Why can't I talk to my manager or agent whenever I want like you used to be able to?
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How can I request a trade, or more playing time, or to move up in the lineup? These are all things you used to be able to do. I'm on a season after hitting over .330 and I'm stuck hitting 7th.
It feels like this game mode is super neglected.
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Because that would represent the customer controlling the tempo of the offline game, and SDS has dedicated itself to them setting the exclusive method by which the game is played out.
For SDS, it's control over customer service. They can bristle at that all they want to but even in comparison to current era sports games in other sports, the difference is plain. For all the complaints that people register about Madden NFL, when you compare it to how RTTS is played in MLB The Show vice how Madden plays out in Superstar (both the prime offline avatar based game modes for each title) the difference is clear.
In Madden, all the interviews done with the media post game have consequences to how the player develops, and the range of development includes measured and dynamic relationships with fans, coaches, agent, media, teammates, and many others. You develop a circle of associates who become critical to your success or failure as a player as you steer your avatar player ahead.
This sort of in-depth customer control over game development is light years ahead of anything SDS has managed to do with MLB The Show. This is called immersion, and along with suspension of disbelief, these are the two most critical concepts to creating a satisfying video game. And in terms of Madden's level of immersion, SDS has mailed it in.
In playing out RTTS, it is the same tired and half-baked concept where your initial interactions with the manager and your agent become rare, and even when they happen, it doesn't seem to lead to anything relevant to your performance on the field nor your interaction with that manager or agent. Madden NFL on the other hand has community interaction options appear during every pre-game training week. Compare the play out on media interviews in MLB The Show vice Madden NFL and what SDS is doing is laughable in comparison and should be a source of humiliation to the SDS team.
In Madden, every option you are presented with have multiple paths to choose from, each providing unique development tracks for your avatar player. SDS has never developed anything remotely close to this level of detail and customer control over the game execution.
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Basically, yeah. Control vs. Immersion.
Immersion in games like these comes from more than just controlling your player and your stats. With some other games, your choices (press conferences, agent talks, coach meetings, fan interactions) ripple into your progression, chemistry, and story arc. Even if it’s a little shallow at times, you feel like your actions matter. I'm not holding up Madden as the shining light for career mode, because it's not, but it does a lot of things right, as did the Road to Glory mode in CFB (which is barebones, too). Hell, even the basically busted new Be A Pro mode in NHL26 has more 'immersion' with press conferences and interactions directly leading to in-game changes.
As you say, with them 'controlling the tempo,' you never really feel like you're steering your career. They strip out choices, and the career mode feels like it's on rails. The AI is the one steering, and even if it's safer for the devs to make it work this way, it really destroys the 'agency' people play these modes to experience.
Compared to other career modes (all of which only do bits and pieces of the 'right' thing), where you’re nudged to make decisions and shape your narrative, rtts feels like a background sim where you’re basically just the input device.
I do believe that the devs do care, at least a little bit, about the product they ship. They wouldn't have added the new stuff this year if they didn't want to make the mode better. It's a step in the right direction, in my opinion- I wasn't sold on it at first, but the points system and allocating your stats grew on me a lot over time. They just need to add in more immersion and give us more control. That sort of thing adds realism, it doesn't take away from it.
Anyway, yeah, my two cents on top of Prior's.
