EA IS KILLING THIS GAME

[TomH]

We all know a couple weeks ago EA jacked up ai play - significantly. Then this week they (or should I say “he”) effectively removed ovr advantage in gameplay. What does that look like in Showdown? The ai on a lower ovr is faster, rarely misses, and gets most every tip and block. And my mere “challenged” (perfect, +20) shots miss more often. It’s kinda like trying to play the Harlem Globetrotters.

Just played a 111 with my exact lineup - Lebron/Carter/Kawhi/Duncan/AD - and went +11 against his ai. Not great at all, but ok. Next match was a 108, went +6 and lost in tiebreaker. (And all 5 starters are maxed to 115 on ball defense). If this was just anecdotal, no big deal. But it’s consistent with what is happening since you screwed with the algorithm. You - over - did - it!

I’ve had 4 days of this. I’m playing at 111. My defense is substantially better against a 110 or 111 than a 109 or 108. I’m not alone - pretty much everyone in my league is seeing this as well. And...

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[dub365]

Thumbs up. I agree and I'm seeing the same things in SD. I'm a 110 and lost to a 103 today......he put up 17 pts on me (17 PTS!..... Like, whatchu talking bout, Willis?)

 

[TomH]

My last 4 SD results - 111 win, 108 loss in tiebreaker, 109 loss, 111 win.

I rest my case.

 

[Altavilla]

You are right on your complaint. Just when i was starting to enjoy SD again, EA screws everything up.

You are wrong in making this personal.

 

[betaman411]

Have to agree with Altavilla on this. Best case, you’re giving “bwags” way too much credit for his influence over gameplay as a content designer. A money machine like EA for all its ineptitude isn’t going to willy nilly change gameplay. You can bet there’s some method to their madness whether you agree with it or not - or even if it doesn’t make logical sense.

FWIW, I’ve seen the same issues in SD and even lvl and can only hope another change is forthcoming very soon.

 

[Gamer42]

I strongly disagree. There is clearly no rhyme or logic to any decision EA makes about this game. I am pretty sure it is such a low priority for them they just don’t care and staff it properly. If they cared, no organization would let somebody like Asros go around alll year berating its customers and player base.

 

[Stewie309]

It's not Brian that is responsible for this he's the lead content designer he doesn't handle that kind of stuff but in the sense I do agree that he is ruining it when he does have involvement in something like his promo designs that are recycled all 2019 portion of this season or just plain stupid like giving Robert Williams a 108 with boost and ability which I'm pretty sure he helped design that promo but he has nothing to do with the SD changes he is just able to get the info for that stuff because he works with those that do work on it

 

[TomH]

I appreciate the corrections and insight on the division of labor. Thank you

But, I don’t regret putting Brian on blast as a general principe. He has gone out of his way to be “the voice” of EA NBALM on social media. So he is the obvious target for complaints/rants. He is dismissive and, Like another guy said above, sometimes incredibly rude to customers just asking a question. I’m the managing attorney of the litigation dept were I work. If an underling went on twitter and treated clients the way Brian treats customers, I’d fire him in a minute. Literally in a minute.

Some people’s children shouldn’t get to play with matches ... or Twitter, discord, etc...

Still, I changed the thread’s title and changed the text to EA.

Back to the subject, The combo of the across the board increase in ai play from a couple weeks ago, plus this week’s attempt to diminish ovr advantage has ruined gameplay. It’s not an issue (for me) in -1 ovr matchups, but -2/-3 is ridiculous.

 

[JukeNukem1432]

When we have Shaq and Yao hitting contested 3s nothing really makes sense anymore. I've been a big proponent of removing ovr advantages completely especially with the upcoming PvP. Allow the stats of the cards to determine gameplay. A 110 card with shitty stats shouldn't play lights out just because its on a higher ovr team. Stats and "skill" should be the only things that influence gameplay IMO.

 

[TomH]

When we have Shaq and Yao hitting contested 3s nothing really makes sense anymore. I've been a big proponent of removing ovr advantages completely especially with the upcoming PvP. Allow the stats of the cards to determine gameplay. A 110 card with shitty stats shouldn't play lights out just because its on a higher ovr team. Stats and "skill" should be the only things that influence gameplay IMO.

I’d favor that. But despite the fact Brian says they merely removed disadvantage, there has been some sort of additive effect between whatever they did and the less recent increase in ai offense.

And, yes, Shaq Attack promo took this game down a few notches. However the SD changes for the most part haven’t, in my experience, translated to lvl. Or maybe it’s just that I’m always playing 110s or 111s in lvl.

 

[bigballer607]

If you say bro....

LvL is much better to me since the last adjustment. SD is the same.

 

[karl_josh]

When we have Shaq and Yao hitting contested 3s nothing really makes sense anymore. I've been a big proponent of removing ovr advantages completely especially with the upcoming PvP. Allow the stats of the cards to determine gameplay. A 110 card with shitty stats shouldn't play lights out just because its on a higher ovr team. Stats and "skill" should be the only things that influence gameplay IMO.

And David Robinson hitting 3s on a regular basis... I guess it's over!

 

[karl_josh]

And BTW PG Yao Ming passes the ball most of the time than dribbling it so the chances of stealing it is something a lil but harden unlike him handling the ball.

 

[Stewie309]

I appreciate the corrections and insight on the division of labor. Thank you

But, I don’t regret putting Brian on blast as a general principe. He has gone out of his way to be “the voice” of EA NBALM on social media. So he is the obvious target for complaints/rants. He is dismissive and, Like another guy said above, sometimes incredibly rude to customers just asking a question. I’m the managing attorney of the litigation dept were I work. If an underling went on twitter and treated clients the way Brian treats customers, I’d fire him in a minute. Literally in a minute.

Some people’s children shouldn’t get to play with matches ... or Twitter, discord, etc...

Still, I changed the thread’s title and changed the text to EA.

Back to the subject, The combo of the across the board increase in ai play from a couple weeks ago, plus this week’s attempt to diminish ovr advantage has ruined gameplay. It’s not an issue (for me) in -1 ovr matchups, but -2/-3 is ridiculous.

Thanks for the change and yeah he chooses to be a poor representation of the devs to the community he has his fans as do all people with power but he is very easily irritated and rude at times which is something you can't do when you tie yourself to your job like that I don't know if you were here last September but he joined the forum and the day later answered some questions then a member made a joke about he needing to pay to make posts and he'll also receive rep and tokens that would be useless in reference to last season's monthly pass which failed miserably so much so that they cancelled it before the 1st month even finished that caused him to leave the site and never show back up or even answer me when I asked why he left until like January or February but it was clear that he couldn't take a joke made out of frustration from how S2 went and how S3 started with the broken AH

 

[jack_george]

Well, until folks *actually* stop pouring their wallet into the game (and not just come online/Reddit and threaten to do so/lie saying they will do so), nothing will change.

Edit: Please don't take this as bashing people that pay, I'm well aware they help keep the game alive. It's just fact that as long as money's coming in, EA will continue to ignore us.

 

[Stewie309]

Well, until folks *actually* stop pouring their wallet into the game (and not just come online/Reddit and threaten to do so/lie saying they will do so), nothing will change.

Edit: Please don't take this as bashing people that pay, I'm well aware they help keep the game alive. It's just fact that as long as money's coming in, EA will continue to ignore us.

Don't worry there is no way to misconstrued that as bashing people that spend money you're right but their market isn't people that can control their spending for the greater good their target audience is those that can't control it because they're addicted to it

 

[Commondjapan]

People act like Brian is in charge of the game when in reality he one of several designers in charge of promos and programs as well as the different modes and rewards. I think the confusion stems from the fact he was in charge of the roll out for Season 3.

 

[TomH]

Don't worry there is no way to misconstrued that as bashing people that spend money you're right but their market isn't people that can control their spending for the greater good their target audience is those that can't control it because they're addicted to it

That sounds good and all, but these two comments are ill-conceived and incredibly naive. Consider:


First, of the 4 “free” sports games - Madden, FIFA, UFC, and NBALM - Madden and FIFA account for 85% of in-app spending. NBALM just 14%. That helps put any NBALM user clout in perspective. It’s small. It also explains why we seemingly get crappy developers.


Second, the vast majority of users, certainly well in excess of 95%, have no presence on sports gaming social media. (Estimates are over 4,000,000 downloads per year. We don’t get data on active users(at least I can’t find it), tho, but it has to be several million). We live in the tiny bubble of social media active users. The lion’s share of users don’t.


Third, is inability to organize. Just how are high spenders supposed to have an impact unless there exists a means to organize, in the boycott sense? (A petition was started once and it gathered all of 100 signatures. This shows just how small the social media active market is). Sure, one can make posts on social media, but that will reach but a small percentage of users who spend. Absent a Herculean investment of time, money, and effort, nothing can be done that will actually impact EA. Estimates are NBALM earned 140,000,000 from in-app NBALM purchases. If you assume (inaccurately) all of that comes from high spenders, it’s about 20-30,000 high spenders in NBALM. But, it’s reasonable to assume due to the sheer mass of users, that EA makes most of that 140mil from low spenders. We like to say high spenders keep the electricity on. We don’t. Here’s a hypothetical - assume 4.5 million users, and low spenders are those who spend only $500/season, that’s 280,000 users, a small fraction of total users. These are users who occasionally buy starter packs and/or special deals. Don’t forget the occasional stamina purchase. So it’s likely *most* of that 140mil comes from users who consider themselves low spenders. The idea of controlled spending for the good of the game might allow low spenders to take themselves off the proverbial hook, but it’s more likely EA profits more from them than from total high spending.


At the end of the day all a disgruntled paying customer can do is quit if it gets bad enough. And in the meantime all the same disgruntled user can do is let EA know through social media that EA’s actions run the risk of that happening. That’s not lying - it’s simply using the only tiny, ineffective soap box we have to express discontent. If one high spender (or as Stewie derisively and over-broadly stereotypes them - “addicted” spenders) leaves, will EA notice that?


Them’s the apples, guys, and the reality of the situation. I could just as easily say to the low spenders - stop it because your minimal annual purchases will ensure EA does nothing. It’s more economically accurate.

 

[bigballer607]

More than 50% of $$$ come from the High spenders

Last season was around 70 %. This season the % will be lower since is less p2w oriented, and that was an objective for this season.

f2p will spend more if they see their ovr much closer to the p2w players ovr

 

[TomH]

More than 50% of $$$ come from the High spenders

Last season was around 70 %. This season the % will be lower since is less p2w oriented, and that was an objective for this season.

f2p will spend more if they see their ovr much closer to the p2w players ovr

Those are interesting figures. Where do you get them from?