More Broken Gameplay! ( Video Included )
Playing a sweaty HUT game against someone in Rivals. I play defensively given the fact he was just LT abusing the whole game. Get to OT and he rags my twice into his D-zone, trying to get it so my AI...
Forum Discussion
I started playing online in NHL 20 and drops were always full. Never had much of an issue finding a game. These days you're lucky to have a game with more than 3 people a side and they rarely finish. Game has gone downhill so fast
@NoManuelAutoonly I really wish you could have played drop-ins back when they had the lobby system. You had about 3 rooms labelled by their regions (so like "North America", "Europe", etc.) and you could create custom rooms to play in with passcodes to get into if you wanted to set up games with a group of people.
North America for sure was filled with maximum capacity (50 people) all day so there had to be a North America 2 room put in automatically which typically had like 15 people in it which was enough to have a drop in game on its own and on good times that may even fill up to 50 as well.
When you're in the rooms you could chat so lots of guys would discuss looking for clubs and setting up club teams and organizing try-outs and all that stuff. It really made the community great for finding games and people to play with. There were enough games set up in each room to eliminate the trolls from showing up and contaminating every game.
You could see how full each game was so you could easily go to the game that was near full (10/12 players or 11/12 players) and then you just joined that, wasted like 10 seconds of your life and boom you were in a game.
Now we are forced to wait for 2 minutes for a game to not even fill because the matchmaking is segregating everybody online. Lobbies were amazing.
North America for sure was filled with maximum capacity (50 people) all day so there had to be a North America 2 room put in automatically which typically had like 15 people in it which was enough to have a drop in game on its own and on good times that may even fill up to 50 as well.
When you're in the rooms you could chat so lots of guys would discuss looking for clubs and setting up club teams and organizing try-outs and all that stuff. It really made the community great for finding games and people to play with. There were enough games set up in each room to eliminate the trolls from showing up and contaminating every game.
You could see how full each game was so you could easily go to the game that was near full (10/12 players or 11/12 players) and then you just joined that, wasted like 10 seconds of your life and boom you were in a game.
Now we are forced to wait for 2 minutes for a game to not even fill because the matchmaking is segregating everybody online. Lobbies were amazing.
- EA_Aljo
Community Manager
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:
@NoManuelAutoonly I really wish you could have played drop-ins back when they had the lobby system. You had about 3 rooms labelled by their regions (so like "North America", "Europe", etc.) and you could create custom rooms to play in with passcodes to get into if you wanted to set up games with a group of people.
North America for sure was filled with maximum capacity (50 people) all day so there had to be a North America 2 room put in automatically which typically had like 15 people in it which was enough to have a drop in game on its own and on good times that may even fill up to 50 as well.
When you're in the rooms you could chat so lots of guys would discuss looking for clubs and setting up club teams and organizing try-outs and all that stuff. It really made the community great for finding games and people to play with. There were enough games set up in each room to eliminate the trolls from showing up and contaminating every game.
You could see how full each game was so you could easily go to the game that was near full (10/12 players or 11/12 players) and then you just joined that, wasted like 10 seconds of your life and boom you were in a game.
Now we are forced to wait for 2 minutes for a game to not even fill because the matchmaking is segregating everybody online. Lobbies were amazing.The chat was also full of toxicity and offensive content. That definitely wouldn't work today. You also had to deal with racing to a position. Forwards filled up first which means you often had a forward playing defense that wouldn't defend at all. In some cases, someone who had never played goalie would take that position just so they could play and it went poorly to say the least. The trolling then was just as bad as it was now, if not worse since there were no anti-griefing measures. I agree it was quicker to get in to a game, but you often didn't get the position you wanted and still had to deal with unfortunate teammates. I know it takes longer now, but you can at least play your position. Not that this completely prevents trolling of course. It happens and will most likely always happen. This goes for just about any online game.
- @EA_Aljo I used to wait for next game if I didn’t get the position I wanted and it was still far faster than what we got now. Also you could open def/goalie position first and let them fill, and forward 15-30sec later.
I also think if they implemented a system for OTP like you pick a position in World Of Chel it could work. We had this discussion back on NHL 14 with a bunch of the OTP population. Many have disbanded from this series. I haven;t played much drop-in because it's boring playing in an outdoor arena with the same 2 sweaters... Clubs aren't always an option and LG is a popularity contest and with the time frame for us older members it doesn't work since we have jobs to go to.
The trolling in drop-in now is 10x worse than it was before. Often my defensive partner decides to play forward instead. So the position lock makes no difference. Lobbies we were able to avoid them. Now drop-in the population is too small even with cross-play we can hardly avoid them since lobbies never fill up like they used to..
Not everyone has a club or has time for it. We need options! Sadly this could be the last game I purchase... Having more fun in BAP on NHL 20 right now anyways.
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:
@NoManuelAutoonlyI really wish you could have played drop-ins back when they had the lobby system. You had about 3 rooms labelled by their regions (so like "North America", "Europe", etc.) and you could create custom rooms to play in with passcodes to get into if you wanted to set up games with a group of people.
North America for sure was filled with maximum capacity (50 people) all day so there had to be a North America 2 room put in automatically which typically had like 15 people in it which was enough to have a drop in game on its own and on good times that may even fill up to 50 as well.
When you're in the rooms you could chat so lots of guys would discuss looking for clubs and setting up club teams and organizing try-outs and all that stuff. It really made the community great for finding games and people to play with. There were enough games set up in each room to eliminate the trolls from showing up and contaminating every game.
You could see how full each game was so you could easily go to the game that was near full (10/12 players or 11/12 players) and then you just joined that, wasted like 10 seconds of your life and boom you were in a game.
Now we are forced to wait for 2 minutes for a game to not even fill because the matchmaking is segregating everybody online. Lobbies were amazing.The chat was also full of toxicity and offensive content. That definitely wouldn't work today. You also had to deal with racing to a position. Forwards filled up first which means you often had a forward playing defense that wouldn't defend at all. In some cases, someone who had never played goalie would take that position just so they could play and it went poorly to say the least. The trolling then was just as bad as it was now, if not worse since there were no anti-griefing measures. I agree it was quicker to get in to a game, but you often didn't get the position you wanted and still had to deal with unfortunate teammates. I know it takes longer now, but you can at least play your position. Not that this completely prevents trolling of course. It happens and will most likely always happen. This goes for just about any online game.
As someone who has played religiously since the inception of OTP - I honestly cannot remember the general vibe in lobby chats being toxic. I'm sure it happened, but I think maybe the toxicity of the lobby system is being overstated.
The race to position was definitely an issue and EA has addressed that.
However, the drop-in lobby is still a crapshoot due to players not wanting to play with other players of a certain level - whether it's too high or too low. So, more often than not, you'll see teams populate quickly, only to have players drop out after seeing the player levels of their teammates and/or their opponents.
For Drop-in Lobbies specifically, I'd like to see player levels hidden until the game starts and then find ways within the in-game presentation to showcase player levels. This would discourage players from leaving while in the lobbies. I actually think there's a bug that's triggered when players enter and then leave a lobby that results in positions not being filled despite a queue of currently active players searching, but I don't have a lick of evidence to prove that other than when players enter and then leave, often times those games don't end up 6v6.
- EA_Aljo
@KidShowtime1867 wrote:
@EA_Aljo wrote:
@TheUnusedCrayon wrote:
@NoManuelAutoonlyI really wish you could have played drop-ins back when they had the lobby system. You had about 3 rooms labelled by their regions (so like "North America", "Europe", etc.) and you could create custom rooms to play in with passcodes to get into if you wanted to set up games with a group of people.
North America for sure was filled with maximum capacity (50 people) all day so there had to be a North America 2 room put in automatically which typically had like 15 people in it which was enough to have a drop in game on its own and on good times that may even fill up to 50 as well.
When you're in the rooms you could chat so lots of guys would discuss looking for clubs and setting up club teams and organizing try-outs and all that stuff. It really made the community great for finding games and people to play with. There were enough games set up in each room to eliminate the trolls from showing up and contaminating every game.
You could see how full each game was so you could easily go to the game that was near full (10/12 players or 11/12 players) and then you just joined that, wasted like 10 seconds of your life and boom you were in a game.
Now we are forced to wait for 2 minutes for a game to not even fill because the matchmaking is segregating everybody online. Lobbies were amazing.The chat was also full of toxicity and offensive content. That definitely wouldn't work today. You also had to deal with racing to a position. Forwards filled up first which means you often had a forward playing defense that wouldn't defend at all. In some cases, someone who had never played goalie would take that position just so they could play and it went poorly to say the least. The trolling then was just as bad as it was now, if not worse since there were no anti-griefing measures. I agree it was quicker to get in to a game, but you often didn't get the position you wanted and still had to deal with unfortunate teammates. I know it takes longer now, but you can at least play your position. Not that this completely prevents trolling of course. It happens and will most likely always happen. This goes for just about any online game.
As someone who has played religiously since the inception of OTP - I honestly cannot remember the general vibe in lobby chats being toxic. I'm sure it happened, but I think maybe the toxicity of the lobby system is being overstated.
The race to position was definitely an issue and EA has addressed that.
However, the drop-in lobby is still a crapshoot due to players not wanting to play with other players of a certain level - whether it's too high or too low. So, more often than not, you'll see teams populate quickly, only to have players drop out after seeing the player levels of their teammates and/or their opponents.
For Drop-in Lobbies specifically, I'd like to see player levels hidden until the game starts and then find ways within the in-game presentation to showcase player levels. This would discourage players from leaving while in the lobbies. I actually think there's a bug that's triggered when players enter and then leave a lobby that results in positions not being filled despite a queue of currently active players searching, but I don't have a lick of evidence to prove that other than when players enter and then leave, often times those games don't end up 6v6.
It was also a different time. There wasn't as much focus on online toxicity and offensive content. The chat box wasn't exactly puppies and kittens. If we still had it, I imagine it would be quite abusive as this has only gotten worse over the years.
As far as levels go, I wouldn't mind seeing them hidden. Even though, I don't get why they should be such a deterrent. There are many excellent players that are at low levels just like there are a lot of not so skilled players with higher levels. I do understand that just seeing a team of players with higher levels than your own can be intimidating, but I wish it weren't such a deterrent. My club went from being pretty hardcore to being more casual now. People have had kids and careers in the last 14 years so now we have lower levels than we once did, but still compete very well with teams that have significantly higher level players.
TLDR: Levels don't necessarily reflect your skill at the game so it would be nice if people didn't just bail at the first sight of higher level players.
- @EA_Aljo Anddddddd which of those games were you able to play 6s consistently?
Sure hasn't been any of the games post lobbies.
That was the best time. I was working nights so finding a game like this was much easier compared to now where I can no longer play EASHL during good enough times given my IRL schedule. Me and Senz started a club back in NHL 14. We haven't played much together since NHL 18. I just lost interest due to the arcade trend direction of the game. 90% of my IRL friends gave up after NHL 19. I had like 30+ friends active on this game back then. Now nobody I know IRL plays this since drop-in was primarily their population. It was taken away from us. The gameplay sadly doesn't compensate for the lack of content we have now.
I also remember the much earlier lobbies, and how full that they were. It was relatively simple to get into a game, as to me, positioning wasn't that critical. It was just about playing against online competition, and away from the monotony of playing against the CPU/AI. Factor in that those games were in a much better state, with a population that was much higher.
Now, as for the alleged "toxicity", of which has been posted about these earlier lobbies, these less-than-stellar individuals were few and far between as compared to today's hockey video gamers. In any case, we now have some tools to block and mute these people. Unfortunately, if they're the type of person that happens to be on your team, during a game, they can't be removed from the team despite numerous penalties, purposely scoring on their own goalie, purposely going offside, etc. That's what today's current problem is. Also, as for a player's name, yapping about nonsensical jargon, etc., none of that affects me in any way, shape or form. In other words, my "take offence" meter has a very high tolerance, of which can't be said for today's society. And the latter shouldn't be the deciding factor for how a community of gamers does their best to enjoy the hockey video gaming world.
Bottom line, and with almost three decades into this series, I am not at all enjoying NHL 23. I'm tolerating it, with the help of some wobbly pops. Furthermore, there's too much woke, bugs, truculence, individualism, and CHEL bags full of "gear" that'll never be on any of my characters.
@CDN-MTN-BEAR wrote: Furthermore, there's too much woke, bugs, truculence, individualism, and CHEL bags full of "gear" that'll never be on any of my characters.First time I've ever heard of Chel having "too much woke".
@KidShowtime1867 wrote:
@CDN-MTN-BEAR wrote: Furthermore, there's too much woke, bugs, truculence, individualism, and CHEL bags full of "gear" that'll never be on any of my characters.First time I've ever heard of Chel having "too much woke".
Well, although CHEL is a part of the entirety of NHL 23, of which I was referring to the latter, I didn't actually single out any mode of the game.
