MLB 2K11 Game Features (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, DS, PC)

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jayhawker

That's possible. But I think that would lead to some pretty severe problems. I think it would result in some snowball effects on the ratings of players, and the middle ground could be lost. Tom Tippett used to put out some great articles related to their Diamond Mind Baseball game that had a fantastic statistical model based on the ratings of players. Every attempt they made to adjust stats on the fly resulted in problems. As it turned out, the ebb and flow a .300 hitter will experience during a season were modeled much more accurately by letting the numbers fall randomly. If the ratings mirror real life, then the ebb and flow will be taken care of. But if you use the in-game streaks to increase the ratings, then the ebb and flow lost because the player will be much less likely to suffer a performance drop. And you need that drop, so that every hitter that is on a pace for 80 HR's comes back to earth. This is an area I think 2K has already gone a little too far in. DMB was also never able to rate batter and pitchers based on past performance against individual players. It also broke the ebb and flow. Ballpark effects and L/R were the most predictive stats. Another rating that breaks the realism is clutch hitting. It doesn't really exist in a significant level. Good clutch hitters are not consistent from year-to-year. It is largely a phenomenon we think we see because our brains are programmed to see patterns. Tippett's articles can be found here: http://www.diamond-mind.com/servlet/...e/library/Page

Everything just gets tricky when too much is attempted. As you said, if one calcuation is off or has an error, then you get a snowball where instead of a 10 HR guy improving to a 20 HR guy he jumps to 60 or 80.

If even attempted, the changes need to be so subtle that large increases really only happen due to user rating changes or online updates.

While players do get hot and cold, the law of averages should take care of this over the course of a long season...even though flipping a coin is 50/50, if you flip it 500 times, you are going to have streaks of 5 or 6 heads in a row (a hot streak) and 5 or 6 or 7 tails in a row (a cold streak). But when all is said and done at the end of 500 flips you are going to be within a few flips of 50/50.

In reality, when a guy 2 or 3 bombs in a game or has a week where he hits .450 with 5 or 6 bombs, the odds are likely that he is going to come down from that, not carry on with that.

I don't mind the idea of mini hot and cold streaks built in to the game where a player may get a small bump in categories (power/contact for hitters or velocity/location/movement) for pitchers, but if it were up to me, they would be hidden and done behind the scenes and the only way you would know is by playing the game and just feeling better with that player.

Yeah, after re-reading that, I pretty much just reitterated everything you just said.

[jeffy777]

Quote: Originally Posted by Motown

So, are they sayin' no HR derby on the NG consoles...really?

Not really. This isnt an exhaustive list of everything in the game. Last year's "feature list" didn't include the home run derby and it was in 2K10:
http://www.pastapadre.com/2010/01/13...-features-list

I really don't see why they'd remove it.

[dodgerblue]

I agree with what you are saying, if you program randomness in the game, highs and lows etc. then it shouldn't be necessary to have dynamic updates as long as the rating system is sound to begin with.

As I previously commented, I think a dynamic update is most useful when players are experiencing a breakout year or a big drop. For example, Jim Thome in '09 the show was in the starting lineup and hit 40 hrs or so when irl he had an off year. That is the kind of adjustment that would be cool!

[Pared]

I don't see the huge downside to the dynamic updates.

The folks at Visual Concepts have a much better grasp on sports gaming and I don't think it's fair to expect this feature to not have been thought out and developed.

They are equally as thorough in their implementation of many things as some other developers.

I'd just say "wait and see" on the feature. EA's NBA Live dev. team tried this and failed badly at it. However, they were not too far off in implementing it in a very unique and innovating manner.

I'd have a hunch the dev. team at VC knows what they are doing with this feature. And as a fan of NBA 2k as well, it gives some insight as to what we can expect for that series as well.

I'm staying tuned, that's for sure.

[jeffy777]

Yeah, with the way they innovated with the MLB Today implementation last year, I think VC could do a good job pulling this off as well.

[Steve_OS]

2K Sports slightly updated the Dynamic Player Ratings.

Watch your favorite MLB® pitcher strike out the side in a real game, then watch his stats improve in your game. Dynamic Player Ratings update daily in MLB® Today, Franchise, and My Player.

They will have a Developer Insight covering it, in the coming weeks.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steve_OS

2K Sports slightly updated the Dynamic Player Ratings. Watch your favorite MLB® pitcher strike out the side in a real game, then watch his stats improve in your game. Dynamic Player Ratings update daily in MLB® Today, Franchise, and My Player. They will have a Developer Insight covering it, in the coming weeks.

Thanks for the update Steve... definitely looking forward to the Insight on this.

[Saberq]

Can we expect next Insight shortly or do we have to wait for a couple of weeks?