Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er

Up until this year, I played offline exclusively -- actually, tinkered with DD online last year after the game was dead. I thought that, as a long-time hater of online card-based microtransaction modes in sports games, I'd post my observations on my experience this year. I'm 47 and remember NCAA Football on the ps2's dynasty mode as the thing that made me fall in love with sports games. (Still the best soundtrack in sports games, btw...)

1. SDS does an amazing job of making ALL content available, realistically, to offline/noncompetitive players. I will never again compare them to EA in terms of trying to suck every nickel out of their fans.

2. There were WAY too many "99" cards, and WAY too many cards that almost nobody cared about. SDS needs to make many fewer god-tier cards and give players real weaknesses, up until the very end. It's the only way to ensure that team builds will be varied.

3. I hated outlier and would rather see it go. I'm 47, of course, so that's a big reason why. But for guys like me who never sniff WS in ranked, RS is a pure outlier fest. It's horrible. If it's not banned, then nerf its control, maybe?

4. TA seasons were bananas. So much good content and a blast to grind offline. Monthly Awards were also great -- real anticipation, and good grinds.

5. Parallel was a great idea, but it needs to be tweaked so that there's a reason to keep playing with superfractors. Like many, once I supered a guy, I wanted to move on to another one. But I really like the RPG-lite aspect of it.

6. The BR program is awesome, and I wish I had gotten into it sooner. The games play much better because nobody has a god squad. You have a chance to beat WS players in there, and the program ensures that middling players like me can still get rewards.

7. Sharks should be rightly pissed that there isn't really any rewards just for them -- for the players who are killers. I think SDS has bent over backwards for players like me, and now they should balance it back next year by bringing exclusive rewards for killer players -- going 12-0 in BR, making WS in RS.

8. I'm looking forward to having my life back now, and know that I can't do this again next year. It was fun, but I'll pick my spots next year -- TA seasons and MA, probably, with the occasional BR. Don't think I'll do ranked anymore.

9. SDS utterly disrespected franchise players and pretty much ruined RTTS. They need to fix this.

10. Finally, all those who cry RNG -- the game plays really well, and it's BECAUSE of that that the few times it doesn't (read: that realistic randomness occurs) seem so unjust or fake. Can't imagine trying to program baseball physics...

Long post! Love the game, and see you all next year in TA Season 1!

First year player here and didn't ever plan on playing online. Was offline only until thee Moonshot event. Stayed mostly to events, but fell in love with Battle Royale a few months after that. Didn't play ranked seasons until Season 8. Season 10 was the first time I ever had 30 wins so I could sell Trout after I bought him earlier.

I agree with you almost everything. I think the problem with outlier pitchers is that really good cards that had 102 outlier Ryan, deGrom, Wagner, Chapman, Gossage, and Verlander is that they also had 125 h/9 or close to it. Also many of the cards came out pretty early which made them even more dominate where contact on your hitters couldn't match those pitchers for the most part. Kind of like you once I P5 player I retire him for the most part. There is so many good cards that I don't mind not using them anymore. However, it is hard sometimes not to use Grove, Verlander, or Ryan which were my best pitchers for most of the year. Can't wait for The Show 22. I was a complete newbie coming into this game and would love to come into next games cycle right off the bat with some experience.

2. You realize if they limit the 99 cards, that would make teams LESS varied. We tried that already in 2018 and it did not go over well.

Life back lol I took a month off and almost fell off beyond the point of completing griffey and has to recommit wholly to the tune of over 5 mill coin and constant nonstop grinding

Best soundtrack in sports was NHL 2K7

Good stuff here. I agree with many of your points but I would have to say I love the amount of 99s and high level cards most about this game. Team building is incredibly fun and diverse so much that I have every card in the game (except Alomar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$%#&$#^@%##:@"@&#;@;@&#,#:)...and not one P5.

I think BR is a great way to offset the amount of 99s for the reasons you stated.

TA was by far the best program in the game.

@savefarris_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

2. You realize if they limit the 99 cards, that would make teams LESS varied. We tried that already in 2018 and it did not go over well.

@savefarris_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

2. You realize if they limit the 99 cards, that would make teams LESS varied. We tried that already in 2018 and it did not go over well.

I was not there but I'll take your word for it.

It's just ridiculous that a card like Milestone Rickey is not used at all because so many other cards are maxed out.

99 is the most useless number in this entire game...

I’m not sure I agree with you on the outlier. To me, it seems the pitcher confidence is what is out of whack. I’ve been early and very early on outlier fastballs AND late, in close proximity. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of sitting on one, and still whiffing, even though you felt you were right on it.

I think this is not the outlier, but other factors leading to the outcome.

@halfbutt_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

I’m not sure I agree with you on the outlier. To me, it seems the pitcher confidence is what is out of whack. I’ve been early and very early on outlier fastballs AND late, in close proximity. I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of sitting on one, and still whiffing, even though you felt you were right on it.

I think this is not the outlier, but other factors leading to the outcome.

Nah, it's the outlier in combination with other factors. Outlier is just OP, at least for a large segment of the population. It's also a crutch for people like me -- we know we can roll out Nolan or Verlander and lots of people will quit right away or quit after 6 straight K's.

@suntlacrimae50_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

Nah, it's the outlier in combination with other factors. Outlier is just OP, at least for a large segment of the population. It's also a crutch for people like me -- we know we can roll out Nolan or Verlander and lots of people will quit right away or quit after 6 straight K's.

My biggest problem with outlier is that every pitch is 102 mph. Degrom threw A LOT of pitches over 100 mph this year but it wasn't 102 mph every pitch. He averaged 99.8 mph on his fastball. And it's completely unrealistic for someone to throw 98% of their fastballs at 102 mph for 7 or 8 innings. Stamina needs reworked and outlier needs tweaked so that not every fastball is max velocity all game.

Maybe outlier is a separate pitch, or you have to choose when to use it in some way, and it has a bigger stamina penalty? Of course, stamina would have to be an actual THING. I'd celebrate that compromise.

@thegoaler_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

Best soundtrack in sports was NHL 2K7

I liked the "original score" from SNK Baseball Stars.

@arvcpa_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

@thegoaler_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

Best soundtrack in sports was NHL 2K7

I liked the "original score" from SNK Baseball Stars.

You can even say the ESPN NFL 2K4 with Warren Sapp on the cover was an incredible soundtrack because we had many songs to choose from in your Jukebox in The Crib! I think they had all SEGA game themes including the Dayton USA theme.

Regarding soundtrack, I was referring to the first NCAA on ps2 -- 2001, I think? It was just a guitar jam, from the game not an artist, and it was awesome. I think the following year they went to fight songs. But that first one brings back memories...

@thegoaler_psn said in Post-Mortem from a First Year DD'er:

Best soundtrack in sports was NHL 2K7

Agreed.