Developers: While we're talking about things you will just ignore anyway ... lead-offs and real-time feedback
-
Dearest developers,
Because I am a glutton for punishment and know you won't pay any attention to the slightest thing I write anyway because you're already making plenty of money on the game (EA says hi to San Diego Studios, by the way), let's feed our masochism anyway by considering the following:
Lead-offs
The only way I can avoid being picked off in this game is by holding the thumbstick to the left while I'm on base until the pitcher actually throws the ball. Ignoring the obvious destruction to verisimilitude this constitutes, what you've done is create a mechanic where an opportunity for fun in the game has been erased.
Instead of being rewarded for paying attention to the pitcher -- like, you know, a real baserunner would have to -- and being rewarded for good reflexes, I now have to just introduce a kludge to compensate for your shoddy programming. I realize you have legislated human player reflexes out of the game anyway in favor of the electronic player's reaction score, but even his reaction score doesn't come into play ... ever. Instead, it's just lean on the thumbstick and wait for the pitch.
Lazy programming.
Real-time feedback
Every time I swing at a bad pitch, I instantly see that my plate discipline has been dinged. Every time I miss a pitch, I instantly see that my plate vision has been decremented. If I make a good hit, I see my contact instantly shoot up.
As with dynamic challenges, this destroys verisimilitude. Can't I just the summary of everything after the game is over? Why do I need immediate, instant, real-time updates when I am quite well aware that I just swung at that slurve that just slid by a foot out of the strike zone?
As should be the case with dynamic challenges, why can't I just disable this stuff? If the six-year-olds who are your target demographic like this silly, phony, obvious video-game nonsense, fine, keep it for them. But why can't I just turn it off?
Summary
Again, v-e-r-i-s-i-m-i-l-i-t-u-d-e: "the quality of seeming true or of having the appearance of being real."
Please ditch the schizophrenia, and get serious about it.
-
Developers,
Please disregard this. Anyone who uses "verisimilitude" in a video game forum does not deserve to be taken seriously.
Pedantic baby
-