Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

[RogerDodger]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

It never ceases to amaze me that pjeople on this site equate their voices and opinions as the majority of the people playing this game. This site is unparalleled for sports gaming but it's home to the hardcore and the loudest voices here are in the extreme minority and in no way indicative of the typical gamer playing these games.*

I would agree if I hadn’t checked their official Twitter feed recently and seen a significant proportion of replies asking for updates to franchise mode. Like I said in another thread, if it’s a recurring theme on Twitter it’s popular and relevant.

[CujoMatty]

I’m a pretty optimistic OS member but this interview was a real head scratcher. *I appreciate the attempt at transparency but *these opinions seem like things that were better left unsaid and I think the tone was intended to smooth out some of the frustration but i think it’s going to fuel it even more.

[philmnn]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

It all seems like damage control to me. For years the devs have been catering towards the casual fan who doesn't want to spend more than 10 minutes doing anything (quick counts being the one true brilliant idea.) So its hard for me as a consumer to believe that March to October can be BOTH an elaborate foundation to the future of an in depth franchise mode, AND a mode that "provides something that wasn't so daunting." Those two things are literal opposites. You can't say you listen to consumers crying for a MORE in depth franchise and then create a diet season mode where half the features of said mode could have already been done, just with a different
splash of paint on them. Its just weird to me. This isnt 2011 anymore, the show is no longer on top graphically and gameplay wise where a "little things" thread blows the consumer away. People are getting impatient, myself included. Thats not to say I don't support the devs, it just seems that boat of people asking themselves "wait why exactly am i buying this game this year?" is getting more and more crowded, and that clear cut day-1 buy has quickly turned in to waiting for a sale or just outright skipping. The front jersey numbers being placed higher shouldn't be my most excited fix/feature in a new game lol.

[esmeet7]

Bring Back Online Franchise

As someone who moved from being an Xbox player to the Playstation just to play MLB The Show, it's incredibly disappointing to see that Online Franchise is missing (again) and that there aren't any expressed intentions to bring it back.

Playing in an on-line franchise environment with my sons (and some of our friends) is a game-changing goal and desire. It's inconceivable to me that today's sports games (with exceptions of Madden and NBA 2K) don't have an on-line franchise option. Those of us who grew up with the early iterations of sports video games literally dreamed about the day when we'd have on-line franchise options. Now that the technology clearly exists to do this well, it's a sports-game travesty not to have an on-line franchise option.

To the MLB The Show development team that reads OS posts and articles, please bring back on-line franchises.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

It never ceases to amaze me that people on this site equate their voices and opinions as the majority of the people playing this game. This site is unparalleled for sports gaming but it's home to the hardcore and the loudest voices here are in the extreme minority and in no way indicative of the typical gamer playing these games.*

I disagree my friend. Take a look at their twitter feed. Franchise may be a small minority but we make up a good percentage of sales. A good percentage of sales for a game that already represents what is now #3 in terms of sport popularity in the country. SDS doesn't want to lose those sales and I think they realize this is he year that a lot of people will jump ship or at the very minimum skip. Even if only 200,000 out of a million people by this game for franchise only that is still a huge percentage of sales to lose.

If you bring in 10,000 new casual customers but lose 15,000 franchise customers who were loyal buyers previously, that is still a net loss.

[Dolenz]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

I disagree my friend. Take a look at their twitter feed. Franchise may be a small minority but we make up a good percentage of sales. A good percentage of sales for a game that already represents what is now #3 in terms of sport popularity in the country. SDS doesn't want to lose those sales and I think they realize this is he year that a lot of people will jump ship or at the very minimum skip. Even if only 200,000 out of a million people by this game for franchise only that is still a huge percentage of sales to lose

The dissatisfied minority will always be the most visible on any forum or social media platform.

When they posted the poll on twitter recently, those of us who are not really dissatisfied simply answered the question that was posed. There was no reason for us to leave a comment. There were 7,878 votes and only 230 comments and not all of those comments were about franchise, but people still point to those comments as some benchmark as to how overwhelmingly popular franchise is.

[dynastymgrguy]

I've been a sports gamer longer than some here have been alive, and I found that over time, my free time decreased as life got more complicated in today's busy world. But, I love to play the games because it's always fun to try and guide a team to a championship. Last year's MLB the Show 18 was the first time I played more than 3 season with one team, but that was ONLY because I implemented my own gimmicks (curation) to progress faster through the season. I actually conceived in my own mind something like March to October (but never thought I'd see it in a game). Die-harders can't imagine "simming" and the same fuss came when "quick counts" was implemented. But quick counts was the best thing to come around to get through a game more quickly (bravo) so we can get back to "living" in the real world faster.

Of course, no one wants to be curated to death... and the SDS team is providing a regular franchise mode with no curating, but I think it is a great idea that many will come to enjoy. ESPECIALLY later in the season when we have tired of our regular franchise mode that we never finished. And, they have provided the option to*continue into a regular franchise experience after the curated season ends. That's a great option.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

The dissatisfied minority will always be the most visible on any forum or social media platform.

When they posted the poll on twitter recently, those of us who are not really dissatisfied simply answered the question that was posed. There was no reason for us to leave a comment. There were 7,878 votes and only 230 comments and not all of those comments were about franchise, but people still point to those comments as some benchmark as to how overwhelmingly popular franchise is.

Dude you have a serious vendetta against franchise players don't you?

[PoppersPop]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

I used to be a franchise-only guy. But I probably fall under the umbrella of users they talk about that would just kinda peter out and end up simming a bunch of games or let my franchise gather dust after a while. I enjoy different aspects of team building and management, but having to tackle every single facet for the duration of the franchise ultimately ended up being too daunting and/or boring. Over the years I've jumped around between Franchise and RTTS and DD, playing each of them whenever I was in the mood for that particular mode. By no means would I consider myself a 'casual' player (my XP tapped out at 100 Diamond about a month ago), but I'm genuinely as excited for Moments and MTO as much as the DD, RTTS and Franchise updates. I have a feeling there are probably a good number of users like me that shift around through all the modes and find enjoyment in more than just one specific mode. I do feel sorry for those that are hyper-focused on one mode and nothing else. Not only are you missing out on the fun in the rest of the game, but you're cursing yourself to be disappointed by what SDS does/doesn't do. I guessed they're damned by their own success.

[BigOscar]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

RTTS- Look at all this cool stuff we've added!
Diamond Dynasty- Look at all this cool stuff we've added!
March to October- Look at all this cool stuff we added for this entirely new mode!
Franchise mode- "we are challenging ourselves not to compartmentalise the way we talk about the Show", " the goal is to present a user experience in a more holistic package rather than staging each mode on its own island"

Yup.

[RogerDodger]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

The dissatisfied minority will always be the most visible on any forum or social media platform.

When they posted the poll on twitter recently, those of us who are not really dissatisfied simply answered the question that was posed. There was no reason for us to leave a comment. There were 7,878 votes and only 230 comments and not all of those comments were about franchise, but people still point to those comments as some benchmark as to how overwhelmingly popular franchise is.

Interesting hypothesis but completely contradicted by the fact that the ratio of Madden and FIFA Ultimate team posts on Twitter and content on YouTube far outweigh those for their respective franchise modes. If the dissatisfied were more vocal and persistent as you claim then the same would apply but it doesn’t. In fact, I’ve seen countless efforts to energise and mobilise passionate franchise mode players of Madden to push for a greater social media presence and it hasn’t happened and their frustrations probably far outweigh ours.

And your assertions with respect to that Twitter poll are at best disingenuous.

[statum71]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

Just don’t forget about us 30 user franchise players please.

It is the ONLY reason I buy the game each year.

[SaundCo87]

Re: Bring Back Online Franchise

As someone who moved from being an Xbox player to the Playstation just to play MLB The Show, it's incredibly disappointing to see that Online Franchise is missing (again) and that there aren't any expressed intentions to bring it back.

Playing in an on-line franchise environment with my sons (and some of our friends) is a game-changing goal and desire. It's inconceivable to me that today's sports games (with exceptions of Madden and NBA 2K) don't have an on-line franchise option. Those of us who grew up with the early iterations of sports video games literally dreamed about the day when we'd have on-line franchise options. Now that the technology clearly exists to do this well, it's a sports-game travesty not to have an on-line franchise option.

To the MLB The Show development team that reads OS posts and articles, please bring back on-line franchises.

So I want to kind of tag on to this post, regarding online franchise and franchise in general. I was one of the (few? many?) who enjoyed online franchise with friends and was bummed when they took it away. I knew when they removed it last year, it would not make it's return for a while, if ever. My issue with some of the statements from the developers is this....

....one of the biggest reasons they decided to do away with online franchise is because "the data showed that it was the least played game mode"....

There are countless articles and posts last year touching on this. Now, in 2019, they say the data is something that they don't even use that much and doesn't dictate a game-mode. I'm just confused as too which is it and why the explanation is now changing. It just seems there is always an excuse to not update franchise than the other modes. And that goes for most sports games, not just The Show.

[SaundCo87]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

Interesting hypothesis but completely contradicted by the fact that the ratio of Madden and FIFA Ultimate team posts on Twitter and content on YouTube is far greater than those for their respective franchise modes. If the dissatisfied were more vocal and persistent then the same would apply but it doesn’t. In fact, I’ve seen countless efforts to energise and mobilise passionate franchise mode players of Madden to push for a greater social media presence and it hasn’t happened and their frustrations probably far outweigh ours.

And your assertions with respect to that Twitter poll are at best disingenuous.

Call me old-fashioned at 32 yrs old but I hate even reading the paragraph you typed lol. Gamers worrying about what game-mode is getting complained about the most through Twitter/social media. I just believe that, since we are consumers of this product, we shouldn't have to go to Twitter to beg for a better game mode. Just my 2 cents

[Dolenz]

Re: Franchise Mode is Piece of a Bigger Picture Says San Diego Studios

Dude you have a serious vendetta against franchise players don't you?

Nope, not at all. There are franchise users on this site who I respect quite a bit.