On Thursday's stream I defended SDS on the program changes against the jackels. Team variety, and their right to make changes to the game, etc, etc. If the systems are always the same, whats the point in the new edition, right?
Well, after several days of grinding, and experiencing the my first "big reward" firsthand, I can say that I was completely wrong.
Three late nights brought me to the end of the USA conquest map with 120K exp. I'm excited (and tired). Of course I want Trout or Seager, but Tucker is a fine consolation and even Haniger is an upgrade. I of course get Murphy, the catcher not even A's fans would choose (side note: are there going to be A's fans this year??).
I've been raking with Will Smith, and just got the upgrade to Piazza, not to mention the 3 or 4 prospects at catcher. As far as I'm concerned he is worthless to my team, the smallest of upgrades. I can't even sell him, and the eventual collection he will go towards will cost 100's of thousands of stubs for the other 18 players, so basically worthless to me there as well.
Herein lies the problem with this system. Yes, its nice that not everyone will be rocking Trout and Seager week 1, but you are basically giving the finger to 20-40% of your player base so that the top 5% will spend more for stubs.
The first big moment I was working towards wasn't a reward, it was a middle finger. This is BAD GAME DESIGN. It is depressing that my launch weekend Sunday is spent complaining, instead of playing, because I feel the effort I already put in wasn't worth anything...sad.