Community Forum

The community is making this game harder to enjoy

I know this probably won’t be a popular post, but I feel like the community is becoming one of the biggest problems with MLB The Show.

The game is not perfect. Nobody is saying it is. There are issues, there are frustrating moments, and there are absolutely things SDS can improve. But the way some people talk about this game, and the way some creators lead the conversation around it, has gotten ridiculous.

We have toxic content creators who complain about almost everything, encourage people to exploit glitches, and then act like the game is completely broken because they’re mad about whatever the latest thing is. We have people harassing SDS employees on X, flooding every post with negativity, leaking content and ruining surprises, and just generally making the entire environment miserable.

And I doubt most of the loudest people complaining have any idea what actually goes into building, launching, maintaining, and fixing a video game at this scale. That doesn’t mean SDS is above criticism, but there’s a big difference between criticism and acting like every issue is some personal attack on the player base.

The reality is, hundreds of thousands (maybe millions?) of people are playing this game and enjoying it. Most people just log on, play some baseball, build their team, and have fun. It’s still a great game with an awesome mode in Diamond Dynasty. But the loudest parts of the community make it feel like everything is terrible all the time.

I actually think SDS deserves some credit for continuing to show up, communicate, release content, and try to improve things, knowing full well that no matter what they do, people are going to attack them.

It’s just a shame. I love baseball, I love this game, and I wish the community around it was better. Criticism is fine. Feedback is fine. But the constant negativity, harassment, glitch exploiting, cheating, and leaking is brutal.

I know I’ll probably get [censored] for this post, but I genuinely feel for SDS. This community could be so much better than it is right now.

@DeleteyourTTVBTW_MLBTS said:

I’ll be glad when the devs are fired. Most won’t step foot in a real studio again. Sorry you feel differently, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, two wrongs don’t make a right, and all those other really cool sayings about holding hands and being one. I will laugh… out loud….when they get fired.

This is exactly the type of thing I’m talking about. Criticism is totally fair, but being excited about real people losing their jobs over a video game is wild.

I get being frustrated. I’ve had frustrations with the game too. But there’s a big difference between “this needs to be fixed” and acting like the people working on it are lazy, incompetent, or deserve to be unemployed. None of us know what their internal resources, timelines, budget, staffing, or technical limitations actually look like.

Hold the game accountable, sure. But rooting for people to get fired is just weird.

@SoldierHill71_PSN said:

I wasn’t part of the glitch mob but my question for you is what does them taking action against the glitch mob going to do for you? I’m sure you will play better right? Or get better pack odds? Just curious is all

It’s common sense to want action taken against cheaters and exploiters. I shouldn’t even have to explain why.

@allday9128_PSN said:
What is the purpose of playing a video game if you're just going to complain about it constantly?

Not to point at anyone here or the OP, but this is something I never understand. I've had plenty of video games, TV shows, books, subscriptions, etc. that I started to not like. Instead of complaining I stopped playing them, stopped watching/reading them, stopped subscribing, etc.

Like I get this game isn't perfect, but the hate being spread around is toxic.

@Jisaksen2422_MLBTS said:

I’m convinced 98 % of MLB The Show players need intense therapy.

Not to be the police here, but can we not bring mental health attacks into the forums?

@rubicante23_PSN said:

I am SO tired of people yelling about King and Hader and even Grant. Every Tom and Joe puts it as Number One on their list of grievances to SDS.

Hader and King are super hittable these days - they're not feasible pitchers to use now, and anyone using them is probably a goofball. (Ps: because theyre a goofball, they will always throw you that two seamer away...and you should jack it to the moon).

Grant is a lesser glitch - and once you're used to it, its kinda the same as any pitcher.

These glitches have almost no impact on your daily player experience.

If you want to complain, there are SO many other things. I suggest you use "game is stale and boring"

What’s hilarious is 99% of the people complaining about Hader/King aren’t even playing on a difficulty where it matters. And they likely don’t even notice it. They’re just repeating the tired narratives of their favorite CCs.

Probably unpopular as this is ALL OVER Twitter, but I think two things are getting mixed together here.

The strike zone update seems pretty simple: it’s visual. The logic didn’t change. If the ball clips the zone, it’s a strike, and that’s how it was already working - we just didn't see the "correct" box. Now, the box is smaller / more accurate. Annoying to adjust to? Maybe. But I don’t think that’s some huge gameplay change as the box disappears as you're swinging anyway.

The PCI shrinkage thing is different. The communication around it was bad, and I get why people are pissed. But the actual logic makes sense to me. A hanging curve should be easier to square up than a dotted slider down and away. I know it’s a video game, but by that same logic, every perfect-perfect should be a hit and every bad swing should be an out. There still has to be some balance between input, ratings, pitch quality, and baseball randomness.

I’m not saying the game is perfect. There are definitely things that drive me nuts. I just still like playing it, and I think some of this is getting taken to the worst possible interpretation.

For me, the strike zone thing is basically nothing. The PCI thing makes sense in theory, even if it sucks. The biggest issue is the communication around it.

Is there any way SDS (@sds_joek_psn) can do something about the leaker?

I know it’s hard to avoid things once they start flying around the internet, but at this point it feels pretty obvious someone on the inside is leaking the new cards. They hit on everything today, and now we already know what to expect next week too, including the Legends & Flashbacks collection.

To be clear, I’m not complaining about the cards themselves. The content looks great. I just actually enjoy having some surprise and suspense when new drops are revealed.

This leaker is taking a lot of the fun out of it.

I'm actually annoyed that a) people got away with doing that glitch and b) people actually did it.
Like sorry, that's cheating and breaks TOS.
Doesn't help that some CC were encouraging it. Disgusting behavior.

@samguenther1987_PSN said:

@Bridge-Piece_XBL said:

@Good-Talk-Bud_XBL said:

@Parr99_XBL it’s because of the new update they did on the companion app. It’s to try and bottleneck the market to limit bots. For anyone using a bot it’s ridiculously easy to code around

So far so good. Been bot free for longer than ever.

Yup but the bots got wise once again and now control the market again..... next idea

Yeah it lasted awhile though. Wish these guys would get a life and stop building bots to cheat in a video game.

If you all hate the game so much, seriously - stop playing it. Stop coming to forums. Stop making the community so toxic.

They don't fix stuff, you complain. They fix stuff, you still complain. It's a lose-lose.

Also it's the middle of the day, people should be working - or if you're a kid... well then, I guess the behavior makes sense.

Without the bots the marketplace is healthy and card prices and margins are better. While this update makes it take me 15x longer to place my orders, I’m making a good 30x more profit from flipping. So it’s a W to me.

If these losers weren’t DDOS attacking the servers and throwing bots in the marketplace this wouldn’t be necessary. So blame the community.

Thank you @sds_joek_psn!

@Manu__SDS_MLBTS said:

Howdy,

I am pleased to hear things are smooth-enough!
I am still tuning the parameters of read/write for the market actions, we're getting somewhere!

Hi Manu! App has been great lately, but I think some bots may be sneaking back in. Could be wrong but today I’ve been getting aggressively undercut and margins are tight again.

@SavageSteve74_PSN I mean, that's the marketplace. Be happy you made whatever profits you did when you did while others were erroneously locked out.

I am back up as well. Huge thank you to @sds_joek_psn and sorry for being a pain.

Down all morning - been “up” for a few hours now but it’s going so slow I almost prefer it not even work.

Anyone else having the same issue?

@Player99_MLBTS I’ve already gotten into arguments with dozens of them on other social platforms. It amazes me how childish and… unintelligent (for lack of a better word) a lot of these folks are.

Not to keep pushing the same point, but I feel like today kind of proved what I was trying to say.

SDS announced they were going to take action on people who abused the exploit, and suddenly a lot of the same people who were saying “I don’t care if I get banned” started freaking out, arguing, and acting like SDS was somehow wrong for enforcing their own rules.

I ended up leaving a few Facebook groups because it was just nonstop fighting. People taking the moral high ground were getting attacked and called names. I even saw people making comments about family members from people’s profile pictures, which is just insane behavior over a video game.

Then on X, I’m seeing SDS employees getting trolled and harassed like they personally ruined someone’s life. And I’m seeing people try to defend what they did by comparing it to things that aren’t even the same as abusing an exploit or glitch.

That’s really the bigger point I was trying to make. Criticism is fine. Disagreeing with SDS is fine. Being frustrated with the game is fine. But the way parts of this community react to everything has gotten completely out of hand.

I don’t know if it’s just this community, gaming in general, social media, or the world right now, but it’s honestly pretty ugly to watch.

You can dislike a decision, dislike the game direction, or be mad about something without harassing employees, attacking other players, or acting like exploiting the game was some noble protest. It’s a baseball video game. Some people really need to take a step back.

There are a ton of packs in there too. You can always skip it if you don’t want to play it. I personally enjoy conquest when I don’t feel like playing online.