EA claims they do "alot of research" to come up with their ratings, but usually their ratings are based on hype/balance issues. At least Madden's are somewhat realistic (though I loved that they had some bitter looking black guy as Steve Neal's photo for years before they finally got it right last year), look at the hockey games for examples of really messed up ratings. Hal Gill was like a 85, Jiri Slegr a 82. Guys who put up 100 points last year were 75s. That and they have about 800 different rating categories... what exactly is the gameplay difference between "poise", "nerve", and "composure"? Damned if I know, but there were seperate ratings for all three.