Yeah you can set the game exactly the way you want it. But that means every single player will be playing with a total different set of settings. You'll be playing a different game then all the other people, which eliminates the ability to compare stats with other players correctly.
And don't you hate it when people start bragging about his results and stats (I got Lebron averaging such and such points) when that player is probably playing at easier settings. I might be averaging 30 points with some player and be very happy with it, but when you read about players who have guys averaging 40 and 50 points per game, it takes away some sense of gratification you have for your own player, who averages 30ppg.
I for one, like to make the game as challenging as possible. I used to make all my players in the 60-65 overall rating range in nba live 2003, just to make the game harder. With all these sliders you should be able to make the game a lot harder, so that's a good thing, but you'll never know what the ideal settings are, there are just too many. By the way, what made me pass up NBA 2k3 last year, was because it was too easy, in NBA live 2003 (PC) you could (globally and locally) edit and edit and edit till you got a challenging game. Doing all that tweaking in NBA 2K3 was far more laboursome.
I like the way the NSLC Community brought out roster patches with edited ratings and global tweaks etc. That way a more simlike game was achieved, and a whole bunch of players were playing with the same settings. Now everyone will be tweaking themselves for hours, days, months (the more sliders, the more time you can invest into finding the ideal settings).
People can be to critical and biased in there way of thinking how the game should be. I've read several posts telling just how realistic it has to be. Meaning there can't be any extraordinary dunks in traffic, blocks must never go in to the stands, you should never see behind the back passes. All this complaining, I agree the game shouldn't turn into a dunkfest whatnot, but I want to see that special dunk and that spectacular block, that insane pass from time to time. And hell from time to time i deserve to lose the game after making 25 turnovers. If EA Sports would listen to some people here, all players would dunk soft and simple, blocks would become a rarity and there would be no magicjohnson passes. (ofcourse I'm exaggerating, but nonetheless...)
Anyway, back to the slider issue: with all these sliders some people will be trying to make a game that produces hardly any blocks or assists, fastbreaks, and with scores strictly in the 80-100 point range. What I'm trying to say is, that in people's effort to make the game produce as realistic numbers as possible, the randomness, the uniqueness will disappear that makes the game so much fun. Sure the Mavs will be averaging the same average as they did in the 02/03 season, but will there be any room for some wild scores? I hate the fact that players hardly ever produce monsterstats. You'll never see the computer sim Tim Duncan going for 26 rebounds and 10 blocks. But it does happen every once in a while in the real world.
Sliders are the tools of the simfetishist to make the game as boring as possible.
Oh yeah, you can't tweak the settings for online play....DOH!
(another big pro for the roster patches that were created for the NBA-Live-for-pc community.)
ah well i'm out for now. NBA Live 2004's official release date is in a couple of hours...
but where is the demo....
peace.
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