What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

[BigOscar]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I actually quite like DD, but my biggest issue with it is that it's lazy, in pretty much every way. It caters to lazy players who want instant gratification (I also like this, who doesn't? But there is just nothing beneath it), it encourages lazy developers and it's designed to profit off the lazy 1% who want everything but don't want to spend any time getting it. Instead of actual change, you can flash up a new card with some high numbers and people go mad for it.

The actual mode, despite being the main focus of the developers, barely gets any actual change at all. The past 3 years have been the exact same structure, with the exact same game modes, even pretty much the exact same goals each time, with pretty much everything being exactly the same. Each month they release a new "program" which is again, the exact same thing they released the previous month, and every month previously over the last 3 years. All that changes is the order in which they release the cards and the rewards they give. It's genuinely the laziest thing I've ever seen. They used to actually change the structure each year, even if they didn't add new modes as such, but they've fallen into an incredibly lazy rut of just copy and paste. It's gotten incredibly stale, it's like franchise mode now, where I get the new game, start it up and am instantly struck with the feeling that I've already done this, it's just the same game but they've made me start again from scratch.

For all the talk of them not developing other modes because of DD, it's not really true. They just don't develop any of the modes. The money comes so easily from DD that it's completely drained them of the motivation to try anything new at all. Just release some new cards with high numbers on them, rake in some cash, rinse and repeat. It's little more than a mobile phone game at this point

[breakfastcat]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

No one is saying they are 'superior' but would you see a DD only player play OTTP baseball?? you can't deny it.

the casual fan will go for the Mainstream things because that is 'what is being talked about around the world' which is always DD as it seems to be 90% of the promotion by SDS the other 10-% is gameplay. and usually at the end it is 'and btw we added this small upgrade to franchise for franchise players'

this is the issue I have. if all modes were treated evenly I wouldn't have a problem with DD mode. it's not about 'that I am better because I play franchise' it is because the saturation into DD.

I feel the same way about movies tired of marvel and star wars saturation everywhere. this and that but true masterpieces of movies get ignored

I'm not saying you aren't allowed to dislike it or it's effect on the rest of the game. Much of the criticism is valid, I agree with a lot of it. Just do so without casually insulting the players who do enjoy it.

[IndianSummer]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I know absolutely nothing about DD, I have no problem with the mode or the players….to each his own.
I guess my problem is not really understanding why a mode that was working just fine like Y2Y and SOTS was removed. (3 steps back and for what) Some minor upgrades to the AI, rosters etc. over the past few years would have been great. I’m not even asking for a complete makeover just some minor upgrades over the past few years could have went a long way.
I will continue to enjoy 20 and maybe some day SDS will show some franchise love and I will get back on board.

[MetsFan16]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I actually quite like DD, but my biggest issue with it is that it's lazy, in pretty much every way. It caters to lazy players who want instant gratification (I also like this, who doesn't? But there is just nothing beneath it), it encourages lazy developers and it's designed to profit off the lazy 1% who want everything but don't want to spend any time getting it. Instead of actual change, you can flash up a new card with some high numbers and people go mad for it.



The actual mode, despite being the main focus of the developers, barely gets any actual change at all. The past 3 years have been the exact same structure, with the exact same game modes, even pretty much the exact same goals each time, with pretty much everything being exactly the same. Each month they release a new "program" which is again, the exact same thing they released the previous month, and every month previously over the last 3 years. All that changes is the order in which they release the cards and the rewards they give. It's genuinely the laziest thing I've ever seen. They used to actually change the structure each year, even if they didn't add new modes as such, but they've fallen into an incredibly lazy rut of just copy and paste. It's gotten incredibly stale, it's like franchise mode now, where I get the new game, start it up and am instantly struck with the feeling that I've already done this, it's just the same game but they've made me start again from scratch.



For all the talk of them not developing other modes because of DD, it's not really true. They just don't develop any of the modes. The money comes so easily from DD that it's completely drained them of the motivation to try anything new at all. Just release some new cards with high numbers on them, rake in some cash, rinse and repeat. It's little more than a mobile phone game at this point

Spot on. DD was constantly evolving and seeing structural changes. The programs have become so bland that all they change are the players released when. Really got boring for me and became more of a grind than enjoyment

[Grey_Osprey]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

As a more casual player, my biggest issues with DD are the the inflated ratings (especially over 100), and the grind, especially as an offline player, and some of the challenges are to long or difficult for my liking/ability. The same goes for Showdowns and having to beat cpu teams on All-Star or higher difficulty. That leaves Conquest, which is ok, but gets stale and monotonous, especially on larger maps. Ultimately, I just don't feel like there is much in the mode that suits me.

I do like the card collecting aspect of the mode. I just wish they'd make it easier to add cards to collections. Having to go to collections and then go through each one to add cards is tedious.

I wish Franchise incorporated some type of franchise card collecting where you could collect greats from the history of your team or team of choice. You couldn't use them in Franchise, but collect them like a giant "ring of honor". Maybe attached some type of Franchise reward (sounds, equipment, etc) to earning them.

[Dolenz]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

No one is saying they are 'superior' but would you see a DD only player play OTTP baseball?? you can't deny it.

All I have to do is look in the mirror.

I have 8 consecutive versions (15 - 22) of Out of The Park Baseball in my Steam library. That predates my first foray into DD.

Why use Out of The Park as your example though since they too have had their own version of Diamond Dynasty for several years now?

[PVarck31]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

No one is saying they are 'superior' but would you see a DD only player play OTTP baseball?? you can't deny it.

the casual fan will go for the Mainstream things because that is 'what is being talked about around the world' which is always DD as it seems to be 90% of the promotion by SDS the other 10-% is gameplay. and usually at the end it is 'and btw we added this small upgrade to franchise for franchise players'

this is the issue I have. if all modes were treated evenly I wouldn't have a problem with DD mode. it's not about 'that I am better because I play franchise' it is because the saturation into DD.

I feel the same way about movies tired of marvel and star wars saturation everywhere. this and that but true masterpieces of movies get ignored

You do realize this is because of the money right? No matter what you think about DD, it's their cash cow. They could sell 50 million copies of the game and still make triple that with DD.

Same with movies. Marvel movies are cash cows. Of course those are gonna continue to get made and marketed heavily over small independent "masterpieces." Which that in and of itself is still subjective.

They heavily market DD because it literally prints money for them. Just like Marvel movies print money for Disney. Everything is about money. Everything.

[ninertravel]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

You do realize this is because of the money right? No matter what you think about DD, it's their cash cow. They could sell 50 million copies of the game and still make triple that with DD.

Same with movies. Marvel movies are cash cows. Of course those are gonna continue to get made and marketed heavily over small independent "masterpieces." Which that in and of itself is still subjective.

They heavily market DD because it literally prints money for them. Just like Marvel movies print money for Disney. Everything is about money. Everything.

of course it is about money. that is why Microsoft bought activation they can make billions off COD making the same game over and over again which people will buy even if it sucks (like marvel movies or star wars) it is no longer about quality anymore with anything sadly.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

Franchise was not neglected for years before DD came along. There were several elements added in the 09 to 13 era that were inevitably simplified or straight up taken out. Anybody remember setting concession prices or giveaway days?

Even if it has been though, it still would be a poor argument. Resources spent on the development of one mode are resources taken away from the development of another. Franchise would invariably be better off if DD didn't exist.

I'm not asking to delete the mode, or lynch it's fans. But it's incredibly frustrating to have DD and to a lesser extent RttS dominate the bullet points for changes and improvements while franchise is lucky to even be mentioned, never mind actually get anything that isn't just a new coat of paint on the same system. So yeah, while I don't judge others for liking it, I do have a lot of personal ire for DD, and I don't think it's unfair of me to express that. Unwarranted maybe (which is why I generally stay away from dogpiling on the mode), but not unfair.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Operation Sports mobile app

[SOU7GLO]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I want Season mode and a deep online franchise back in the game. In season mode you could customize the length of the season and it was great.

The online leagues from the past were much better than the custom leagues offered now. Custom leagues are bare bones. No draft, no off-season, no player progression/regression, no AL or NL, no divisions, etc. The playoff format is terrible. We can’t preset lineups based on RHP/LHP pitcher or DH no DH. It’s an overall mess of an odd mode that’s been thrown together.

I don’t know if DD has anything to do with the lack of support or creativity with franchise and online leagues. However, ever since DD’s inception franchise and online leagues/custom leagues has continued to be mediocre.

[Bonny]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I want Season mode and a deep online franchise back in the game. In season mode you could customize the length of the season and it was great.

The online leagues from the past were much better than the custom leagues offered now. Custom leagues are bare bones. No draft, no off-season, no player progression/regression, no AL or NL, no divisions, etc. The playoff format is terrible. We can’t preset lineups based on RHP/LHP pitcher or DH no DH. It’s an overall mess of an odd mode that’s been thrown together.

I don’t know if DD has anything to do with the lack of support or creativity with franchise and online leagues. However, ever since DD’s inception franchise and online leagues/custom leagues has continued to be mediocre.

Custom leagues not supporting custom rosters was a big red flag to me. No fantasy draft either. You have to use live series and unless you have 30 users, no access to the entire MLB player pool. Or it's all teams of DD cards. Again, steering everything towards DD. It almost seems like SDS doesn't want roster creators creating.



Online franchise was not perfect, but at least we could set up a true leagiue with friends.

[JoshC1977]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

Here's my one major 'beef' with how DD has been handled.

Quick background: I'm a 50/50 split guy between Franchise and offline-only DD.

DD needs to be self-contained. No "ballplayer" connection to RTTS, no ability to earn DD-specific XP in other modes, no rewards for MtO, no franchise sponsorships in the market, no RTTS equipment in packs, etc. The reasons are twofold:

1. The whole point of DD is to play with the team you have built to continue improving it. Allowing users to gain progress outside of that dilutes the available content within the mode.
2. There are folks who will exploit any mechanism they can to get a jump. Opening up other modes to gain DD progress forces the devs to put gates on the other modes, which hampers people that just want to play those modes. For example, divorcing DD rewards for MtO would finally allow SDS to open-up more user customization of the mode, something not possible in past years.

I genuinely believe that the original intention was to provide users the flexibility to play whereever they wanted to within the game while still gaining some progress within DD if they so cared. But the approach has too many downsides (and may very well be the reason other sports games' card modes are self-contained).

If there is one area where DD has had a truly direct impact on other modes - it is this angle here.

[sbmnky]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

Consider me someone who was a die hard franchise-only player until MLB20 - I was even at the '16 Spring Training event in AZ when Puig showed up, I played Ramone and essentially scoffed at DD when he asked me about it. However, I've I transitioned to a DD player only - reasons why are for a different thread.

The most frustrating thing about SDS is that their communication have changed drastically over my time at OS (almost 20 years!). SDS used to be in the forums constantly (I know they still lurk) and would invite OS members to their studios to illicit feedback from the "community" and make changes to the game on the fly - I was never invited, but loved when the guys from OS were there giving as many updates as possible. These guys would head to San Diego with a community punchlist and get as much answered as possible - a lot of the game features we all miss were born from ideas on this forum. Anything they couldn't get into the current game cycle they'd put on their roadmap for the future and give the community updates along the way. At times it felt like we were part of the team.

As SDS uses social media as its main communication channel, it feels like our old time friend has "moved on." The veil is hardly removed for our community unless it's overproduced media (most of which I enjoy, tbh). The biggest letdown is that SDS doesn't explain the rationale for their decisions like they used to (a vague FAQ leads to more questions). I don't begrudge them for keeping things close to the vest, but for the OS community it's a big change to how things used to be and I think the community's frustration comes out in different ways (DD, Franchise, Season Mode, etc.) If you're a glass half full type of person, you'd marvel at how deep the game is still even though some that depth has been removed over the years.

[Madden08PCgmr]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

A heifer I haven't seen mentioned yet..

Rocket bunts

A fundamental part of baseball for decades, ruined to cater to the online crowd.

[loungefly85]

Re: What’s The Beef With Diamond Dynasty?

I have no desire to play DD, online, or collect cards. None.

Before last year, DD was a menu nuisance to be skipped over and not really think about. Now, it has infected the offline mode I play. It completely ruined RTTS and I’m 99% sure it’s the reason there are no more Y2Y saves. Therefore DD is now the enemy.

The 1 hour I spent playing RTTS on 21 before going back to 20 didn’t even let me use my very benign last name because of the filter. There’s no reason RTTS should be tethered to an online mode and require internet and name filters.