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

[jpdavis82]

Dan,

Any updates from EA yet?

[DCEBB2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpdavis82

Dan, Any updates from EA yet?

Nope. Rex said I won't hear anything before late August. If they call me, then we get a good sense of the direction they want to go in. If not, it doesn't change a thing with what I do with my website. I will still be rating players on that site unless something happens with EA that overrules it.

[PGaither84]

I could write a whole rant about the player rating system, and those who know me over the last 6 years or so know I have had many threads and posts on this subject, but this thread is about Donny.

Having met him at the Madden 11 Community Day, I can say my limited impression of him was that he is a cool guy who had a passion for his job, but was often hand cuffed by forces outside his control. Marketing and PR had a lot of sway in the decisions he was forced to make and they care more about image than quality, and that had a big impact on the quality and legitimacy of the ratings.

Additionally, one of my pet peeves with Donny was how he rated line backers. What are the jobs of a line backer? Run Support, blitz or pass coverage. Line backers would be given quality play recognition, finesse/power move (pass rushing), and block shedding (run stopping) ratings along with the highest tackle ratings in the game compared to members of the secondary. Okay, that is all well and good, but they tended to have terrible zone and man coverage ratings.

In Madden 2012 and Madden 25 (2014), I did a roster overhaul of line backer coverage ratings, and it was game changing. from memory, the highest zone coverage rating a line backer had was like 86 or so, then the second best was like 82, and third best dropped to 78, and then it began to plummet from there. With my roster overhaul, I started by increasing every LB by 10 points across the board and then made additional tweaks after that. Unfortunately, that only had an impact on offline "play now" because incoming hand crafted rookies were all still terrible in pass coverage.

The point is that, when you couldn't just milk the middle of the field becasue of stupid AI and terrible zone/man coverage ratings by line backers, it made the game more difficult, challenging and fun (for me and my friends). Difficult and challenging are two things EA does NOT want Madden to be. That only scares away the casual crowd they want to appeal to.

Wow, it is so easy to get off topic about Donny leaving... but that is something I am passionate about and maybe his departure might lead to someone else who is open to more positive changes to the ratings system? Donny is a good guy, but as a hard core Madden fan, I won't miss him. Sorry to sound cold like that. I do wish him the best in his future projects.

[splff3000]

Any word on if we are still gonna get ratings updates during the season? It just dawned on me that, with Donny gone, they might not have the resources to do them.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by splff3000

Any word on if we are still gonna get ratings updates during the season? It just dawned on me that, with Donny gone, they might not have the resources to do them.

EA has said they have a team of guys who have worked with Donny in the past to handle ratings adjustments for this year.

[raiderphantom]

I thought his ratings were pretty solid the past couple years as you could see a lot of his ratings correlated with stats from various websites. The bigger problems with ratings are what there have always been: they are just too close together. Not enough distinction between good and great etc.. I didn't like the guy though simply from different interviews he's done over the years particularly with cummings. I think it's a good move for the franchise I'm losing interest in.

[raiderphantom]

As far as PFF goes, I think their grading is one of the best sources out there right now, even if their grading can possibly be manipulated or simply judged poorly. It's useful for RANKING players or determining overall rating even, but not necessarily for individual attributes. They will award poor technique if it's effective, but they don't reward bad play. If a corner gets beat and the WR drops the pass, the corner still gets the same negative grade he would if the Wr caught it. I don't base my opinions solely off their grading but they definitely factor in. I don't understand how you can completely dismiss the level of detail they go to.

[msdm27]

Quote: Originally Posted by raiderphantom

As far as PFF goes, I think their grading is one of the best sources out there right now, even if their grading can possibly be manipulated or simply judged poorly. It's useful for RANKING players or determining overall rating even, but not necessarily for individual attributes. They will award poor technique if it's effective, but they don't reward bad play. If a corner gets beat and the WR drops the pass, the corner still gets the same negative grade he would if the Wr caught it. I don't base my opinions solely off their grading but they definitely factor in. I don't understand how you can completely dismiss the level of detail they go to.

To this point, it's almost as if PFF is being judged because they don't make their analysis to fit madden. PFF is NOT interested in figuring out who is fastest, strongest... They care about production and general play/technique and that is mostly what nfl teams care about too.

Physical attributes can be obtained from hard data, but I consider PFF a top option when looking for intangibles, ie. Catching, mcv, zcv....

In the end, PFF is a source that goes beyond just looking at stats for rating players but instead looks at game film to see the whole picture. Not just sacks, but pressures, for example.