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...)
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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.
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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.
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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?
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TA seasons were bananas. So much good content and a blast to grind offline. Monthly Awards were also great -- real anticipation, and good grinds.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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SDS utterly disrespected franchise players and pretty much ruined RTTS. They need to fix this.
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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!