No adjustments to gameplay? The mind literally boggles. With a multitude of gameplay issues to choose from when deciding what to focus on primarily with 1.12, you went with.......... None of them. This will probably be my last MLB The Show game in all honesty. It’s the only game I’ve ever come across in over three decades of gaming where you can play for thousands of hours over five years, buy every expensive accessory available to assist your efforts and yet get worse at the game. There’s no sense of improvement or progressing your skills because the game is dictated by inconsistency to the point of feeling like a series of random occurrences.
This game is entirely focused around hitting home runs and there’s a total lack of respect for pitching and defense as it stands. There’s one player in the top 20 for this season who has an ERA below 5 and he’s sitting at 4.87. The current number one player this season in RS has an ERA of 7.01. Your game is terrible. Exactly what you think is fun about playing ninety minute games at Shippet where both teams combine for thirty or more runs, I’m unsure, but this is a terrible representation of the sport of baseball. This is some garbage arcade slugfest with zero emphasis on anything except overpowered hitting.

You’re not beating the target score before you exceed the maximum number of permissible outs, would be my best guess based on the information supplied.

Yeah, I think you’re being a little too pessimistic. Why do you care? What do you mean “It’s not fair?” Fair to who, exactly? Why aren’t you off completing the map 8 times for 200000 stubs instead of complaining about those who are? I’m confused.

Yeah, ‘20 was the last straw for me, I won’t be playing ‘21 at all. This franchise has been in decline for a while and I don’t have any realistic hope for improvements in the coming year. Yes, the show is the best baseball game available, but when the only other game is RBI that’s not saying much. I’m tired of it all now, SDS can’t make a realistic baseball game to save their lives and the deliberate tactic of taking away full user control and replacing it with....... whatever you call the weird gameplay - Has really killed my desire to ever play the show again. Pitches that don’t locate with perfect input, batted ball outcomes that make no sense, losing games to a clearly inferior opponent who has no idea how to play baseball correctly and just pounds buttons arcade style etc. All you can do is express your dissatisfaction, which I have done many, many times, both on the forum and in emails offering feedback to SDS and hope they realise they’re killing the franchise with these terrible decisions.
All I can do is vote with my wallet and I’m not returning for ‘21 due to the hugely disappointing games SDS have churned out in the past few years. ‘16 and ‘17 were the pinnacle of gameplay, due to the absolute control afforded to users when pitching. ‘17 had the best pitching of any MLB the Show game because it was accurate when you were accurate with the controls. Later editions may have surpassed ‘16 and ‘17 in terms of content and availability of content to all players but the gameplay has been in a severe state of decline, every year I feel like I have less and less control of outcomes in game and everything feels more scripted and out of my hands.

It’s actually pretty sad as I would regularly play for thousands of hours and play thousands of H2H games each year, but this franchise is no longer worth the investment for me, be that the financial investment of a PS5 and copy of the game plus stubs, or indeed, the time and effort invested to improve at a game that doesn’t offer any incentive to do so, instead being ruled by nonsensical and seemingly random outcomes. The final concern is that the content last year was horrible, if SDS see fit to continue down that path, giving legitimate legends like Griffey and Babe Ruth worse cards than some minor leaguer who has yet to play a game, giving multiple high diamond cards to the same player with slightly different stats and handing out 99s to anyone and everyone who don’t deserve them, then ‘21 will be just as garbage as last year. SDS really need to get a grip and think about the sport of baseball in a realistic manner, in every aspect from what happens when you throw a pitch, to how a ball should behave when making contact with a bat, to the comparison between Jacob Stallings and Jorge Posada and how that should affect the ratings of their best cards. I just can’t go through that nonsense again. Not this year, maybe ever.

For the last six weeks I’ve spent the vast majority of my time on TSN complaining about how SDS have ruined the game by implementing narrow swing timing windows that are totally impossible to work with. The ball is unhittable, I repeatedly proclaimed. This game is terrible. If there was a thread complaining about hitting being bad, I’d happily jump in and hijack the thread to complain about swing timing windows, I’ve sent emails and complaints and much more.

To be honest, I felt justified in my viewpoint. Hitting was impossible for me. By the time I started to swing at a fastball, it was in the catchers glove. Not possible to hit.

Fast forward to today, when I changed my display settings (should have tried this a while ago) which had reset when we had a brief power outage several weeks ago.......... And it transpires I’m a complete moron. Sorry about that. I’m kinda early on fastballs now on HoF. Might need to slow my bat down a little. Oops. So, ummm, sorry SDS. Sorry, general community, who read my whining posts every day. I’ll get my coat.......

Everything is moments these days, or a variation of moments, such as Showdown. I was thinking about the days before the moments concept existed in DD, when missions were to be completed in regular play, either against the CPU or H2H. While I’m not a fan of moments, mostly due to the fact I think they’re pretty much rigged, I wasn’t a huge fan of the old method of loading up your line up with grind cards and facing the Rockies on rookie either.

While it seems like a more sensible, streamlined approach to set you a task and then have you right there with the player to attempt to complete only that specific task, the reality is that you’re trapped in that moment until the game allows you to proceed. That’s my main issue with moments, they don’t feel like a skill based challenge, where you’ll succeed based on your ability, they feel like a time sink where you’ll be allowed to progress as and when the programming dictates you will progress. The Willie Mays level fielding from bad to average defensive players and the absolute flat refusal of the AI pitchers to play along with the script at times (Beaning batters with one hit left in a mission to get 4 hits including 3 XBH etc) would be a huge factor in this take.

I also just think they’ve taken the concept too far at this point. POTM is moments, Topps Now is moments, Showdown is just moments with a twist and the draft element of BR bolted on, player programs are predominantly moments.......

It would be nice if we saw something a little more imaginative in terms of mission design next year, I feel like I’ve been in a moment that represents every possible situation in baseball over the past two years. Not to mention some of these magical moments truly do last a lifetime. Or so it feels.

@Oachs83 said in MLB The Inconsistency:

8 out of 10 RS games go like this

First inning or two the better player will score right away but just a run or two. Then it’s five innings of stalemate (usually just a ton of fly balls near the warning track or double plays). If someone does score during stalemate time that run will be matched in the next half inning.

Then in the 8th the better player will get a two or three run lead. In the 9th the lesser player will get the tying and or winning run on base but will come up just short. This happening near the end leaves the better player happy because of the win and the lesser player believing he almost pulled it off.

Now this formula works until you experience the same scenario about 50 times and just realize it’s in the coding.

I can’t lie, I’ve argued heavily against game scripting and the like on this very forum over the years, but with over 1100 RS games played this year, that scenario sounds extremely familiar.

@raesONE said in Ken Griffey:

The only thing I dislike is that he has a shift.

When you’re a bad hitter like me, you get a ton of oppo doubles due to being late on outside pitches

Title is accurate. There have been so many days this year where I’ve been off work and had nothing planned, so I’ve settled down to grind RS in MLB the Show for the day. Almost without exception, after a game or maybe two, I’ve completely had enough and can’t stand to continue.

That’s the biggest confirmation that the gameplay this year is not engaging enough. There are far too many home runs, which makes every game feel very similar. Yes, we do have other types of hits, the old double down the line that just stays fair, then the outfielder gets it from the corner and does that crow hop animation before throwing to second, where the second baseman gets pulled away from the base so they’re safe. I see that quite a bit, yeah.
The one where the third baseman boots the ball, but blocks it with his body then recovers to make the out in time at first base happens frequently also. But it all feels scripted, repetitive and not at all spontaneous this year. It’s boring.

@lazy_toast said in Y'all can have Chipper:

@Hikes83 said in Y'all can have Chipper:

You don’t understand how popularity works huh?

Oh i do. Just dont understand why people pay for a name rather than stats. Its a competitive video game after all. SDS feeds of those ppl so

This is not a competitive video game. It may attempt to present itself as such, but it falls short in many areas on many levels, to the point where it really cannot be regarded as such. A competitive game would usually see the outcome decided by the skills and input of the user.

@marinermatt01 said in Wow, ranked seasons is playing really awful right now:

I loved how the game played for the first month or so, but now that most players have figured out the game, the last couple of weeks have been incredibly frustrating. Every pitcher I faces throws 102mph, hitting us almost impossible and every game seems to be 2-1 with 14ks for each pitcher. If someone manages to get a hit (that’s not a home run), no matter who it is, he will steal, as the catcher hesitates throwing to second every time. The decision is usually decided on who gets lucky last, whether that be an error, an RNG hanger, whatever. Reading over the forum, I see a number of players are having the same frustrations. It’s not like I’m not succeeding right now (struggled today, but I’ve been hovering around the high 700s-low 800s), the game just isn’t much fun at all. Being Being that it’s June, Is it too late in the game cycle to hope for some tuning, or is this what the game is going be?

Way better than last year then?

@wynsanity318_psn said in Have you changed how you play 21 vs 20?:

I definitely find myself playing ranked to get my 40 wins and then never touching the mode again until the new season. I ever have been big on BR since bad memories of constantly facing the people who know how to intentionally freeze off the game and the like. I do appreciate them making a BR program though in case I want to buy a card. Honestly the big difference to my gameplay is I used to love conquest but without postgame rewards now it just feels unfulfilling.

This was a big turn off for me last year as well, they ruined RS gameplay. I pretty much only play RS as I prefer to play online and would rather have a traditional nine inning game as opposed to three or six innings. I prefer to be able to select any team I choose without restriction from my card collection, since that’s the point of collecting them all. Like many of us, I’ve never particularly enjoyed moments, BR and Events have tended to be entirely focused on offense for the most part and RS is the only nine inning H2H mode available with rewards to play for. Conquest and showdowns are something to be endured for the rewards rather than appreciated and enjoyed.

I realise there are limits to the ways in which you can tweak the various modes, ultimately, it is baseball and you can only change the format so much. That said, it’s not hard to conceive of something, anything, competitive that isn’t based around moments. Showdown is just moments remixed and they’re beyond tedious to me. Now conquest is even more tedious I’d probably skip that too. I’d just be happy if they could get one mode, RS, playing right. I’m actually quite hopeful of a new game engine and total overhaul either next year or ‘23, given that there will hopefully be more players able to move on to the improved hardware by then and PS4/XB1 will be heading out. Who knows if that will be successful or not, but it’s frankly jaw dropping that the PS5 and XBSX versions of ‘21 still feature PS3 era animations and commentary lines that have barely been touched in many years.

@genopolanco_psn said in Have you changed how you play 21 vs 20?:

@comebacklogic said in Have you changed how you play 21 vs 20?:

I didn’t buy the game this year for the first time since ‘16. While ‘19 was fairly enjoyable at times and I liked the content after the terrible product that was ‘18, ‘20 was a miserable experience for me personally, almost as bad as ‘18 again. I’ve still watched streams and checked the forum here to see how things are going, but it seems to be pretty much more of the same in terms of online play.
Any improvements that have been made (PPP looks great and I’ve long been wishing for a stadium creator) are negated by the unrealistic and at times seemingly random nature of online play, which is what drove me away from the game in the first place. Until they can do something about the core gameplay mechanics, the other improvements are not going to be truly appreciated.

I’ve been in your shoes and waited til May to buy and my opinion is the game is a lot better than what is being said. It’s like reading Yelp reviews. People aren’t really posting great things, they only post the bad and are usually way over dramatic.

But what about 20 made it so miserable for you?

Well, long answer (as always with me), I started in ‘16 and I played on a crappy TV with no game mode and I obviously sucked, but I liked the concept of DD and wanted to improve, So I returned for ‘17 and did somewhat better with naturally expected improvement over time.

So ‘18 I preordered, brought a monitor because everyone assured me the TV was holding me back aaaaaand - Of course, they dropped the ball. In the sense that it was an awful slow pitch game where everyone threw low off speed and you just popped up regardless, plus content was totally terrible and tedious. I wasn’t very happy, but given that the previous two games had been excellent, I figured it could be an unusually bad year, an outlier for the franchise. ‘19 seemed to confirm that, with everything from gameplay to content, while still far from perfect, vastly improved and headed in the right direction.

‘20 then, was expected to be pretty well received with further improvements because “we listened to the community” and so on. It simply wasn’t. They didn’t listen to a single word anyone said and in many ways, as a “pitching guy”, if you will (I’d say I get more satisfaction from plotting to have a batter hit into a double play and successfully executing that play, or pitching a well sequenced AB that results in a strikeout than I do from hitting a 500 foot homer), it was the worst baseball game I’ve ever played. There was literally nowhere you could throw a pitch that couldn’t potentially result in a ridiculous hit or home run, which isn’t at all realistic and made me not want to play the game at all.

In addition to this, several bugs recurred at launch that had been present in the game for at least two years previously, which really hammered home just how much of a copy/paste this game is from year to year. I also thought content was absolutely awful, in the opposite manner to ‘18. There were simply too many unnecessary versions of the same player, an over saturation of 99s, most of which weren’t even close to deserved on actual ratings and for me, that diminishes the sense of achievement you get from building an elite team. They also messed up badly when planning for things like the infinite queues to buy the 12-0 rewards (Not salty, I had - And still have - them all, just shows a lack of foresight) and the fact they gave us 60 finest choice packs that contained a selection of 3 choices, ensuring pointless duplicates galore.

It was another bad year for content and gameplay and that made 2 of 3 consecutive years the game had been garbage. With MLB The Show being literally the only game I play, when it came to upgrading to a PS5 and buying the same copy/paste game with the same unrealistic batted ball outcomes and point and click hitting mechanics, I took a long hard look at myself and refused to keep on paying for what was, on the balance of all known percentages, likely to be a substandard product that wouldn’t work correctly for some weeks post launch. Believe me, I took no pleasure from being right when the early access fiasco ensued and SDS sat silent while the community erupted, but I wasn’t surprised. Because on all known form, that’s exactly what SDS do.
I’d like to hope they can bring the game back to what originally enticed me in all those years ago, the kind of game where you can’t even touch the ball online, much less win a game, but you still want to take on the challenge and improve and play. The current state of the game isn’t much different to last year and is still trending in the wrong direction for me, even with the welcome addition of PPP, hitting is still ridiculous in so many ways from the streams and videos I’ve seen.

a_psn said in Have you changed how you play 21 vs 20?:

@comebacklogic said in Have you changed how you play 21 vs 20?:

to see how things are going,

Come back comeback!!!!

See what I did there? Hilarious.

P.S. We miss you.

Apparently I still feature heavily in Diamond Dynasty from what I read on here, however, everyone thinks I should be removed.

I didn’t buy the game this year for the first time since ‘16. While ‘19 was fairly enjoyable at times and I liked the content after the terrible product that was ‘18, ‘20 was a miserable experience for me personally, almost as bad as ‘18 again. I’ve still watched streams and checked the forum here to see how things are going, but it seems to be pretty much more of the same in terms of online play.
Any improvements that have been made (PPP looks great and I’ve long been wishing for a stadium creator) are negated by the unrealistic and at times seemingly random nature of online play, which is what drove me away from the game in the first place. Until they can do something about the core gameplay mechanics, the other improvements are not going to be truly appreciated.

Hmmm, I didn’t buy this year because I hated the direction they went with ‘20. Seems like I made the right move if not much has changed. Sad, I miss playing baseball online and video games in general, but I couldn’t bring myself to invest substantial amounts of money on a new console in advance just to play MLB the Show, given SDS track record. Had I paid for the PS5 and preordered for early access and bonuses as usual, I’d have been really mad at myself as much as SDS. Everything’s gone pretty much as I feared it might so far with ‘21.

Yes, I agree with OP 100%. This is the main reason I didn’t buy the game this year for the first time since ‘16, swiftly followed by the fact that in game outcomes seemed totally random last year, as opposed to adhering to user input, timing and even actual physics, plus the fact I absolutely hated the content last year and the direction SDS were heading with it. None of the supposedly elite cards stood out or felt special at all, they were simply lost in a sea of crappy diamonds that were ridiculously overrated and rendered all content generic and uninteresting.

Almost everything I’ve read on the forum today has been what I’ve been thinking for the last few years. RNG/DDA over input, too many HR, Pitching and defense treated as not relevant compared to hitting which has become the entire focus of DD.

Seems like I made the right choice to avoid ‘21. Servers have been awful until very recently and it seems the core H2H gameplay is still extremely flawed and unbalanced in favour of offense. There’s still a fair amount of bugs and glitches that should have been fixed long ago and same tired commentary lines we’ve heard forever............. Sigh.

@jipp84_psn said in SDS response:

@chrohandhaivey said in SDS response:

No lie, this has been the worst experience ever. They make it a point to say their goal is to make the bosses achievable for every player, then they launch with setting the xp way too high for the amount of xp given, and decide to give double xp too late when the average player gets consistently screwed by the server crashes so they won’t be able to catch up. I’ve worked as hard as I can to catch up, but I have an hour or two per night tops for gaming (I’m a teacher, coach soccer, and have a wife and toddler). Then there’s many nights like tonight when I spend the majority of my available time playing a long play vs. cpu against San Diego for the player program, just to lose out on the 10k+ xp and the program progress due to server issues. So my entirety of my available gaming time tonight was lost and gained me nothing even though I spent it playing the game.

And rather than be a responsible company and take actions and communicate with the consumers, they’ve gone dead silent. Unfortunately, SDS would rather cover their eyes and ears, just cruise on ahead without caring, and let the epeeners do the talking for them (“I should’ve had 6.8m xp and 4 99 overalls by now if they didn’t steal my xp path bro, it’s not hard. I’ve put 413 hours into the game and completed every possible bit of content available, stop whining!”).

Honestly, it’s the flat worst that I’ve ever seen a company react to an atrocious launch with many awful decisions (and I was there for the original Final Fantasy XIV launch....). Given how nothing has been addressed and I have no hope of being able to finish out this program in time with these nightly issues, I’ve lost complete faith in SDS.

They made The Show 20 so good last year and we may be witnessing now the reason why they just went all out for the fans last year. I don’t know if it will ever be the same or CAN ever be the same. Maybe the move to other systems will ultimately ruin the game. I hope not but month 1 hasn’t been a good showing for SDS.

‘20 was hot garbage, if not for ‘18 it would easily be the worst version of Diamond Dynasty ever. The thing that annoys me is that these issues occur and in many cases recur each year. SDS always takes the same line of seeming to do nothing or close to nothing while mostly remaining silent except for a few generic prepared statements on social media that explain nothing.

The game is a limited time offering, which is really only designed to be relevant for 8-9 months. When 2-3 months are taken away with server errors and tinkering with gameplay from patch to patch, it’s unacceptable to me.

Hi Collin, I didn’t buy the game this year for the first time in 5 years. As a previously loyal customer who loved DD and would play thousands of games, invest hundreds of hours and of course, hundreds of dollars into the game each year, I was so disenchanted with the online gameplay, terrible content and recurring issues every year, I walked away from the game I loved and devoted the majority of my free time to.

I just came to say that nothing I’ve seen from SDS or the game this year has made me regret my decision so far.

@the_canuckler said in Very early:

@comebacklogic said in Very early:

@the_canuckler said in Very early:

@comebacklogic said in Very early:

@the_canuckler said in Very early:

@jakem81628_psn said in Very early:

@the_canuckler said in Very early:

@jakem81628_psn said in Very early:

@the_canuckler said in Very early:

Also, I won, sure the game was closer than it needed to be but I won ‍️

That’s good, but seriously, I hate that the game is moving away from simulation, you’re telling me you’ve never gotten a very early hit. Yeah, they are very annoying, but it’s just something you deal with, thank you for your time.

Simulation is a bad thing.. go play ootp if you want sim. In an online video game User input should be the most important factor by far.

Simulation as in realistic, not me watching the game play itself

I know exactly what you mean, sim and realism is a bad thing and takes away from user input. You know what’s not realistic? Me hitting .330 overall through 400 online games last year or me hitting .460 with finest bellinger through 400 at bats, that’s not realistic. So what happens then? Simulation factors will take away from my input to make numbers more realistic.

You’re not actually hitting a bat with a ball, just playing a video game that simulates you doing so. If the whole thing is inescapably a simulation, at least let’s have a realistic one. I’d guess if the game accurately simulated bat on ball physics and didn’t feel like every single game was played on the moon, you wouldn’t be hitting .460 with Bellinger over a significant statistical sample size. Let’s be honest here - If you’re the kind of guy who chooses Shippet every game and home hunts, you’re quite happy with simulation factors influencing outcomes in game anyway.

I avoided Shippett as much as possible, miss me with that, I’ve played and beaten you multiple times before.

Quite probable, but did you have good input?

Yup, you’ve even asked me multiple times for tips on how to get better

That was a flippant answer, I was being tongue in cheek. That said, my point remains - I’ve no idea how this game is supposed to be fun when it’s designed in such a way that any pitch in any location can be hit hard, or even pulled. It’s totally unrealistic. You may believe that simply placing the PCI in the correct spot and swinging with good timing entitles you to a hit, as that is the correct way to reward “good user input”. I say, if the pitch is in a certain location and executed well, even if you do make contact, it should never be a home run and rarely a hit, as in the example I have previously given. It’s not about detracting from user input, it’s about making a game that adheres to real life bat and ball physics, an area in which the show frequently fails to deliver, which frustrates me personally more than anything.

This game is designed to be 80/20 in favour of the hitter, which is pure stupidity in a game where the greatest players barely succeed 30% of the time at the plate. It’s not because they made a game where user input is king that you can hit .400 with Bellinger through 400 AB. It’s because they made a trash unrealistic game that is unbalanced in favour of hitting at the expense of pitching and defense. It’s because even if a pitch is a foot outside and breaking away, you can pull it out for a home run. It’s point and click, like CoD baseball.

@x814xmafia_psn said in Nothing counting. I'm done.:

@comebacklogic said in Nothing counting. I'm done.:

@x814xmafia_psn said in Nothing counting. I'm done.:

@hoboadam_psn said in Nothing counting. I'm done.:

Wake me up when BR games and stats and missions start counting. Completely unacceptable at this stage and I'm done wasting my time.

Good luck to everyone playing this evening and this weekend. Having 3 games worth of BR stuff either poof or not register is enough for me to realize that it's just not worth it right now.

Peace out.

Wow. I've seen you on this board multiple years and never once have you been this mad.

You usually defend this game.

@SDS don't you think it's pretty bad when a core player and supporter isnt playing your game?

That’s what I thought too. Then again - I used to play every single day for hours and practically live on this forum and I didn’t even buy the game this year. I think they’ll lose a lot of the long time players, but gain new blood regardless. They new guys who don’t know the servers are frequently appalling every single year will assume the issues are a one off due to multi platform, cross play, global pandemic or something else and argue that it’s to be expected. They’ll get some free packs for the inconvenience and be satisfied with a free diamond pull. Having not been around when the game was competitive online and you really had to earn diamonds for your squad, they’ll presume all the RNG and sparkly cards will seem pretty normal. The player base will evolve with the game, even if it’s all trending downwards. I’ve seen numerous people defending SDS on this very forum, even after the absolute debacle that’s been the launch so far.

With all the server issues, lost XP, lost stats, cards going missing, stubs going missing, the After Game roulette being taken out of Conquest without explanation, and Inning Programs expiring; nothing less than a restitution package consisting of 25K in stubs, 2 42 Packs, and a 50pk bundle would be worth it.

20 standard pack bundle and 11k stubs is the very most you’ll get IMHO, but what good is anything if you can’t get into DD to use it? In no time, the most desirable cards in the game will be superseded by newer, flashier versions and become largely irrelevant anyway. If I’d paid for the early access and extras, lost my inventory and stubs and wasted two solid weeks of my life, they could give me Trout and I’d still feel salty about it.