Should the focus be on Ranked?

[aholbert32]

Before I start let me say I FULLY expect to be flamed for this subject given that I'm posting this on a site where the majority of people here play ranked. Here is a little background.

- My primary focus is on offline play. With most sports games, I dont play online because 1) I dont have the time (or even the skills) to commit to become really good and 2) I get frustrated when people play in an unrealistic way. This is especially the case when it comes to EA UFC games. So understand this is a bit of an outsiders perspective.

- I feel like many people who play competitively on sports games are reaching for a "holy grail" that will never be achieved. This is the case with every sports game. Its a game of "whack a mole" for the devs. Whether its Madden, NBA 2k or UFC 3, people find a way to cheese, the devs attempt to fix the cheese (sometimes succesfully and sometimes not) and then someone else finds another way to cheese. This seems like an issue for every sports game.

- I would argue that 80% of the complaints here are related to ranked play or a mechanic that has become problematic because of ranked play. Sure there are bugs with AI or general gameplay mechanics that are brought to the team's attention but the majority of them relate to online ranked play. ****, look at the front page and the majority of posts are related to issues in ranked or online.

- The flip side is that the majority of people who play this game dont play ranked according to the devs. They play career. They play quick match against friends. They play in leagues that have rules against spam/cheese. They create their own universes/franchises and run them in event mode or custom fight now against the AI.

- With that said, my view as a Gamechangers is that the devs spend a significant amount of time fixing issues that primarily relate to Ranked and Comp modes. Instead of using the patch time to develop or add new animations or features (which require time and testing), the devs are focused on fixing bugs/cheese that primarily only Div 5 and up see regularly.

So my question is why is ranked seem to be the focus? In any other business, if you focused primarily on a small percentage of your consumers that could be disastrous.

I'm not arguing that devs should ignore ranked players. I'm not saying that some (or many) of the fixes for ranked dont help the game overall. It just feels that an excessive amount of attention is given to a group that doesnt make up even half of the people who buy this game.

PLEASE UNDERSTAND.....The intent of this thread isnt to antagonize anyone. Im just trying to get the community's thoughts on this subject.

[tissues250]

I agree. I am a online guy but i love play against AI on career mode. Most complaints came from ranked now. so I'd rather play Quick match online for that reason.

[Serengeti1]

tbh I'm thinking about ditching ranked and just playing offline. I saw MartialMind saying offline is working way better and have seen other people say it too. Thing is... The slight changes they make for ranked doesn't seem to effect offline poorly. The slight changes are very important for ranked though as balance seems to be more delicate.

As for ranked being too much of a focus... Idk. Maybe it is. But there were tons of AI fixes in the patch. And if offline is working a lot better as people are suggesting... I don't see why ranked can't be a focus when it plays so poorly in comparison.

[Phillyboi207]

If less focus on ranked meant more customization offline I’d be for it.

I have a lot of fun with WWE games thanks to all the things you can do offline. Same with Madden and nba 2k.

Right now I dont really have options. No fighter share, no universe mode, cant customize fighters, and I really dont like the direction career mode went.

[Sivo]

We the most vocal pat of the fan base get allot of attention, probably too much, but then again the ranked/ut player base is probably the most active(spends the most time per week playing) and i get the feeling if there wasn't a ufc3 tournament with cash prize, they would largely ignore online for single player.

I believe the tournament is the biggest reason for them spending so much time on multiplayer

[johnmangala]

Ranked would be better if we had the ability to have multiple records like UT imo.

But in terms of the exploits. Ranked is where the testfield is. AI won't be the source of many exploits, they are programmed to be mostly fair and balanced for fun.

[fitch is my homeboy]

Try being an UT player where the new game fixes and patches screw us over the most. Fixes are all based around elite fighters facing elite fighters. Meanwhile most of us are stuck with striking or grappling ovrs below 75. Simple game tunes nearly break UT. At least offline players get CPU tendency updates.

[UFCBlackbelt]

I wouldn't mind offline getting a boost but I just feel that at a certain point offline gets too repetitive. This is the best EA UFC career mode yet, but it still doesn't have me going back for more. There needs to be different objectives, different routes. Maybe an actual story and different ways to play offline (promoting for example).