No Season Mode?

[GTATrifecta]

Re: No Season Mode?

WOW I am so glad that I found this out before I bought the game. The only reason I play the game is to play the single season mode. I don’t have enough time to deal with all of the extra stuff in the franchise mode. I just want to play the games.

Football and baseball are my two favorite sports, and now I have to give up on The Show after I gave up on Madden a few years ago.

Like many people here have said, I just assumed this mode would be in the game because it has always been in the game.

Thank you to everyone here for pointing this out because I was planning on buying the game this week. You guys all literally just saved me $60 now that I know I wouldn’t have been able to play what is the only mode I use in this game.

[kaptainkarl76]

Re: No Season Mode?

To me, it's more like:

Going to your local McDonald's that, when it first opened, had a PlayPlace attached. One fine day it used to be the pinnacle of child entertainment alongside receiving a toy in a Happy Meal.

Then as time moved on and the digital craze had expanded, after you bought a house in the area ensuring that your children would have the same fun endeavors that you had when you were younger... you find out that they tear the PlayPlace down in favor of additional room for a WiFi zone w/ mobile hotspotting and an extra drive thru lane, completely unannounced.

You should have realized the writing was on the wall when commercials featuring a joyous clown was replaced by hip hop music and health-conscious choices at the diner, they added a self-servicing machine next to the cashiers, and when you were asking employees and management about the PlayPlace in the past they would constantly steer you toward making sure you post your memories on their Twitter page or whatever it's called.

Yes... that... that's what it's like. There it is.

Exactly...much better!

[BionicJoker]

Re: No Season Mode?

I buy this game every two years. Last time was 2016. This was the year I was going to get it, so I was pretty pumped. Not anymore. What a horrible step backwards.

That was the last time I bought the show as well. This is pretty much my advice to anyone who buys sports titles: Buy every 2 years.
Never thought I’d see the day it wouldn’t be sound advice

[Blzer]

Re: No Season Mode?

That was the last time I bought the show as well. This is pretty much my advice to anyone who buys sports titles: Buy every 2 years.
Never thought I’d see the day it wouldn’t be sound advice

I wish sports games developed every two years with roster/stadium/uniform updates in between years. That would give them 21-month development cycles instead of a nine-month one.

[JTommy67]

Re: No Season Mode?

I wish sports games developed every two years with roster/stadium/uniform updates in between years. That would give them 21-month development cycles instead of a nine-month one.

It's a nice thought, but it would be half the revenue, unless they charged for the update in the off years...which I'm sure nobody would like. I'd have no problem paying $80 every two years but I'm sure that puts me in the small minority. (However, games today are slightly cheaper than back in early 90s...where you could pay $40-$50 per game...but that was more money than the same price today.)

In any case, companies used to try that model (Sierra's Nascar Racing series comes to mind) but it fizzled out...Nascar was gobbled up by EA which pioneered the whole "game a year" model...is everybody just following suit, though? That is, can a multi-year cycle really work? It's possible...but probably too risky to try, at this point..because you can bet a competitor will time their new release to coincide with your off year.

No, I think the one-year cycle is here to stay, unfortunately.

[Blzer]

Re: No Season Mode?

No, I think the one-year cycle is here to stay, unfortunately.

Actually, I think they are mandated to release every year as long as they are using the license. I remember a developer coming on here to say that (not SDS/SCEA, but for a different sports title).

I'm just saying I wish that was the case. The other thing they could do is have two different developer teams release every other year, like what they do for COD (I believe COD had/has three different development teams these days). It would make for some inconsistency, but yeah..

[nomo17k]

Re: No Season Mode?

I wish sports games developed every two years with roster/stadium/uniform updates in between years. That would give them 21-month development cycles instead of a nine-month one.

At least the devs could try "staggering" development schedule by breaking down the game into major features that are developed (relatively) independently, by the complexity involved in making real innovation happen. Like assigning a small team to work on the Franchise mode and give the team two years to work on the mode, without pressuring to produce "just something" to give a fake appearance of freshness in the yearly cycle. The latter mindset really has hurt innovation, and unless the devs break out of that cycle I think we will be playing the same franchise mode in five years.

I think The Show in the current state can be broken down into two major components, the gameplay and (what the devs call) the front-end. That is, whenever you play out the actual game, that's gameplay, and all those "peripheral" features (Diamond Dynasty team management, markets, RTTS, Franchise, etc.) built around the game play require mostly front-end work (though the components need to interact, of course...).

It's given that everyone wants continuous improvements in the area of gameplay, and I think overall the SDS devs have done good job in that, every year. This should continue as is.

But mode-specific improvements, to me, tend to be quite disappointing every year, given the amount of similar feedback that have never really been addressed year after year (just see the reaction of Franchise guys these days).

Whenever the devs tout improvements in the mode-specific features, I end up feeling that they did what they could in such a short time, but did so changing as little things as they could under the hood (in terms of programming), not because they lack willingness to innovate, but with so little time they simply do not have time to radically change things and incur additional technical debts on top of existing ones, when the next release is always imminent.

Just how much can actually be done with mostly front-end features, one should look at how Diamond Dynasty has been added/changed/improved over a span of just a couple years. That tells how much can be done, if the devs deem doing so is a worthy goal. A mode like this can act as an eye candy for the ADHD types who demand something new every year. (I'm not being cynical about that specific effort though... making the game playable online has been a major achievement and overall a great thing; I play online as well, just not DD.)

On the other hand, the lack of true innovation in purely offline modes like Franchise has been obvious, and all those improvements that are introduced really tend to be of "tweaking" kinds (e.g., UX/UI refreshment, parameter tweaking/minor algorithmic changes that do not "break" existing constraints), when what needs to be done at this point to make major offline modes like Franchise attractive is fairly substantial changes in how the devs approach in simulating deeper experiences.

[SaltLakeBrave]

Re: No Season Mode?

I enjoyed season mode in 1995. may wanna try a mode that more then like one percent of people play.

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What an ******* thing to say.


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[jcas007]

Re: No Season Mode?

I'm glad I found this out before I received my copy I ordered hasn't been delivered yet so I will be able to return it ,I send message on Twitter to a bunch of ppl associated with the game a couple of times and Facebook also why it's not and if maybe they are going to patch it in but they'll never answer I just feel bad for fellow gamers who had to find out the hard way by putting out 60 bucks that totally sucks

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[My993C2]

Re: No Season Mode?

It's given that everyone wants continuous improvements in the area of gameplay, and I think overall the SDS devs have done good job in that, every year. This should continue as is.

I am not happy that SDS removed Season mode without warning us. But I have moved on.

I am impressed with the game play of MLB 18. Is it perfect, no. But it is the best I have ever seen it play. From what I have seen so far, it appears that the offline player ratings actually influence the results now more than ever and those of us who strive for a similar experience we see in the real world might be in for a pleasant surprise.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: No Season Mode?

On the other hand, the lack of true innovation in purely offline modes like Franchise has been obvious, and all those improvements that are introduced really tend to be of "tweaking" kinds (e.g., UX/UI refreshment, parameter tweaking/minor algorithmic changes that do not "break" existing constraints), when what needs to be done at this point to make major offline modes like Franchise attractive is fairly substantial changes in how the devs approach in simulating deeper experiences.

And to be quite frank, the level of "thinking things through" isn't very high when they do add a new feature to try to deepen the Franchise/season-type modes. Point to any number of recent examples (batting stance creator, morale system, cash flow, dynamic attendance, quirks) and it's rare that these things work as intended or don't end up presenting painful issues of their own.

[jcas007]

Re: No Season Mode?

And to be quite frank, the level of "thinking things through" isn't very high when they do add a new feature to try to deepen the Franchise/season-type modes. Point to any number of recent examples (batting stance creator, morale system, cash flow, dynamic attendance, quirks) and it's rare that these things work as intended or don't end up presenting painful issues of their own.

Don't forget adding unnecessary stuff like mascots like that's so important to have

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[nomo17k]

Re: No Season Mode?

And to be quite frank, the level of "thinking things through" isn't very high when they do add a new feature to try to deepen the Franchise/season-type modes. Point to any number of recent examples (batting stance creator, morale system, cash flow, dynamic attendance, quirks) and it's rare that these things work as intended or don't end up presenting painful issues of their own.

I think this also is a side effect of staying within the realm of "legacy" framework that has driven the franchise mode for years... some things cannot be realized unless the engineers/game designers are allowed to entirely break out of the constraints that have been hampering progress for years.

In some sense, *if* the removal of season mode (as well as online franchise) was to facilitate the wholesale upgrade of the underlying framework of the franchise mode by reducing maintenance cost and consolidating efforts into the franchise upgrade (potentially with options to replicate simpler season mode experiences), people may have even welcomed the transition... but as you know, the franchise mode updates have remained underwhelming.

And I don't think there are enough good signs that such an effort happens in near future, given that much of recent, major improvement happened in the areas where metrics are easier to interpret. Modes with quick actions and more activities (DD, RTTS, etc.) have obvious advantages there. (For example, I may not be someone who have counted toward a user who incremented activities stats in the franchise mode, but that doesn't mean I have no interest in the mode, as I can easily lose hours playing OOTP... in my case the franchise mode of The Show is simply not appealing enough with various lingering issues which have never been addressed adequately.)

[FunkDockta27]

Re: No Season Mode?

Maybe its just me, I played Season Mode...ALOT and I do agree it was low to not really announce ya takin it out...but heck if they made franchise where you could edit the number of games in a season I'd settle for that...AND then hope they put season back in for 19. Franchise was just too much info overload for the amount of free time I have. And preferred my own stats as opposed to Sim stats. See how I did ya know? Franchise I player locked.

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[jcas007]

Re: No Season Mode?

Maybe its just me, I played Season Mode...ALOT and I do agree it was low to not really announce ya takin it out...but heck if they made franchise where you could edit the number of games in a season I'd settle for that...AND then hope they put season back in for 19. Franchise was just too much info overload for the amount of free time I have. And preferred my own stats as opposed to Sim stats. See how I did ya know? Franchise I player locked.

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That's the problem your not able to change the length of the season in franchise mode and I know for me and the ppl on this thread and more that I've been on different blogs on other sites all say the same thing , I'm just gonna have to go back to 17 cause I have my save file season and I'm not playing 162 and I don't sim

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