Bridging the Divide

Flew to Dallas this week to attend a talk by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) about improving the workplace environment for LGBTQ Workers. According the the HRC’s research only 46% of LGBTQ employees feel safe to be out at work. From personal experience it’s so much more enjoyable when you can bring your authentic self to work. No need to play “the pronoun game” when someone asks you what you did this weekend. You don’t have to remember who you’re out to and who you’re not out to. This is a distraction and sometimes isolating because you avoid the conversations. It can be exhausting and has an effect on productivity and engagement. Hope to turn this information into a presentation for other managers at work so that we can promote a safe work environment for our LGBTQ employees.

It’s Madden Season 6

Today is the sixth relaunch of Madden NFL Mobile. I can’t believe I’ve been involved with this mobile game since 2013. I’ve been seeing it come together for several months and have been excited for it’s release. This has to be the largest update since our initial release back in 2014. I’m most excited about the new Season Mode. It’s the most in depth single player mode we’ve done in Madden Mobile yet. Hope everyone enjoys it. If you haven’t played in a while, come back and try it again. The UI has been revamped and looks wonderful. It’s available today on iOS and Android.

Knight Hacks 2019

Spent the afternoon up at The University of Central Florida interviewing students who were participating in the Knight Hacks competition. It’s a 48 hours Hack-a-thon, where students band together to code up an application. I spoke to several perspective interns all of who were wanting to join us on Madden Mobile & NBA LIVE Mobile for the summer. Good luck to all the students in their Knight Hacks!

Out & Equal Summit

I’ve really enjoyed my time at the Out & Equal summit so far. The speakers on the first day of the summit were truly inspirational. The work group sessions I’ve been to just have highlighted how much work we need to do in order to get EA up to the same level as some of the other companies’ Employee Resource Groups. Today we spent the afternoon exploring Seattle a little. We walked along the piers and explored some of the gift shops. At the Dell booth, they were doing these awesome caricatures. I had to get one. So far it’s been a great experience and I’m hoping we can convince EA to participate next year in a higher capacity.

Seattle Bound

Landed in Seattle, Washington tonight. I’m representing EA at the Out & Equal Conference this week. Me and the other co-chair for the EA Pride Employee Resource Group (ERG) are attending to scope out the conference to see if it would be a good thing for EA to participate in and to get ideas to help out the ERGs at all the various studios. This is the first time I’ve attended something like this, so I’m nervous and curious to see what it’s all about.

NBA LIVE Mobile – Season 3

Today we are kicking off the 3rd season of another game I work on: NBA LIVE Mobile. This game is so much fun and I’ve been playing it all weekend. It has really come together nicely. The new campaign system that we put in for this release looks awesome and is excellent in guiding you through what to play. If you’re a basketball fan, you should check it out. It’s available today in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Madden NFL Overdrive

It’s that time again. We’re kicking off the 5th Season of Madden Mobile, now called Madden Overdrive. I’ve been working on this game for 5 years now and I’m so excited about the launch today. The graphics and gameplay engine has been updated to the PS3 version of the game and a new head-to-head mode called Overdrive has been added. If you’re a football fan, you should check it out. It’s available today in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.