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OS Fact or Fiction: Sports Gaming Doldrums Edition
 
#1: MLB 15 The Show will get online play right this year.
 
Matthew Coe: Fiction. We hear this claim seemingly every year. It's not that I don't believe that Sony San Diego is trying very hard to make the experience optimal, I'm just a skeptic that it will be done for this year. I think this year is more likely (and hopefully) a step in the right direction. Baseball is such a timing based sport, that the engineers working on The Show would have to be miracle workers to get it right this year.
 
Chase Becotte: Fiction. I want it to be true, maybe it will be true, but there's a reason this has become a running gag of sorts within the Show community for years at this point. It's been said before that "we're putting our top engineers on it" and it's not as if I think anybody is lying, it just ends up not working out quite right. Baseball games are inherently tricky to handle online because the pinpoint timing needed is even more extreme than in most other online sports games, so for now I have my doubts.
 
Ben Vollmer: Fiction. This early in the PS4's lifespan, I think we're still likely to see some struggles. For whatever reason, this has been a theme this generation. I doubt that one of the first games to get it right will be MLB: The Show which has struggled with it mightily over the last few years.
 
#2: NHL 16 will recover from NHL 15's abysmal bottom and return the series to its old glory.
 
MC: Both. Depending on your measure of success, NHL 16 will either bring the series "back," or will be seen as a disappointment. I believe that NHL 16 will bring back most of the modes found in last-gen, albeit tweaked. From that perspective, it will be a step towards series glory. Sales-wise however, I think the abysmal NHL 15 will definitely hurt sales of NHL 16, despite no competition on consoles. NHL 15 soured so many gamers on the franchise, and the future of the franchise, that winning back the fans that the series lost is going to be a challenge. Nevermind attracting new fans, NHL 16 will be about recovering lost ground.
 
CB: Fiction. I think NHL 16 will be really good (I don't even think this year's game is bad, it's just empty). I'm not sure if they'll be able to fix all the "wrongs" in one year though. My feeling is that when I look back on when the Xbox 360/PS3 generation began, the NHL series had a nice first step, but it wasn't until the third version of that game when things truly clicked. Since the NHL series sort of reset itself to come to this generation, I'll look to history to be my guide and say NHL 17 is when it's back to being applauded by most.
 
BV: Fact. Quietly, EA has made a huge effort to regain the trust of its consumers over the last year or so. It's pushed back games that would have been easy to release in order to clear them of bugs (Battlefield: Hardline, for example) and delivered on some big titles. The NHL series has a strong history, and it's hard to believe that NHL '15 will be anything more than a blip on the radar.
 
 
#3: Joe Montana Football is a console football game which is going to compete with Madden.


MC: Fiction. As much as we would all like competition in the football space on consoles, this just isn't going to happen. League licensing, player licensing, the actual money and development time needed to make a console football game are a few reasons why. I think it will be a PC/mobile game in it's first iteration with the possibility to one day enter the console space if the appetite is there. But Joe Montana Football won't be competing with Madden this year for console gamers' dollars.

CB: Uh? Uh? What is life? Fa-iction? It's a fascinating story to follow because there's just breadcrumbs and guesses from there so really I have no idea. I assume the folks making this game would love this be a console release that competes with Madden. I also assume garnering the proper amount of funding to do such a thing can't be easy. Also, I don't know what we're defining "compete" as in this scenario. Would it compete in sales out of the gate? No. Would it compete in that it's an alternative football title on consoles? Yes.

BV: Fiction. I want to believe. I really do. But the fact of the matter is there is almost zero chance that the game has the funding to really compete with a AAA title like Madden. In fact, I'd be surprised if that's even the game's intention. As more info begins to trickle out, I'm sure we'll have our answer - but as it stands, I'm hesitant to be too optimistic.

#4: It is time for the NBA to quit doing the playoffs by East/West due to the divisional imbalance and instead take the top 16 teams regardless of division.

MC: Fiction. I'm a bit of an NBA purest, so this suggestion rubs me the wrong way. The East vs. West nature of the entire build-up to the Finals is part of that. To me, if we're gonna do away with the division system for the playoffs, then we need to make the schedule even so that every team plays every other team the same amount of times. That's the only fair way to determine who the 16 teams are that make the playoffs each year. I think the recent discussion about this in the media and by Adam Silver is an overreaction. Things will eventually balance back out and the East will be a more competitive conference. If something is to be done, then perhaps it's a re-alignment at best.

CB: Fact. However, there's a catch. East teams would never sign off on just doing the top 16 teams, so it's not as simple as simply keeping everything the same but just saying "now the top 16 go to the playoffs, fixed." You also can't have just a single mega conference. Instead, you would still need to break the NBA into groups of teams for travel purposes, but also balance the schedule so it's almost entirely equal in terms of everybody playing everybody else. I would think something that fuses both the current NHL and NFL landscapes together would have to be how it works, and one of the most convincing versions of this outline I've seen comes from SBNation's Tom Ziller.

BV: Fact. It would behoove the NBA to get the best 16 teams in a playoff and have them duke it out from there. Let's put it this way: Right now, Golden State (widely considered to be the best team in the NBA, and also has the best record) would play Oklahoma City in the first round. The Hawks (who have a worse record with an easier schedule) would get to play the Nets. Something needs to change.

#5: Adrian Peterson will be a Dallas Cowboy next season.

MC: Fact. Jerry Jones loves superstar players. Adrian Peterson wants to be a Cowboy. Jerry is going to find a way to get this done, even if he has to trade his draft away. I truly believe that AP will be suiting up in the blue and sliver next season. It's just a matter of how he gets there in my mind.

CB: Fact. Jerry Jones gonna Jerry Jones. At the same time, Jerry Jones has also shown he can be very loyal at times, and on some level it would be a mega heel move to run DeMarco Murray into the ground, low-ball him and then let that be the end of his time in Dallas -- only to replace him with Peterson in the end. I know Jones recently talked about wanting DeMarco back now, so who knows maybe the Peterson angle is just a negotiating tactic. Cowboys gonna Cowboys.

BV: Fiction. It is a fun thing to muse over, but chances are the Cowboys will re-sign Murray and focus on building a better defense. That being said, it's not impossible. Peterson has the same kind of talent and will come much cheaper. But with the Dez Bryant mystery video likely to gain traction over the next month or so, I'm not sure the Cowboys want more than one huge controversy on their hands.


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Member Comments
# 1 Guapo516 @ 03/07/15 06:01 PM
As much as I don't want the playoff format to change, Imbalance in the NBA comes from the way the playoffs are set up in a way.

The west teams that are good already go into the lottery as opposed to the eastern teams that are bad, so the west only gets stronger. Bad picks from the 7 eastern conference teams help also but the western teams benefit greatly from being able to add a lottery pick to a team that is already in the cusp of the playoffs.

I want to see how it shifts after some guys retire, and some guys from the west maybe move east before I definitively say it should change, but the gap between the east and the west is far too wide.
 
# 2 braves_94 @ 03/09/15 12:56 AM
I'm a bit of a purist too. Lets get rid of the three point line, shot clock, and zone defenses!
 

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