I wanted to put this together really quick to address some things that I have heard on here and Twitter over the past week since Madden 16 released. I used to be one of those guys who was critical of everything that EA did and never could understand why bugs happened and things weren't as perfect as I wanted them to be. Then I started coding websites. 
This is by no means an insider view of what goes on behinds the scenes. But it is based on info I have gathered in reading articles, watching videos and chatting with different people involved with the game in one way or another.
Patching a Bug Should Be Easy
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of video games: coding. Most end users grab a controller and use that to direct the players on the field. Somehow they draw the correlation that because it seems so easy to use that it is easy to program (and fix). That is simply not the case.
I do not know exactly how each part of the game is programmed. I'm sure there are editing suites that make adding and changing things much easier than old school binary coding (0's and 1's). However, I suspect a great deal of the gameplay still involves thousands of lines of code. And there are probably hundreds of thousands of characters populating those lines of code. Sometimes, a simple character (like an ( instead of an [ ) can cause an issue. So first you have to figure out that it is actually an improper character and which one, then you have to scroll through all those lines of code and figure out which one was misplaced. Then, you have to hope fixing one thing does not uncover a bug somewhere else. Again, I'm sure their systems are far more complex than HTML or CSS, but I'm sure some of the same principles apply to many of their applications. It can be a pain staking process and one that is not quick or easy.
EA Should be Working Around the Clock to Fix the Bugs
That's a noble idea but one that I do not think is entirely practical. I mean, I wouldn't want my programmers working more than 8 hours per day as fatigue can just lead to more errors. So then you are talking about hiring more programmers, who have to be qualified and vetted and then rbought up to speed on all fo the coding which is done already. Then they would have to dig in and try to find these bugs? That doesn't sound very practical to me.
The Game Should Work Right Out of the Box
For the most part this is accurate. The game should work properly at launch. Things like the CFM bug should not happen. We should not have to avoid key features of the game that we primarily bought the game for. However, the game is never going to be perfect, at launch or at any other time. Again, there are tens of thousands of lines of code and pages of applications used in creating the game. And nobody ever gets it perfect. Shoot, when was the last time you bought a new iPhone or Android phone that worked perfect out of the box? And we pay hundreds of dollars for them. They usually don't have bugs of this size, but bugs will always come with any type of software (see Windows).
The Devs are Lazy and Don't Care
This one bothers me the most. How do you know that? Have you met them? Have you spoken to them? Have you read any articles or watched any videos where this was substantiated with fact?
I think this is mostly a frustration thing. EA certainly has a history of issue with games so its easy to see where some people try to connect those dots. The fact is though, we know nothing about these guys other than what we see in interviews that they do. I, personally, think this team has cared more about this game and the Madden community more than any other team that has ever worked on the game (certainly in the social media age). They are imperfect like the rest of us. But if they didn't care and were lazy, why would't they just avoid social media and hide in their offices? Other teams have done that. Other game developers have done that. But these guys are out there several times a week chatting with guys. I don't find that lazy or uncaring.
We Are Just Paying Game Testers
Honestly, I can see how people feel that way. However, its far from the truth. EA has a small QA team (somewhere between 5-8 guys from what I understand). They also fly in Game Changers (key players in the Madden community) several times a year to test the game and give feedback. A LOT of stuff is found and uncovered.
However, even if you have 5 guys working 40 hours a week for 2 months testing the game (and its likely much more with the entire team testing before release) that's roughly 1,600 hours of testing. Yet, Madden usually sells at least 1 million copies in the first week. And how many hours does the average player play? 5-10? So in one week the Madden team gets 5-10 million hours of gameplay feedback vs ~ 1,600 hours in the two months prior via testing. There is no possible way that they could ever replicate that kind of user base and all of the different things those users do with the game.
I do agree that some things could be done better and tuned better out of the gate. They certainly need to look at the current processes they have in place. But we're never going to have a perfect release and one without a some fairly significant bugs reported just because of the sheer volume of players and unique ways the game can be played.
EA Just Wants to Make Money
Should they not? Apple makes billions but nobody every complains about their $200 billion in cash sitting around in Cupertino. Why is it not ok for EA, a publicly traded company with a board of directors and hundreds of millions of shares in the market, not allowed to look for ways to increase their revenue? At the end of the day, EA is a business just like Best Buy, or Google or GE. They are all in the business of making money. If you do not like the value that you are getting for your $60, that is one thing. But to criticize them for making money? That's just not logical.
Conclusion
I just wanted to put this out there to hopefully give guys a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes to some degree. I can certainly appreciate where your frustration comes from. Nobody wants to get our leagues started more than us. Nobody is probably more frustrated with the gameplay in MUT and Draft Champions than me. But let's make sure that when we speak out about an issue or problems encountered that we try to be constructive and fair. We do not want to be one of those communities where guys go to bash EA or other companies. We want to be a place where guys come for mature, educated debate and discussion about Madden and other games we play.
Hope that helps some guys. I know they are working on a fix and that they truly want to deliver the best football experience ever. Hopefully communities like ours can help them find and fix these bugs and provide feedback for upcoming installments of the game so they can eventually reach that goal!
This is by no means an insider view of what goes on behinds the scenes. But it is based on info I have gathered in reading articles, watching videos and chatting with different people involved with the game in one way or another. Patching a Bug Should Be Easy
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of video games: coding. Most end users grab a controller and use that to direct the players on the field. Somehow they draw the correlation that because it seems so easy to use that it is easy to program (and fix). That is simply not the case.
I do not know exactly how each part of the game is programmed. I'm sure there are editing suites that make adding and changing things much easier than old school binary coding (0's and 1's). However, I suspect a great deal of the gameplay still involves thousands of lines of code. And there are probably hundreds of thousands of characters populating those lines of code. Sometimes, a simple character (like an ( instead of an [ ) can cause an issue. So first you have to figure out that it is actually an improper character and which one, then you have to scroll through all those lines of code and figure out which one was misplaced. Then, you have to hope fixing one thing does not uncover a bug somewhere else. Again, I'm sure their systems are far more complex than HTML or CSS, but I'm sure some of the same principles apply to many of their applications. It can be a pain staking process and one that is not quick or easy.
EA Should be Working Around the Clock to Fix the Bugs
That's a noble idea but one that I do not think is entirely practical. I mean, I wouldn't want my programmers working more than 8 hours per day as fatigue can just lead to more errors. So then you are talking about hiring more programmers, who have to be qualified and vetted and then rbought up to speed on all fo the coding which is done already. Then they would have to dig in and try to find these bugs? That doesn't sound very practical to me.
The Game Should Work Right Out of the Box
For the most part this is accurate. The game should work properly at launch. Things like the CFM bug should not happen. We should not have to avoid key features of the game that we primarily bought the game for. However, the game is never going to be perfect, at launch or at any other time. Again, there are tens of thousands of lines of code and pages of applications used in creating the game. And nobody ever gets it perfect. Shoot, when was the last time you bought a new iPhone or Android phone that worked perfect out of the box? And we pay hundreds of dollars for them. They usually don't have bugs of this size, but bugs will always come with any type of software (see Windows).
The Devs are Lazy and Don't Care
This one bothers me the most. How do you know that? Have you met them? Have you spoken to them? Have you read any articles or watched any videos where this was substantiated with fact?
I think this is mostly a frustration thing. EA certainly has a history of issue with games so its easy to see where some people try to connect those dots. The fact is though, we know nothing about these guys other than what we see in interviews that they do. I, personally, think this team has cared more about this game and the Madden community more than any other team that has ever worked on the game (certainly in the social media age). They are imperfect like the rest of us. But if they didn't care and were lazy, why would't they just avoid social media and hide in their offices? Other teams have done that. Other game developers have done that. But these guys are out there several times a week chatting with guys. I don't find that lazy or uncaring.
We Are Just Paying Game Testers
Honestly, I can see how people feel that way. However, its far from the truth. EA has a small QA team (somewhere between 5-8 guys from what I understand). They also fly in Game Changers (key players in the Madden community) several times a year to test the game and give feedback. A LOT of stuff is found and uncovered.
However, even if you have 5 guys working 40 hours a week for 2 months testing the game (and its likely much more with the entire team testing before release) that's roughly 1,600 hours of testing. Yet, Madden usually sells at least 1 million copies in the first week. And how many hours does the average player play? 5-10? So in one week the Madden team gets 5-10 million hours of gameplay feedback vs ~ 1,600 hours in the two months prior via testing. There is no possible way that they could ever replicate that kind of user base and all of the different things those users do with the game.
I do agree that some things could be done better and tuned better out of the gate. They certainly need to look at the current processes they have in place. But we're never going to have a perfect release and one without a some fairly significant bugs reported just because of the sheer volume of players and unique ways the game can be played.
EA Just Wants to Make Money
Should they not? Apple makes billions but nobody every complains about their $200 billion in cash sitting around in Cupertino. Why is it not ok for EA, a publicly traded company with a board of directors and hundreds of millions of shares in the market, not allowed to look for ways to increase their revenue? At the end of the day, EA is a business just like Best Buy, or Google or GE. They are all in the business of making money. If you do not like the value that you are getting for your $60, that is one thing. But to criticize them for making money? That's just not logical.
Conclusion
I just wanted to put this out there to hopefully give guys a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes to some degree. I can certainly appreciate where your frustration comes from. Nobody wants to get our leagues started more than us. Nobody is probably more frustrated with the gameplay in MUT and Draft Champions than me. But let's make sure that when we speak out about an issue or problems encountered that we try to be constructive and fair. We do not want to be one of those communities where guys go to bash EA or other companies. We want to be a place where guys come for mature, educated debate and discussion about Madden and other games we play.
Hope that helps some guys. I know they are working on a fix and that they truly want to deliver the best football experience ever. Hopefully communities like ours can help them find and fix these bugs and provide feedback for upcoming installments of the game so they can eventually reach that goal!
