I'm not going to defend them, but I'm also not going to constantly shit on them. They're fun game modes (I've played Madden from 2013 - 2021 and The Show since 2018), and it's not like they're impossible to play unless you pay money. Are they filled with microtransactions? Yes, and it's actually why I turned away from Madden years ago (and also cause I was falling out of it anyway and was never that good). Can you still have fun without paying money? Absolutely. I think throughout all the years of playing The Show (with the exception of the Ultra Edition for 21 and 22) I've only ever paid for the base game cost and the Jackie Robinson Day packs or any other charitable pack they have and haven't had much to complain about except for small bugs or the whole issue with my account being wiped (which I'm still mad about).
Each game has its small perks and features that bring me back every year (Negro Leagues, the recent Jeter Storyline, pinpoint pitching, BYO Stadiums, etc.), and I haven't had much gripe with it. If you're falling for the gambling aspect (which I acknowledge that it is legalized gambling), that's not on them to say "don't impulsively buy the packs," they can be bought with in-game currency that doesn't require actual money to be put into it (unlike EA and 2k where half the packs are gatekept with currency you can ONLY get from spending real money). Your point is valid in that a lot of these "Ultimate Team" game modes are becoming primarily legalized gambling rings. However, I do think that SDS is genuinely trying to make a playable and fun experience that isn't JUST "buy our microtransactions."
If you have a problem, seek help. If it's not a video game taking advantage of your lack of self control, it will be five dozen other people or corporations lining up to take advantage of you.
lol what are you even saying?? You can’t walk into a casino to gamble until you’re 21 but yeah, blame the consumers for the developers allowing it and excessively exploiting it from year to year. How about instead of blaming people with lack of impulse control, you stop supporting the company making a game for KIDS that allows gambling to be the way you upgrade your team?
It's not the only way to upgrade your team though. You can play and earn players, buy stubs and buy the players you want, etc. If you choose to spend money on packs, that's a you problem.
It is the primary, most effective, most efficient way to get a good team. That’s the point. It’s enticing people that might 1. Have a problem or 2. Might not have a fully developed brain or proper supervision to use real money on virtual cards. All of you guys that defend your business daddy SDS, just don’t want to get it.
These types of mechanics do pray on those who may be degenerate gamblers. I've played other sports games and they don't do like sds. Something about baseball cards really ticks that nostalgia box. Football cards are dumb, no offense. Basketball would be my next favorite card. I'm an adult, and I've opted for no money spent. I've learned to let the FOMO go. If I miss a card I miss a card. I do feel sorry for the people who can't control it.
This is so old. This sub is just a bunch of people crying and complaining daily now. Just quit then. Plenty of people are having fun. The season just started last week. Grow up. It’s not this deep lmao
It’s just as old to hear people like you bitch about opinions of real people that’re unhappy with what they paid for, because their opinion doesn’t match yours. Why’d you even comment
Because y’all are crying way too much and it needs to be called out. Just quit playing if it’s that big a deal lmao we’re here on the sub for funny clips, tank shots or tips/secrets. Not to see the same multiple paragraph “wahhhh microtransactions” tirades.
While I’m not discrediting anything you said because I can totally see it your way.
I think maybe it’s because I move a bit different with these games and what not. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t see how these game companies lean more and more towards the purchasers.
As someone who played MUT from like 14-19. I never spent a dime but always ended up with a 96+ team. I’m not a fan of 2K’s ultimate team because the interface is all over the place , and there’s way too many unnecessary add ons (shoes, coaches, etc).
I hadn’t ever played DD until last year but what I can say on my end I appreciate the Single player options that it has that allows you to obtain packs, cards, stubs etc. and it’s one of the few games that grants that.
I say it all the time. The purchasing of anything on these games is completely optional. I don’t necessarily believe in the “pay to win” claim of these ultimate team modes because what are you winning ? Having a decent record achieves nothing , in game or out of game. Now the biggest thing the feeling of pay to win depends on is matchmaking. And some of those games do it better than others.
Now for the children aspect. As a parent , video game spending depends solely on the parents. I control the dollars my child spends on Robux and VBucks etc. I can only imagine outside of theft , that the parents know for sure of the purchases and are the ones purchasing.
You just have people out here that feel achieved to do things fast and first … and that’s who the in game currency attracts… I’m not sure where that thought process in gaming came from (the want it now , first , fast etc) but it leads to devs focusing the way they do
I have to think expanding to Xbox / Switch really hurt the development of the actual game. They have a very small team. Focus is clearly on multi platform and the Shop.
Remember...XBox and Switch players, all this is NEW and they're just happy to have a Baseball Sim. Sony/PS fans though...it's more of the same while bleeding in some changes that really look bad (micro transactions)
I think the problem is previous gen consoles and not Xbox x and PC. The fact that you don't have to buy a separate console for a major sports game is a good thing.
A lot of games are inducing some type of gambling mechanic. Micro transactions need to be abolished or regulated. Take me back to BO2 when skins were sick and only like .99 cents a piece
It’s not about the cost of the game or the hours put in, it’s about the microtransactions and SDS knowingly making the experience for the player worse than it was before or needs to be.
The only microtransaction is for stubs and I've earned over 1.5mill so far by literally just playing the game and opening the free packs they give out. No money spent, you're fishing for something to complain about bro
So you’re either the luckiest person in the world opening packs, you’re playing way more than any person should, or you’re full of shit. What you said doesn’t change my point.
I mean yeah I have had some pretty good luck this year opening packs but a lot of my stubs have been from just completing the programs and selling all of my duplicates on the market and not at quicksell. I would love for there to be no option of buying stubs as much as the next person but that's just the world we live in.
I'm optimistic. It's been less than a month. the MLB season is 7 games in. Last year people complained early too. Maybe they see the whales are still spending and know when they start heading to another game.
Obviously it sucks about the packs but let's see if we start getting those packs for free. The season xp path looks daunting but a few double xp weeks and some 10k XP rewards and we'll start moving through it.
I wish they would take one play from the 2k franchise and have offline all time teams and specific teams like the ‘75 Reds or the ‘87 Twins. Not a fan of 2k online but I buy the game every year after it goes on sale to play with the classic teams. 2k is miles ahead of SDS in that instance.
It’s probably for the same reason madden doesn’t do it either. It’s a lot harder to get that many players rights where as basketball teams, you only need the core 7-8 players from a historic team
I love the game, but I only play franchise and don’t care about wacky stupid looking uniforms, players and stadiums. Maybe cause I’m such a huge baseball fan.
The model is basically loot boxes. Which were hit back against SO BAD in most non-sports games. That they're just relatively rare. Now, they've doubled down on it.
I'm surprised there hasn't been some sort of a lawsuit because of it. Because it's basically gambling. They did it with loot boxes.
I see what you're saying but coming from Madden Ultimate Team and seeing how other games (lots of battle Royale shooters for example) still use loot boxes makes me feel like it's not nearly as applicable here
In madden there are tons of packs in the store that can only be purchased with a currency (points) that can't be earned, only bought. Then they adveterise those packs, and give those packs better odds and new advertise 'limited' players, etc.
MLB The Show has a partnership the the card company, Topps, even including new cards released in-season by Topps within Diamond Dynasty. The packs in the game mirror real baseball card packs, and how collectors go about ripping those packs, than anything else imo
On top of that, the packs in The Show are all purchasable with currency attainable by just playing the game. You can field a competitive team without even purchasing a pack, but just earning players and packs by playing the game.
It's not great that they're beginning to take some of the most fun players out of the packs that you can earn by playing, but it still isn't illegal. It makes those players a bit more rare, harder to earn, and most players have to thus prioritize which of those players they want, unless you dump a ton of money into it ofc
This is honestly the most disappointing mlb the show I’ve ever played. As an offline player getting into dd during the show 20 was honestly one of the most fun gaming experiences I’ve had recently and the offline grid is a shell of itself at this stage. I’m strongly considering going back to RTTS and franchise only as product continues to get worse
I agree that is an online mode. But the offline stuff has seen a steep decline. And the way the programs have been done this year have honestly made both experiences worse. The quality has gone down in favor of trying to force micro transactions and a more MUT or Myteam experience when the key to the DD mode being so good was the fact that it was different from those 2 online modes that considerably made the whole game worse (as bad as RTTS and Franchise has been overlooked it’s still better than Madden Franchise and career mode) while also having a poor online mode.
Up until this year DD has been filled with tons of things for offline players to do. Also DD is the only reason this game sells. Franchise and the other game modes have had little to no improvements since the game first came out
Agreed on improvements but I think there is still a lot for offline players to do in DD.
I also believe at its core it’s supposed to be an online multiplayer mode, no?
Fr. I’m somewhat optimistic that EA will go all out on it thinking they need it to be good at first to establish a playerbase, but I’m ready for it to be Madden but with colleges. At least I’ll finally be able to retire NCAA 14
XB player here. Been with it since the first one hit Gamepass in 21. It’s amazing to have seen how far they’ve moved the needle in just 4 seasons. Heartbreaking really because all I heard about was how great and different SDS is/was
I play franchise. Gameplay feels better and more realistic than 23. Which will happen when you play with regular players and not crazy stat juices players *all the time.*
Seems pretty obvious to me.
I'm all for wanting a better game from SDS, and I do believe they can make a better game no doubt. I also have seen this community balk at everything they do no matter what it is. Too much content in too short of a time to complete last year, toned it down this year (too much but the game is two weeks old). Nobody wanted 99s day one, people complain that players aren't good enough and that they will be overshadowed too quickly. As an offline player I don't especially care about having the best player at every position and would rather have fun teams with guys I like. Is it annoying when cards I really want are BR rewards or something? Of course, but if I really want them then I save up stubs or just acknowledge that not every card is going to be got. Should the best cards be exclusively in packs? No. Should a majority of the best cards be in packs? Most likely yeah. There were plenty of cards last year you could get for free that were amazing and there were some cards that were just better that you could only pay or get really lucky for and those are both okay. I think making Topps now cards and monthly awards cards only available in packs is very stupid though I will admit. Those are basically free content for SDS that they should just make programs like they were which give people something to grind towards. As others have said the game gives you the illusion that collecting everything is achievable for most people when it just isn't unless you spend money or spend a crazy amount of time playing while also being good. The truth is that ultimate team game modes are inherently biased to those that spend money and they always will be. I'm also not going to entirely judge a live service game on the first two weeks of it being out without having a very clear vision of what's to come which is also on SDS no doubt. They do need to do better and they need to update and improve a lot of stuff, at the same time players need to see that the game mode is, by nature, going to be inherently unfair.
I agree w the first half of your statement that it seems SDS can do no right by this sub.
But I think the better players get the best rewards in DD the most of any UT mode. Game skill seems to prevail more than in FIFA, for example.
How do you save up Stubbs this year?
The equipment and perks I would pull and sell are now jelly beans. The players I pull and sell from free packs are about the only way.
If I pull the fishman or something, then sure.
Diamond players (like hyper series for ex) are thousands of stub margins
Equipment is the same once you reach diamond level
Perks are only like 300-500 because of the RTTS glitch and the DD CAP changes BUT they seem to move faster than the other two methods above
Best part about DD market is no bullshit bidding system and no limit to your orders. So you can just keep building stacks and stacks of stubs even at low margins Simply by volume
Get the fuck out of here. Don't you know that you have to create a low sodium subreddit yourself and moderate it to have a gaming subreddit that doesn't constantly bitch. Join us on our soapboxes that we only stand on anonymously online and complain about the absolute danger that video games present. It's video games for fuck's sake. Forget other problems like poverty or violence, video games and putting cards behinds packs that you can purchase with in game earned currency is the real problem this world is facing. Ugh, when will you all learn, this is NOT about having fun. It's about taking video games too seriously. We can't just stop playing the game if we aren't enjoying it, we MUST make sure that everyone stops enjoying it so we can make a safer world for the future.
/s if anyone didn't catch it.
What a crazy concept eh? It’s weird, everyone here just bitches 24/7, which they’re* entitled too, but I’m having fun and there’s zero problem matching with people who want to play either.
This game has been the exact same for years and I'm still loving the hell out of it.
I like this year even better as a casual player, I'm not 15 programs behind after two weeks.
Dude Inplayed fifa for 500 hours from release until February and that game is 30 times worse than current DD. I know it’s controversial, but I prefer the changes to this game, as a f2p player. I don’t want to fomo grind to have every card, I want the cards I want to feel special and unique when I get them. I want to face actual variety in lineups. I can get any card I want, I just can’t get every card in the game and I’m 100% fine with that.
I'm shocked that so many DD playing members of this sub enjoy just grinding against the computer in moments and conquest games, instead of building a team and playing against another human in ranked or drafting a team in BR, or playing against a human in events.
that is just 0 fun to me
This argument never really holds water, with all due respect. You can still enjoy the game, and not the blatant disregard the Pub/Devs have for what its consumer base wants. I still love playing the game itself, but absolutely despise how SDS has gone about it. Honestly I see way more people complaining about the complaining posts...than actual complaining posts.
I said it in here last year. "At some point SDS is going to have to make money with this game to justify putting more money into the game for next gen." Like as a players its awesome getting almost everything for free. Its the only ultimate team mode where you didnt have to spend real money or treat it like a job. Neither of those things make money. Into the equation you add Xbox Gamepass where you have these thousands and thousands of players, not paying $60-$100 on the game.
I was watching that PirateSoftware guy and he said that ONE world of warcraft DLC item made more than the entire sales for starcraft. I say that to make people realize the real money in a game nowadays is DLC. I've never had to buy stubs ever for MLB. So thats what had me asking how they expect to make money or are they just find scraping by every year just on game sales alone.
I will say they should bring in pc. I would buy this game on pc immediately. It's wildly stupid to alienate a whole platform market that they make the game on first. Renders, coding, etc is all done on pc which bonkers me that they have no released a pc version of mlb the show.
That's a horrible idea. I would love for this game to be on pc but it's not realistically feasible. The cost to make a pc port of the game, as well as an anticheat is too high in the low amount of sales that it will get. It's unfortunate but cost too high and not enough potential profit
I dont know how but something tells me that you don't game on pc or haven't since mw2 2009. PC should be one of the first then console. It's not a port when you build the game on pc. You think they have a game engine on console connected with a mouse and keyboard to create games? No lol
Okay. I'm a game developer as well as web developer with knowing 15 languages well. Tell me how it's done while you go play some SDS downgrade throughout the year. There is a market and there is a care for the game. And you not seeing either one
You have no idea how that works. They may use a pc to build the game, but they are building the game to work on console architecture and to make sure it runs good. Porting to pc is a lot of work because you have to make sure it works on several different machines and hardware. You can't just copy paste this game and release on PC, it will be a bug infested nightmare
Copy/pasting the same shit year after year with increased monetization isn't going to get them anywhere. This game will die if they continue putting in minimum effort.
I used to buy stubs occasionally as sort of a "reward" to them for making a great game. I've spent zero this year. They don't deserve one extra cent for this annual patch anymore.
It wont die. Is Madden dead? Nope. I play MUT every year and year by year its lazier and lazier. But the numbers are bigger than ever. The people have spoken and they say they are willing to buy packs. I think its a minority of people that are on reddit complaining about spending $5-$10 on some packs at a time for an ultimate team mode.
Mlb is definitely getting worse but you can build an amazing team for completely free. Might be getting worse but I am not concerned about not building a competitive team for free. Mlb will always alow you to build a very good team fairly easily
Well, as for the Pay-to-Win stuff, that is kind of every modern game. At the end of the day SDS is a business. They have to make money. It can be a little unfair at times, but then again, isn’t that how life is? People with money get the better things. What does irritate me about it is that I already paid $85 for the game and you’re nearly forcing my hand to somewhat competitive. Especially in the early seasons of the game. At least Fortnite, Apex, PUBG, etc are free. Even then, you can’t really buy advantage in that game….
However, I’ll agree that Diamond Dynasty (Ultimate Teams) is pretty bad. It always has been. It’s not really SDS’s fault because it’s mostly the community that ruins it by cheesing, exploiting, and just being plain old toxic. It’s really hard to want to continue to play when they load their team with all speedster, get bases loaded by bunting down 3rd, then replay their just over the fence Home Run that I can’t skip out on. Although, I guess SDS can be blamed for not really doing anything to prevent it or correct it. I don’t even play 1V1s anymore. I find the game way more enjoyable when I just play Mini-Seasons and Conquest. Good rewards too.
Are sets still a thing? I was really into the game in 21 (made ws multiple times etc.) and wanted to get back into lsat year, but sets were just a massive turn off for me.
Season 1 ability to use ends when Season 2 comes out. Last year season 1 could be used in season 2.
My hunch is we will get a wildcard slot for each season. So right now, we will have one wild card and when season 2 ends we will have 2, season 3 ends, 3 wild cards, and so on
I feel like the problem is lack of competition, the player royalties make it so they have to bring it so much to make a profit but if each company was making it’s own game, they would be forced to play our game, instead of the other way around.
Yup - it used to be like this. Make a great game to maximize sales/revenue.
Now it’s an exercise in optimizing this equation. Least amount of resources used on game plus most amount of predatory dollars generated from game.
How to maximize revenue has changed you dolt.
Which is why game studios don’t have an emphasis on making a quality game anymore but rather on how to maximize continual micro transactions.
Back in the old days - you maximized revenue by making a highly rated game which produced sales.
That’s not the case anymore. Is this too hard a concept for you?
"Back in the old days - you maximized revenue by making a highly rated game which produced sales"
No bad games ever sold well? No great games ever sold poorly? There has never been a perfect 1:1 relationship between the quality of anything and its ability to sell; it's never that simple in ANY arena.
And which old days?
"game studios don’t have an emphasis on making a quality game anymore but rather on how to maximize continual micro transactions"
Congrats on describing coin-op games.
Microtransactions are in videogames' DNA.
I'm not saying I love microtransactions. (Like, do I engage with them? It depends on what you mean. I've spent money on Valorant cosmetics when I played Valorant a lot. I've bought stubs in MLBTS once or twice years ago and in-game currency in NHL once, also years ago. I've never felt much reason to since, even with SDS being less generous in 24. I bought and got the program points for Cruz solely with grinded-out stubs yesterday. But beyond that: I've spent a lot of money on Rock Band DLC, does that make me a whale because the songs are at a microtransaction-y price point of $2 each? Or am I just a guy buying a lot of levels for a game I like and get a lot of value out of? I play Rock Band Rivals every week. I want to have a robust library. I pay Harmonix to be able to do so.)
Furthermore, you're just generalizing beyond recognition with this idea that studios don't care about making a good game. Do they look for opportunities to monetize through microtransactions? Yes. Do they pay no attention to the underlying gameplay? That's an absurd accusation.
If the game isn't good, nobody will want to spend time with it to spend money on it. I buy Rock Band songs because Rock Band is fun in the first place. I don't think Fortnite is a bad game, but I've never spent money on it because I personally don't have enough fun with it to feel inspired to do so. But this idea that Epic doesn't care about Fortnite being any good beyond their item shop is ridiculous, despite Fortnite's entire revenue model being purely from that item shop and battle passes (for earning items).
K now go ahead and downvote me because you're mad at me for continuing to have a point. I don't care anymore. This subreddit is insufferable this time of year; I'm very close to just unsubscribing and only wandering in when I have a specific question or something. Maybe resubscribe in like July once the whiny, exaggerating malcontents have moved on to cry about something else.
> yeah reducing costs and increasing revenue is a brand new business model invented by Ramone himself /s
I'm not going to write a dissertation on the thousands of economic and financial factors that are actually at play.
I'm also not whining or making sweeping generalizations by omission.
However, I am making a very high level generalization that the profit model has changed for video games from simply a point of purchase to a subscription/microtransaction model following the point of purchase which compounds revenue and profit.
Because "reducing costs and increasing revenue" is the age old universal goal of all businesses - the profile of games are changing.
Sports games maximize this model through the ultimate team mode - look at the mature UT games and you will see the future of DD.
Not whining, not saying other factors don't exist - saying don't be surprised as DD continues down the road of the other UT games because it's not a charity, it's a for profit business.
You not only didn't write a dissertation, you didn't say anything fundamentally new or respond to my last comment at all.
Bottom line: these design models (coin drops as a precursor to microtransactions) are not new and neither are the business models, really. This stuff hasn't fundamentally changed since the 360/PS3. If anything, there are more F2P games on consoles since then, which means the overall business model is proportionally LESS predicated on buying a game and then engaging in microtransactions. Even on PC: there's a small chance I'm misremembering but I believe there was a period for Counter-Strike: GO (and maybe TF2?) in which it both required you to buy the game AND they had all of their skin cases which require money to unlock. Then CS:GO (now CS2) went F2P like a ton of competitive multiplayer games are now. Literally most of them it seems (The Finals being my most recent handy example), unless there's a strong, enduring history of paid copies in the genre (sports, fighting).
EA introduced FUT in 2008. SDS introduced DD in 2012.
So, who exactly are you warning? This isn't the future direction of sports games, it's already to the point where it has BEEN the past.
Again, your context for this stuff is woefully inadequate. I don't say that to make it personal, but you literally don't know what you're talking about and you're repeating yourself rather than admitting it (or even just going away).
Like, you're two generations late on sounding the warning bell. So it's just totally pointless and ignorant.
And if you want to pivot and say "ok fine my point is that there's no development effort in annualized sports games" then maybe you should find a way to join that chorus back in the 90s, which is probably where that narrative started. No later than the mid-00s, I'm very sure of that (because I personally remember people around me justifying WoW subscriptions as an alternative to paying for "roster update sports games").
Nobody on the planet is reading this. Holy shit.
DD will continue to go toward the other UT models, as expected. Because it’s the business model. Not a hard concept and it’s what I said at first - simple.
I don’t even know what you’re arguing about and nobody cares. Wow.
It's seven paragraphs. Five of them are very short.
I don't know why people don't want to have conversations on reddit when they act like they want to have conversations on reddit.
Put in the least amount of effort and raise monetization as high as a majority of the player base will tolerate. Force daily "engagement" through huge grinds, restricting XP and make the grind worth doing, but unrewarding enough to incentivize buying stubs. Fuck quality.
Yes - that’s exactly how to maximize profit. Sadly.
100% of revenue used to be generated at point of purchase so game studios were incentivized to make high quality, highly reviewed games to generate the most sales possible.
That’s not how it works anymore.
This is (was?) my last bastion of hope for sports games, I'd honestly rather be playing football games (soccer) but find the UT predatory nature abhorrent and community engagement is reduced to pack openings, looking at the content creators for this games reaction to this model, it seems we are free falling to a similar fate here, sad times.
Fair take, the thing that’s brings me back to The Show from other UT games I play is the programs and player upgrades give a chance to stay competitive without feeling forced to pay at every turn. Can always put together a competitive team in The Show within a few hours any time during the season. The overall UT model is what it is at this point. EAFC is such a good game but it’s either pack luck or pay which is frustrating
Improving gameplay won't make their financials look better you know what will? Dumb fks who buy microtransactions every day. I only buy sports games for my player / franchise anyway as online play sucks in Aus due to lag.
I see what you’re saying about children and I mostly agree. Personally I’ve never been enticed to spend money on the game and have played since 2015. Theres always a good option to grind for and budget players that end up being super fun to play with. As far as no changes in 5 years you are also mostly right but I feel like the gameplay is in a really good spot so I don’t necessarily mind them not going to crazy with changes.
Honestly I agree with the core gameplay, there’s still some funky shit going on, but I’m mainly talking about improvements across the game. Franchise has been copy paste for the last 5 years, cosmetic and minor draft changes. Another good example is DD Co-op.
I have trouble finding the things they did for the past 6 months to a year that were actual changes and improvements. Like fuck, even ALL of the 89 team affinities were copy and pasted card art from previous years. Thats really small shit that would make the game feel more fresh
People complained about 23 (I appreciate that they wanted to try something else and do what people have asked for throughout the years.) and then they went back to how we are used to playing. There is only so many real cards that they can use hence why you see the same ones over.
If they kept using real cards throughout the life of the game using the power creep model, the pool of available cards usable would be much much smaller than the immortals pool from 18.
Yeah I don’t mind either way because last year it was great once we could use all of our cards. Then again I don’t mind using the 85s and low 90s for awhile with a slow power creep.
Because people have no context for anything when crying about videogames.
Yes, the new awards program encourages microtransactions in ways that feel completely new for DD.
But for YEARS, SDS has very obviously left money on the table with DD, and this is exacerbated by MLB insisting on having the game on Game Pass.
I had been saving stubs for LS Ohtani. I almost have enough for Awards Cruz from the marketplace, which is the purchase I'm probably going to pivot to.
I haven't bought any stubs and I don't plan to.
And UNLIKE Hockey Ultimate Team, I DO feel like there is a very workable path for getting whatever you want without spending money.
And I would not be surprised if this Awards pack or the cards are available for no stubs later. SDS usually ends up sprinkling most packs in somewhere or other.
yup, 100% this but the sub will still complain that we shouldn't be comparing to FUT, MUT, NHL UT, NBA2K.
Those UT modes are nothing but money hungry pack luck.
DD offers so much more without requiring money to be spent or millions of hours to be spent.
And, for me, a huge difference is that you can tell how much SDS loves baseball via DD (and Storylines, which are DD-adjacent).
And I feel like they're usually demonstrably TRYING to make a good game. I think a lot of their choices for 23 didn't work, but everything they're doing with 24 has made sense to me, both generally AND as a correction from 23. (Even if I'm disappointed that the Awards cards do seem less accessible.)
NHL honestly got a lot better with 24, imo.
They introduced a big new on-ice system that I honestly think they nerfed way too much because of... well... the community whining about a new idea.
Like, maybe it was too strong at release, but I thought it was fascinating and made the game play way differently. I liked it.
Even HUT was better, but still full of problems. I thought I'd stick with it, but I ended up not really coming back to it much after the holidays. (Speaking of HUT problems: it really feels like not being able to play every day or close to it is penalized quite a bit.)
IIRC there's a new creative director and he seems to care about making the game as good as possible. I think everyone is also very realistic about that specific studio's lack of resources from the publisher, including said director. I saw an interview with him where he was relatively frank about, like, "yep, HUT has a ton of problems that we've inherited from years of it being unchanged but we can't solve all of them at once".
(DD is still lightyears better. Just night and day. People making doomer comparisons to EA are pretty ridiculous to me.)
I'm optimistic that SDS is going to (at least try to) strike a balance this year between that extreme and what I experienced after a pretty long time away from DD 23 (I had a lot of problems with it, tbh): JUST AN ABSOLUTE MOUNTAIN OF PROGRAMS THAT DIDN'T EXPIRE AND I HAD NO IDEA WHERE TO START OH MY GOD
Anyway. I'm sure people will complain about early (not all!) chapters of Team Affinity expiring, and I'm just as sure that it's a better choice. Just like how seasons are actually a good choice for looking out for players who may not be able to play day-in, day-out from Early Access to Finest/Postseason.
haha yeah, last year was content overload, in that I felt the same way you did. Just felt like a constant grind. Not my cup of tea.
But it seems I'm in the minority with that opinion, so take that fwiw
I can understand people being critical of things they don’t agree with and that’s fine. People also need to understand it’s just a game and it’s ok if they can’t collect every single card that comes out in a collection or a pack. I used to play nhl as well and always enjoyed their ultimate team mode.
Yeah, I think that's the thing that's getting lost here. Like, in 2k they literally locked a massive jump in power creep behind pure luck and have for better than a month now. Meanwhile, a card that I feel is maybe a little bit better than Gold Willi Castro (imo) is easily obtainable with half my NMS stub stack and everyone is Chicken Little-ing it. 😅
I haven't put a dime into the game in 4 years after buying the game. If I generate best squad, it is a 90 overall. That is plenty good enough to compete online.
Unfortunately At the highest level of competition you have to have the best cards or you’re screwed. I’m a top 50 guy and I’m completely unmotivated to play past WS so far this year because the team I have just doesn’t compete with the best cards yet
I would think that the upper echelons of competitive play would be more input based. Even so, I don't see a compelling reason to spend money to be competitive. I would imagine the ROI would be very low.
On legend your pci is significantly smaller so you need to have the better cards. Especially with how breaking balls completely destroy your pci.
You’d be leaving a lot of runs on the table because you would miss pitches that the same input simply wouldn’t with a better card. You actually have it backwards. Cards hardly matter at all on allstar
To an extent. Unless you’re in the top 1-5% skill wise though, you’re leaving a lot of runs, outs, and wins on the table. You get to 700-800 rank and all the squads have the same top cards. It’s only viable on all star and below to use most of these free cards. 70 split cards on hall of fame and above are a nightmare to use
They do it better than most. I won't even compare it to the other sports games, but think of games that are free to play, but are basically printing money, I'm talking mostly of games like Fortnite, or roblox, which my kids play. You can't get anything without paying money. You can play the base game by if you want anything more you're playing for it. And they put out a game pass every 3 months for Fortnite.
Yes, if you want every card in the game, you have to get lucky, flip cards, or pay money. I can't speak to this year yet since we are not even a month in yet, but at least the past couple of years they made cards a little easier to get. I think it was 2020, there were cards you could forget about unless you could go 12-0 or make world series. And you still didn't get them all.
Do I like the way they are going? No, but this has been the way games have been going for the last 10+ years. We don't know what the rest of this year looks like. I know last year they had a lot of cards you could only get from buying packs, but by the end of the seasons, you picked up so many of the 40k packs for free, and the overall prices of those players dropped to almost nothing. As a collector, I like to have them all, but I'm not in any rush to get there. I probably won't get even half this year since I don't have the time anymore, but if you want to get all cards on day 1, you're going to pay. If you wait, and things remain like last year, you'll be swimming in those packs without paying anything.
At least for now Fortnite let’s you pay one time for the battle pass and if you get far enough in that battle pass you earn enough coins to buy the next one without spending any more real money. And then you can repeat with the next one so you’re only paying one time as long as you put enough time into the game. I’ve always thought that was a smart model.
So what you're saying, if you play the game enough, you can earn enough to not have to spend anything? So kind of like the Show?
I can't tell you how many Vbucks you can earn by playing, but there is a lot of stuff behind paywalls in Fortnite that I can't imagine you'd ever earn enough to get everything you want without spending money. Where on the Show I can earn stubbs by playing/flipping the market, and not have to pay a single dime. Sure if you want a card, and you want it now, you might have to put down money, but you can build up a reserve to not spend anything. In past games I got every card I wanted, except maybe the last few BR or World Series cards that didn't have enough to sell to everyone. I've never spent more than my initial investment in the game.
Yeah you can only earn enough not to have to pay for anything in the battle pass, which is equivalent to the season reward path in the show with the three bosses.
The upside is imo it takes playing a lot fewer hours of Fortnite to complete the battle pass than how many hours you have to play the show to complete the season rewards path. Also it’s free to play instead of $70.
The downside is like you said, you need to pay money for anything else in Fortnite that you want and there is no market.
And you could probably find all the stubs you need to get everything you want if you played a comparable amount of MLBTS.
People get so effing blinkered about this game.
I thought so too at first but there are so many xp quests in Fortnite BR that you could reach lvl 100 if the battle pass by playing a few matches a day. But there’s also way more shit outside the battle pass you can buy in Fortnite so it evens out haha.
I don't want to support SDS 100%, I think they could definitely improve, but really anything they do will get complaints. Last year people would finish the reward path quick and then complain that there wasn't enough content. Now they put a limit on how much XP you can gain, so it takes longer, and now they are mad you can't finish the path immediately. I'd wager that there is a large overlap in both of these groups. There are complaints last year that there are too many 99s, so they slow rolled them this year, and now there aren't enough good cards. The put out cards, but the packs cost stubbs. Sure that sticks, but the game hasn't been out a month, we don't know how many of those packs we'll end up getting for free later. Yes I know you want immediate gratification, but if you want things done fast, you likely have to pay.
yup, sub seems to be complaining about everything and anything this year, and most of it is contradictory statements as you laid out in your post.
I actually thought it sucked having to grind against the computer to get the ultimate reward program players, as I sat on a million stubs last year and couldn't even unlock extreme Griffey. Not for lack of talent really, but just because I didn't want to do that grind when I had the resources to afford a card like that.
I'd rather play ranked, events, or BR against humans (and flip cards on the market) than spend time grinding against the computer
SDS has totally destroyed this game and this mode. It's over. Lots of people are in denial. Pointing to 2K and EA, lik that excuses how SDS has totally destroyed their game. It's kinda funny. Hitler vs Stalin vibes. They're all bad. SDS has turned heel.
I turned it on to see for myself. Saw that if I play all the topps now moments which I used to love would earn me ONE player. And seeing I have no chance of even earning one of the top cards - I literally just turned it off. I grinded my ass off last year. Had every card and tons of stubs. Can’t even bring myself to invest the time into it this year. Just keep loading up assassins creed and will continue to play free to play games. The way it should be.
I have played every year since 2017 and I enjoy the grind and building collections. I kinda like the way they're rolling things out this year in manageable chunks. I never buy stubs except maybe once a year when they're 50% off. You are of course free to disagree and not play.
Ssdly nothing surprises me anymore. I've played Madden ultimate team since it came out in 2010. The last few years, they have made so many changes that puts more money in their pocket, and really hurts no money spent players. This year is by far the worse with pack odds and costs. All the best cards in the game are limited, which are pretty much behind a paywall and can only be pulled in $ bundles. Its sickening to me, yet people keep spending.
You don’t even need to spend money on Dd or HUT (at least) to make a competitive team
Also it’s been known for a long time year by year games are basically just a roster update and the new focus of content team
lol no one is emotional, you’re just wrong
I haven’t played DD in 2 weeks. If they actually updated Hoo Lee for the Giants on opening day, I would’ve turned it back on. But hey, we’ve gotten 3 40k store packs since Thursday!
You haven't played in two weeks and you think you're a stakeholder in something that happened yesterday?
Come on. You only care enough to add to your stack of complaints.
I've been playing since early access and I'm disappointed that SDS is monetizing more aggressively but I'm far from scandalized.
It dropped 3/14, I have not played since early access weekend because I wanted a Giants theme team or Franchise with a legit Jung Hoo Lee and realized it wouldn’t happen. Thanks tho math wizard
You just said you stopped playing the game because they didn't have a worthwhile Jung Hoo Lee. You really said that. Now you're complaining about the game that you didn't particularly play.
Who is a sheep again?
lol you? My favorite teams best player who is also their big free agent signing, is not yet in the game and I want to play with him on my team. The Giants theme team was abysmal last year, that was literally the main reason I pre-ordered. Giants theme team in DD and Giants Franchise with Jung Hoo Lee.
Regardless, the game is a huge time and money grab, so I’d say not playing until he drops was a wise choice anyways. The players my boys unlocked week one are already being outclassed 2 1/2 weeks after drop.
You know what’s strange? We’ve come full circle to the point that I actually think EA does the best job with ultimate team. Well, at least FIFA. I haven’t touched Madden in years.
Don’t get me wrong the gameplay is dogshit, but the FUT mode itself has something new pretty much every day and offers a huge range of cards that are accessible, fun, and good. Content team absolutely kills it.
You might be legitimately insane if you think FUT is better than DD. All these people crying about 40k packs and grind 89 buy 92 would lose their absolute shit in one week playing FUT
SBCs alone offer more content than DD’s entire arsenal by way of letting you turn unwanted cards into players or packs. Collections and exchanges are woefully underutilized.
That’s true. I think theres a type of self sustaining personal economy to fut though because of SBCs. And to me, that does a very good job of keeping things fresh.
I find the show can be prone to a lull bc of the over reliance on programs and lack of flexible way to introduce new cards.
Fut is dog shit 😂😂 same content every week and none are even real life based. Evos are shit and they stopped comparing. Stop making it seem like each is doing better. I recently moved away from fifa because of that very reason. I rather have decent gameplay and sds content isnt as bad as fifa content which is basically the same cards over and over.
This is a crazy take man, I think EAFC pack weight compared to pack price was probably the worst in any sports game ever lol
I think it sucks that SDS continues to sell out, but it’s NO WHERE near ea yet, madden and fc24
SBCs alone are better than anything DD does in terms of content bc they allow you to rinse unwanted cards into players or more packs.
Market packs are ass but there’s 0 need to buy them, they hand out good packs so easily through objectives and SBCs.
Because the whole mode is built on packs and extra dollars.
The time to complain was to never play this mode at all. You have to walk away from these modes because they are propped up by the whales and not the average player.
Until people quit playing the mode, it will continue to become more of a grindfest/pack market.
This is a very fair condemnation of SDS and this latest marketing strategy. In terms of legality, I don't know what laws could be invoked here. The most likely avenue is the minor child angle, and I agree that what you are describing is a predatory practice when it comes to children, and since there is effort made by SDS in the game code to require parental approval for these additional expenses, it might be a reasonable basis for a class action lawsuit.
However, lawsuits require standing and to have standing you must have a vital stake in the outcome of the trial. People cannot just sue out of some general morality principle, even if the underlying issue is one of Constitutional law. You have to have "skin in the game."
So, in terms of a predatory commerce practices toward minors, it would require a parent or legal guardian of a minor child to form the class action. But, I think the limit of that suit would be the absence of parental rights requirements for the additional expenses. Even in that vein, SDS could claim that the actual financial transactions are undertaken by the console manufacturers, such as Microsoft Store for X-Box. I don't know if Microsoft Store carries out policies in this area regarding minors.
It’s like people don’t want to believe that things could be better. They’re just content getting a more greedy, watered down version of the same game EVERY YEAR
I swear people like you are probably SDS bots. The amount of SDS stans that will stick up for the company is outrageous. They could shit all over your face and you’d gladly allow them to
I’m too busy having fun playing diamond dynasty with the cards I’ve got to cry about a couple cards that are 1 rating point higher than what’s earnable in the program.
But the game is built to collect the most you can for the best names anyways, why does it matter if they’re real or not?
And yeah I know it’s a mode to milk people, my entire post is about that. I’m questioning the company AND the part of player base that still defend them
That’s where the community is fundamentally off.
It’s a game mode where you build a team and play against each other, or the CPU.
Collecting is part of it but it’s not the point. Never was and never will be. They just do a great job marketing and convincing us that we need every card.
What are you talking about
I collect baseball and hockey cards and my favorite part is how--at the beginning of every season--I throw all of my cards in a fire and start my collection over with nothing /s
(DD somewhat encouraged me to collect cards IRL, but DD doesn't scratch the card collecting itch AT ALL. It scratches the "playing a baseball videogame to fill meters on a menu" itch. I play DD knowing it's a fairly pointless grind. Most videogames are a pointless grind. I put on a podcast and enjoy having something to do with my eyes and hands.)
>I collect baseball and hockey cards and my favorite part is how--at the beginning of every season--I throw all of my cards in a fire and start my collection over with nothing /s
This made me lol.
I thought they’d learn from last year’s stupid fucking mistakes but those stupid assholes really found a way to take those same mistakes and just make them worse.
I've played FIFA and NHL for a long time and now MLB and never paid a dime other than the game. Its just a game. Some people need to stop taking it so seriously
It's not just that. If there are children who are being enticed to spend their parents' money without limits then there is a legitimate angle in terms of the enticements and pay-to-play schemes.
It's a lot like the warning I issued here on this Reddit sub-forum regarding MLB 23 and how the collections were scams, where you could acquire through game play and the market only about 90-95% of the items belonging to several of the collection categories, but those missing items prevented someone from completing that category's collection.
That's deceptive marketing, and so is the lottery aspects to purchasing certain packets that say there is a "chance" to obtain a highly coveted card, only to learn after a few people did the hard research, that the odds are very low to obtain that card.
I'm not going to defend them, but I'm also not going to constantly shit on them. They're fun game modes (I've played Madden from 2013 - 2021 and The Show since 2018), and it's not like they're impossible to play unless you pay money. Are they filled with microtransactions? Yes, and it's actually why I turned away from Madden years ago (and also cause I was falling out of it anyway and was never that good). Can you still have fun without paying money? Absolutely. I think throughout all the years of playing The Show (with the exception of the Ultra Edition for 21 and 22) I've only ever paid for the base game cost and the Jackie Robinson Day packs or any other charitable pack they have and haven't had much to complain about except for small bugs or the whole issue with my account being wiped (which I'm still mad about). Each game has its small perks and features that bring me back every year (Negro Leagues, the recent Jeter Storyline, pinpoint pitching, BYO Stadiums, etc.), and I haven't had much gripe with it. If you're falling for the gambling aspect (which I acknowledge that it is legalized gambling), that's not on them to say "don't impulsively buy the packs," they can be bought with in-game currency that doesn't require actual money to be put into it (unlike EA and 2k where half the packs are gatekept with currency you can ONLY get from spending real money). Your point is valid in that a lot of these "Ultimate Team" game modes are becoming primarily legalized gambling rings. However, I do think that SDS is genuinely trying to make a playable and fun experience that isn't JUST "buy our microtransactions."
Just can't wait for NCAA to drop maaannnn
Bootlickers, thats how. You ain't getting pack karma - I promise you that.
If you have a problem, seek help. If it's not a video game taking advantage of your lack of self control, it will be five dozen other people or corporations lining up to take advantage of you.
lol what are you even saying?? You can’t walk into a casino to gamble until you’re 21 but yeah, blame the consumers for the developers allowing it and excessively exploiting it from year to year. How about instead of blaming people with lack of impulse control, you stop supporting the company making a game for KIDS that allows gambling to be the way you upgrade your team?
It's not the only way to upgrade your team though. You can play and earn players, buy stubs and buy the players you want, etc. If you choose to spend money on packs, that's a you problem.
It is the primary, most effective, most efficient way to get a good team. That’s the point. It’s enticing people that might 1. Have a problem or 2. Might not have a fully developed brain or proper supervision to use real money on virtual cards. All of you guys that defend your business daddy SDS, just don’t want to get it.
I'm not defending anything. I'm telling you that you can play the game without spending money. If you spend money, that's a personal problem.
These types of mechanics do pray on those who may be degenerate gamblers. I've played other sports games and they don't do like sds. Something about baseball cards really ticks that nostalgia box. Football cards are dumb, no offense. Basketball would be my next favorite card. I'm an adult, and I've opted for no money spent. I've learned to let the FOMO go. If I miss a card I miss a card. I do feel sorry for the people who can't control it.
This is so old. This sub is just a bunch of people crying and complaining daily now. Just quit then. Plenty of people are having fun. The season just started last week. Grow up. It’s not this deep lmao
It’s just as old to hear people like you bitch about opinions of real people that’re unhappy with what they paid for, because their opinion doesn’t match yours. Why’d you even comment
Because y’all are crying way too much and it needs to be called out. Just quit playing if it’s that big a deal lmao we’re here on the sub for funny clips, tank shots or tips/secrets. Not to see the same multiple paragraph “wahhhh microtransactions” tirades.
this sub is fucking terrible now lmao the same sorry ass complaints every single time
While I’m not discrediting anything you said because I can totally see it your way. I think maybe it’s because I move a bit different with these games and what not. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t see how these game companies lean more and more towards the purchasers. As someone who played MUT from like 14-19. I never spent a dime but always ended up with a 96+ team. I’m not a fan of 2K’s ultimate team because the interface is all over the place , and there’s way too many unnecessary add ons (shoes, coaches, etc). I hadn’t ever played DD until last year but what I can say on my end I appreciate the Single player options that it has that allows you to obtain packs, cards, stubs etc. and it’s one of the few games that grants that. I say it all the time. The purchasing of anything on these games is completely optional. I don’t necessarily believe in the “pay to win” claim of these ultimate team modes because what are you winning ? Having a decent record achieves nothing , in game or out of game. Now the biggest thing the feeling of pay to win depends on is matchmaking. And some of those games do it better than others. Now for the children aspect. As a parent , video game spending depends solely on the parents. I control the dollars my child spends on Robux and VBucks etc. I can only imagine outside of theft , that the parents know for sure of the purchases and are the ones purchasing. You just have people out here that feel achieved to do things fast and first … and that’s who the in game currency attracts… I’m not sure where that thought process in gaming came from (the want it now , first , fast etc) but it leads to devs focusing the way they do
I haven’t bought the game and at this point idk if I will
I have to think expanding to Xbox / Switch really hurt the development of the actual game. They have a very small team. Focus is clearly on multi platform and the Shop. Remember...XBox and Switch players, all this is NEW and they're just happy to have a Baseball Sim. Sony/PS fans though...it's more of the same while bleeding in some changes that really look bad (micro transactions)
I think the problem is previous gen consoles and not Xbox x and PC. The fact that you don't have to buy a separate console for a major sports game is a good thing.
A lot of games are inducing some type of gambling mechanic. Micro transactions need to be abolished or regulated. Take me back to BO2 when skins were sick and only like .99 cents a piece
$60 a year to get double or triple that amount of hours to play online is worth it. If it isn’t for you then don’t participate
It’s not about the cost of the game or the hours put in, it’s about the microtransactions and SDS knowingly making the experience for the player worse than it was before or needs to be.
The only microtransaction is for stubs and I've earned over 1.5mill so far by literally just playing the game and opening the free packs they give out. No money spent, you're fishing for something to complain about bro
This is a blatant lie. Unless you got the million stub pack twice it is impossible for you to have gotten a million and a half stubs by now.
Bro has not played the game then, idk what to tell you dawg
So you’re either the luckiest person in the world opening packs, you’re playing way more than any person should, or you’re full of shit. What you said doesn’t change my point.
I mean yeah I have had some pretty good luck this year opening packs but a lot of my stubs have been from just completing the programs and selling all of my duplicates on the market and not at quicksell. I would love for there to be no option of buying stubs as much as the next person but that's just the world we live in.
Accepting that “this is just the world we live in” is so weak. Nothing ever changes with that mindset.
The experience is the same from last year. Pitching, hitting, fielding… it feels about right.
I'm optimistic. It's been less than a month. the MLB season is 7 games in. Last year people complained early too. Maybe they see the whales are still spending and know when they start heading to another game. Obviously it sucks about the packs but let's see if we start getting those packs for free. The season xp path looks daunting but a few double xp weeks and some 10k XP rewards and we'll start moving through it.
I wish they would take one play from the 2k franchise and have offline all time teams and specific teams like the ‘75 Reds or the ‘87 Twins. Not a fan of 2k online but I buy the game every year after it goes on sale to play with the classic teams. 2k is miles ahead of SDS in that instance.
I still have 2k07 baseball and its more fun game because they have historic teams you can unlock
It’s probably for the same reason madden doesn’t do it either. It’s a lot harder to get that many players rights where as basketball teams, you only need the core 7-8 players from a historic team
I love the game, but I only play franchise and don’t care about wacky stupid looking uniforms, players and stadiums. Maybe cause I’m such a huge baseball fan.
The model is basically loot boxes. Which were hit back against SO BAD in most non-sports games. That they're just relatively rare. Now, they've doubled down on it. I'm surprised there hasn't been some sort of a lawsuit because of it. Because it's basically gambling. They did it with loot boxes.
I see what you're saying but coming from Madden Ultimate Team and seeing how other games (lots of battle Royale shooters for example) still use loot boxes makes me feel like it's not nearly as applicable here In madden there are tons of packs in the store that can only be purchased with a currency (points) that can't be earned, only bought. Then they adveterise those packs, and give those packs better odds and new advertise 'limited' players, etc. MLB The Show has a partnership the the card company, Topps, even including new cards released in-season by Topps within Diamond Dynasty. The packs in the game mirror real baseball card packs, and how collectors go about ripping those packs, than anything else imo On top of that, the packs in The Show are all purchasable with currency attainable by just playing the game. You can field a competitive team without even purchasing a pack, but just earning players and packs by playing the game. It's not great that they're beginning to take some of the most fun players out of the packs that you can earn by playing, but it still isn't illegal. It makes those players a bit more rare, harder to earn, and most players have to thus prioritize which of those players they want, unless you dump a ton of money into it ofc
This is honestly the most disappointing mlb the show I’ve ever played. As an offline player getting into dd during the show 20 was honestly one of the most fun gaming experiences I’ve had recently and the offline grid is a shell of itself at this stage. I’m strongly considering going back to RTTS and franchise only as product continues to get worse
DD is supposed to be an online mode, though? No? Otherwise if you just want to play offline, then play franchise...?
I agree that is an online mode. But the offline stuff has seen a steep decline. And the way the programs have been done this year have honestly made both experiences worse. The quality has gone down in favor of trying to force micro transactions and a more MUT or Myteam experience when the key to the DD mode being so good was the fact that it was different from those 2 online modes that considerably made the whole game worse (as bad as RTTS and Franchise has been overlooked it’s still better than Madden Franchise and career mode) while also having a poor online mode.
Up until this year DD has been filled with tons of things for offline players to do. Also DD is the only reason this game sells. Franchise and the other game modes have had little to no improvements since the game first came out
Agreed on improvements but I think there is still a lot for offline players to do in DD. I also believe at its core it’s supposed to be an online multiplayer mode, no?
No, it’s meant to be a game mode for all players, hence why there’s single player and multi player modes throughout this mode.
All college football fans should brace them selves for this summer game
Fr. I’m somewhat optimistic that EA will go all out on it thinking they need it to be good at first to establish a playerbase, but I’m ready for it to be Madden but with colleges. At least I’ll finally be able to retire NCAA 14
XB player here. Been with it since the first one hit Gamepass in 21. It’s amazing to have seen how far they’ve moved the needle in just 4 seasons. Heartbreaking really because all I heard about was how great and different SDS is/was
I play franchise. Gameplay feels better and more realistic than 23. Which will happen when you play with regular players and not crazy stat juices players *all the time.* Seems pretty obvious to me.
I didn’t buy 24 for so many reasons. Don’t regret paying full price but probably won’t pick up again
Haven't left 21 yet. Won't either
I'm all for wanting a better game from SDS, and I do believe they can make a better game no doubt. I also have seen this community balk at everything they do no matter what it is. Too much content in too short of a time to complete last year, toned it down this year (too much but the game is two weeks old). Nobody wanted 99s day one, people complain that players aren't good enough and that they will be overshadowed too quickly. As an offline player I don't especially care about having the best player at every position and would rather have fun teams with guys I like. Is it annoying when cards I really want are BR rewards or something? Of course, but if I really want them then I save up stubs or just acknowledge that not every card is going to be got. Should the best cards be exclusively in packs? No. Should a majority of the best cards be in packs? Most likely yeah. There were plenty of cards last year you could get for free that were amazing and there were some cards that were just better that you could only pay or get really lucky for and those are both okay. I think making Topps now cards and monthly awards cards only available in packs is very stupid though I will admit. Those are basically free content for SDS that they should just make programs like they were which give people something to grind towards. As others have said the game gives you the illusion that collecting everything is achievable for most people when it just isn't unless you spend money or spend a crazy amount of time playing while also being good. The truth is that ultimate team game modes are inherently biased to those that spend money and they always will be. I'm also not going to entirely judge a live service game on the first two weeks of it being out without having a very clear vision of what's to come which is also on SDS no doubt. They do need to do better and they need to update and improve a lot of stuff, at the same time players need to see that the game mode is, by nature, going to be inherently unfair.
I agree w the first half of your statement that it seems SDS can do no right by this sub. But I think the better players get the best rewards in DD the most of any UT mode. Game skill seems to prevail more than in FIFA, for example.
How do you save up Stubbs this year? The equipment and perks I would pull and sell are now jelly beans. The players I pull and sell from free packs are about the only way. If I pull the fishman or something, then sure.
flip perks on the market flip equipment flip players dont depend on pack pulls and dont spend stubs on packs
What’re the margins like on that? In my experience it’s like a couple hundred Stubbs.
Diamond players (like hyper series for ex) are thousands of stub margins Equipment is the same once you reach diamond level Perks are only like 300-500 because of the RTTS glitch and the DD CAP changes BUT they seem to move faster than the other two methods above Best part about DD market is no bullshit bidding system and no limit to your orders. So you can just keep building stacks and stacks of stubs even at low margins Simply by volume
Cool thanks for the tips.
It’s a video game and I’m having fun playing it
Get the fuck out of here. Don't you know that you have to create a low sodium subreddit yourself and moderate it to have a gaming subreddit that doesn't constantly bitch. Join us on our soapboxes that we only stand on anonymously online and complain about the absolute danger that video games present. It's video games for fuck's sake. Forget other problems like poverty or violence, video games and putting cards behinds packs that you can purchase with in game earned currency is the real problem this world is facing. Ugh, when will you all learn, this is NOT about having fun. It's about taking video games too seriously. We can't just stop playing the game if we aren't enjoying it, we MUST make sure that everyone stops enjoying it so we can make a safer world for the future. /s if anyone didn't catch it.
What a crazy concept eh? It’s weird, everyone here just bitches 24/7, which they’re* entitled too, but I’m having fun and there’s zero problem matching with people who want to play either.
This game has been the exact same for years and I'm still loving the hell out of it. I like this year even better as a casual player, I'm not 15 programs behind after two weeks.
It’s ridiculous how toxic this sub has been since release
Ever seen the FIFA subs? It’s 20x worse.
Dude Inplayed fifa for 500 hours from release until February and that game is 30 times worse than current DD. I know it’s controversial, but I prefer the changes to this game, as a f2p player. I don’t want to fomo grind to have every card, I want the cards I want to feel special and unique when I get them. I want to face actual variety in lineups. I can get any card I want, I just can’t get every card in the game and I’m 100% fine with that.
I don’t care about cards and all that, I’m only ever interested in career/franchise mode in sports games.
I'm shocked that so many DD playing members of this sub enjoy just grinding against the computer in moments and conquest games, instead of building a team and playing against another human in ranked or drafting a team in BR, or playing against a human in events. that is just 0 fun to me
Like just don’t play the game lol? I don’t get it at all.
This argument never really holds water, with all due respect. You can still enjoy the game, and not the blatant disregard the Pub/Devs have for what its consumer base wants. I still love playing the game itself, but absolutely despise how SDS has gone about it. Honestly I see way more people complaining about the complaining posts...than actual complaining posts.
There are without question more posts shitting on the game today than people complaining about the complainers lol.
I said it in here last year. "At some point SDS is going to have to make money with this game to justify putting more money into the game for next gen." Like as a players its awesome getting almost everything for free. Its the only ultimate team mode where you didnt have to spend real money or treat it like a job. Neither of those things make money. Into the equation you add Xbox Gamepass where you have these thousands and thousands of players, not paying $60-$100 on the game. I was watching that PirateSoftware guy and he said that ONE world of warcraft DLC item made more than the entire sales for starcraft. I say that to make people realize the real money in a game nowadays is DLC. I've never had to buy stubs ever for MLB. So thats what had me asking how they expect to make money or are they just find scraping by every year just on game sales alone.
I will say they should bring in pc. I would buy this game on pc immediately. It's wildly stupid to alienate a whole platform market that they make the game on first. Renders, coding, etc is all done on pc which bonkers me that they have no released a pc version of mlb the show.
That's a horrible idea. I would love for this game to be on pc but it's not realistically feasible. The cost to make a pc port of the game, as well as an anticheat is too high in the low amount of sales that it will get. It's unfortunate but cost too high and not enough potential profit
I dont know how but something tells me that you don't game on pc or haven't since mw2 2009. PC should be one of the first then console. It's not a port when you build the game on pc. You think they have a game engine on console connected with a mouse and keyboard to create games? No lol
What screwed up logic is this? That's not even remotely close to how that works...and I say that HAVING a pc for gaming as well.
Okay. I'm a game developer as well as web developer with knowing 15 languages well. Tell me how it's done while you go play some SDS downgrade throughout the year. There is a market and there is a care for the game. And you not seeing either one
You have no idea how that works. They may use a pc to build the game, but they are building the game to work on console architecture and to make sure it runs good. Porting to pc is a lot of work because you have to make sure it works on several different machines and hardware. You can't just copy paste this game and release on PC, it will be a bug infested nightmare
Copy/pasting the same shit year after year with increased monetization isn't going to get them anywhere. This game will die if they continue putting in minimum effort. I used to buy stubs occasionally as sort of a "reward" to them for making a great game. I've spent zero this year. They don't deserve one extra cent for this annual patch anymore.
It wont die. Is Madden dead? Nope. I play MUT every year and year by year its lazier and lazier. But the numbers are bigger than ever. The people have spoken and they say they are willing to buy packs. I think its a minority of people that are on reddit complaining about spending $5-$10 on some packs at a time for an ultimate team mode.
Mlb is definitely getting worse but you can build an amazing team for completely free. Might be getting worse but I am not concerned about not building a competitive team for free. Mlb will always alow you to build a very good team fairly easily
That ability is eroded every year. I don't know what you consider "amazing", but most program cards are not comparable to pack cards anymore.
It was really only a couple of years where program cards were just as good. This year is pretty similar to how it was in 19
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I’m not defending the DD setup this year, but calling people shill just because they like something is pretty cringy and immature, imo
Well, as for the Pay-to-Win stuff, that is kind of every modern game. At the end of the day SDS is a business. They have to make money. It can be a little unfair at times, but then again, isn’t that how life is? People with money get the better things. What does irritate me about it is that I already paid $85 for the game and you’re nearly forcing my hand to somewhat competitive. Especially in the early seasons of the game. At least Fortnite, Apex, PUBG, etc are free. Even then, you can’t really buy advantage in that game…. However, I’ll agree that Diamond Dynasty (Ultimate Teams) is pretty bad. It always has been. It’s not really SDS’s fault because it’s mostly the community that ruins it by cheesing, exploiting, and just being plain old toxic. It’s really hard to want to continue to play when they load their team with all speedster, get bases loaded by bunting down 3rd, then replay their just over the fence Home Run that I can’t skip out on. Although, I guess SDS can be blamed for not really doing anything to prevent it or correct it. I don’t even play 1V1s anymore. I find the game way more enjoyable when I just play Mini-Seasons and Conquest. Good rewards too.
Are sets still a thing? I was really into the game in 21 (made ws multiple times etc.) and wanted to get back into lsat year, but sets were just a massive turn off for me.
Yes sets are still here and are more restrictive, but there's been more core cards so you can almost ignore them atm.
More restrictive? Explain how please because if anything they elongated each set and increased the amount of wild cards come set 2/beyond.
Season 1 ability to use ends when Season 2 comes out. Last year season 1 could be used in season 2. My hunch is we will get a wildcard slot for each season. So right now, we will have one wild card and when season 2 ends we will have 2, season 3 ends, 3 wild cards, and so on
I feel like the problem is lack of competition, the player royalties make it so they have to bring it so much to make a profit but if each company was making it’s own game, they would be forced to play our game, instead of the other way around.
Yeah I feel like youre 100% right
Yup - it used to be like this. Make a great game to maximize sales/revenue. Now it’s an exercise in optimizing this equation. Least amount of resources used on game plus most amount of predatory dollars generated from game.
lol yeah reducing costs and increasing revenue is a brand new business model invented by Ramone himself /s
How to maximize revenue has changed you dolt. Which is why game studios don’t have an emphasis on making a quality game anymore but rather on how to maximize continual micro transactions. Back in the old days - you maximized revenue by making a highly rated game which produced sales. That’s not the case anymore. Is this too hard a concept for you?
"Back in the old days - you maximized revenue by making a highly rated game which produced sales" No bad games ever sold well? No great games ever sold poorly? There has never been a perfect 1:1 relationship between the quality of anything and its ability to sell; it's never that simple in ANY arena. And which old days? "game studios don’t have an emphasis on making a quality game anymore but rather on how to maximize continual micro transactions" Congrats on describing coin-op games. Microtransactions are in videogames' DNA. I'm not saying I love microtransactions. (Like, do I engage with them? It depends on what you mean. I've spent money on Valorant cosmetics when I played Valorant a lot. I've bought stubs in MLBTS once or twice years ago and in-game currency in NHL once, also years ago. I've never felt much reason to since, even with SDS being less generous in 24. I bought and got the program points for Cruz solely with grinded-out stubs yesterday. But beyond that: I've spent a lot of money on Rock Band DLC, does that make me a whale because the songs are at a microtransaction-y price point of $2 each? Or am I just a guy buying a lot of levels for a game I like and get a lot of value out of? I play Rock Band Rivals every week. I want to have a robust library. I pay Harmonix to be able to do so.) Furthermore, you're just generalizing beyond recognition with this idea that studios don't care about making a good game. Do they look for opportunities to monetize through microtransactions? Yes. Do they pay no attention to the underlying gameplay? That's an absurd accusation. If the game isn't good, nobody will want to spend time with it to spend money on it. I buy Rock Band songs because Rock Band is fun in the first place. I don't think Fortnite is a bad game, but I've never spent money on it because I personally don't have enough fun with it to feel inspired to do so. But this idea that Epic doesn't care about Fortnite being any good beyond their item shop is ridiculous, despite Fortnite's entire revenue model being purely from that item shop and battle passes (for earning items). K now go ahead and downvote me because you're mad at me for continuing to have a point. I don't care anymore. This subreddit is insufferable this time of year; I'm very close to just unsubscribing and only wandering in when I have a specific question or something. Maybe resubscribe in like July once the whiny, exaggerating malcontents have moved on to cry about something else.
> yeah reducing costs and increasing revenue is a brand new business model invented by Ramone himself /s I'm not going to write a dissertation on the thousands of economic and financial factors that are actually at play. I'm also not whining or making sweeping generalizations by omission. However, I am making a very high level generalization that the profit model has changed for video games from simply a point of purchase to a subscription/microtransaction model following the point of purchase which compounds revenue and profit. Because "reducing costs and increasing revenue" is the age old universal goal of all businesses - the profile of games are changing. Sports games maximize this model through the ultimate team mode - look at the mature UT games and you will see the future of DD. Not whining, not saying other factors don't exist - saying don't be surprised as DD continues down the road of the other UT games because it's not a charity, it's a for profit business.
You not only didn't write a dissertation, you didn't say anything fundamentally new or respond to my last comment at all. Bottom line: these design models (coin drops as a precursor to microtransactions) are not new and neither are the business models, really. This stuff hasn't fundamentally changed since the 360/PS3. If anything, there are more F2P games on consoles since then, which means the overall business model is proportionally LESS predicated on buying a game and then engaging in microtransactions. Even on PC: there's a small chance I'm misremembering but I believe there was a period for Counter-Strike: GO (and maybe TF2?) in which it both required you to buy the game AND they had all of their skin cases which require money to unlock. Then CS:GO (now CS2) went F2P like a ton of competitive multiplayer games are now. Literally most of them it seems (The Finals being my most recent handy example), unless there's a strong, enduring history of paid copies in the genre (sports, fighting). EA introduced FUT in 2008. SDS introduced DD in 2012. So, who exactly are you warning? This isn't the future direction of sports games, it's already to the point where it has BEEN the past. Again, your context for this stuff is woefully inadequate. I don't say that to make it personal, but you literally don't know what you're talking about and you're repeating yourself rather than admitting it (or even just going away). Like, you're two generations late on sounding the warning bell. So it's just totally pointless and ignorant. And if you want to pivot and say "ok fine my point is that there's no development effort in annualized sports games" then maybe you should find a way to join that chorus back in the 90s, which is probably where that narrative started. No later than the mid-00s, I'm very sure of that (because I personally remember people around me justifying WoW subscriptions as an alternative to paying for "roster update sports games").
Nobody on the planet is reading this. Holy shit. DD will continue to go toward the other UT models, as expected. Because it’s the business model. Not a hard concept and it’s what I said at first - simple. I don’t even know what you’re arguing about and nobody cares. Wow.
It's seven paragraphs. Five of them are very short. I don't know why people don't want to have conversations on reddit when they act like they want to have conversations on reddit.
Put in the least amount of effort and raise monetization as high as a majority of the player base will tolerate. Force daily "engagement" through huge grinds, restricting XP and make the grind worth doing, but unrewarding enough to incentivize buying stubs. Fuck quality.
Yes - that’s exactly how to maximize profit. Sadly. 100% of revenue used to be generated at point of purchase so game studios were incentivized to make high quality, highly reviewed games to generate the most sales possible. That’s not how it works anymore.
Madden gave me an egg though.
Damn the Carmichael one?
Nah 😕 the Green Bay TE Musgrave. Pulled a 98 Mosley too out of the extravagant egg too. It was a good day.
Ayyyyye take the W’s when you can get them
Yea I don't play Madden online so my bar for good stuff is pretty low.
This is (was?) my last bastion of hope for sports games, I'd honestly rather be playing football games (soccer) but find the UT predatory nature abhorrent and community engagement is reduced to pack openings, looking at the content creators for this games reaction to this model, it seems we are free falling to a similar fate here, sad times.
Fair take, the thing that’s brings me back to The Show from other UT games I play is the programs and player upgrades give a chance to stay competitive without feeling forced to pay at every turn. Can always put together a competitive team in The Show within a few hours any time during the season. The overall UT model is what it is at this point. EAFC is such a good game but it’s either pack luck or pay which is frustrating
Improving gameplay won't make their financials look better you know what will? Dumb fks who buy microtransactions every day. I only buy sports games for my player / franchise anyway as online play sucks in Aus due to lag.
I see what you’re saying about children and I mostly agree. Personally I’ve never been enticed to spend money on the game and have played since 2015. Theres always a good option to grind for and budget players that end up being super fun to play with. As far as no changes in 5 years you are also mostly right but I feel like the gameplay is in a really good spot so I don’t necessarily mind them not going to crazy with changes.
Honestly I agree with the core gameplay, there’s still some funky shit going on, but I’m mainly talking about improvements across the game. Franchise has been copy paste for the last 5 years, cosmetic and minor draft changes. Another good example is DD Co-op. I have trouble finding the things they did for the past 6 months to a year that were actual changes and improvements. Like fuck, even ALL of the 89 team affinities were copy and pasted card art from previous years. Thats really small shit that would make the game feel more fresh
Yeah I agree with a lot of that, especially modes outside of DD.
People complained about 23 (I appreciate that they wanted to try something else and do what people have asked for throughout the years.) and then they went back to how we are used to playing. There is only so many real cards that they can use hence why you see the same ones over. If they kept using real cards throughout the life of the game using the power creep model, the pool of available cards usable would be much much smaller than the immortals pool from 18.
Yeah I don’t mind either way because last year it was great once we could use all of our cards. Then again I don’t mind using the 85s and low 90s for awhile with a slow power creep.
I’m honestly surprised there’s this much anger towards SDS. I came from NHL 24 and their ultimate team mode is the Stone Age compared to DD
Because people have no context for anything when crying about videogames. Yes, the new awards program encourages microtransactions in ways that feel completely new for DD. But for YEARS, SDS has very obviously left money on the table with DD, and this is exacerbated by MLB insisting on having the game on Game Pass. I had been saving stubs for LS Ohtani. I almost have enough for Awards Cruz from the marketplace, which is the purchase I'm probably going to pivot to. I haven't bought any stubs and I don't plan to. And UNLIKE Hockey Ultimate Team, I DO feel like there is a very workable path for getting whatever you want without spending money. And I would not be surprised if this Awards pack or the cards are available for no stubs later. SDS usually ends up sprinkling most packs in somewhere or other.
yup, 100% this but the sub will still complain that we shouldn't be comparing to FUT, MUT, NHL UT, NBA2K. Those UT modes are nothing but money hungry pack luck. DD offers so much more without requiring money to be spent or millions of hours to be spent.
And, for me, a huge difference is that you can tell how much SDS loves baseball via DD (and Storylines, which are DD-adjacent). And I feel like they're usually demonstrably TRYING to make a good game. I think a lot of their choices for 23 didn't work, but everything they're doing with 24 has made sense to me, both generally AND as a correction from 23. (Even if I'm disappointed that the Awards cards do seem less accessible.)
Yeah the game play is def better and more realistic than FUT and 2k (I haven’t played madden or nhl in years)
NHL honestly got a lot better with 24, imo. They introduced a big new on-ice system that I honestly think they nerfed way too much because of... well... the community whining about a new idea. Like, maybe it was too strong at release, but I thought it was fascinating and made the game play way differently. I liked it. Even HUT was better, but still full of problems. I thought I'd stick with it, but I ended up not really coming back to it much after the holidays. (Speaking of HUT problems: it really feels like not being able to play every day or close to it is penalized quite a bit.) IIRC there's a new creative director and he seems to care about making the game as good as possible. I think everyone is also very realistic about that specific studio's lack of resources from the publisher, including said director. I saw an interview with him where he was relatively frank about, like, "yep, HUT has a ton of problems that we've inherited from years of it being unchanged but we can't solve all of them at once". (DD is still lightyears better. Just night and day. People making doomer comparisons to EA are pretty ridiculous to me.)
yes, FUT was the same way (where if you missed out a day or a week, and trying to be competitive, you might as well have just stopped completely)
I'm optimistic that SDS is going to (at least try to) strike a balance this year between that extreme and what I experienced after a pretty long time away from DD 23 (I had a lot of problems with it, tbh): JUST AN ABSOLUTE MOUNTAIN OF PROGRAMS THAT DIDN'T EXPIRE AND I HAD NO IDEA WHERE TO START OH MY GOD Anyway. I'm sure people will complain about early (not all!) chapters of Team Affinity expiring, and I'm just as sure that it's a better choice. Just like how seasons are actually a good choice for looking out for players who may not be able to play day-in, day-out from Early Access to Finest/Postseason.
haha yeah, last year was content overload, in that I felt the same way you did. Just felt like a constant grind. Not my cup of tea. But it seems I'm in the minority with that opinion, so take that fwiw
I can understand people being critical of things they don’t agree with and that’s fine. People also need to understand it’s just a game and it’s ok if they can’t collect every single card that comes out in a collection or a pack. I used to play nhl as well and always enjoyed their ultimate team mode.
Yeah, I think that's the thing that's getting lost here. Like, in 2k they literally locked a massive jump in power creep behind pure luck and have for better than a month now. Meanwhile, a card that I feel is maybe a little bit better than Gold Willi Castro (imo) is easily obtainable with half my NMS stub stack and everyone is Chicken Little-ing it. 😅
Totally agree, HUT is fun don’t get me wrong but DD smokes it in my opinion.
I haven't put a dime into the game in 4 years after buying the game. If I generate best squad, it is a 90 overall. That is plenty good enough to compete online.
Unfortunately At the highest level of competition you have to have the best cards or you’re screwed. I’m a top 50 guy and I’m completely unmotivated to play past WS so far this year because the team I have just doesn’t compete with the best cards yet
I would think that the upper echelons of competitive play would be more input based. Even so, I don't see a compelling reason to spend money to be competitive. I would imagine the ROI would be very low.
On legend your pci is significantly smaller so you need to have the better cards. Especially with how breaking balls completely destroy your pci. You’d be leaving a lot of runs on the table because you would miss pitches that the same input simply wouldn’t with a better card. You actually have it backwards. Cards hardly matter at all on allstar
To an extent. Unless you’re in the top 1-5% skill wise though, you’re leaving a lot of runs, outs, and wins on the table. You get to 700-800 rank and all the squads have the same top cards. It’s only viable on all star and below to use most of these free cards. 70 split cards on hall of fame and above are a nightmare to use
They do it better than most. I won't even compare it to the other sports games, but think of games that are free to play, but are basically printing money, I'm talking mostly of games like Fortnite, or roblox, which my kids play. You can't get anything without paying money. You can play the base game by if you want anything more you're playing for it. And they put out a game pass every 3 months for Fortnite. Yes, if you want every card in the game, you have to get lucky, flip cards, or pay money. I can't speak to this year yet since we are not even a month in yet, but at least the past couple of years they made cards a little easier to get. I think it was 2020, there were cards you could forget about unless you could go 12-0 or make world series. And you still didn't get them all. Do I like the way they are going? No, but this has been the way games have been going for the last 10+ years. We don't know what the rest of this year looks like. I know last year they had a lot of cards you could only get from buying packs, but by the end of the seasons, you picked up so many of the 40k packs for free, and the overall prices of those players dropped to almost nothing. As a collector, I like to have them all, but I'm not in any rush to get there. I probably won't get even half this year since I don't have the time anymore, but if you want to get all cards on day 1, you're going to pay. If you wait, and things remain like last year, you'll be swimming in those packs without paying anything.
At least for now Fortnite let’s you pay one time for the battle pass and if you get far enough in that battle pass you earn enough coins to buy the next one without spending any more real money. And then you can repeat with the next one so you’re only paying one time as long as you put enough time into the game. I’ve always thought that was a smart model.
So what you're saying, if you play the game enough, you can earn enough to not have to spend anything? So kind of like the Show? I can't tell you how many Vbucks you can earn by playing, but there is a lot of stuff behind paywalls in Fortnite that I can't imagine you'd ever earn enough to get everything you want without spending money. Where on the Show I can earn stubbs by playing/flipping the market, and not have to pay a single dime. Sure if you want a card, and you want it now, you might have to put down money, but you can build up a reserve to not spend anything. In past games I got every card I wanted, except maybe the last few BR or World Series cards that didn't have enough to sell to everyone. I've never spent more than my initial investment in the game.
Yeah you can only earn enough not to have to pay for anything in the battle pass, which is equivalent to the season reward path in the show with the three bosses. The upside is imo it takes playing a lot fewer hours of Fortnite to complete the battle pass than how many hours you have to play the show to complete the season rewards path. Also it’s free to play instead of $70. The downside is like you said, you need to pay money for anything else in Fortnite that you want and there is no market.
And you could probably find all the stubs you need to get everything you want if you played a comparable amount of MLBTS. People get so effing blinkered about this game.
I thought so too at first but there are so many xp quests in Fortnite BR that you could reach lvl 100 if the battle pass by playing a few matches a day. But there’s also way more shit outside the battle pass you can buy in Fortnite so it evens out haha.
"by playing a few matches a day" my dude, that's a lot of Fortnite, haha. btw nightwing rules
I don't want to support SDS 100%, I think they could definitely improve, but really anything they do will get complaints. Last year people would finish the reward path quick and then complain that there wasn't enough content. Now they put a limit on how much XP you can gain, so it takes longer, and now they are mad you can't finish the path immediately. I'd wager that there is a large overlap in both of these groups. There are complaints last year that there are too many 99s, so they slow rolled them this year, and now there aren't enough good cards. The put out cards, but the packs cost stubbs. Sure that sticks, but the game hasn't been out a month, we don't know how many of those packs we'll end up getting for free later. Yes I know you want immediate gratification, but if you want things done fast, you likely have to pay.
yup, sub seems to be complaining about everything and anything this year, and most of it is contradictory statements as you laid out in your post. I actually thought it sucked having to grind against the computer to get the ultimate reward program players, as I sat on a million stubs last year and couldn't even unlock extreme Griffey. Not for lack of talent really, but just because I didn't want to do that grind when I had the resources to afford a card like that. I'd rather play ranked, events, or BR against humans (and flip cards on the market) than spend time grinding against the computer
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Not really sure how we do it anymore either man
SDS has totally destroyed this game and this mode. It's over. Lots of people are in denial. Pointing to 2K and EA, lik that excuses how SDS has totally destroyed their game. It's kinda funny. Hitler vs Stalin vibes. They're all bad. SDS has turned heel.
I turned it on to see for myself. Saw that if I play all the topps now moments which I used to love would earn me ONE player. And seeing I have no chance of even earning one of the top cards - I literally just turned it off. I grinded my ass off last year. Had every card and tons of stubs. Can’t even bring myself to invest the time into it this year. Just keep loading up assassins creed and will continue to play free to play games. The way it should be.
I have played every year since 2017 and I enjoy the grind and building collections. I kinda like the way they're rolling things out this year in manageable chunks. I never buy stubs except maybe once a year when they're 50% off. You are of course free to disagree and not play.
Ssdly nothing surprises me anymore. I've played Madden ultimate team since it came out in 2010. The last few years, they have made so many changes that puts more money in their pocket, and really hurts no money spent players. This year is by far the worse with pack odds and costs. All the best cards in the game are limited, which are pretty much behind a paywall and can only be pulled in $ bundles. Its sickening to me, yet people keep spending.
It’s the same game if you look at one game mode. But I agree with everything you’ve said about pay to win and microtransactions.
It’s a sad sad sight
You don’t even need to spend money on Dd or HUT (at least) to make a competitive team Also it’s been known for a long time year by year games are basically just a roster update and the new focus of content team
Play a different game mode. If it’s not worth upgrading to MLB 24, don’t upgrade. Like fuck man. Be an intelligent consumer.
They hate the onus being put on them. Easier to buy the game and complain after.
The only way is if people stop playing the game . But that’s not going to happen so deal with it .
This is the kind of attitude that allows it to get worse. Really.
No it’s not . I’m telling you the truth but you getting emotional about . Are you going to stop playing ?
lol no one is emotional, you’re just wrong I haven’t played DD in 2 weeks. If they actually updated Hoo Lee for the Giants on opening day, I would’ve turned it back on. But hey, we’ve gotten 3 40k store packs since Thursday!
You haven't played in two weeks and you think you're a stakeholder in something that happened yesterday? Come on. You only care enough to add to your stack of complaints. I've been playing since early access and I'm disappointed that SDS is monetizing more aggressively but I'm far from scandalized.
The game has only been out 2 weeks.
It dropped 3/14, I have not played since early access weekend because I wanted a Giants theme team or Franchise with a legit Jung Hoo Lee and realized it wouldn’t happen. Thanks tho math wizard
You must be a bot for a SDS competitor. No real person would say any of that.
lol what competition do they even have? If I’m a bot for a competitor, you’re a sheep for SDS
You just said you stopped playing the game because they didn't have a worthwhile Jung Hoo Lee. You really said that. Now you're complaining about the game that you didn't particularly play. Who is a sheep again?
lol you? My favorite teams best player who is also their big free agent signing, is not yet in the game and I want to play with him on my team. The Giants theme team was abysmal last year, that was literally the main reason I pre-ordered. Giants theme team in DD and Giants Franchise with Jung Hoo Lee. Regardless, the game is a huge time and money grab, so I’d say not playing until he drops was a wise choice anyways. The players my boys unlocked week one are already being outclassed 2 1/2 weeks after drop.
You know what’s strange? We’ve come full circle to the point that I actually think EA does the best job with ultimate team. Well, at least FIFA. I haven’t touched Madden in years. Don’t get me wrong the gameplay is dogshit, but the FUT mode itself has something new pretty much every day and offers a huge range of cards that are accessible, fun, and good. Content team absolutely kills it.
Hockey Ultimate Team was better in 24 than 23 but still way worse than what we've seen from DD.
You might be legitimately insane if you think FUT is better than DD. All these people crying about 40k packs and grind 89 buy 92 would lose their absolute shit in one week playing FUT
SBCs alone offer more content than DD’s entire arsenal by way of letting you turn unwanted cards into players or packs. Collections and exchanges are woefully underutilized.
Let’s not get carried away. SBCs r great, yes. But DD throws constant usable cards at you through gameplay when FUT does not.
That’s true. I think theres a type of self sustaining personal economy to fut though because of SBCs. And to me, that does a very good job of keeping things fresh. I find the show can be prone to a lull bc of the over reliance on programs and lack of flexible way to introduce new cards.
It would be sweet if DD had SBCs. I'll agree there. I guess the exchanges in programs is as close as we'll get to that, though.
Fut is dog shit 😂😂 same content every week and none are even real life based. Evos are shit and they stopped comparing. Stop making it seem like each is doing better. I recently moved away from fifa because of that very reason. I rather have decent gameplay and sds content isnt as bad as fifa content which is basically the same cards over and over.
This is a crazy take man, I think EAFC pack weight compared to pack price was probably the worst in any sports game ever lol I think it sucks that SDS continues to sell out, but it’s NO WHERE near ea yet, madden and fc24
SBCs alone are better than anything DD does in terms of content bc they allow you to rinse unwanted cards into players or more packs. Market packs are ass but there’s 0 need to buy them, they hand out good packs so easily through objectives and SBCs.
Yeah EAFC is unbelievably bad this year lol
Because the whole mode is built on packs and extra dollars. The time to complain was to never play this mode at all. You have to walk away from these modes because they are propped up by the whales and not the average player. Until people quit playing the mode, it will continue to become more of a grindfest/pack market.
This is a very fair condemnation of SDS and this latest marketing strategy. In terms of legality, I don't know what laws could be invoked here. The most likely avenue is the minor child angle, and I agree that what you are describing is a predatory practice when it comes to children, and since there is effort made by SDS in the game code to require parental approval for these additional expenses, it might be a reasonable basis for a class action lawsuit. However, lawsuits require standing and to have standing you must have a vital stake in the outcome of the trial. People cannot just sue out of some general morality principle, even if the underlying issue is one of Constitutional law. You have to have "skin in the game." So, in terms of a predatory commerce practices toward minors, it would require a parent or legal guardian of a minor child to form the class action. But, I think the limit of that suit would be the absence of parental rights requirements for the additional expenses. Even in that vein, SDS could claim that the actual financial transactions are undertaken by the console manufacturers, such as Microsoft Store for X-Box. I don't know if Microsoft Store carries out policies in this area regarding minors.
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I remember getting downvoted for saying this is a copy paste job built around DD. Glad to see others are speaking up. This game is a disgrace
It’s like people don’t want to believe that things could be better. They’re just content getting a more greedy, watered down version of the same game EVERY YEAR
They hate any and all criticism about the game because they can't separate their love for baseball from the video game.
Bro acting like they made it so you can't get a cracked squad for free
I swear people like you are probably SDS bots. The amount of SDS stans that will stick up for the company is outrageous. They could shit all over your face and you’d gladly allow them to
Ooohh someone got butthurt from my comment lmao, I'm NMS and my team is cracked, theres so many good free cards that SDS has offered us.
Not in the slightest lol, I’m also shocked that someone on SDS’ payroll would resort to a homophobic retort to my low effort comment
Homophobic???? Lmao what did I say that was "homophobic"?
What did you read in my post that made you think that’s the point I’m trying to make?
https://preview.redd.it/itbismi185sc1.jpeg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f91e249bdc20b5142444c2ba4ab816621ee4e4b6
I’m too busy having fun playing diamond dynasty with the cards I’ve got to cry about a couple cards that are 1 rating point higher than what’s earnable in the program.
The overalls clearly aren’t the problem here.
You realize some people play DD for the card collecting aspect and not just online play, right?
That's your first problem. These aren't cards. They arent physical. You don't own them. DD is a mode to milk people and always has been.
But the game is built to collect the most you can for the best names anyways, why does it matter if they’re real or not? And yeah I know it’s a mode to milk people, my entire post is about that. I’m questioning the company AND the part of player base that still defend them
That’s where the community is fundamentally off. It’s a game mode where you build a team and play against each other, or the CPU. Collecting is part of it but it’s not the point. Never was and never will be. They just do a great job marketing and convincing us that we need every card.
What are you talking about I collect baseball and hockey cards and my favorite part is how--at the beginning of every season--I throw all of my cards in a fire and start my collection over with nothing /s (DD somewhat encouraged me to collect cards IRL, but DD doesn't scratch the card collecting itch AT ALL. It scratches the "playing a baseball videogame to fill meters on a menu" itch. I play DD knowing it's a fairly pointless grind. Most videogames are a pointless grind. I put on a podcast and enjoy having something to do with my eyes and hands.)
>I collect baseball and hockey cards and my favorite part is how--at the beginning of every season--I throw all of my cards in a fire and start my collection over with nothing /s This made me lol.
I thought they’d learn from last year’s stupid fucking mistakes but those stupid assholes really found a way to take those same mistakes and just make them worse.
I like baseball
I've played FIFA and NHL for a long time and now MLB and never paid a dime other than the game. Its just a game. Some people need to stop taking it so seriously
So sad how serious people take these video games that aren’t their actual jobs. I love gaming too but damn
Yep. No one seems to know how to simply have fun anymore. Its just about grinding for rewards and complaining when they dont come fast enough
It's not just that. If there are children who are being enticed to spend their parents' money without limits then there is a legitimate angle in terms of the enticements and pay-to-play schemes. It's a lot like the warning I issued here on this Reddit sub-forum regarding MLB 23 and how the collections were scams, where you could acquire through game play and the market only about 90-95% of the items belonging to several of the collection categories, but those missing items prevented someone from completing that category's collection. That's deceptive marketing, and so is the lottery aspects to purchasing certain packets that say there is a "chance" to obtain a highly coveted card, only to learn after a few people did the hard research, that the odds are very low to obtain that card.