LT abuse is still there

Many of Twitch streamers also dislike the LT movement. I'm part of that community and we have complained about the direction of the game. Sadly only 3 people get listened to and that is the main CM's friends who are LT abusers also. My club friends played them the other night and all they did was LT the whole game. My friend got video of the gameplay. Just sick of not being listened to as a consumer. 

@GrundleDemon333 

I honestly don’t get why so many people think that twitch streamers are the reason why the game is the way it is, or that they want it that way.

Typically if you’re going to be a gameplay streamer for NHL, you’re going to have to be very good at the game, most streamers who aren’t great at the game are menu streamers, like opening hut packs as their content, franchise mode, etc. So in order to be good at the game, you need to do what works, and let’s be real here… if you aren’t abusing game mechanics, you simply won’t compete.

It’s not a matter of whether you think LT skating is dumb or not… if you don’t use it you simply won’t compete with high end players. Whatever EA does to change this game, people will find the meta way of playing it to give themselves every advantage to win regardless of what is perceived as bad gameplay design. You can either complain about it, and continue to play the game in a way that is going to limit your success due to trying to play it like “real hockey”, or you can treat it as what it is… a video game, like any other, that has design flaws that are exploited and used to your advantage.

Dont get me wrong, I’m not defending LT skating at all, imo I think it was a massive blow to the series when they removed the old, and great vision control we used to have and replaced it with backwards skating. They basically removed a defensive tool that was a core part of the game, and replaced it with something that shouldn’t be a core part of the game, and ever since, playing D has felt like a chore just to position your guy in a way you actually want to.

But at the end of the day, I realize this is a game, and being a competitive player I’m going to do whatever I need to do to give myself every advantage possible to win games, and that means learning all the gameplay design flaws and using them to your advantage.

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@Limp_KidzKit wrote:

@KidShowtime1867 spot on dude...i know you get heatr a lot...your a big dss believer...cant beleive waht they did to it this year...along with the false advertising...yikes its bad.

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Yea man. I'm slowly starting to learn how to time DSS so that I'm not caught.. but it's still not like it used to be where you could actually use it as a deterrent. Now it's a reactionary mechanic which defeats half the purpose of the tool. 

The false advertising bit also chaps me like I'm sure it is everyone else. 

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@BIGRlTCHY wrote:

Many of Twitch streamers also dislike the LT movement. I'm part of that community and we have complained about the direction of the game. Sadly only 3 people get listened to and that is the main CM's friends who are LT abusers also. My club friends played them the other night and all they did was LT the whole game. My friend got video of the gameplay. Just sick of not being listened to as a consumer. 

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I think you can draw a line to when the new CM took over and when the series began it's downfall in to fortnite drop-ins, emotes & the constant push to buy HUT packs, while things like presentation and gameplay fell to the wayside. It's clear that there's a 'clique' among the CM and a few Twitch Streamers and they very obviously pull strings with people to get the game tuned to their specific skillset. They don't see it that way though.. they see it as 'providing feedback'. The problem is, their feedback tends to weigh more than the feedback from regular players on the forums and social media. They'll deny it.. but we know the truth. 

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

@GrundleDemon333 

I honestly don’t get why so many people think that twitch streamers are the reason why the game is the way it is, or that they want it that way.

Typically if you’re going to be a gameplay streamer for NHL, you’re going to have to be very good at the game, most streamers who aren’t great at the game are menu streamers, like opening hut packs as their content, franchise mode, etc. So in order to be good at the game, you need to do what works, and let’s be real here… if you aren’t abusing game mechanics, you simply won’t compete.

It’s not a matter of whether you think LT skating is dumb or not… if you don’t use it you simply won’t compete with high end players. Whatever EA does to change this game, people will find the meta way of playing it to give themselves every advantage to win regardless of what is perceived as bad gameplay design. You can either complain about it, and continue to play the game in a way that is going to limit your success due to trying to play it like “real hockey”, or you can treat it as what it is… a video game, like any other, that has design flaws that are exploited and used to your advantage.

Dont get me wrong, I’m not defending LT skating at all, imo I think it was a massive blow to the series when they removed the old, and great vision control we used to have and replaced it with backwards skating. They basically removed a defensive tool that was a core part of the game, and replaced it with something that shouldn’t be a core part of the game, and ever since, playing D has felt like a chore just to position your guy in a way you actually want to.

But at the end of the day, I realize this is a game, and being a competitive player I’m going to do whatever I need to do to give myself every advantage possible to win games, and that means learning all the gameplay design flaws and using them to your advantage.

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I agree with you but I don't think we mean to label all twitch streamers. There's definitely a select few who are from the Gamechangers program (now the EA Creators Network) who definitely have the ear of some EA employees and their feedback is prioritized. These players are notorious for exploiting LT.

I'm someone who argued that LT could be defended against last year and that it wasn't a big deal. I feel slightly responsible in the sense that I should've pushed back against it more. In my defense, I knew that DSS (the way it was in '22) was the most effective tool in combating that nonsense and I was able to successfully shut down top players last year (albeit, not consistently) and I thought maybe LT was meeting its match.

However, they completely neutered DSS this year and seemingly made LTing even MORE effective, if you can believe that. 

It tells me all I need to know about whose feedback gets prioritized.

what i fail to understand is why it was ever put into the game in the first place.  

@KidShowtime1867 

I definitely think the gamechanger program did more harm than good to the series overall. I honestly think the only way this game changes for the better is if EA actually balances the game based around the absolute top tier skilled players of the game. If it’s balanced at the absolute high end, it is balanced for everyone at that point and it truly will come down to skill gap at that point.

Just bothers me that we are constantly asked for video proof and clips of game issues that literally can be noticed within 1-2 games of playing online, which tells me these devs don’t actually play the game, or if they do it’s at such a casual level that they are ignorant to it. I would absolutely love if a dev could watch my club play for a night and witness the absolute trash we go through and give actual explanations as to why the game is programmed this way, would love to hear the actual excuse they could come up with 

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

@KidShowtime1867 

I definitely think the gamechanger program did more harm than good to the series overall. I honestly think the only way this game changes for the better is if EA actually balances the game based around the absolute top tier skilled players of the game. If it’s balanced at the absolute high end, it is balanced for everyone at that point and it truly will come down to skill gap at that point.

Just bothers me that we are constantly asked for video proof and clips of game issues that literally can be noticed within 1-2 games of playing online, which tells me these devs don’t actually play the game, or if they do it’s at such a casual level that they are ignorant to it. I would absolutely love if a dev could watch my club play for a night and witness the absolute trash we go through and give actual explanations as to why the game is programmed this way, would love to hear the actual excuse they could come up with 

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We ask for videos because we want to know exactly what you're experiencing. We don't all play this game exactly the same way. Some people use LT as intended while others do not. While chances are good we can play enough games to see what you're talking about, it still might not be the same. For example, I'm not a D1 player so I'm not going to experience the same issues as someone that high up. Regardless, if you are trying to bring something to our attention, we want to see exactly what you personally are experiencing. This is why videos are so crucial to reproducing these reports. That applies to everything. Not just LT'ing.

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@EA_Aljo wrote:

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@TITAN_NHL wrote:

@KidShowtime1867 

I definitely think the gamechanger program did more harm than good to the series overall. I honestly think the only way this game changes for the better is if EA actually balances the game based around the absolute top tier skilled players of the game. If it’s balanced at the absolute high end, it is balanced for everyone at that point and it truly will come down to skill gap at that point.

Just bothers me that we are constantly asked for video proof and clips of game issues that literally can be noticed within 1-2 games of playing online, which tells me these devs don’t actually play the game, or if they do it’s at such a casual level that they are ignorant to it. I would absolutely love if a dev could watch my club play for a night and witness the absolute trash we go through and give actual explanations as to why the game is programmed this way, would love to hear the actual excuse they could come up with 

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We ask for videos because we want to know exactly what you're experiencing. We don't all play this game exactly the same way. Some people use LT as intended while others do not. While chances are good we can play enough games to see what you're talking about, it still might not be the same. For example, I'm not a D1 player so I'm not going to experience the same issues as someone that high up. Regardless, if you are trying to bring something to our attention, we want to see exactly what you personally are experiencing. This is why videos are so crucial to reproducing these reports. That applies to everything. Not just LT'ing.

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You and the devs have seen 5 years worth of L2 abuse online (and actually promote it often in plays of the month), yet it remains in the game and actually gets more effective every year.