[furball321]

Hi. I'm old. I remember Larry Sherry, Sandy Koufax, Juan Marichal and the guy that got blown off the mound in the world series. I played computer baseball games even before EA sports in 2005.

But what the heck? I've played The Show since 2K lost the MLB contract - granted, I only played Franchise mode. But, this year, I bought the game when it was released, so was subjected to all the bugs, server downtime, and so on.

This is not a gripe about how SDS is promoting Diamond Dynasty or any other mode to make money, and therefore is screwing the old-timer Franchise players. (psst: I think that's happening.)

No, this is a gripe about missions, manage squad, Inside edge, Moments, Exchages, 42, and all the other razzle-dazzle that SDS is throwing at us with NO explanation or schematic or ANYTHING about what exchanges are, what is the real goal of XP or stubs are, or how it all links together.

I understand. As a baseball afficionado, I should know how to play baseball. And, as a fan, I should have been following SDS because they were the ONLY MLB official developer. But pretend you come to this game as a baseball fan, but game newbie.

You have absolutely NO idea what to do with all the "paths" SDS offers. If you try to just play baseball, you miss out on half of the content SDS provides, because they stopped making franchise and baseball the priority. They made XP, Stubs and money for SDS the priority, it seems. If you play the game this year, you can certainly explore DEEP into menus that have nothing to do with playing a season of baseball.

God help you if you try to play the game before late May. It, or the servers are broken. BUT! Prior to this year, they always got the game to a place where, ok, let's play baseball. I can understand SDS trying to add content to the money-making parts of The Show, but why on earth would they make Franchise WORSE?

Is this the best MLB and SDS can do? The players? The officials? The mealy bureaucrats? We've taken a game that highlights both individualism and team work and reduced it to missions, moments, exchanges, 1st innings, little profit-making grafts and "team affinity," "player programs," and "daily moments," and "monthly awards?"

Are star athletes such wusses that they have to make double-headers - which used to be regular features of a club's season - 7 inning games? You gotta start an extra inning game with a runner on 2nd? OH, HELL! DON'T MAKE ME STAY UP TOO LATE!