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I was thinking an option similar to turning off cross play. There would also be the option to play anyone with any setting, but for anyone who is like me, I would be able to select "catcher batter view and pitching meter." There might be more to this such as research and finances, but what I have in mind seems fairly simple. I wouldn't necessarily have to be paired up with someone who chose to filter out players with different settings, but someone who just happens to use the settings I do. But it does give me more to consider overall, so thank you for the examples.
It might not be a clear advantage like your power attributes become inflated, but I believe it makes it easier to distinguish balls and strikes and get the bat on the ball. I used it for a few innings and was fouling off pitches I previously would miss and was having an easier time seeing balls and strikes. Did I change my settings and instantly hit loads of home runs? No... but I did notice a slight difference in my success and imagine if I would have continued and worked at it, I'd only get better. However, I just don't enjoy the aesthetic of it. For me, the best analogy I can come up with was the argument Mark McGwire used to justify his juicing. His stance was essentially that while steroids made him stronger, they don't affect the timing of his swings, the placement of his bat, reading pitches and so on. I wouldn't say that these two things are completely related, but I think the comparison sticks. I personally haven't seen a point made yet that would have me reconsider my stance, but I'm open to it.
The majority of YouTubers and top players do use it. I think the fact that people use it is a Freudian admission that it makes hitting easier. Why would anyone switch to a less aesthetically pleasing view? I don't use it for that very reason. I like the batting stances and stadiums so I stick with the default view which for me was Catcher.
I'll admit, I have been having a bit more fun recently... albeit 2 out of my last 3 games have been ugly examples of why I've been calling out The Show. These games are a reminder that The Show still has lots of problems keeping it from being consistently fun. The problems aren't consistent (nothing with this game is consistent). I can play 10 games and sometimes 7 of them will be quite fun... other times I'm lucky if I get 1 or 2 fun games. Anyway...
First game I'm pitching, there's 1 out and Pete Crow-Armstrong on third. Opponent hits a hard grounder to Third and I make sure to look the runner back. He stays on third, I throw to first and get the man out. Thinking this guy is going to be stupid and try to run home, I input for Freddie Freeman to throw home almost instantly. Low and behold, the idiot takes off and I see Freddie Freeman stand there looking dumb. After about a second or two, Freddie Freeman finally throws home... but obviously it's too late and the guy scores the run. That basically decided the game. An unresponsive, wonky animation cost me the game. Yes, we're playing to have fun, but at a certain point late in the game, you're invested in winning. To see something like that throw out all the good things you did in the 30-60 minutes it takes to finish a game, it's a tough pill to swallow.
Second game was just nerfing me the whole time. I had 1 home run.... which to be honest wasn't a well hit ball... but that was the last thing I was given. Three perfect-perfect line outs to the short stop, Good contact hits being lazy pop flys. Hard hit balls that are "just late" are going way foul, so on and so forth. On the flip side, I'm pitching really well. High strikeout numbers, low pitch count. He can't seem to get contact for a good 5-6 innings. Then randomly, I give up a home run to someone who doesn't have great power numbers on a pitch that wasn't in a juicy location in the slightest. That ended up happening yet again a few innings later. It's one of those games where I don't know what I did to lose. I was seeing the ball well, working the count etc... just wasn't allowed to get a hit.
The second game to me is where SDS takes the "well, that's real baseball" thing too far. This is ultimately a video game and when people do things well they want to be rewarded as such and when they mess up, then they'll understand why something went wrong. I've been playing the game quite a bit recently, for better or worse. A lot of times I get the feeling the game is buffing me or nerfing me. The way I was seeing the ball/swinging the bat in the second game, would have lead me to having 3 to 5 runs in a different game, but as it went, I only had 2 hits.
Truth be told, I've noticed this big time in NBA 2K. I bought that game every single year. Now, much like The Show, I take breaks from it for years at a time. NBA 2K was one game I was POSITIVE I was good at. Keeping a cool head, taking smart shots, making smart passes, playing hard and controlled defense etc. I played every year and A LOT. I don't recall what my record was, but I was definitely winning 3/4's of my games. That started changing around 2k17 or 2k18. All of a sudden I'm a .500 player. It started feeling like the game was more in control than me. Smart shots with good releases are not falling, my opponent hitting shots he shouldn't be hitting with the level of defense I'm playing and so on. Then I'd play a few games where things felt the way they used to again, but it would always revert back. Call this RNG, game scripting or whatever. I just know there's something to that. I want to be in total control of my wins and my losses even if it sacrifices a little of those "that happens in real baseball" things.
The best way for me to handle The Show when it's more Hyde than Jekyll is to use those games to rest my relievers. Even if my SP is getting jacked up... I have some level of control in my loss and maybe a mercy gets it over with sooner. I also have to remind myself The Show is a bad game. This is not to troll, it just that works for me. I can't call it game a good game until it is that way consistently. Even if some of my reasonings didn't work for you, I'm sure we can all agree that being cost a game with unresponsive animations is not acceptable. I don't care if it has something to do with Freddie Freeman not being as strong a defender or something... I as the player anticipated and saw the runner going home and would have thrown him out if Freddie didn't take that 2 second pause. I don't believe I'm bad at this game and that it's not meant to be. Then again I wouldn't say I'm good at this game and that it is meant for me. I don't know what I am. My methods for winning also lose me games.