Madden NFL 13 News Post

EA Sports & NFL - Tracking Player Movement, Looking to Revolutionize Madden Ratings

03:08 PM - December 28, 2012 by Steve_OS

During Thursday Night NFL football games, the NFL has been tracking player attributes, such as speed, acceleration, movement direction and jump height with chips embedded into shoulder pads of various NFL players. According to Polygon's, Samit Sarkar and Madden "Ratings Czar" Donny Moore, this data could be released to EA Sports to "potentially revolutionize" player ratings.

It probably won't happen any time soon, since the NFL is only tracking a handful of players, but it's fun to speculate.

Source - NFL tracking player movement data that EA says could 'revolutionize' Madden ratings (Polygon)

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# 21 TreFacTor @ 12/30/12 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandyBass


	Revolutionize? SMH. Any data collected from something like this would be unreliable due to different playing conditions, injuries, etc. The best part is how EA is already in marketing mode, even though they aren't even using yet, lol. Are they really that desperate?

You forget the number one reason this data will be useless to Madden....the game relies on animation driven outcomes that's it. There are other reasons this won't help Madden like the poor AI and synchronized quadruple player animations but the numbers the NFL gives Madden will be negated in other ways as well.

# 22 LionsFanNJ @ 12/30/12 01:54 PM

Hype train starting up early this year. Damn.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

# 23 TreyIM2 @ 12/30/12 03:36 PM

You're overlooking the fact that it will cost them more from a production standpoint for next gen which will possibly also mean a bigger dev team and more paychecks being cut. This is going to be a point of contention for ALL game developers, not just EA. Stakes will be higher for every gaming house especially with the downtrend of sales this gen. It's gunna be harder to turn coin. I believe most will have to go hard or go out of business. Next gen could possibly usher in the next gaming industry crash.

# 24 TreyIM2 @ 12/30/12 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreyIM2


	You're overlooking the fact that it will cost them more from a production standpoint for next gen which will possibly also mean a bigger dev team and more paychecks being cut. This is going to be a point of contention for ALL game developers, not just EA. Stakes will be higher for every gaming house especially with the downtrend of sales this gen. It's gunna be harder to turn coin. I believe most will have to go hard or go out of business. Next gen could possibly usher in the next gaming industry crash.

That was in response to TreFacTor

# 25 N51_rob @ 12/30/12 05:15 PM

Madden in it current iteration has what 50 ratings yet only a handful of them even matter. This all sounds great, but until there is a way to make individual player play like individuals none of this stuff will matter. Not only that but no one knows how all these ratings interact with each other.

Which is better a CB with 99 man coverage and 30 awareness or 30 man coverage and 99 awareness? No one knows and EA won't say.

# 26 Jakeness23 @ 12/30/12 10:36 PM

I wish they could get the Euphoria engine or something like it. To me, I feel like I'm just playing a slightly updated game every year. Something like euphoria could really inject the series with some much needed life. Again, just my opinion.

# 27 cmehustle @ 12/31/12 12:38 PM

Madden could do themselves a great favor when it comes to ratings by hiring scouts and people who watch film, i.e. people that grade players for a living and get them guys involved with the ratings. Im thinking Greg Cosell, who is one of the most knowlegable people I have ever heard. Go to his twitter and listen to his weekely podcast, and tell me he EA doesnt need someone like that.

# 28 BSmith78 @ 01/01/13 07:41 AM

Wasn't easy, but I passed on Madden for the first time since 1998 this year, and I won't be back. EA have gone out of their way to ignore the mission statement that spawned the franchise.

# 29 BSmith78 @ 01/01/13 07:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N51_rob


	Madden in it current iteration has what 50 ratings yet only a handful of them even matter. This all sounds great, but until there is a way to make individual player play like individuals none of this stuff will matter. Not only that but no one knows how all these ratings interact with each other. Which is better a CB with 99 man coverage and 30 awareness or 30 man coverage and 99 awareness? No one knows and EA won't say.

That's because EA don't know.

# 30 NikeBlitz @ 01/02/13 12:29 AM

At first i thought it was about "core" player movement, i'll keep the champagne fresh just in case.

The technology seems cool, but i don't really care if it helps to found out that CJ2K is a 96 speed and D Jax a 98.

# 31 RyanMoody21 @ 01/02/13 01:34 AM

How many of you guys have noticed that while manually progressing a player so few things actually seem to matter.

Just a common place example, I've got Kendrall Mills a second year guy and Legaratte Blount as my HBs.

Mills is a high 90 in both speed and agility, mid to low 70 overall. Had some issues staying healthy, I found pouring xp into toughness really seems to help that. Bob Sanders could never stay healthy, toughness seemed to remedy it until I could stock up his actually injury rating.

Tonite...Mills had 320 some yards in a game. Speed meaning want it does and pursuit angles being so poor, if he turns then corner is usually over. I was quite surprised late in the game, he got visibly slower so I made up my mind to spend xp on stamina.

In doing so, I found the guy has 19 awareness. He makes cuts more fluid than any back I've had. Infact, in an online CCM I traded Peterson away to use him more and grabbed Blount in FA.

Something is way off when players come in that "stupid" and do so much damage. I'm all for anything to make the game more complete but a lot of the ratings have to start showing major effects on player performance before anything else.

# 32 Valdarez @ 01/04/13 01:32 PM

Accurate ratings are useless when the fundamental movement, locomotion, and momentum of players is not accurate. Until EA Sports rebuilds Madden from the ground up with those three items as the foundation (something they tried to do and failed at several years ago), ratings will mean little except for the 5 minute based simulation engine.

# 33 N51_rob @ 01/04/13 02:43 PM

We need one of these for every rating in Madden.

http://www.sotl.com/clintoldenburg/p...ng-for-linemen

# 34 at23steelers @ 01/04/13 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by N51_rob


	We need one of these for every rating in Madden. http://www.sotl.com/clintoldenburg/p...ng-for-linemen

One down, about 60 to go!!

# 35 LBzrule @ 01/04/13 03:34 PM

One reason why many of the ratings seem to make no sense is because they do not apply when you are controlling the player and speed/agility are the only built in parameters for how good a guy can be when you control him.

I've seen people have 600 + passing yard games with Tebow

# 36 at23steelers @ 01/04/13 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cre8


	[sarcasm] Tebow is the greatest QB to ever grace the sidelines in a Jets uniform. Thou shalt not insult The Great Tebow! [/sarcasm]

Wow, without the sarcasm marks I thought you were Jon Gruden or Skip Bayless there! You had me going for a bit!

# 37 N51_rob @ 01/04/13 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cre8


	[sarcasm] Tebow is the greatest QB to ever grace the sidelines in a Jets uniform. Thou shalt not insult The Great Tebow! [/sarcasm]

Don't have to be in Madden, Corner route, corner route, corner route, hitch, out, hitch, corner route. The fact that they took out defensive match-up is magnified when offensive teams can manipulate match-ups by moving their WR's wherever they want.

# 38 KBLover @ 01/04/13 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LBzrule


	One reason why many of the ratings seem to make no sense is because they do not apply when you are controlling the player and speed/agility are the only built in parameters for how good a guy can be when you control him. I've seen people have 600 + passing yard games with Tebow

Well, I guess that confirms I suck at this game because I don't even come close to that with Pryor, who's rated similarly!

I think the most yards I've ever had, like ever is probably 400 or so. About 300 once in a long while with Pryor.

Accuracy sure seems to apply. I use Flacco, and make throws more easily that are almost close your eyes and pray (or don't bother, or get ready to tackle your INT) as Pryor.

# 39 Nza @ 01/05/13 08:20 AM

In time I could see this being standard for every player on the field. Over here in Australia in some sports they have used a more simple version where they track heart BPM for display on the TV broadcasts.

Anyway data collection is the future for just about every aspect of life, not just sports. I'm no futurist but they say in 10 years, some silly percentage of people will be employed in fields that don't even exist right now - I can see a future where the majority of people either directly or indirectly are employed by data mining and analytics.

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