General Frustration – Is This Game Broken?
I have a lot to say, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to express it clearly because of the frustration I feel, and because most of the things I could say about this game are negative. I’ve been playing more regularly this year since January because, for medical reasons, I had all my days free to play. In the three months since then, playing daily, I can’t say my game has improved—or at least it doesn’t seem like it. In fact, it seems worse.
I went from playing a Weekend League every 2–3 weeks, where I would get 8–9 wins, to now getting 6–7 wins when playing weekly. I’ve learned to defend properly, but suddenly that’s not enough because passes don’t work. Sometimes passes work, I hit the post six times in a match, and the opponent recovers a ball from a corner and passes to their striker; my defenders retreat and the goal goes in despite all opposition. It really feels like the outcome is predetermined. And it’s not because you encounter better players. I would understand if you win a few matches and your difficulty level rises, but under optimal conditions, you should still be able to win those matches. After all, the better player can have a bad day, I can have a better tactic, etc., but no. I can lose five matches in a row, then suddenly win almost the same number of matches I lost before. Suddenly every pass works and every shot goes in.
I partially understand the idea of keeping everyone satisfied and maintaining a 50% win rate, but that should only happen by placing players in a higher category, not by manipulating the server. It really feels like the game is actively sabotaging you.
In live events, you win 2–3 matches with good ping, then suddenly in the final your ping is 264. You might think it’s a coincidence, but repeating the process multiple times, and again the final has terrible connectivity—it no longer feels coincidental; it feels manipulated. There are countless errors that kick you out of Ultimate Team at the end of matches, causing you to lose. EA does nothing about this, even though it has been reported countless times. I’ve noticed that I get many errors after playing against cheaters in live events, who exit after scoring. I even get warning messages, even though I haven’t done anything like that.
The market is also a manipulated mess. I buy a player with growth potential, but I can’t make a profit because EA has capped their price too low. Meanwhile, others sell coins easily in the game or use programs to buy players below their value, without EA doing anything.
The player community itself is a disaster. In “Triple Threat League,” where passes, goals, and matches matter, some players drag out victories. You can’t score, or you score quickly and then the opponent scores, and instead of speeding up, they run the entire field with the player and celebrate. In this mode or others, they sometimes pause the match in the 85th minute. I had a Rivals match where I was 9–2 in the 88th minute, and the opponent paused to swap a player at that exact moment. Many players waste time, celebrate obnoxiously, and have annoying goal sounds. So what can you expect from EA when the community is so toxic?
Offline modes are boring and repetitive. Career mode is getting worse every year.
For players in the same situation as me: what can we do? Buy the game again next year? Or give up on it now?
