Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

[Yankeefan1991]

hello there! english is not my mother language so sorry for that

First of all:

Mlb the show is the best sim gaming sports game when it comes to gameplay in my opinion. i remember Mlb the show 12 which was my first the show and i was totally in love from the first moment. And then year after year is has become better and better. Every year i had the feeling that developers really concern about how to make the game better for us.

But for 3-4 years now i don´t have this feeling anymore... it more feels like they know they got a good sim product and don´t want to touch a running system. yeah they made minor changes (player morale, real conracts etc) but it seems that this feature just were added to give us the feeling of a new game.

there so many wishes for years now and year after i am a bit disapointed after release date and already hope for next year. I remember slogans like everything you see on television you will see in the show but i miss so many things. what about home and away equipment like in nba 2k. what about player equipment itself (so many things are old and missing). What would the rosters in general would be if ridin wouldn´t make these complete rosters year after year. And what is about franchise mode. I really want to see changes now. mlb´s gameplay is really really good but thats not a reason to lean back. This game has so many potential to be the best sports game ever but i have the feeling that scea is happy with its product.

All others sports games do much more work in the last years also their gameplay isn´t near that good to mlb the show but their franchise mode are much deeper :O

what are your thoughts ?

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

Depends what you consider Progress i guess. From SDS's standpoint it's probably progressing just fine. It is just progressing away from one demographic to a newer, more lucrative demographic. Unfortunately the old demographic is the Franchise player, which makes up a very small portion of their target... So small that to SDS we are now lumped in the catch-all category of "the other game modes." RTTS and Diamond Dynasty are the largest groups and its not even close. So naturally that is where they allocate resources. That's how business works.

It is just a reality we all have to face unfortunately. Franchise is a side-dish now. With the success of RTTS, DD, and online play they do not need to spend a lot of resources on Franchise mode. They could just focus on RTTS and Diamond Dynasty for the next few years and still have no worries they will lose the Franchise demographic. They know that if they promise new rosters, new face scans, new uni's, a new commentator, "updated commentary", "new ball physics" "updated hitting something-or-other" etc people will buy it. Whether it is actually 'better' would be debateable.

They know that people don't need "better" to get them to come out and spend their money. They only need "new". A new this, or a new that, and the sales will come. Even if that "new thing" isn't even good enough to remain a feature the following year.

This isn't a complaint. This is just how it is now. Even the hitting "improvements" etc are built for online play, or at least for the "masses." They aren't built with the seasoned offline player in mind- But bulit for the casual player. From a business standpoint why wouldn't they? Just makes sense.

So, "progress" may be better than ever....or worse than ever...depending on what demographic you are watching from. The bad thing is the Franchise demographic is heavily outnumbered.

My hope is at some point in the future they will start coming back toward Franchise. But i wouldn't hold my breath quite yet. Not until they have a reason to.

[Caulfield]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

progress is slow but surely ; you cant even notice its really happening until you look back where you were & then see where you are . I dont know how true it is but I've seen where the major upgrades are rotated between modes on a 3-year window & next year is franchises turn :shrug:

...progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal - Einstein
Paraphrased

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

...progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal - Einstein
Paraphrased

Progress is also the name of a half-decent brand of canned soup. ...Or maybe that's Progresso... I prefer Hearty Tomato. But don't use a spoon. Use Frito's Scoops as an edible spoon. My wife keeps mistakenly calling it Progressive soup. No...no, once again - that's an insurance company, honey.

[Caulfield]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

Progress is also the name of a half-decent brand of canned soup. ...Or maybe that's Progresso... I prefer Hearty Tomato. But don't use a spoon. Use Frito's Scoops as an edible spoon. My wife keeps mistakenly calling it Progressive soup. No...no, once again - that's an insurance company, honey.

I wish Sony would hire Snowmonkey to write colour commentary lines for DeRo & Mushmouth

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

I wish Sony would hire Snowmonkey to write colour commentary lines for DeRo & Mushmouth

Thats my first inning stuff too. You think that's good, you should hear my 5th inning blowout material.

[mariner690]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

I agree with everything said above. I do wonder though how many times SDS can read "the only sports game without, expansion, relocation or create a stadium" in every review before they finally decide to change that.

IMO Madden was the other game who's franchise mode was sorely lacking features like The Show's. But with the Madden team saying they are re-focusing on franchise mode going forward it may leave The Show in the dust. The question then becomes does SDS re-focus on the mode themselves or remove it to focus more on those who post opening card packs on you tube?

[Caulfield]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

I agree with everything said above. I do wonder though how many times SDS can read "the only sports game without, expansion, relocation or create a stadium" in every review before they finally decide to change that.

IMO Madden was the other game who's franchise mode was sorely lacking features like The Show's. But with the Madden team saying they are re-focusing on franchise mode going forward it may leave The Show in the dust. The question then becomes does SDS re-focus on the mode themselves or remove it to focus more on those who post opening card packs on you tube?

franchise isnt going away

[countryboy]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

franchise isnt going away

Nor is it being “purposely neglected”




Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[BigOscar]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

What the game really needs is them to hire someone who knows how to program AI, as that is where the game falls down, all over the place. The AI is terrible, in every aspect of this game.

Every mode in the game is plagued by the awful AI, franchise more than most, but RTTS is ruined by it as well, along with the actual in game which is ruined by awful bullpen logic.

It's a very difficult thing to get right, but it's absolutely awful in the Show and hasn't really shown any signs of progress. I guess they figure in online games you don't need AI, but so much of this game is offline, they really need to figure this out

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

100% Agree. Franchise isn't going away. There would be no good reason to abolish Franchise mode when it's already there and still has niche group. That would be a bad business move since it's already in place and all the pieces are there. It's not going anywhere.

That business move would be almost as bad as focusing a large amount of their admittedly small team's attention, and resources, on that same niche group. They already say they have a hard enough time getting the game out on time as it is.

They have also said they are on a "multi-year" project to continue improving RTTS. Because it's the most played mode as far as games go. This is a focus point of theirs going forward.

They have also said they are committed to making gameplay better for online/DIamond Dynasty. (Their most lucrative and smartest decision from a business standpoint) - a huge development focus point going forward.

They have also said that this new March to October is not going away and will be a focus to build on next year. "Because most people dont have the time to play 162 games. But they want the feel of being in control of a team's destiny" -This mode is only going to get bigger. It was originally meant to be part of Franchise mode, but became much different and bigger than they imagined it. So they separated it into its own mode. Their "newest" focus point.

With those three commitments, where do we derive the notion that Franchise is of any priority for improvement going forward? Is it just because we want that to be the case? (Yes...i know... they always will continue to add a "new" little something or trade out some insignificant old thing for some new thing.)

So, while i would LOVE to believe they had franchise mode as any priority at all, they do not. And no - they aren't giving us the finger. They don't hate us lol. They are just allocating resources of their team to their top demographics. It's a smart move. And i dont blame them even if i don't like it.

They drop hints all the time about this. "Franchise mode 'already' has so many levers and knobs that players can make it what they want" (so they focus on more relevant modes.)..... "Franchise is sandbox mode".... "Most people cant play 162 games, or don't want to"....."98% are casual players" ("but" they say franchise players are a small group of "hardcore players.") Franchise mode is now referred to as part of "the other game modes"...They said all this and much more this year - 2019.

I know that we love to think that they love us and make this game for us because they want us to have a fun and realistic franchise experience. But like everyhing else, it simply comes down to 'what have you done for me lately?' And Franchise players have not done much at all (comparitively) for them in a long time. It's simply business. Nothing personal.

But it's definitely not going anywhere either. No way. But just from things they have said alone, and seeing where things have gone in the past, its also not going to change a whole lot. Especially now that they decided to build on March to October as a seperate mode. We were third in line behind RTTS and DD. Now we are fourth in line.

These are not complaints. And i am not being Debbie Downer. I just like to see things how they truly are - and not how i 'want' them to be.

But if anyone has anything they can actually point to that suggests otherwise i would be extremely happy to hear it.

[countryboy]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

I've talked to the devs about it. There are reasons why some of the things (although real contracts was a big request even if now the opinion has turned) haven't been added. But nobody cares/wants to either hear or accept those reasons. People will ask why something isn't added, be given the reason, then reject the reason stating its a lie, laziness, etc...

Franchise mode is very much a priority for this dev team. They understand the outcry and the frustration over things being requested for years only to not be implemented.

Real contracts for example wasn't just looking up a player's contract and implementing it. They had to acquire the approval/license to do so. That wasn't a simple phone call saying "hey can we do this?".

There are several things that hinder the implementing of new/requested features at this point in time, but here's a few:

1) Time/Resources (manpower)
2) Memory/End of PS4 lifecycle
3) Old code

One additional point of clarification, this feature is not stopping us from developing/implemting new features. It is just one more (of many) consideration when maintaining and extending a feature set for a large, complex, and aged code base. Our main choke points are time and man power (in that order)...and platform limitations come into play especially at the end of their lifecycle.

But people will just say those are "excuses".

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

Franchise mode is very much a priority for this dev team. They understand the outcry and the frustration over things being requested for years only to not be implemented.

I completely agree, I believe the dev team would love working on improving franchise mode. Unfortunately the dev team isn't where the buck stops.

There are several things that hinder the implementing of new/requested features at this point in time, but here's a few:

1) Time/Resources (manpower)
2) Memory/End of PS4 lifecycle
3) Old code



But people will just say those are "excuses".

Exactly.

I would just add one more to the list
4) They can only develop what they are instructed to develop.

But yes these 4 are not "excuses" at all, but reality.

[countryboy]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

The problem with number 4 is you're assuming they are being instructed to ignore/not commit much time to franchise mode, and we simply don't know that to be true. Doing that allows the ideology of "they are ignoring franchise mode to focus on money making modes" to "hold value" because we can justify that line of thinking by assumption.

This is what I was referring to when I said that people don't want to accept the answers given to questions asked. Why can't it just be the things that Woodweaver mentioned as the reason? Why must there be an underlying ulterior motive?

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Mlb the show´s progress concerns me

The problem with number 4 is you're assuming they are being instructed to ignore/not commit much time to franchise mode, and we simply don't know that to be true. Doing that allows the ideology of "they are ignoring franchise mode to focus on money making modes" to "hold value" because we can justify that line of thinking by assumption.

This is what I was referring to when I said that people don't want to accept the answers given to questions asked. Why can't it just be the things that Woodweaver mentioned as the reason? Why must there be an underlying ulterior motive?

Its not an outrageous assumption by any stretch. Its not that their motive is some nefarious thing or anything. But ANY business would and should focus on pleasing and keeping their largest/most lucrative base. Even if they did focus on "money making modes" It isn't evil to do that. It's simply how they should do business. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I think number 4 is a extremely fair and realistic assumption - (especially with the limited manpower) - given the fact that any video game company (particularly games played on major consoles such as PS4) is trying to, and pressured to maximize profits. To assume anything different would be a major stretch of the imagination - and a very unrealistic assumption.

I mean i could be wrong and they are simply doing it for the love of the game, or their most loyal fanbase, and just want to make enough $ to keep it going. But given that they are making this game for a massive worldwide console company i don't know how i could ever think that would ever be the case.