Former Tiburon Developer Tells All

The wonders of Twitter. Where a reply can start a conversation with a person you've never met before, where that conversation can turn into back-and-forth emails, and where those can eventually become a full-blown interview. All in the space of a few months. As reported, we're lucky enough to bring you a Tell All, no-holes-barred, no-question-is-taboo interview from a former Tiburon developer. For the sake of the anonymity we promised him, let's call him Bob. He chimes in on doing away with speed as Madden's dominant attribute, lowering ratings and how excited Madden fans should be about new hardware. Read below for the entire interview.

"I think you saw us deal with the inflation of ratings a few years ago, but sure; I don't think it would hurt to lower them again."--Bob

SG - The scrutiny that Madden gets every year, describe it.
Bob - Heh, good question. Its hard to deal with sometimes but you get used to it. It's the job, really. We have this title that's turned into a movement that people are just passionate about. Sometimes fans cross the line by insulting us personally, and I really didn't accept that at first. My wife broke it down to me like this: This is the thing that people choose to do in their leisure time, this is almost their fantasy so to speak, when they feel like things aren't done right its like you're ruining their fantasy. That actually makes sense.

SG - Madden 12 obviously is a solid title with what many consider the most solid foundation the series has enjoyed this generation. But there are a few hiccups: Toss Plays, QB Sneaks, DE Pressure, PR Blocking and User Control that is probably a little too dominant. Can this stuff be rectified before the exploits get too bad? It's already turning into a year where online you see nothing but toss plays.
Bob - I'm glad you guys are enjoying it. At the end of the cycle you could tell with the way so many of the guys were excited that we had a really good product. Last year with Madden 11, we really didn't feel that way. As far as the specific exploits, they have tuner sets this year so most of that stuff should get sorted out.

SG - It's seems like you guys totally "get" how a new feature like surprise onside kicks has the potential to be abused and properly balanced it due to this. So what about going for it on ANY and EVERY fourth down? It just goes against everything that is "real football". In reality, the NFL fourth down conversion rate isn't even 40%. So using the same rationale, why aren't fourth down attempts limited or the percentages dramatically lowered? People keep doing it because they have success. Lower the success rate and you'll see more sim-style play, right?
Bob - There was a lot of negative feedback regarding Fairplay so it got scrapped. But I always supported it. I'll tell you a secret, I've always supported lowering 4th down percentages as well. Nobody hates cheesy style players more than I do. I really hope they do this. I'm hopeful too.

SG - Why is speed so dominant in Madden?

Bob - Well it's not just Madden, first off. Speed is dominant is any sports game and gaming in general. There really isn't a more powerful ability to be able to get from one point to another faster than other people. I play a lot of COD, imagine if when we spawned I moved three times as fast as everyone else. I could get to the choke-points on the map before the enemy could set up there, and might even be able to shoot the other team as they left their spawn.

SG - So there weren't things you could do to address it?
Bob - Well sure, you saw a collective effort to slow the game speed down a few years back and that really improved gameplay.

SG - Had you guys talked about not making speed so dominant?
Bob -Well it's something i'd actually brought up in production meetings before, you have to keep in mind that plenty of guys who work there (at Tiburon) are really big football fans, they hate seeing exploits as much as anyone. Its embarassing to see people using guys who've never performed at a high level in the NFL to dominate because they have one unbalanced attribute. But it's a slippery slope, because players want to be able to play well, so do you make it so players can't outperform their ratings, or do you give stick skill/user control the advantage? Regardless, there's a player segment that isn't going to be happy. You have to find a balance.

SG - How would you have addressed it?

Bob - I think it's pretty simple. In football you have guys that run fast times at the combine but you never see it on the football field. Then you have those guys who run average times at the combine but have football speed and make tons of plays, like a Jerry Rice. Then you have guys who are both, Chris Johnson is a good example of this. An easy way to prevent the non-performing guys from dominating unrealistically is to tie their acceleration to their awareness, as kind of an example of how the game is still too fast for them. Make it so their acceleration never exceeds their awareness. That way you don't have a guy blessed with speed like Reggie Bush, leading your league in rushing when he's an average running back at best. Those guys will still be able to use their speed where those kind of players with straight-line speed tend to dominate; like kick and punt return and special teams, but you won't have to worry about a guy rushing for 200 yards just because he's fast.

SG - What did you think of our blog so far?

Bob - I like it. More of a hardcore slant than anything else, though. But that's cool, there's a big market out there for hardcore guys.

SG - A big gripe with Madden players has been the fact that previous features that are useful like Individual Coverage Audibles, Defensive Commit and Man Lock. Defensive Shading doesn't even work.

Bob - I'll give you the short version. Priorities and Memory Issues, plain and simple, keep in mind coverage audibles is in this year. Some of things you'll see those guys do with the 8th-gen hardware is going to be pretty amazing. But the priorities with features will always factor in, sometimes development time is just a bigger issue than you realize.

SG - Why did you leave Tiburon?

Bob - I simply got a better offer/opportunity. Nothing else to it. Tiburon was a great place to work.

SG - We've been pretty vocal about how we think that too-high ratings hurt the game overall, we look at QBs who rarely throw bad passes, kickers converting from 60+ yards and receivers that routinely catch in double coverage? Doesn't that say to us that ratings should come down?
Bob - Well Tiburon already has a guy who does ratings, and he really knows enough about the players to be a Scout, quite honestly, but some of your points are valid. Bad passes are in this year, and I think you saw us deal with the inflation of ratings a few years ago, but sure; I don't think it would hurt to lower them again. It's all relative anyway. I know i'm going to sound like a broken record here again, but you can't even imagine the level of detail you're going to see with consoles like the PS4 & XBOX 720. I can really say that you're patience as a football fan is going to be rewarded.

We'd like to thank "Bob" for his time and his honest and pretty thorough answers as well. We certainly enjoyed interviewing him an learned alot about some of the processes that we're in the dark about being "fans" of the series. We hope our readers take a great deal from this ultra-informative interview as well.