MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transactions

[Beelzebot44]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

Anything after the purchase of the game is a micro transaction and you wont see past your own conclusion to see anything else anyone says so there is no point talking about it anymore.

I agree with you, anything after you buy the game is a microtransaction. I actually don't even have anything against them; I work 12 hour shifts and spend 3 hours commuting and have a 1 year old. I have way more money than time and do buy my way past the grind sometimes. So I'm not opposed to having them in the game at all. They are losing money from me with this approach though because it won't save any time so I won't see any benefit, but I'm not against them in theory.

What I AM against is the dishonest marketing. They know microtransactions are a controversial issue in gaming and are blatantly lying about it. That's my problem with it.

[seasprite]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

I agree with you, anything after you buy the game is a microtransaction. I actually don't even have anything against them; I work 12 hour shifts and spend 3 hours commuting and have a 1 year old. I have way more money than time and do buy my way past the grind sometimes. So I'm not opposed to having them in the game at all. They are losing money from me with this approach though because it won't save any time so I won't see any benefit, but I'm not against them in theory.

What I AM against is the dishonest marketing. They know microtransactions are a controversial issue in gaming and are blatantly lying about it. That's my problem with it.

"Blatantly lying" is a strong accusation

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[spike83]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

"Blatantly lying" is a strong accusation

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I would phrase it as "choosing their words carefully."

[Beelzebot44]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

"Blatantly lying" is a strong accusation

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But it's accurate. Saying "we eliminated microtransactions in RTTS" is a lie.

[Belkbuzze]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

Is this Year 2 of, say, a 3 year plan for Road to the Show? Or is this more ad-hoc?
RR: It's Year 2 of... a 5, 10, hopefully 15 year plan for Road to the Show. As we said in the streams, everything we did with Diamond Dynasty was where we wanted to see the mode end up at. So we pulled back those resources for Road to the Show. As long as Road to the Show is continuously the most played mode, we're going to spend a lot of time and resources on making it the best mode in the game.

That hurts so much.

It’s probably cause I’m old school (played RBI baseball on NES) and a casual gamer, but RTTS seem aimed at a younger/teenish audience. They sure have 20x more time to play then I do, but I wish SDS spread ressources more evenly.

I’ll probably sound grumpy, but if I want an RPG, I’ll discover a fascinating universe like Divinity Original Sin, The Witcher, Elder scrolls, Kingdom Come, etc.. Not in a subpar baseball stadium in a nextdoor city. Deciding if you answer as a good guy or a jerk in a scripted and meaningless conversation feels kinda stupid.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like to play RTTS occasionally, but I’m sad to see it’s the most played mode.

[Dolenz]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

That hurts so much.

It’s probably cause I’m old school (played RBI baseball on NES) and a casual gamer, but RTTS seem aimed at a younger/teenish audience. They sure have 20x more time to play then I do, but I wish SDS spread ressources more evenly.

I’ll probably sound grumpy, but if I want an RPG, I’ll discover a fascinating universe like Divinity Original Sin, The Witcher, Elder scrolls, Kingdom Come, etc.. Not in a subpar baseball stadium in a nextdoor city. Deciding if you answer as a good guy or a jerk in a scripted and meaningless conversation feels kinda stupid.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like to play RTTS occasionally, but I’m sad to see it’s the most played mode.

Not just teenagers. I am 53 and I still play RTTS, although I started transitioning to DD last year.

They have announced the number of games played for the last few years and it has not even been close with RTTS games coming in at around 4 times higher than the next closest mode.

Of the major modes (RTTS, DD, Franchise) RTTS is the easiest to just jump in and play. And never underestimate the draw of creating yourself in a game as close as you can and trying to become a superstar.

That said, as a long time RTTS player I am not a fan of the cut scenes and interactions they added last year. I want to play games not navigate repetitive dialog trees.

[BigOscar]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

They have announced the number of games played for the last few years and it has not even been close with RTTS games coming in at around 4 times higher than the next closest mode.

.

It's a bit of a nonsense that though isn't it? Considering that a game of RTTS takes about 5 minutes to play, if that, compared to close to an hour for a full 9 inning game. Even 3 inning games on DD take 4 times as long as a game of RTTS. Then when you consider how long people spend in DD or Franchise not actually playing games and I imagine the figures look pretty different.

[Dolenz]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

It's a bit of a nonsense that though isn't it? Considering that a game of RTTS takes about 5 minutes to play, if that, compared to close to an hour for a full 9 inning game. Even 3 inning games on DD take 4 times as long as a game of RTTS. Then when you consider how long people spend in DD or Franchise not actually playing games and I imagine the figures look pretty different.

A game in RTTS takes longer than 5 minutes. If you have all opportunities turned on it can take up to 15 minutes. That is especially true if you get on base with no outs and have the option turned on where you see all pitches to subsequent hitters while you are on base.

Well they also have the stats on how long every player spends in each mode since we can check our own time spent.

[BigOscar]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

A game in RTTS takes longer than 5 minutes. If you have all opportunities turned on it can take up to 15 minutes. That is especially true if you get on base with no outs and have the option turned on where you see all pitches to subsequent hitters while you are on base.

Well they also have the stats on how long every player spends in each mode since we can check our own time spent.

Yup and I'd hope (and imagine) that's what they use when looking at which mode is more popular. I remember them saying on the stream about which one had the most games played and thought it was a very strange thing to say, as it was obviously a pretty poor metric.

[tyler289]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

"No microtransactions" seems incredibly misleading considering they still are in the game, just not directly in RTTS. This article is very misleading and if I just saw the headline (here on OS or on the actual site) I would think they're actually removed completely, but they're not.

[Jeffrey Smith]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

There are micro transactions but they are 100% optional and unnecessary to progress. You can just grind away at the game to earn your in game currency.

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[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

"No microtransactions" seems incredibly misleading considering they still are in the game, just not directly in RTTS. This article is very misleading and if I just saw the headline (here on OS or on the actual site) I would think they're actually removed completely, but they're not.

It is not misleading, read past the headlines. They clearly explain it is no longer tied to progression, since games like NBA2K as well as Battlefront 2 received a lot of flack for that, and for good reason. This was the right thing to do.

They are not going to completely remove them. The monetization in other areas that do not cause problems in offline play or other modes helps us in the long run as gamers. It keeps the budget funded every year, especially in a baseball gaming market that is very niche now compared to other sports games.

[Caulfield]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

It is not misleading, read past the headlines. They clearly explain it is no longer tied to progression, since games like NBA2K as well as Battlefront 2 received a lot of flack for that, and for good reason. This was the right thing to do.

They are not going to completely remove them. The monetization in other areas that do not cause problems in offline play or other modes helps us in the long run as gamers. It keeps the budget funded every year, especially in a baseball gaming market that is very niche now compared to other sports games.

Yeah, I'm thinking that what is misleading is that people are claiming SDS is misleading consumers with their microtransactions statement.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

Yeah, I'm thinking that what is misleading is that people are claiming SDS is misleading consumers with their microtransactions statement.

Yeah, some are not reading past the headline sentence of 65 characters or less.

They explained it not only in the live stream, but every interview I've read so far, and told you exactly what it was. If you only read the headline, you are being the one in the wrong, not them.

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[Dolenz]

Re: MLB The Show 18 Interview - Online Play, Gameplay Improvements, No Micro Transact

There are micro transactions but they are 100% optional and unnecessary to progress. You can just grind away at the game to earn your in game currency.

Sent from my Lenovo TB-X103F using Operation Sports mobile app

I don't get this as a counter argument.

The micro transactions have always been optional and unnecessary. You could reach all 99's without ever spending a single stub, just by grinding away earning training points by playing.

Buying training points with stubs was an optional way to improve your RTTS player.

Buying equipment with stubs was/is an optional way to improve your RTTS player.

I don't get the differentiation. Just based on the info we have so far I would say that now people are actually more likely to use the micro transactions in order to get the good equipment to help them compensate for the caps. Though they will never tell us I would probably bet that more Stubs are spent by RTTS players in MLB 18 than there was in MLB 17.

I don't care either way but it just seems strange that they are touting no micro-transactions because they removed some optional micro transactions and left another optional micro transaction in the game.

And of course the insidious/cynical view is that all the people who do use stubs to buy equipment will need to do so again next year when they carry their player over because they will lose all of the equipment.

Oh, and lastly let's not praise them too much. Why did they remove micro transactions that allow you to buy training points? Because they removed training points. All they did was not replace the micro transactions that were made obsolete by the new advancement system