[Bunselpower32]

I hate to say it, but this is what happens when a company a) listens too much and b) hinges their success on online play.

a) I don't think SCEA should stop being involved with the community, that is what makes them a great studio. But...they are patching like a certain president used to govern, they wake up, read the polls and reactions for the day, and do that. There's no time for people to adjust to the game, and since they're accessible, whiny people take advantage of that and bend them to their will.

b) I'm sorry, but online play attracts the worst kind of people. You won't find them here, because this is a place of forethought and patience (generally). But any game that has a competitive element attracts people that have either been protected from losing their entire lives so they exploit/forfeit because losing is unacceptable, or legitimately good players that are obnoxious to play because they let you know how good they are.

When you get into bed with these people (prioritize online features, microtransaction, etc.) you leave yourself exposed to keeping them happy. Too many homers? You have to patch or people will stop playing. Too few? Patch it back, gotta keep the player base up. When you constrain yourself this way, the game suffers.

I remember NBA 2K17 was the best basketball game I had played in a while. Pick and Roll was awesome, pull up jumpers worked, the game was loose. And as long as you didn't exploit like 2 things, the game played like a dream. Well, online prevailed, and by the end of the flurry of patches, I was playing 2K16 again.