More Difficult Doesn’t Mean Better
What a hypocritical title update. The claim is the choices made in progression design are to provide a rewarding challenge. The game allegedly isn’t meant to be skipped through or played on easy. But EA had no problem with you skipping ALL progression with ONE HUNDRED REAL UNITED STATES DOLLARS! How insulting.
Yes, it was a win that micro-transactions were removed from Dynasty and RTG. But that doesn’t excuse that the modes this year were clearly built around them, and a title update explaining away the design choices as “enhancing the experience.” One thing the EA football games have done a decent job of is difficulty customization. There’s overall difficulty, sliders, XP sliders, etc. Stripping these options away does not make the game better or more immersive. It simply removes the player’s choice to be challenged as they see fit. Dynasty Blueprint was a neat addition and adds to the experience for sure, but someone who is only able to game a few hours a week may want to accelerate their XP gains, or they may not. Either way, they had that choice previously.
RTG is a different problem. NOTHING is added to this mode by making difficult progression mandatory. It’s not realistic and it’s not fun. Why is my 5 star athlete showing up to a D1 school with 73 speed, acceleration, etc? This 2K style of progression was built with one thing in mind: encouraging micro-transactions in an online environment. You pay money so your player is even functional and continue to pay if you want to be competitive. Builds and physiques affecting stat potential served the purpose of ONLINE competitive balance. Nothing is gained here from implementing these things in a fully offline mode. Especially when the mode has added nothing to be more engaging. This mode is just managing bars on a screen and doing practices. No, it doesn’t need a full blown 2K story mode, but it’s dull as is. As mentioned, some people have limited time to play and would like to be dominant immediately. Others may want to grind it out to start only their senior year. Some people have disabilities that make harder difficulties too daunting. The point is, choice is being taken away. If you want W&T to punish you for being turned off, let it be a slider or option. If you want lower difficulty to hurt XP, let it be an option. Don’t force people into specific gameplay styles in a game/mode that’s already shallow to begin with. It really seems that they’re left with the way these modes are designed and aren’t going to change them, especially since their new expected revenue stream failed.
Teambuilder has some decent additions, but other EA games have had way better team creators INSIDE THE GAME. I had way more control over a FIFA team I made years ago than what teambuilder gives us it’s frustrating spending time on uniforms for them to look completely different in game.
Again, I’m grateful for the decision to remove Mtx from the two main modes, but please stop pretending that anyone’s experience is being enhanced by taking customization and choice away. Maybe it’s my fault for getting excited and expecting more from EA, but hopefully they’ll continue to listen to the community.
P.S. PUT SOME DANG EQUIPMENT ON HIGH SCHOOL TEAMMATES! They look goofy playing next to my dripped out recruit.
