Just want to touch base with this thread as a hardcore base community player involved in numerous areas such as the Twitch community of EA NHL. Vast majority of clubs have disbanded from EASHL due to lack of authenticity. I get EA is trying to bring the younger generation but very little have interest. Hence why my nephew and his friend already uninstalled NHL 24 and went back to NHL 21. There just isn't much interest in arcade other than Eliminator and 3's modes. Keep 6's authentic and the population will be better, My club buddies already gave up yesterday since we spent 6 hours with cross-play on from 9pm finding a game. On a Friday/Saturday night we spent longer and got 2 games where we got errored out.
Majority of the " Hardcore population " has moved on to other games because NHL 24 just isn't a great overall experience. This is happening with HUT competitors also, even the top tier players are losing interest and it's showing not just in the game but in our Twitch community also.
I don't mind the direction but there needs to be balance between Arcade/Simulation otherwise the series is hooped! Hate to say it but this is exactly how it is right now. Drop-in has hardly a community anymore because none us want to play using the same 2 teams and hoodies in 6's. Like I mentioned in NHL 22/NHL 23 threads we need something better than this.
EA did lose focus of this games direction and what the final product should be. Instead of fixing the core gameplay, as the community keeps asking year after year, EA applies a band-aid. Too much focus is on the "new" or "casual" players that hardcore gamers are being pushed away. This game went from fairly decent simulation, to basically NHL Hitz 2023. I agree they definitely need a balance between arcade and simulation. Right now, those lines are very blurred with focus mainly on arcade. We asked for gameplay fixes, EA gave us more HUT and clothing options in the other modes. Their priorities are confusing. The took out one of the biggest attractions to sports games....presentation. Now, we have 1/4 of presentation where you can't even read the stats they display, and we get this convulsion "flashing" lights on face-offs. The goal celebrations are quicktime events and looks extremely arcade.
Each year I ask what can be done, or where should the sliders be set so the game plays according the the player ratings. This would give a us more true simulation because it's based off players, not the overwhelming (and most times not working) sliders. Response I usually get is "you adjust how you want the game to play", which never answers and avoids my question. If I want the game to play to player ratings, what should it be at...difficulty, etc. Simple. But therein lies the issue. This game shouldn't be that complicated....why do we have shooting sliders, but also have player shooting attributes. Adjustments to sliders can wash out the attributes, which in turn, eliminates a player's true ability. The fact this question about playing to player attributes seems to be so complicated, shows the major issues with this game. EA went too far down the rabbit hole and the game is spiraling the wrong way. I don't see them fixing anything unless it's a complete rebuild.
