Running List of Why The Show Is a Bad Game
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In my last 2 threads I've been suspended and had the other one locked. Reviewed the code of conduct, didn't see any rules I've broken, unless a moderator was really reaching . Hopefully my freedom of speech doesn't keep getting infringed upon. But regardless, I hate to see this game in the shape it's in and I will continue to speak truth on it until there's either competition or The Show reclaims its former glory. Last week I'm riding a 5 or 6 game win streak where my pitching is incredible and my bats were lively. This week, I've gotten dismantled by 5 or 6 opponents in a row that were around my skill level or worse, if stats are to be believed. So it got me thinking... we really need to lay out what's wrong with this game and hopefully if there's enough backlash, SDS will put effort into the game again.
The List (feel free to add, if I missed anything!)
- The only thing that's consistent with this game is how inconsistent it plays.
- Freeze offs are still a thing. Same problem, different year.
- No tattoos. NBA 2K + WWE games have been doing it for years. SDS has the $
- Outdated graphics. Last big update I remember was The Show 17.
- Same animations for YEARS (sliding, fielding, diving etc)
- Diamond Dynasty doesn't have option to create alternate uniforms.
- Removing features, likely to unveil as new down the road like EA does w/Madden
- Pickoffs are random. I've had Elly get picked off on more than once after taking 1 extra step in my leadoff even though I didn't input a steal request. Meanwhile, I'm struggling to pick off Pete Alonso with the same leadoff.
- Check swings are random. I often see a disparity between myself and my opponent. Sometimes it benefits me, other times it benefits my opponent.
- Errors are random. Sure, you have the option to prioritize fielding stats, but even then I've had Pete Crow-Armstrong commit back to back errors that had nothing to do with me not controlling my player properly. Something that has nothing to do with player control shouldn't be deciding who wins or loses a game you've spend 40 minutes playing.
- Sometimes I'll swing at a pitch in the zone (with timing), but my batter will only check swing, costing me a potential hit.
- Franchise players largely ignored.
- Road to the Show hasn't really evolved.
- (Highly subjective) people are in competitive matches with each other but aren't playing the game the same way (strikezone hitting, pinpoint pitching) This creates a lack of balance and there's no option to play people using your settings.
- Too much focus on gaming trends and getting people to spend money. Prioritizing bat skins, bat flip animations and unrealistic cards like ones that turn Brian Roberts into a power hitter.
- Legendary players are largely the same over the years. It's the only thing they have to sell new games, so they take their time getting names like Jeter or McGwire. Of course, once you get guys like that, they'll remove names like Ichiro or Roberto Alomar so they can use them as selling points later on.
- Stadium Creator doesn't work all that well.
- Excessive Home Runs!!! It's like they forgot that baseball has singles, doubles and triples too. I'd say 50-60% of hits I give up are home runs. Not in obvious locations either. I have pitches 2 feet from the dirt getting jacked, pitches that are a foot outside etc. Sometimes can't tell if I'm playing Slugfest or a simulation.
- Stealing is also fairly random. It can be very easy to steal with someone like Pete Crow-Armstrong or Elly De La Cruz, but on occasion they'll get stuck in mud on their way to second and get thrown out, without a clear reason as to why that happened. It's just pure randomness.
I'm sure there's so much more lol... but I think this is a pretty good start.
Just to be fair, here's what I think the game does well:
- It's easy to earn packs of cards so you don't have to spend real world money... just need to grind a little.
- Collecting cards and trying out new lineups is fun.
- It's nice that you can create stadiums.
- The crack of the bat sound is a nice addition.
- The foundation of this game is rock solid. This is the closest I've seen a game come to replicating baseball. I remember a time when no one would get walked.
- 2 v 2 and 3 v 3 can be a lot of fun.
- Supercharged cards are pretty cool.
- Home Run Derby online is fun too.
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Its a private forum. You don't have any freedom of speech rights here
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They publish garbage and then control the narrative. Pathetic.
Maybe we should buy more stubs! Lol -
You have as much of "freedom of speech" here as every other user (whether you agree with what they say or not) and SDS has the right to do what they please with their forum.
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Threads were locked because they went from a discussion to children bickering back and forth.
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@Knighter_NSW Exactly lol. Got some secret moderators on here defending the game as if they were paid to. Every time I call The Show on their BS, the same names come to bat for a game made by a company that makes millions (pun intended).
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@Squid_Adams_PSN Cry harder maybe you'll get your way??? Maybe add some cheese with your whine???
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@Dolenz_PSN In the Good Ol' U.S of A, especially when discussing a game that's about the great American past time, freedom of speech exists. You should always defend that right and never give up because "it's the way it is." We've already gotten a taste of having our rights taken away in the last 5 years. You best spit that rotten meat out.
@dap1234567890_PSN Hey Mr. Moderator. Sorry, didn't mean to talk badly about how good of a job you're doing suppressing free speech. Only good things must be said about the game!
@x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN Yeah, I really wish people wouldn't have responded that way...it wasn't fair to me trying to have an adult discussion about how we can improve the game. I love baseball and don't want to be cheated out of enjoying it because of a bad game. It's become more and more like Madden over the years and people who like this series can't sit idly by and let it happen.
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We have it on record from a statement made by an SDS executive that Sony pockets about $100 million a year in profits derived from MLB The Show. So, that is what's remaining after paying all the costs of producing and marketing the game.
That's a tidy sum. Sadly, in today's world one can easily see executives focused on the spreadsheet passing around feedback that it's trifle little, too little and so the operating revenues presented to SDS for next year's production should be reduced, or at least the increase too little to keep pace with rising production costs.
I read all the time people presuming that SDS isn't some indie company, and of course they are not. But, the mistaken assumption is therefore being backed by Sony that SDS is flush with operating capital. The truth tucked deep away from our eyes is that SDS may be a big company owned by a vastly larger corporation, who is bled white by a thirst for more profits to bestow to shareholders invested in Sony.
Overall, the game play isn't bad, certainly not bad enough to warrant more than half the criticisms we constantly see written here. In terms of complaints about online play, nearly all of them come down to humans with poor morality choosing to cheat in a video game because even the empty virtual rewards are somehow worthy of selling one's soul to obtain.
That's not SDS's fault! That remains the fault of the gamer who cheats.
All that said, SDS is guilty as charged in terms of choosing to focus wholly inadequate attention to game modes not devoted to Diamond Dynasty, a mode whose players are filled with folks who will never be satisfied if $500 million were devoted to that mode alone! In my circle therefore, I call DD mode a lost cause, all the resources in the world won't buy SDS much in the way of public praise from the lion's share of that sub-community!
On the other hand, devotion of attention to other game modes may well payoff and it's high time they get the overdue attention they deserve. RTTS carried this MLB The Show title and its forerunners for decades, long before online gaming became what it is today. What started off as a niche to let friends separated by distance play together has turned into something way too many people take way too seriously.
People who call MLB The Show as being "garbage" have lost their way. They are unhinged or desperate for attention they don't deserve. Either way, they mock themselves more than they mock SDS.
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@dap1234567890_PSN
You're proving the point of @x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSNBut no joke, cheese and wine does sound good! A whole charcuterie plate with some cornichon's and exotic mustards would hit the spot... but I gotta stay disciplined with clean eating and going to the gym.
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@Squid_Adams_PSN said in Running List of Why The Show Is a Bad Game:
@Dolenz_PSN In the Good Ol' U.S of A, especially when discussing a game that's about the great American past time, freedom of speech exists. You should always defend that right and never give up because "it's the way it is." We've already gotten a taste of having our rights taken away in the last 5 years. You best spit that rotten meat out.
@dap1234567890_PSN Hey Mr. Moderator. Sorry, didn't mean to talk badly about how good of a job you're doing suppressing free speech. Only good things must be said about the game!
@x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN Yeah, I really wish people wouldn't have responded that way...it wasn't fair to me trying to have an adult discussion about how we can improve the game. I love baseball and don't want to be cheated out of enjoying it because of a bad game. It's become more and more like Madden over the years and people who like this series can't sit idly by and let it happen.
No offense, but you just contradicted yourself.
In your first two replies, especially the second one, you attack the poster. Them in your third reply, to me, you say that it wasn't fair to you; when you were trying to have an adult conversation.
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@Squid_Adams_PSN You want to complain about your "freedom of speech" in this forum (which really doesn't exist because it is a private forum as mentioned earlier) but you don't want other people to have that same "freedom of speech" and want to censor other people because you don't like their speech. Sounds like you are intolerant and you get [censored]-hurt when you hear something you don't like. Then you resort to calling people names and then you want to claim you didn't do anything. Wow, you are pathetic!
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In before lock.
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@x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN It's after 12 o'clock in San Diego. SDS is off work and at the beach already. This won't get locked until Monday at the earliest. Break out the popcorn!
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THIS is how you respond, people. Did he add in some unnecessary personal opinions discrediting other people's complaints and experiences? Sure he did. But ultimately 95% of his post made real world logical sense. Maybe SDS is capped because of everything you laid out and Sony taking the money they do. Perhaps I'm not looking at how much more money 2K has than Playstation / SDS? But regardless, I can sink my teeth into more of what you said because it included straight up, emotionless information that explains some of my criticisms. Well done for most of this post!
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You should run them out of business by not giving them your $79-$99. That’ll teach them.
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@dap1234567890_PSN said in Running List of Why The Show Is a Bad Game:
Break out the popcorn!
I'm breaking it out for this budding bro-mance between you and @x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN ! Honestly, you've got a sort of kinship going on here. Maybe the divine reason this game is so mind blowingly bad that it makes me want to talk about it on the forums, was so you two could develop a friendship. PM your phone numbers to each other and get together for a ball game and some beers! Maybe some good will come out of all this (even if it's not The Show becoming a great baseball game again.) I'm literally not joking. Friends are hard to find these days and I think you two have got some chemistry. Plus you can play your favorite game together!
@fubar2k7_PSN Bruh, I just pointed out what a good post looks and sounds like. Learn from that guy. And break out your popcorn for the bro-mance! I really want to see where this goes. I hope they get together and post pics for us.
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@Squid_Adams_PSN I'm not sorry that you are jealous of two strangers on an internet forum because nobody wants to be your friend. Your posts just get weirder and weirder and more unhinged as they come. Maybe you should actually go talk to someone (in real life) about your issues instead of coming to an internet forum with your issues om display.
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@dap1234567890_PSN
Are you a girl? (asking because of the emojis) if so, don't be upset with me about the bro-mance thing. Could be a romance too! But nah, not jealous. I think two strangers becoming friends (or whatever you two will become!) in random ways is awesome. Every time I see something about people who met playing online video games and then meet IRL and become good friends, it makes me feel good. Please do message him! I'm genuinely curious to see if I'm a matchmaker for bros or for couples.Also, not to get off topic with you PM'ing your bro, but what is your definition of unhinged? When I think of that term, I think of someone like Aaron Hernandez. It's a pretty strong term, so takes a pretty extreme example for me to apply it to someone. I think a lot of people need to re-evaluate how they use words. A lot get diluted.
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@Squid_Adams_PSN said in Running List of Why The Show Is a Bad Game:
THIS is how you respond, people. Did he add in some unnecessary personal opinions discrediting other people's complaints? Sure he did. But ultimately 95% of his post made real world logical sense. Maybe SDS is capped because of everything you laid out and Sony taking the money they do. Perhaps I'm not looking at how much more money 2K has than Playstation / SDS? But regardless, I can sink my teeth into more of what you said because it included straight up, emotionless information that explains some of my criticisms. Well done for most of this post!
I appreciate that. Truth is I dug deep into the wells of the internet to conjure up all the research into SDS's spreadsheet details that I could find because I was curious. And what I learned is that what is shared to the public is a frightfully small sliver of the actual pie.
My view is DD gets the lion's share of the resources because some suits at Sony and fewer still at SDS think it's where the "real money" lives. But, I reject that logic, because no matter what it seems to me that the vast majority of the revenue that SDS actually earns from MLB The Show is from the initial cost of purchasing the game, and NOT from any post-sale additional revenues. So, it seems reasonable to me that SDS should better balance its level of mode support, vice sink so much of it into DD.
It's no secret that my niche love of The Show is in RTTS and Custom Stadiums. I just enjoy playing virtual baseball games because in my sixties it's as close to playing actual baseball games as my body can handle! To those who don't understand that, don't worry, in time you all will! LOL!!
In my view, customer custom content is the great unfulfilled opportunity for SDS and they clearly don't see it that way. Custom uniforms, logos, and stadiums are a wellspring that would add great interest in the game long after folks have played out the string in DD and even RTTS, or carried their GM'd team to the WS multiple times. And honestly, listening to people complain about how many times folks play reindeer games in online games I cannot understand why anyone wishes to stick their toes into those foul waters!
My "shot" at some in the community is therefore based on reading the repeated angry tomes of those who see things in the absolutes of small minds who cannot fathom nuance, much less engage in it. I don't think the folks who work at SDS are a collection of misfits and bad people. Some may be, but I think at least most are not.
That said, there are fair criticisms to level. I have seen over five years bug reports issued first with MLB 21 that have gone to this day unfixed. Folks, there's no excuse for that! And I'm talking about basic functions not working properly, like stadium seats in custom stadiums going from their assigned colors to pure white or most recently grey for no good reason, spoiling the look of stadiums already blanched of life by deliberate efforts to ensure they are trapped in relative degradation.
Custom uniforms are limited to just two options for each custom team despite MLB teams having five uniforms in MLB The Show (home, home alternate, road, road alternate, and city connect) all featuring the option for shoulder patches. Given this reality, the reality that custom uniforms remain down to just two options devoid of shoulder patches is simply deliberate malice of inaction on the part of SDS.
They deserved to be proverbially raked over the coals for stuff like that!
