EA Madden NFL 13 Roster update #14 (WEEK 13) - Continuing to track increases and decreases.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving last week.  This blog post will continue my series of tracking increases and decreases throughout the year.  Enjoy.

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On Friday (11/30/12), the Week 13 Madden NFL 13 roster update went live (Here is EA's Blog).  

My goal with this blog series is to increase awareness when it comes to Madden players ratings.  As of this blog post, EA has still not released information regarding the standard procedures they follow when adjusting each individual player attribute?  By refusing to share an objective set of procedures that apply to all players and teams (equally), Madden fans will continue to conclude that player ratings are full of bias and inaccuracy.

You can contact EA on twitter at @EAMaddenNFL and Donny Moore (Lead Ratings Person) using @Donny_Moore to share your thoughts.

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This blog will update you on the OVR changes that have taken place since the Week 2 update.  I started at week two, because that is the first update after the regular season began.

* Below are some tables I created to track ALL increases and decreases (based on OVR only) that EA publishes on their website.  This table will allow you to see what positions are getting the most increases, decreases, and which ones are being overlooked.

Obseravtions:


-  The gap in the overall percentage of increases in offense and defense has really shrunk the last several updates.  58.8% for the offense to 57.0% for the defense.  The roster updates in week 11 and 12 gave a boost to the defense in term of increase percentage.  This week, the offense and defense had almost identical percentages (55.8% increase for the offense and 55.7% for defense).  

- WR and CB continue to be very close in terms of actual changes and percentages.  

- To date, quarterbacks have received the highest percentage (47%) of decreases for the offense, while safeties have the highest percentage (47%) on defense.  

- To date, fullbacks have the lowest decrease percentage (26%) on offense and punters have the lowest (26%) on defense.  

-  47 Players received an increase in both week 12 and 13 roster update.

-  27 Players received a decrease in both week 12 and 13 update.

-  40 Players were increased this week after being decreased last week.

-  32 Players were decreased this week after being increased last week.  

-  In total, there were 72 "flip flop" player rating adjustments in the week 13 update.  

* A "flip flop" rating adjustment is when a player is increased or decreased one week and adjusted in the exact opposite direction the following week.  This is also an example of a "knee jerk" rating system.  In this scenario, only 1 game has been played between rating adjustments.

- Since the week 3 roster update (the second update based on the NFL regular season), Madden NFL 13 has produced 454 "flip flop" player rating adjustments.  Honestly, EA can't even stand behind these adjustments for more than one week?  As a matter of fact, the new ratings are typically live on Friday and by Sunday night EA is already ready to back track on something that is only two days old.  Really?

- I will continue to suggest to EA Sports, that they utilize larger sample sizes (minimum 3 to 4 games) prior to adjusting player ratings and attributes in current/future Madden NFL titles.  I believe a larger sample size will result in more accuracy and less inconsistency in player attribute ratings.