Community Forum

@victoryphoenix_MLBTS said:

I almost never touch online modes. The few times I jumped into an Event—just trying to grind out a Castellanos card—it felt like the other guy was straight-up cheating. Honestly, I didn't even get mad; I just felt sorry that someone takes it so seriously they feel the need to cheat. I’m perfectly content staying in my offline bubble, running through Conquest maps and Mini Seasons on repeat. Having played actual competitive baseball for years, I already know how much of a struggle the real game is. I have no desire to recreate that stress with a controller in my hand. I’m happy chilling on Veteran or All-Star, and the whole mentality of playing just to beat up on weaker opponents just seems sad to me.

That's so well said. And for me at least, pretty well sums my basis to totally avoid online play. The community just has too many people who get wrapped up around having their ID plastered on some ranking. The cheap thrill gives them so much self-fulfillment that it causes them to partner up with dark web sources, who themselves data mine and also frequently engage in cyber crime.

It's pretty sad.

For it's own part, SDS created this monster by trying to play off their video game as some grand worldwide competition model. Truth is, the first thing any true competitive league has to do is adopt rules and have a near foolproof way to enforce those rules equitably.

The internet cannot be so regulated, and SDS knows this. So, they create the illusion of a great sports league merely as a marketing ploy. SDS isn't surprised that between one third to forty percent of those names they plaster blindly at the top of the totem pole have cheated like crazy to get there. SDS just wants to whistle past the graveyard hoping the reality doesn't hurt their overall sales numbers, as well as blunt whatever post sale monetization ploy they gin up.

That folks, is the real dirty truth.

I cannot confirm the methodology presented in this link. In fact, I read the information for the first time at the Reddit sub-forum devoted to MLB The Show. That said, the information provided is fascinating and portends to illustrate with significant evidence that currently about 30% of high ranking players are cheating, and that this number is below that of the first few weeks of season releases, where the percentage may climb to forty percent.

https://showzone.gg/news/just-how-rampant-is-cheating-in-mlb-the-show

It would seem to me that whether 30% or 40% of high ranked players, the situation is worse than I would have thought it was. As I have written before, in my mind at least, there is absolutely nothing offered as "rewards" in online play that justifies employing dark web cheat schemes. But, I'm also not entirely shocked that in today's world where morality seems to have fallen to a shockingly low and self-serving level, we see evidence of a very significant share of the top players employing cheating options.

It's a measure of the kind of people left playing MLB the Show in online head-to-head games. It's filled with people who think the virtual trinkets are worth selling one's soul for. They aren't and people who sell out like that are life's losers.

The offline play is stale because SDS hasn't invested true effort in upgrading the quality of the game, especially in the offline game modes. What SDS has done is far more marketing packaging, using new terms and phrases to peddle faux upgrades, vice actually code true upgrades.

The options for customers to customize their game experience has simply been neglected, so the personal touch that would add personal interest has been spoiled for many years now.

What is left is an online game experience, where the lackluster rewards are seen by most as unworthy of the time investment. Many of the honest players left the game title months back, and again a lot of what's left playing are the kind of compulsive types for whom ploughing money to purchase dark web cheat options seems like something worth doing.

So, I do blame SDS for sucking the life out of the offline game experience. They've been fairly warned by once passionate customers, and they've spent several years now ignoring the warnings, ignoring the sincere requests for game upgrades, and now are stuck with a sub-element who only play games to cheat at them online using dark web tools.

So, yes, human nature is at fault, but only among the very few who treat online video gaming as some industry where there are no rules, and no integrity. Since I heard recently the game became available free on Playstation subscription services, it wouldn't surprise me to see this as mostly dabblers, who look to exploit the game, along with a really sick set of people whose aim is to destroy the game and SDS, through using bots to harm the community market as well as cheat exploits to cheat at online head-to-head play.

Honest folks like you who just want to have fun playing a video game are left out in the cold, by a once proud software company that took pride in releasing the best sports game on the market, now turned into a short funded Sony spinoff, whose profits are siphoned off. SDS is merely trying to drive a tired old game for as many laps as possible before the thing just dies.

Not a pretty picture, but I think it's a very accurate overview of the bad scene.

It's the same old story of how the SDS code team has coded the game up with biases that try to subdue the achievements of the avatar player. This the result of too many loudmouths complaining that the game was too easy. I've written this before, but it bears repeating here. Coders seem to take such feedback personally, as though it's an insult against them. So, they then work to craft a more challenging situation.

That may make the obsessive types happy who treat a video game like some professional enterprise. But, for the casual gamer it makes the game unrewarding and unpleasing, especially when the skew is so blatant that it beggars belief.

The professional term for it is loss of immersion. A team doesn't consistently fold up into mass failure for one pitcher and morph into a world beater for every other pitcher on the staff. Ignore those who will certainly appear here with the SDS defense of "that's baseball." They take the outlier and try to portray it as the normal.

@rubicante23_PSN said:

There are certainly accounts that you can easily tell are cheating from the stats. However, it usually doesnt affect the people coming in to complain.

So? Are you really A-OK with cheaters so long as they don't actually take something from you?

This thread was started on September 9th, and today is October 17th, and no one from SDS has bothered to acknowledge it exists.

Does anyone need any further proof that SDS doesn't give a tinker's --* for Stadium Creator?

The most reasonable choice for anyone who cares about Stadium Creator is quite clear -- stop buying the game!

That theory holds water for hockey and football, but not baseball. Baseball is not a debilitating sport like those other two are. The Dodgers lost because they ran into a better team, playing better baseball. It happens.

Nobody tanks in the postseason. It's a totally preposterous assertion.

Let me add to my concerns here.

Nefarious people can unfairly tarnish someone and create a false impression that can harm a person and his family for generations. Al Stump was a sports writer and as it turns out an alcoholic of seriously flawed morality. In what can only be termed a horrible business decision, hall of fame player Ty Cobb hired Stump to ghost write a book in Cobb's name focused on his philosophy of baseball.

It turned out to be a huge financial success for Stump and Cobb. But, it wasn't enough for Stump. Very soon after Cobb's death, Stump decided to write another book and in it he included fabricated events that were designed to promote book sales. The book was a smear campaign, including false allegations that Cobb knifed a man to death, and was a violent racist.

Those lies have carried forward on Cobb's legacy for decades, including being used as inspiration for a salacious movie titled "Cobb" where the producers failed to do their own good diligence and furthered the smear campaign.

This so-called "racist" Ty Cobb actually did the following:

1. For years he tried to convince then MLB commissioner Kennesaw Landis to integrate MLB. Landis refused. Cobb eventually stopped trying with Landis. But, when Happy Chandler took over for Landis upon the later's death, Cobb resumed his efforts. In Chandler, Cobb found a more receptive audience, and these efforts eventually led to Chandler working with Branch Rickey to bring in Jackie Robinson to "break" the color barrier that had plagued MLB for so long.

2. Cobb befriended a black child who worked as a Detroit Tigers locker room attendant. On road games, vice force the child to sleep in the baggage compartment, Cobb broke railroad rules and allowed the child to sleep with him. When he became an adult, Cobb, then retired as a player, worked to get the young man a good job. The man was so fond of Cobb for all he did for him that upon the birth of his first child, he named him after Ty Cobb!

3. Cobb became quite wealthy as a result of using his earnings from baseball to make a series of excellent investments, principally in Coca Cola. He used a substantial portion of that personal wealth to found a medical center in his hometown of Royston, GA. He ensured that it was integrated, including ensuring that the chief surgeon hired for the opening of the hospital was a black doctor. That hospital is today named the Ty Cobb Healthcare System.

4. Cobb founded a scholarship that remains today, and ensured that this scholarship was open to all applicants, black children included.

5. Cobb's father, a local judge, was considered a leading advocate for black rights in his northern Georgia area. So, Cobb was a product of a family who championed integration.

For his era, Ty Cobb was a particularly enlightened man, genuinely of the belief that MLB was wrong to bar black players and he worked to change that. He repeatedly sought out newspapers to do interviews with and went out of his way to publicly support baseball's integration. In many different ways he used his influence to champion integration during the 1940's through 50's in a region of the nation where integration was barred by law. These are hardly the efforts a true racist!

Yet, the corrupt influence of Al Stump's book continued shaping key decisions, including years back the decision to move the Ty Cobb statue from Atlanta Fulton County Stadium to Royston, GA. This was done because popular opinion at the time concluded that Cobb was a terrible racist and it was inappropriate for his statue to remain outside Fulton County Stadium. This false narrative went so far as to become a false centerpiece of Ken Burn's PBS documentary on baseball, proving again that often times lies become stubborn things and people too often engage in the lazy practice of reporting gossip as fact, even in efforts touted to be documentary productions.

That's why we should never allow false narratives to sully someone. It is entirely too easy for the media to sully people unfairly and cause great harm.

@Bridge-Piece_XBL said:

@PriorFir4383355_XBL I never said I agreed with him getting fired. I’m also not going to say whether or not I agree with what he said because that’s neither here nor there.

I’m just saying there was controversy around it, regardless of right or wrong.

SDS is likely being cautious. Right or wrong, not the point. Just saying why he’s likely not in the game even if it’s “free” to put him in like some folks are suggesting above.

What you think of the man is entirely here and there. Refusal to do so surrenders the stage to selfish and nefarious people who peddle in false narratives designed to hurt people who live with honor and integrity. In my world, when a man is treated wrongly, he is the victim, not the perpetrator.

It's a little like saying a family victimized by home burglary are themselves sullied by the abuse they suffered. It flips logic and fairness on its ear, and I'm not OK with that.

@Bridge-Piece_XBL said:

@PriorFir4383355_XBL said:

@Bridge-Piece_XBL said:

I love Curt Schilling, but I think he's made some comments that may rub people the wrong way. It's probably easier for SDS to not include folks like that.

Trust me, I want him in the game as well - I just don't think it's going to happen.

Sorry, but nonsense. He made statements that 90% of the people agree with.

Regardless of what people think (and 90% is wrong), his comments got him fired. Clearly they were controversial. SDS is probably trying to avoid “offending” anyone. Similar to the backlash Fortnite got for simply having Harry Potter themed skins.

So while I too, want Schilling in the game, calling my logic “nonsense” is quite frankly, nonsense.

And how did ESPN's ratings fare after firing people for such ridiculous "reasons?" People can get fired for all sorts of reasons. By no means do all people who get fired deserved firing. ESPN tanked about 55% of their once enviable viewership, to the point where carriers forced rate reductions, and this in turn forced no fewer than three mass layoffs of on air and off air personnel due to forced cost cutting.

I am deliberately avoiding mention of what Curt said, because it is outside the scope of this forum. But, what I cannot tolerate are thinly veiled statements that question the man's character when Schilling is, in fact, a man of high character, integrity, and honesty. What he said wasn't controversial in the least, and moreover he never said it on ESPN's airwaves, thus never compromising his professional position with ESPN.

ESPN tried to make it controversial, and ended up cutting their own throats by those actions.

@Bridge-Piece_XBL said:

I love Curt Schilling, but I think he's made some comments that may rub people the wrong way. It's probably easier for SDS to not include folks like that.

Trust me, I want him in the game as well - I just don't think it's going to happen.

Sorry, but nonsense. He made statements that 90% of the people agree with.

But, even if that wasn't the case, it has zero bearing on the man's MLB career. It took a lot of leftists sports writers to turn it into a boogieman false issue to try to hurt the man.

To the OP ... BRAVO!!!

All the points you raised were detailed and on spec.

I'll add another that personally spoiled it for me ... the wholesale malicious and petty neglect of all three of the remaining customer content creation modes -- Stadium Creator, Uniform Creator, and Logo Editor.

But, this does center on one of your critical and entirely fair repudiations of SDS ... obsession about hypercontrol of the game. When Stadium Creator was first released, no one considered it a fully finished game mode, but we all expected that over time SDS would continue to upgrade it and make it what it could be. Then, years went by without those upgrades and then last year we learn the code to support one of those desired options was there all along and turned off by SDS!

Then, when the newly unlocked option was discovered, and an option to use it badly was also discovered, the designer community handed to SDS on a platter the easy option to keep the option from harming the game and SDS sat on their hands and let it harm the game!

@PapaRick68_MLBTS said:

@PriorFir4383355_XBL Ahem, you forgot Papa Rick Henry, born 1968 - LI, NY. Ha ha

Excellent point!

Famous indigenous Americans:

Benjamin Franklin
John Adams
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Crazy Horse
Red Kettle
George Sherman
Ulysses Grant
Virginia Dare
Geronimo
Babe Ruth
Henry Aaron
Bob Feller
Dizzy Dean
Warren Spahn

To answer the OP's great question, it would reflect real baseball, which is 90% pitching and defense. SDS has been told this truth over several years that their game has morphed into a power hitting contest where the dominant type of hitting contact has been almost entirely wiped out of their video game.

The OP is 100% correct. Most hits are relatively soft hits, that are caught or fielded for routine outs, or drop in as flares in the outfield. The OP's observation is entirely correct also, in that honing the defensive fielding skills is the single most important part of player development in actual baseball, be it high school, college and certainly professional ranks.

The minor leagues are filled with players who can hit, but cannot field. MLB teams want all the players in their lineup to be able to field at a professional level. Those who never learn how end up as the DH's on teams, but even most teams refuse to put DH only players on their roster. They want the DH to be flexible enough to allow it to be used for many purposes beyond hitting.

This also ties in nicely with the other reality that the outfield is too small by about a 30% ratio. This adds to the dearth of bloop hits, and also allows normal depth outfielders to make throws to gun down runners on the basepaths far easier than can be done in real play.

Calling out SDS for deliberate negligence of their truly only video game is hardly the stuff of hate. This isn't either scale of the extreme. Nuance is a wonderful gift that does common sense people a great solid if only it is listened to!

MLB The Show used to be the best sports video game in the market, hands down, no question about it. That status ended five years ago after SDS continued to avoid making the investment required to upgrade the game engine, graphics, and code logic to better match actual baseball while also hitting the highest technological marks for where the consoles are at today.

Bottom line right now ... I had purchased MLB The Show every single year like clockwork for several years until this year. Boycotting SDS because I don't appreciate it when any company treats its customers in a malicious and manipulative manner.

@oldgatorcat_XBL said:

In general, offline players are not valued anymore in video games.

SDS just gives out that impression. But, it's not one shared by most other companies.

@FloriDan45_XBL said:

Hey all.. the game has dropped to $17 on the xbox store. Worth getting at that price? I play 25 still. Exclusively offline player. Mostly franchise. Worth getting now? I’ve seen lots of negative stuff about this year . TIA.

My view? It's rather much like one of those made-for-TV ads where you get a second one for free. If the item itself is truly quality, then you don't need to give any of it away! And if it is not good, then getting it for free still doesn't give you value.

I'll throw Dale Murphy into this hat. But, he's also been forgotten by the Hall of Fame and too much of MLB in addition to SDS in this game. Man only led the entire league in bases, homers, and RBI for the decade of the 80's!

Throw in back-to-back MVP's, several gold gloves, and all-star starts, and in my view the man should have been in the BBHOF years ago.

Great request, but should only materialize when a player becomes a key veteran for the team.

That said, this is another area where EA has lapped SDS. You see, in Madden NFL 27 and NHL 27 titles, this option is already in those two games. When you become a captain in either game within their avatar offline modes, you can help shape who the team pursues in trade deadline deals. Madden takes it further than NHL because in the early offseason it also lists the available free agents and lists the team's cap space.

So, you can go through the list of FA's and check those whom you recommend the team pursues. And thing is, the team may well go in that direction.

So, when I say that SDS is way behind their rivals in immersion, this is but one concrete example of that reality, among many other such examples.