum getting feedback for the game that he's still working on. Ian definitely wanted to make a football game that mimics real life. He wanted to badly. I've been told from a few sources, one of which you know quite well for his rant on twitter, that Ian didn't have the control he needed to make the game he wanted. I don't have proof and I'm sure he wouldn't admit it publicly, but I honestly feel that's why he left.
To the point of using pro athletes, Ian and Co. used pro athletes as well, well semi pro. They used them for mocap and input. The point isn't necessarily about using pro athletes tho. I know people in my neighborhood that understand blocking concepts and all sorts of stuff that is way over my head. You don't have to be a pro athlete to know this stuff. By that same token, just because you are a pro athlete, that doesn't mean you are extremely knowledgeable about different football schemes. There are countless books written by former players and coaches that go into great detail about schemes and concepts. You don't need John Elway in the studio to tell you about a route tree. The fact that Cam Newton was brought in seems like a tremendous waste of resources because you could have called in just about any former qb that played big time college or nfl ball and got the same results.
I don't know where this "Ian was crap, but Cam and Rex are gods" stuff is coming from, but its bs. You're talking about Ian as if he's David Ortiz (The Madden 06 dev, not the baseball player for you youngins) and that simply just was not the case. He was as committed to making a sim football game as any dev. In the end tho, it wasn't a lack of knowledge or lack of desire that caused it to fail. It was a lack of control.
With all due respect to the current devs, they haven't shown me jack in regards to what they are planning. They're just talking, but you take their WORD at it, yet you say Ian wasn't on their level when he showed VIDEO of these things in engine. I don't get it. Maybe you're just trying to become a gcer or something because right now, I'm not understanding where all this blind loyalty is coming from.