I honestly have no hope for this years NHL game and this is due to me being disappointed in the quality of games EA has pushed out the last couple of years. The last two installments of F1 have been, from what I have read, well below par when compared to '20 and '21 and think of me what you will, I am still bitter about Battlefield 2042. I am still playing on NHL 22 and the only reason I purchased that release was because the Kraken were added to the game. I mainly play the Be a Pro mode and the '22 version was just a copy and paste job from the previous years mode and that was rather horrendous. I feel as if EA and other developers just put all their focus into the microtransaction crap and not even bother putting out a polished game anymore, their certainly not worth the $50-60 when they release.
Community ManagerThere is a huge amount of misinformation in your post. You're welcome to share your thoughts, but you're making claims that these are facts when they really are not. Other than there are no other hockey games like ours. Currently, that's the case, but that doesn't mean there's no investment in development on our end. You're making a lot of assumptions.
@rsandersr47FIFA/Soccer is the worlds most popular sport with it able to reach all areas. Especially in Europe and South America. So knowing they can reach a bigger audience is why they have invested so much and it pays off.
@EA_AljoCan you be more specific as to what is misinformation? I can pull articles.
The last game added..
Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken..
Added female skaters to HUT.. that's more of a roster update rather than anything new..
Updated the presentation.. what was added was extremely over hyped and upset a lot of people.
Last chance puck movement (was Zegras flip added this year or last?) .. this was the big animation addition. I see it once every few games..
Made stick lifts pointless to try.. no updates were made, you've admitted to this in the past.
We still have constant dressing room kicks, freezing when leaving the dressing room, getting randomly booted in eliminator is still around..
@rsandersr47Well the NHL license can be had by anyone. I believe 2K when they changed their hockey game are the ones that put themselves out of the market losing too much of a share. Even if NHL was at its peak it would sell around 2mil copies.
Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with an estimated following of 3.5 to 5 billion fans.
They estimate ice hockey around 2 billion fans.
FIFA sells over 10mil copies a year and it's not all that great of a game from year to year improvements.
Even in the state that NHL is in it should be selling around 3mil if we going by numbers, but it is nowhere close.
So EA has to invest in FIFA to control that market from competition with exclusive deals like crazy.
NHL doesn't do that exclusive stuff so until competition arises there isn't a need from a business standpoint imo to splurge.
2K put the NBA Live series out to pasture. They tried to comeback with NBA Live again but it was a case of wasted money cause you aren't gonna topple a giant. Now 2K is back to coasting in the fans eyes. You can see all the lovely posts https://www.reddit.com/r/NBA2k/
All of this just my opinions on how I see things.
let's add an entry threshold to this high one. It is difficult and incomprehensible for beginners. I started playing a few years ago, it's really a challenge.
to start playing in the NHL, you have to really want to
Community Manager
@rsandersr47 wrote:
@EA_AljoCan you be more specific as to what is misinformation? I can pull articles.
The last game added..
Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken..
Added female skaters to HUT.. that's more of a roster update rather than anything new..
Updated the presentation.. what was added was extremely over hyped and upset a lot of people.
Last chance puck movement (was Zegras flip added this year or last?) .. this was the big animation addition. I see it once every few games..
Made stick lifts pointless to try.. no updates were made, you've admitted to this in the past.
We still have constant dressing room kicks, freezing when leaving the dressing room, getting randomly booted in eliminator is still around..
Cross play is not broken. It was the same way in FIFA as well. It's entirely possible this is going to expand after its initial introduction.
I see last chance puck movement in almost every game.
I said stick lifts are being investigated. I'm in agreement they need to be tuned better, but I've also gotten used to them and don't take penalties often now.
Not everyone gets kicked from the dressing room. I haven't had that happen once yet. I'm not saying there's no problem, but not everyone has the same issues.
I hate the issue with presentation as well. Hopefully, it returns. It was not intended to be removed, but had to be.
To the broader community, anything less than full crossplay is going to be seen as "broken" - while not technically correct, it's sorta just the accepted buzzword. I don't personally think full crossplay with consoles will change much but I guess we'll see.
I only started seeing last chance things happening in the last few games I played about a month ago and they just kept happening - it was so jarring and I felt like it was messing up what I was trying to do (like I couldn't even get hit properly if that makes any sense).
Stick lifts have always needed tuning -- after getting 5 penalties in a row a few years back I decided to never stick lift again - best thing I've ever done, NHL-wise.
Never once gotten booted from the dressing room due to any error? I honestly can't believe that; you need to buy a lotto ticket lol.
While I don't get booted too too often, there is a constant need for my buddy and I to exit WoC/reset/manually leave the dressing room because it feels like matchmaking freezes up and/or *something* weird is happening.
Community Manager
We see a lot of claims that the game is broken and unplayable, yet those same accounts have hundreds or more games played on them. When a game is broken, you can't play it. I get that it's a buzzword, but it's also highly inaccurate and gets used most often when something happens that someone doesn't like. Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken. This is the same with crossplay. Could they both be improved? Absolutely. The limited crossplay in 23 was a very big feat. I think it's better to get some crossplay in rather than none. It's also good to learn from its implementation to help with fully adding it in the future.
In 23 I can't recall getting kicked from the dressing room. I don't know what magical combination my friends and I have, but we encounter almost 0 errors. There have been a couple times one of them were changing gear or editing loadouts in the dressing room and that's known to cause this problem, but it's extremely uncommon with us.
I don't know if connections have anything to do with it, but I haven't disconnected or gotten the unexpected error issue this year in WoC and haven't disconnected in HUT. Not that I recall at least. We haven't had to reset the dressing room either. It's always relatively easy to get matched. However, I also have a very solid connection. Again though, I'm not saying there are no issues. The team is aware of these reports so hopefully, we'll see improvements at some point.
I can definitely understand why so many are unhappy with the performance of the game and it certainly has bugs to fix, tuning to be done and general issues, but to say the whole game is broken and unplayable is just not correct. Unless there's a very specific part of the game that makes you not want to play it. For example, if the lack of full crossplay makes you not want to play, then you'll deem it to be unplayable, but that doesn't mean it is for everyone. As an example, I don't play our new golf game due to multiplayer not being turn based. It's not unplayable though. I just lose a ton of the fun factor without it.
@EA_Aljo wrote:Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken.
The best part.
@RSall14 wrote:
@EA_Aljo wrote:Stick lifts are another example. They are working as intended. They aren't broken.
The best part.
The hate for stick lifting in its current state is comparable to the change to poke check that required more responsible use: Those who don't take the time to understand the nuance that EA wants you to respect (positioning, location of your stick) will insist it's 'broken' while the rest of us understand it needs to be used sparingly and only when you're absolutely certain your chances of getting a penalty are low..
This opens the ice up more as people are no longer able to resort to a stick lift from behind when they've been outplayed. Previously, you could steal the puck from someone and all they needed to do was mash stick-lift and suddenly the puck carrier stops skating while his stick is lifted, allowing the beaten defender to simply regain the puck from an incredibly unrealisitic play.
Something to remember: stating that we know to use it sparingly and only in certain situations is not confirmation that we think it's perfect. I'd like to see the action be more dynamic based on the pressure being put on the stick-lift button, and I'd also like to see puck carriers retain puck possession (by way of a small 'battle' animation) more often versus just handing out a penalty every time.
“Unplayable” is another one of those buzzwords that isn’t 100% factually correct, but technically true. If there is a part of the game that does have an annoying bug/feature and it causes me to play the game less and less to a point I’m just turning it on to see if I can get any enjoyment out of it, I think it’s fair to call it “unplayable.”
I would completely agree that the updates to the actual on ice gameplay each year are pretty minimal. Not that I’m saying that a complete overhaul is needed or that the game is as bad as some make it out to be, but I feel like there is so much more that can be done to improve it.
It’s not as noticeable online because sliders can’t be adjusted, so they can essentially release a tuner every year and it feels like a new game.
And I only bring this up because when features like last chance puck and the Zegras assist are introduced we always hear “it’s hockey how, much can you change?” But I will not stop beating this drum that all defensive stick checks should be controlled by the right joystick. I want to see all pokes, stick lifts, slashes and hooks being controlled by the joystick. Even tips in a player lock or 6’s scenario. Open ice battles and board play also need reworked in my opinion as well as a number of higher things.
@KlariskraysNHLI agree with almost everything you wrote and that's what I'm saying.
The only thing I don't completely agree with is that 2K is coasting. In some ways they are, sure. However, the game adds SO much every year. I won't say it's always what people want. Every year they do TRY to listen to fans and make changes. This year a lot of people complained about the pointless side quests, 2K24 is making those optional. In NHL we still have to open up hockey bags despite asking EVERY year for them to be removed. Now we can open up multiple.. of course they have to be the same type of bag. NBA every year they make a WHOLE city. They make a whole new story, how you get drafted, a rival, voice acting for all of this, They make a WHOLE NEW my player builder. For years we just picked an archetype.. now we can sorta edit the archetypes and we get X Factors.. judging by most people I run into the Xfactors need adjusted. In NBA you can make your player however you want, you make him better through playing.
Now I'm not asking for a whole city.. In fact I sorta hate traversing the thing. However, there are ways to make the game feel deeper and grow the community. NBA may be more popular that the NHL but the growth of video game sales vs NHL has been much more steep than the sport's rise in popularity.
I'm also not asking for a full story every year.. but BAP story is boring. And talking to your teamate and him challenging you to do better despite being the best player in the league is silly. They dont even make a new story or.. really even a story at all and they dont have voice actors. I wouldnt even mind the story being the same if it was semi intriguing. Having a rival in 2K actually makes the game pretty fun.
If I was running this franchise I wouldn't even really hide the fact that I'm taking ideas from 2k.. I would have a BAP mode built into WoC. I would allow players to build their skater, I would have stores in the game (not that you need to walk to) instead of hockey bags. I would have a spectator mode.. this would allow players to see drop in games or club games to invite people to join your club or ask to join there's.
The truth is in 2K there's an atmosphere and you feel you're part of a community without even trying. In NHL you have to go out of your way to get that. I HATE the NBA, basketball is boring to me. The game is so good that I've played it FAR more than NHL this year. I don't plan to buy NHL this year unless a lot is added.. or maybe when it goes on sale. I mean if they took a full year off of updating this last title they better have added a lot. Adding 3 things per year just isn't enough, especially when they're broken/ half added/ just a small rather insignificant animation/ or a roster update (world juniors/ female players) I just think if 2K players complain about coasting and they get a new city. My player builder, full cross play, new ways to play ever year they had slamball one year! several new animations (they're actually going to use AI to create player movements in game) then what do we call this? I mean when we add a few things while breaking others.. I just can't honestly beleive they care at all. If this game doesn't come with a lot, I think we should all get the message. There's no excuse this year, they didnt have time to make any corrections this year. If they start promoting this game and say "we have full cross play, updated presentation, and a new deke, plus one update to just 1 of the big modes" it will be clear to me they just want a couple bucks.
Stick lifts aren't in a good spot...have to turn slashing off during offline play ebcause its so nonsensical that its comedic. sitck lifts...plays that happen 1000+ times a game irl are needing to be used only whe the absolute PERFECT time exists...meanwhile the players are playing a mach 4 with 200+ mph shots and passes but sticklifts need to opnly be used when the exact .1 second window calls for it haha.....
why cant they just miss when the positioning is close? i get penalites from behind but penalities when theres a clear lane to the stick is experience killing...we all know the limitations of the stick play in this game...and the body play...so defenders can just never lose their gaps and over collapse/be over passive...or need to spritn around like an overcaffinated scott stevens to play "intended" defense in this game?
i mean...why? surely we can do better right? how is this the accepted solution? its spiritually/practically broken even if its "technically" "working"
Community ManagerWhat you said was this - "I'm not sure how many programmers they currently have but it is shocking how few things can be added AND broken... maybe something as big as sticklifts wouldn't be broken for an entire year. I get not updating the game to focus on the next.. but sticklifts being broken for a year is pretty unacceptable."
As well as this - "Cross play.. but it was only half done. There are also posts about how the two games don't behave the same.. so I would suggest that means it's broken.."
You didn't say everyone. I was saying that there are still many people that don't get this error. That doesn't mean there is no problem though of course.
Presentation is a different issue. It had to be removed. It wasn't something we wanted to do by any means.
I'm not posting clips of my own play to protect my privacy since I play on my personal account.
Your misinformation are assumptions and opinions on our development along with why other games are no longer around. You're saying we have no reason to fix bugs, which really isn't true at all.
The change to stick lifts was based on community feedback and their own vision for the game. We had a lot of complaints that they were too easy and being used in situations they shouldn't be. I get that people here feel this should be easy to get perfectly right, but that's really not the case. The intent this time was to have them not be overpowered and used appropriately. I don't think we quite hit the mark there, but it is better than getting lifted from behind. Which, was a big complaint. It also has always been pretty easy to take a penalty with it. It's been widely known as "the penalty button" for years. There are of course those that are good at using it with taking few penalties.
Yes. For some, with having offline mode issues, the game is unplayable. I get that. That's not what I'm talking about though. Your example of Crash Bandicoot is a good one, but again, why play a game that is deemed broken for hundreds of hours or more?
Community ManagerYou can still see my club abbreviation and such. I'm just not comfortable sharing sharing this, but I'll try to go in to a replay and get some clips. That should be relatively anonymous.
@RelentlessJ84 wrote:
@EA_Aljo
I still see people in perfect position try stick lift and get penalized, so if that is what you call "working as intended" then there's something wrong with that.
Again. This is why I'm saying it could be improved. There are times positioning is good and penalties are still being taken. It's possible this is an animation issue where it's not lining up with when the stick lift is initiated. Stick lift was made to be more difficult to be successful with. That part is working as intended. In no way am I saying it's perfect and without issue though.
It's fairly quick but i'm pretty sure the game shows both player name and gamertag so it can be tricky to properly edit videos and stuff.
I've seen a few of the devs online and have been told a lot of people play regularly outside of work hours (which can be quite taxing coming from previous game tester). What's most important is the regular community providing as much info as possible - proof the team can't just refute on paper.
A bicycle with a broken handlebar or pedal can still technically be ridden (rode?). I wish people wouldn't use buzzwords all willy nilly but here we are lol. Some things like presentation needed to be removed and goalies... well, you could literally remove em entirely and it wouldn't make a difference so ehh ** shrugs while balancing hands **
