When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?
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This game is a really great "no money spent" experience compared to any other sports game out there, and it's great that there's so much content.
But, I haven't heard any good answer to the question - what's the point of all these rewards when we already have a full team of 99s? What are we supposed to do with all these cards? As a veteran of role playing games, I love grinding and "collecting em all," but it seems so obvious that we need places to use these cards that give the player a nice advantage for collecting them and using them.
I think SDS would say "we know this is a problem, but we just have to put out max 99 content around All Star game, because player base goes out the window at that time no matter what....so it's just all 99s from then...."
So, the obvious solution is - give us a serious mode where we can use the other cards! A mid-90s diamond is super useful on a theme team. You could have all sorts of fun themes - players from venezuela, players whose names end in a vowel, whatever!
Some of you may say that we can just create our own theme teams for fun, and we do....but it's not as fun when you're getting thrashed by "guy who plays his god squad 500 times per day in Ranked and doesn't care to do anything else" while you're playing with your cute Diamondbacks team.
It needs to be a real mode (both online and offline) with real rewards for the people who have a deep portfolio of players. If you don't have a deep portfolio, you get stuck with commons or bronzes in the mode. Team Affinity parts two and three are needed for offline grinding. These are simple fixes to avoid the obvious problem of "thanks for giving me another 99, but I already have four at that position!"
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I wouldn’t be obsessed over the overall ranking of cards. You can use any card you like just because it’s less than a 99 doesn’t mean it’s less of card. People get too obsessed over overalls that they bench they .440 94 overall for a 99 that are hitting .210 with.
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@virusts_XBL yeah, I agree with that, use who you're good with - but there's still a glut of cool cards and players that you really have no way to use
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All 99s aren't the same.
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You basically get to use the cards you want and not the meta
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I constantly change cards around. Some runs of the draft conquest Ill use a new threads team, maybe a topps now team, maybe a theme team
The only mode where I feel pressured to use certain cards is DQ, which I don't play anymore anyway because I think it sucks.
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@virusts_XBL said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
People get too obsessed over overalls that they bench they .440 94 overall for a 99 that are hitting .210 with.
Yeah… I’ve done that. I haven’t hit .440 past 20 or so at bats, so, not that, but I know what you mean and I’ve acted under that mindset.
Sometimes i just really want to like a card and that 99 with those crazy power numbers are too tempting, but I just can’t hit with it. I like Griffey and the times I connect, it’s fun, but I’m demonstrably better with Pipeline Past Kelenic.
But, and to the OP, I’ve never felt like I had to do something with all the cards. I’m happy there are so many choices, and each year I try to find the ones I like the most without much regard for collections (I’ll do a small one, but no majors) or “finishing” anything. I like to play baseball games against other people, and I want to use cards I enjoy playing with. I try not to make it much more complicated than that.
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@AppleLemon560_MLBTS sds is definitely dropping the ball on this! Great post. They need to bring back event rewards with theme teams and make it so we can use or have to use certain cards every week or so. Get more creative. Couldn't agree more. I already said whoever idea it was over at sds to take event rewards out this year needs to be fired.
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Excellent suggestion!
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@x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
All 99s aren't the same.
^^^^^
This...And... what @virusts_XBL said.
I think that when SDS introduced 125 maximums to Contact/Power/Vision that 99's became "muddied".
I just use the cards I like. I have much better stats, both online and offline, with a lot of cards under 99 than I have with 99 Beltran.
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I light some 99 pitchers up online, others I can't hit for sh!t. Some 99 hitters I couldn't hit water if I fell out of a boat with, while I haul the mail with an 88 ovr Topps Now.
My personal example is Derek Jeter vs Kevin Pillar. Couldn't hit to save my life with Jeter...but ANY Kevin Pillar card I absolutely raked with.
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My program is not perfect but the onslaught of 99s for the rest of the year is why I had it create a Meta score. It's not perfect as I could probably tweak the formula a little or create different formulas for different positions (especially catchers or splitting up starters from relievers)
Using that there are some lower OVR cards that rank higher than some 99s.
Looking at 3B - Jordan Westburg's 98 card ranks higher than five 99 OVR 3B
97 Ke'Bryan Hayes meta is 93.35 while 99 Joe Torre is 93.45 so almost the sameThe recent 99 Cool Papa Bell card has a pitching meta, according to my formula, of 90.1 which ranks last among all pitchers with a 97-99 overall.
But that is just another numerical ranking and as others have said it really boils down to who you play well with.
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I agree with the OP. The ease and quickness of having a team full of Diamond 96 to 99 happened way too fast. 5 days into release most people had a full team of diamonds and by the end of June you could field a team of leveled up 95s and never need another card, hypothetically.....
It also affected the market making low end diamonds basically close to quick sell price by the end of May.
I'd love to see us have to use silvers and golds a lot more to grind towards those diamonds. Even some commons and bronze. It would make building the team a lot more fun and rewarding as well as create a really healthy transaction market.
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Well, 99 overall cards can be used for theme teams too, yk.
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@TheBigPapa55_PSN said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
Well, 99 overall cards can be used for theme teams too, yk.
Yeah, some people, especially on twitter comments and live stream chats are all about the Meta and ranked and forget that there are those of us who use our favorite team's theme team a lot.
Nobody really uses a 99 Ozzie Smith card but Cardinal fans are always happy to see one and I am sure there are players on every team that have the same kind of favorite that make fans of that team happy when they see it, even if it does not make their best squad
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Definitely agree that people get way to caught up in the overalls, even when it comes to using cards in ranked. People see streamers ranking cards and saying which cards are the best, and while sometimes it is accurate, often times it comes down much more to which cards and swings you hit best with and are most comfortable with.
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For me, its the theme team building, I been working a A's theme team (Players on the A's and those were).
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Frankly, the entire virtual rewards concept never made any sense to me. In my view, it leads to a focus on things other than playing virtual baseball games, either versus the CPU or online against other people. Focusing on end-of-phase virtual rewards changes the focus from the games to the trinkets, and I think this is where SDS has faltered.
The further SDS gets from win-loss records the more it myopically changes the focus from the games to things that diminish the game itself. The dichotomy is that the stronger a player's record the stronger his team gets, when this concept gets the cart before the horse. In real baseball, the stronger the team's players the better the record.
See the difference?
In SDS's model for online competition, everyone starts at the same level, and then skill produces different results leading to different rewards. The higher the initial achievement, the stronger the player's roster gets. In real baseball, it works the opposite. The better the team's result, the weaker the roster is supposed to get via lower draft slots. Of course, this all plays out over the course of years when SDS is pushing out a game every year.
This forces the start even, get better and better with more wins formula. This causes 90% of the complaints as customers squabble about what is fair or unfair in online competition play. Given SDS is going to continue to release every year, it seems the only way to actually measure people skill with the game, which seems to me the only fair mode of competitive online play, is to have everyone start with the same roster and slug it out.
No more end of phase rewards. Your reward is your record. And, since records are not the same, then finishing that "season" of online play isn't going to see equal rewards awarded. The people who finish at the top get the best rewards and the lower down the worse the rewards. So, how does one fairly stratify the competition level?
There could be different levels of competition, ranging from beginner to legend, sort of like the difficulty levels are current set. Customers choose their competition level and within that league go after it. Competing at the highest levels and achieving the highest record is the only way to earn the greatest rewards. Playing at lower levels, even with the best records means you win better rewards than other players in the same league with worse records, but at a lower level, your reward won't be as high as players with excellent records at a higher level. Customers receive rewards based on quality of record, and slug it out with the same players with those players based upon the difficulty of the league.
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How ironic, the recent (and I think very harmful) expansion of online betting in sports is having the same corrosive influence in real world sports. Fans aren't focused on their teams winning and losing like they used to be. The outcome of the game is no longer measured in whether your teams wins or loses, nor even on following your favorite teams. Instead, it is based on meeting or failing to meet the betting line.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45965400/michael-porter-jr-sports-betting-impact-going-get-worse
This story is a player in the NBA noting the significant difference in how fans react during the games. But, the same problem is being noted in all the major sports leagues, and sadly not only professional games but collegiate. The trend we're riding will consume high school sports before long as the appetite for money starts to gobble up the traditional concept of rooting a team to victory or as a player merely playing for victory.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
Frankly, the entire virtual rewards concept never made any sense to me. In my view, it leads to a focus on things other than playing virtual baseball games, either versus the CPU or online against other people. Focusing on end-of-phase virtual rewards changes the focus from the games to the trinkets, and I think this is where SDS has faltered.
The further SDS gets from win-loss records the more it myopically changes the focus from the games to things that diminish the game itself. The dichotomy is that the stronger a player's record the stronger his team gets, when this concept gets the cart before the horse. In real baseball, the stronger the team's players the better the record.
See the difference?
In SDS's model for online competition, everyone starts at the same level, and then skill produces different results leading to different rewards. The higher the initial achievement, the stronger the player's roster gets. In real baseball, it works the opposite. The better the team's result, the weaker the roster is supposed to get via lower draft slots. Of course, this all plays out over the course of years when SDS is pushing out a game every year.
This forces the start even, get better and better with more wins formula. This causes 90% of the complaints as customers squabble about what is fair or unfair in online competition play. Given SDS is going to continue to release every year, it seems the only way to actually measure people skill with the game, which seems to me the only fair mode of competitive online play, is to have everyone start with the same roster and slug it out.
No more end of phase rewards. Your reward is your record. And, since records are not the same, then finishing that "season" of online play isn't going to see equal rewards awarded. The people who finish at the top get the best rewards and the lower down the worse the rewards. So, how does one fairly stratify the competition level?
There could be different levels of competition, ranging from beginner to legend, sort of like the difficulty levels are current set. Customers choose their competition level and within that league go after it. Competing at the highest levels and achieving the highest record is the only way to earn the greatest rewards. Playing at lower levels, even with the best records means you win better rewards than other players in the same league with worse records, but at a lower level, your reward won't be as high as players with excellent records at a higher level. Customers receive rewards based on quality of record, and slug it out with the same players with those players based upon the difficulty of the league.
This would cause the population of DD to drop by at least 95%.
