The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

[RaychelSnr]

Earlier this year in an Operation Sports feature titled, “Fact or Fiction: 2016 Sports Gaming Predictions,” I said “NHL 17 will be a sports game of the year candidate in a big way.” With Madden, The Show and NBA 2K showing relatively standard -- yet still very good -- improvements this year, NHL 17 arguably has made the most progress of any of the major sport titles for consoles; it’s a much improved and complete game this year compared to its predecessor.

One of the game’s deepest enhancements has been the expansion of available gameplay sliders. There are far more sliders available in this year’s edition compared to '16, and perusing the slider sub-forum on Operation Sports, I was curious as to how folks were handling this year’s new edition (bad pun) when it comes to adjusting gameplay.


Read More - The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

[SuperGoalies]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

It's about time us slider makers get noticed, am still learning how Sliders work in this year's NHL 17, but seems others have figured how it works and that am greatful and proud they are having success, am personally calling this a year of improving for my (goalie sliders) , but am tremendously honoured that we get noticed finally , sometimes we borrow each others settings and add it to there's and stuff (but only sorten value), am just glad we all came together and worked together to get post about us sliders makers *CHEERS!* , we all stayed together for this long and we are having fun at the same time .


*Cheers for us Slider Makers Community*

[shotclockcheese]

I don't know if it's just me but the penalty sliders won't save for me in BAPro. It saves on the menus of BAPro but after starting a game and checking the sliders ,it's back to the default settings

[SuperGoalies]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

you have to put them back manually before each game, make sure you have photographic memorie.


so ... do this


1.press okay and another okay
2. don't click start the game, instead go in to game settings and game sliders
3. make sure you have a photographic memorie and put sliders at correct values and do this before each game, cause this issues been in this game sense NHL 13-17.
4. when all slider at correct values start the game up
5. make sure visual and other stuff is at correct values.
6. then start game up.
7. have fun!


I've told about 5 people this so far .

[Millennium]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

It's about time us slider makers get noticed, am still learning how Sliders work in this year's NHL 17, but seems others have figured how it works and that am greatful and proud they are having success, am personally calling this a year of improving for my (goalie sliders) , but am tremendously honoured that we get noticed finally , sometimes we borrow each others settings and add it to there's and stuff (but only sorten value), am just glad we all came together and worked together to get post about us sliders makers *CHEERS!* , we all stayed together for this long and we are having fun at the same time .


*Cheers for us Slider Makers Community*

Apologies for possibly lowering your excitement regarding this article but I got a strong sense of 'sliders vary differently from user to user not because they make the game more realistic but because each user has their own view of the game'.

I'm not sure you should be cheering as much as you should be pulling the point of the article and examining that.

[karlos]

Could anybody suggest a particular slider set please ?

I haven't delved into NHL17 this year but have 10 hours ea access. I like a sim type experience and consider myself slightly above average at the game having played it off and on for many years. Being in a league with Rich Grisham, thatsportsgamer etc when we had GM connected (Those were the days !)

Cheers

[Mike Lowe]

Default All-Star Sim/Realistic settings.

Thanks for the feedback on this piece, folks!

[karlos]

Thanks will switch to that instead of standard upon boot up. Cheers

[BigBadAss33]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

Could anybody suggest a particular slider set please ?

I haven't delved into NHL17 this year but have 10 hours ea access. I like a sim type experience and consider myself slightly above average at the game having played it off and on for many years. Being in a league with Rich Grisham, thatsportsgamer etc when we had GM connected (Those were the days !)

Cheers

i say use FIDDY's slider Set found here - http://www.operationsports.com/forum...7-sliders.html

give them a try.. they are tough but fair

thanks

[jake19ny]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

Great article. Psychology aside I think the one reason we all get different results from the same set of sliders would be because individuals play the game differently. I still think because of the speed of real hockey and how many physical maneuvers are involved in a hockey players game as well as the quick thinking aspect of it makes duplicating the sport in a video game one of the hardest in all sports.

All that said I have never been convinced that sliders make a huge difference. Last year (NHL16) I experimented with just about all sliders maxed and just about all sliders minimum and the difference in many areas were negligible. That was based on 0-6 sliders. Now we have 0-100 sliders and I simply don't have the patience to experiment like that with these. I have doubts about the effect of some sliders.

Example:

On default for example shot accuracy had CPU at 50. The CPU averaged 25-39 shots per game. I lowered it to 10 and the CPU still averages same amount of shots

On Default pass accuracy and pass reception ease are 50 and 25 respectively...the CPU shots were 25-39 and pass accuracy around 84%. When lowered to 10 each the shots remained the same and pass accuracy was around 79%, a marginal difference.

[Gbpackerowner]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

The ability to adjust the sliders to suit ones style of play is a wonderful thing. There are many great sets out there. The problem I have, is once I settle on a set, Ea releases a tuner update that completely throws the set out of kilter and then much time is spent tuning it again.

[jake19ny]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

^^^ This 100%

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

For me, sliders nearly ruined my love of sports gaming.

I've been playing sports games since the vibrating fields of electric football and the cards and spinners of All-Star Baseball. Whether it was the LED lights of Mattel's handhelds or even slot car racing, we tracked everything, filling countless wired bound notebooks with box scores and stats. And yeah, we were always wanting realistic results, even when it was just a fantasy.

Sports gaming on the early consoles was just fun. There was nothing remotely realistic about it. I mean, we thought Intellivision Baseball was the most realistic thing that could ever be created. But man, we played everything. Even our C64 was a sports gaming machine, with Summer Games, The World's Greatest Baseball Game, Hardball and Larry Bird vs Dr. J being our heavy favorites.

When siders first began appearing, it was welcome method to achieve realistic results in CPU vs CPU games. The idea was that once the CPU was generating realistic results, then it was fun to see how we stacked up. But at some point that changed, with sliders being created to give users a boost or to limit their results. That seemed great, at first.

The problem was that sports games then became a paint-by-numbers project. I wasn't playing for the fun and enjoyment of competition anymore, but to re-create reality as I perceived it to be. Now, instead of a long season where I competed, I was trying to force the games I played to re-create the results I thought validated the "sim."

Soon, that's pretty much all sports games became. And it wasn't pleasant. It was hours and hours on Usenet and forums, trading ideas and bitching about the "lazy developers." All we wanted was reality. could it be so hard?

Well, yeah. Before sliders it was never close to realistic. But it was fun and competitive. Now, with games becoming so much more realistic, we often spend weeks or months before we will even start a season, if at all. And even if we start to get realistic results, then we began picking apart how it looked getting those stats.

I'm not saying that doing all of that can't be fun. It is very much like working on puzzles. But I also saw how I and others began interacting wit the games and the developers. Our entitlement shot through the roof. We had sliders, just like we wanted, but now we hated that they weren't better.

I came to dread new releases for the work and lack of fun. And you see it in these forums. People have some of the greatest sports games ever created, but no one seems to be really happy. Well, some are, and they are mocked.

So I changed my outlook. I'll admit that Ultimate Team modes helped clarify what I liked about playing sports games. I wanted to compete, to have those moments in games where you had a hard decision strategically, to have moments when execution was critical, to enjoy the success of a well executed strategy. I stopped worrying about the stats, and just concentrated on playing the games.

First, the stats are never too far off. Games are great today. Second, by playing on default settings, it's like every other competitive gaming genre. I'm comparing myself to others using the same settings, the same playing field.

I mean, if you have tweaked the settings to get a result, how exciting is it really to see your stats? Not scoring enough goals? Tweak. No you got more goals. Yay?

I'm glad we have sliders. I'll still tweak a setting or two in a season mode. But I am enjoying sports gaming like a I did almost 40 years ago. That period where I didn't, I used to think it was the developers ruining games. I now look back at it as how I ruined my experience.

[DiddyGotGrillz]

The Psychology of Sliders: How the Community is Changing NHL 17

For me, sliders nearly ruined my love of sports gaming.



I've been playing sports games since the vibrating fields of electric football and the cards and spinners of All-Star Baseball. Whether it was the LED lights of Mattel's handhelds or even slot car racing, we tracked everything, filling countless wired bound notebooks with box scores and stats. And yeah, we were always wanting realistic results, even when it was just a fantasy.



Sports gaming on the early consoles was just fun. There was nothing remotely realistic about it. I mean, we thought Intellivision Baseball was the most realistic thing that could ever be created. But man, we played everything. Even our C64 was a sports gaming machine, with Summer Games, The World's Greatest Baseball Game, Hardball and Larry Bird vs Dr. J being our heavy favorites.



When siders first began appearing, it was welcome method to achieve realistic results in CPU vs CPU games. The idea was that once the CPU was generating realistic results, then it was fun to see how we stacked up. But at some point that changed, with sliders being created to give users a boost or to limit their results. That seemed great, at first.



The problem was that sports games then became a paint-by-numbers project. I wasn't playing for the fun and enjoyment of competition anymore, but to re-create reality as I perceived it to be. Now, instead of a long season where I competed, I was trying to force the games I played to re-create the results I thought validated the "sim."



Soon, that's pretty much all sports games became. And it wasn't pleasant. It was hours and hours on Usenet and forums, trading ideas and bitching about the "lazy developers." All we wanted was reality. could it be so hard?



Well, yeah. Before sliders it was never close to realistic. But it was fun and competitive. Now, with games becoming so much more realistic, we often spend weeks or months before we will even start a season, if at all. And even if we start to get realistic results, then we began picking apart how it looked getting those stats.



I'm not saying that doing all of that can't be fun. It is very much like working on puzzles. But I also saw how I and others began interacting wit the games and the developers. Our entitlement shot through the roof. We had sliders, just like we wanted, but now we hated that they weren't better.



I came to dread new releases for the work and lack of fun. And you see it in these forums. People have some of the greatest sports games ever created, but no one seems to be really happy. Well, some are, and they are mocked.



So I changed my outlook. I'll admit that Ultimate Team modes helped clarify what I liked about playing sports games. I wanted to compete, to have those moments in games where you had a hard decision strategically, to have moments when execution was critical, to enjoy the success of a well executed strategy. I stopped worrying about the stats, and just concentrated on playing the games.



First, the stats are never too far off. Games are great today. Second, by playing on default settings, it's like every other competitive gaming genre. I'm comparing myself to others using the same settings, the same playing field.



I mean, if you have tweaked the settings to get a result, how exciting is it really to see your stats? Not scoring enough goals? Tweak. No you got more goals. Yay?



I'm glad we have sliders. I'll still tweak a setting or two in a season mode. But I am enjoying sports gaming like a I did almost 40 years ago. That period where I didn't, I used to think it was the developers ruining games. I now look back at it as how I ruined my experience.

(Mic Drop)

Very well said, sir.


For me, I have no problem getting beat by the CPU - in fact, I LIKE to get beat to know that I can't win every game. What's the fun in that?

When I adjust sliders it's to do one thing - to limit the CPU for doing things that I can't. That is the one thing that kills sports games for me, and as good as NHL '17 is, there are several things that need toned down.

(And I do think goalkeeping was broken out of the box. They couldn't stop anything! That would have killed my experience if we didn't have sliders to adjust.)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mike Lowe]

These responses have been great to read. Thanks, everyone!