Community Forum

I'm really becoming of the mind that these bots aren't doing this just to mess with the customers. I'm thinking they are doing it to destroy the integrity of the community market as an act of pseudo warfare against SDS. And while I certainly have my issues with SDS, and make that clear here many times, robbing the joy of this game from paying customers is a deplorable way to try to make a point!

I also think that SDS is powerless to do anything about it. If they take any action at all, for each account they ban, ten more will appear and start the disruption anew. It's a sad situation, and is just one reason among many for why smart corporations try to avoid angering their customers, especially in this day and age where people have an outsized influence due to social media and how it has become so easy to hack computer code with malicious intent.

I agree. SDS does not have the staffing, money, or time for building the full gamut of MiLB stadiums. This again, is why three years ago I really pressed on communication a list of a half dozen items they could adopt in Stadium Creator, and we stadium designers would do it for them for free.

Nope, nada, wasn't interested.

There are few things more outrageous than when good people volunteer their free support to a corporation only to be bluntly told we don't want your help!

There is no licensing fee to make a stadium. There would be a license fee to use the trademarked ads and the stadium name itself. But, an exact copy of the stadium could be put into the game with zero licensing fees required. Yep, it won't feature the exact name as the real stadium, but is that really what makes the difference?

This debate has raged for years and I keep knocking it down with the hard facts each and every single time. For the umpteenth time, engineering designs for a stadium are NOT and never have been copyrighted, trademarked, or patented against use in a digital replication.

What ARE patented are the actual innovative construction methods should someone wish to use those patented engineering elements in the construction of another real world stadium. And in those cases, there would be royalties to be paid to the holder of the patent. And of course, if one wanted to use the trademarked logos or names, then fees would be paid for those.

The bedrock legal foundation for all patents, trademarks, wordmarks, and copyrights is that such designs once awarded these designations may not be copied and used in a directly competition enterprise.

This is precisely why there never will be any pursuit against SDS nor any individual designer for any renumerations for the creation of digital stadiums that are in the vault today. Not only because these stadiums in the vault are free, but because of the larger legal reality of how virtual designs are treated like photographs and paintings.

You, me, and anyone are free and clear to take photographs of any and all buildings, without any concerns of having to pay a fee for it, so long as those photos are taken from a publicly accessible vantage point. This includes buying a ticket and watching a game. What you cannot do is alter those images in a manner deemed derogatory to any actual corporation.

The marketing team doesn't smell money. So, no, SDS will not fix this.

This has been a serious source of frustration for me and SDS for many years, really starting to develop when MLB 22 was released, and since then, the way this company has responded has just ramped up the frustration to a boiling point.

This right here is the prime reason why I refuse to purchase any more SDS products. Stadiums are such a key part of the game of baseball. More than for any other sport because in baseball, the rules allow for each stadium to feature a high degree of originality that can and does impact how games play out.

But, my anger was fueled because I was part of a group of customers that used to number in the hundreds -- people who urged SDS to put in a custom stadium build option in the game, and they finally did with MLB 21. It lacked lights for night games, but that was fixed with MLB 22. The "improvements" in MLB 23 were mostly tie-in's with movies and other video games and so bore zero relationship to building baseball parks.

MLB 24 saw one very nice prop addition with the Turn of the Century set, and that was the first time designers like myself were able to design stadiums from the past that started to look nice. If SDS ever added a few options and fixed a few issues, this community could have easily created highly accurate MiLB stadiums for them -- all for free. But, nope, SDS made it quite clear they didn't want even that.

So, I don't want them any longer! SDS turned their back on once dedicated customers like me, so I turned on them. People like you can ask nicely a million times and SDS still couldn't care less to do this. They won't put in the money and time to develop the minor league venues, and they won't upgrade Stadium Creator so that the customers can do it themselves.

And that combination is all anyone really needs to understand about how SDS operates.

The writing on the wall is that the skeleton code team that SDS's budget allows for isn't sufficient to code up new releases without serious bugs and is also inadequate to fix bugs once discovered.

They cannot do that, so it's truly implausible to expect that SDS is capable of improving the game.

Well, I just blocked another account here. I learned a valuable lesson many years ago. Anytime you call someone wrong -- regardless of the language you use -- you have a moral obligation to provide hard proof why they are wrong. Else, you are just tossing empty insults around.

Moreover, simply saying someone is wrong is a world removed from calling someone "clueless." When people chose to throw that kind of language around, it shows they have an agenda at work, and odds are very high it isn't a good one.

Finally this, anytime one is speaking in regards to how computer code works, the reality is that the only people who truly know how the code performs are the people who wrote the code. Is it possible for select customers of a video game to be manually added to a special list who have something like odds of higher quality cards?

Yes, it is possible. Thing is no one here knows if that is happening. And unless someone has hard evidence of these so-called "streamers" receiving significantly higher shares of diamond type cards, then accusations that they are fail to carry much weight.

I think the larger issue here isn't whether a small group of customers receive preferential treatment. Instead, the real issue is whether this game release was coded in such a way as to give less in rewards for equal or even greater in-game success?

I cannot say. I don't play DD modes. This constant angst about the difficulty of grinding -- it's too easy, it's too hard, it's unfair -- is just one reason why the whole DD game mode turns me off. The other reasons are people cheating in online play because for foolish reasons such people think success in a video game equals success in the real world, when it doesn't.

I think video games, particularly those based on sports, threw away what made them special when they started to focus on virtual trinkets and arcade style online and offline game modes, vice just focus on building the most realistic and visually attractive sports game experience. Meaning, make playing the game itself the focal point, and not all the other junk!

In other words, if playing the actual game of baseball isn't the draw for you, then buying MLB The Show should be a mistake. There should not be anything present in the title that artificially tries to spice up playing baseball.

I think eventually the video game companies are going to learn this. But, it's going to take customers walking away from bad experiences before it happens. Ultimately, if this game is making you angry, then just simply stop playing that mode that makes you angry, and if all the game modes make you angry, then stop playing the game.

@whitejw98_MLBTS said:

I find it amusing that the forum is filled with 'i hate this game!' posts and also 'Waah why did the servers go down?' posts. If the game is so terrible then why do you care if its up and running? You all confuse me lol

Well, then it seems you are most easily confused! Perhaps some objectivity in your life might thicken your ability to understand nuance.

We continue to remain here to criticize this game because the vast majority of us who do so used to be very positive about this game title in particular and SDS in general. It took years of neglect, and frankly some outright malice by SDS to switch us into critics.

Now perhaps your agenda doesn't allow for that and if so that's your choice, but hardly shared by most people. This is the first year MLB The Show was released without my purchasing it in over six years. This because truth is we very much enjoy playing a quality baseball video game, and in the past when there were options, I did purchase baseball games from multiple venders. We love the game, and for me at least I'm far too old to play it any longer, so a video game is the closest I can come to experiencing that thrill of squaring up a pitch, or making a nice defensive play.

If you are still confused, then I submit it is an issue on your end that only you can solve.

Cheers!

Look, I have likely become one of SDS's harshest critics (yet not too long ago was one of its biggest champions), and yet I think I have to draw a line on this OP.

The leadership team at SDS is responsible for what this game has become, along with the leadership team at Sony Interactive Entertainment, who I am sure is calling the shots. Employees are not able to work on projects unless assigned to them, and are not able to continue work on one once the leadership team has told them to move on.

The basic problem with the game today is it is old code that has become strangled through too many layers of often competing code, and is sorely overdue for a complete rewrite from scratch. The employees are powerless to do that. The leadership has to argue for and obtain from SIE the budget authority to hire the larger code team necessary for such a total rewrite.

In a way, though, this OP is prescient. I think it does foreshadow the eventual destiny for all who work at SDS. Either the game that fuels them receives this overdue rewrite to make it the best it can be, or the customer base is going to walk away. Once that walk away happens, SDS will fold and everyone will lose their positions.

@Deadmankillin_PSN said:

@PriorFir4383355_XBL my ovr was 96 at the end of that season which makes this even worse

LOL!!

Yeah, that makes it even worse! I left SDS an undeserved out, and you proved even that was unfounded!

@Deadmankillin_PSN said:

gold glove on a horrific team that led the whole mlb in errors and no one is interested.

It's a joke, no doubt. The game code isn't written to evaluate seasonal performance. My thought is it merely evaluates the player's overall attribute level. This has been a constant refrain from customers who point this out, and it's never been addressed.

That said, when it comes to human motivations, I am reminded of the infamous statement by Pittsburgh Pirates GM, Branch Rickey, who gave his best player, Ralph Kiner, a 25% pay cut from his previous season. When Kiner objected to the scale of the cut, Rickey replied, "We finished in last place with you. We can finish in last place without you!" Add this to the public denigrations in the press that the team made against Kiner as a player, and you can see the toxic mentality of the Pirates at work.

One could argue that the SDS game code operates along the ruthless nature of the 1950's Rickey versus Kiner mode. Or, one could argue that it is merely another example of the SDS game code being one dimensional, vice written to evaluate more than merely one facet. Another way to evaluate it is that individual customer performance is rooted out of the equation, so as to diminish the role the human has in exceeding the boundaries that the game code operates with.

Regardless, the code operates alien to common sense, and this destroys immersion, which used to be considered the holy grail of any game that operated with an avatar player model. Coders thirsted for options that would make the human customer think in more real world terms. Today? Doesn't seem to matter at all any longer.

Yeah, that's truly realistic. League MVP, gold glove, and silver slugger, and no team is interested in your services.

This game code is so skewed from how real baseball works that one wonders if the stymies are not desired.

What I have found is that if your team is loaded with talent in the minor leagues, then signing your top draft picks becomes nearly impossible, even if you offer them double their slot value. I've seen this many times when I tried to manually sign players in the draft. I would offer them way more than their slot value, and they immediately "reply" in the game code that they are breaking off all negotiation!

So, yes, this is a cheap software coding "solution" to a perceived need to punish success to make things more difficult. That's what is going on here.

Folks, before engaging someone, take a quick look at his forum ID name. Some people choose to use one with such vulgarity that it's obvious they are here only to disrupt. They have no desire to carry out any reasonable discussion, so it is best to just block their accounts vice interact with them.

Seriously? The word but* is censored! This is nuts folks! It turns words that can easily be spoken on broadcast television and warps them into some unknown where people have to guess at the word used. There is nothing vulgar about the word, "but*", and no one should have to put an asterisks in place to get it shown!

Over my life, I have found that the simple concepts are normally the most accurate and relevant.

Let's say you are among the most talented video game coders out there. What company would you rather work for?

Company A: Our mission is to challenge ourselves to make the very best video game experience that can be obtained within rational budget limits. We reward innovation and excellence.

Company B: Our mission is to maximize profits by retaining basic software code and making minor updates and focusing on marketing for post sale revenue streams.

OK, admittedly my comparison is simplistic. But, the point seems clear. Truly talented people want to work where they are allowed to maximize their talents, reach for excellence, be challenged to create their best, and at the end of the release, truly believe that they created something special, something that can legitimately be called the best in the industry.

Think of it this way. What kind of baseball player does a coach want -- the kind that is happy with middling results, or the player who busts his [but*] to prepare to win championships?

Bottom line: companies become who their leadership drives them to become.

This is another area where SDS's game code for Franchise never did reflect real baseball properly and they have refused to fix it.

This draft signing thing is just another way for the game code to spice things up and make running your team more difficult that it should be. I have seen the game code have a four-year college senior drafted in the first round and refuse to sign. That's not happening in real life because the player has nowhere else better to go.

No player in his right mind is going to forego an MLB contract to play in the Nippon League, Korean League, or even the Latin leagues.

@SiberiaTigerCub_PSN said:

IMO modern baseball players have too much equipment. Never mind all the players who have mismatched equipment colors (looking at you Acuña). Would love to see players go back to just wearing the uniform and grabbling the lumber.

Not really related to the OP, but on that theme, perhaps if anytime a pitcher hits a batter the pitcher, pitching coach, and manager would be ejected from the game -- no questions asked and no reprieves, then hitters could be denied equipment.

But, with pitchers throwing max effort and hitting 98 plus all the time on their four seamers, the injury risk from getting hit is now so much higher than it was when the average four seamer ran around 91. The kinetic energy difference between 99 and 90 is tremendous. And these newest pitchers don't have the control to throw inside without hitting the batters.

@Sarge1387_PSN said:

@LadySwampfox_XBL

I'll die on this hill- they poured all the resources into the mobile game. A mobile game that everyone groaned at in November when they initially dropped the idea, a mobile game that everyone thought they went "ok, that wasn't as warmly received as we thought it would, let's just scrap it" because they didn't make a peep about it for months. And then they released it. The game that nobody wanted.

Very plausible theory. One thing is certain, SDS is operating with a code team so thin they can hardly fix major bugs, much less go back and fix ones that carried over from previous years, and that makes it certain that unless something dramatic happens within SDS, this game title is never again going to see a significant technological advance, when that used to be the hallmark of the game title. SDS is going to ride this worn out horse until it lies dead in the desert.

That's not really caused by lack of competition. That is caused by lack of leadership focus. Competition can be entirely in-house, with leadership demanding the best, and giving coders strategic goals and rewarding success and punishing failure. But, instead, we have a game title that had plodded along so many years now with minimal changes, that the code is tired and overly layered with quick fixes to bugs.

I no longer know what it will take for SDS to figure out that the customers have been handing them the roadmap for rejuvenation, but SDS seems stubborn to accept any of those options.

@soggy-hampter_PSN said:

@NotesOfJohn_PSN said:

it just took me 22 minutes to open 20 standard packs.

I scanned the other posts and didnt see this mentioned so if it’s already been said I apologize but I never open packs using the console. I prefer the app interface it’s so much faster and certainly much more market friendly.
The “opened pack history” tab in the app is especially useful if you have say a couple hundred to open you can blast thru getting them opened just as fast as you can tap the “open next pack” tab (I don’t even flip them) and then go back to the history tab and you can see what all you got and interface directly with the market from there.

That's a nice suggestion and you do well to offer it.

That said, why should this be the case? For how many years has this game title been able to perform basic tasks like opening card packs using the game's interface, without any issues, and suddenly this year it seems all goofed up.

I gave up on SDS to care about the quality of their game last year, so this situation does not surprise me, which itself is the worst part of it. Something basic, even boring, in terms of code demand, and yet it is corrupted.

This game code needs a total overhaul, a fresh rewrite from scratch. It seems quite clear the existing code has been layered so much now that it has strangled itself. But, such a redo requires hiring and paying a top flight and robust team of talented coders and I conclude that SDS is no longer willing to hire such a team.

How much longer this slow erosion of a once exceptional game continues is anyone's guess. But, each year's release seems to establish a new and higher level of anger, frustration, and outright rejection.