Save competitive save the game

This game is clearly in a rough place and if profits were public I'm positive they would back me up.  Between population plummeting from what we see just 5 years ago, and how the competitive tourney they put on is getting downgraded every year it's obvious. we look at other successful games and we see a (mostly) healthy competitive scene. What can this game do?

First, HUT should NOT be the focus. It's almost all we see updated on X. NBA 2K has a full on blueprint for what works. Everyone plays their career mode (WoC) (some play the ultimate team on there but it's very clearly NOT the mode most are putting in the hours) this is the mode that we see millions of people viewing. Joeknows gets hundreds of thousands of views in every video he posts, this is because the game is (again, mostly) in a good place competitively. How does EA go from where they are to NBA 2K? Well, the short answer is that it will likely never be as good but there are ways to take BIG steps in closing the gap.

Start by scrapping the current player builder in WoC. Use something closer to 2k, something more imaginative and less limiting. I shouldn't have to be 5'7 160 to have top speed, but if i want to be 6'4 and 99 speed I should expect giant glaring holes in my game. I shouldn't have to sacrifice 1 of a few dependant attributes to maximize a specific one because they're all in the same category. Give us more freedom. Go Google NBA 2K dlbest builds. Look at how many diff builds exist. Do the same in NHL and see how few exist... you can't tell me they can't do better and create a better system, I could make a better system in an afternoon. We're at 5-6 years of the same player builder (for the most part) now we get more points through the year to build our guy.. while I like this change we are ending up with even MORE similar builds as we can only do +/- 5 and we mostly agree on what attributes/ abilities to prioritize. The team needs to sit down for a few days with top players and decide on the value of each attribute and create a better system. For 26 I would have this system pull data for what people are investing in and then each season builds get wiped and values are rebalanced. Then NHL 27 the values are set and we build our guy through the year very similar to 2K.

WoC needs a lot of TLC. I don't need a full city to walk around like 2K. However, let's overhaul drop in. This mode should only be in the game to find clubs/ club members. Allow players to drop in and out of games. Allow people to spectate lobbies (clicking R1/ RB) we could change the game we're viewing. We can invite players to a club from the lobby we're viewing. Each player should have info about them, time they usually play, positions they play, time they usually play, language, etc. There is no progression or credit of any kind in drops. Lets get away from clubs searching in drops to get easy wins. 

Threes and events need to add more fun again. Why not have clubs able to wear club uniforms? Why can't they edit their ice? Why not add custom rules? Have more events to change things up. These modes were great when added but lost fun and lacked innovation and w/ threes it's actually gone backwards.

Clubs needs to have new things to strive for. Getting banners is cool but it's not enough. Why not have some type of goal to get a club name/ logo into the game. Maybe a club must max out the prestige of their club and then that club can move to the next game and they get to keep their own custom logo? I'm not sure how many clubs per year gets this far and how many would even utilize the feature.. but it would be something to play for! Maybe our banners and everything can slide to the next game? 

Probably the most important thing we need is updated gameplay. This starts with a FULL teardown and buildup of goaltending. This is the absolute worst part of gameplay. Next there are LOTS of little changes I would make. I spoke earlier about a 6'2 player with 99 speed, imagine that player mishandles passes, loses the puck when stick handling too quickly, struggling to win puck battles, I understand the devs don't want the game to feel sloppy but hockey is sloppy and if you create a big fast player let's open them up to sloppy hockey. Maybe the big fast guy HAS to turn his hips to the pass (even on offense) to recieve the puck cleanly and even then it could be fumbled if it came off to hard/ fast. Passing could use updates if you manual pass (not use the icon passing) you should recieve a small bump to accuracy and ability to sauce (skill gap.) Hitting needs overhauled again, it looks and feels so silly.. hip checks are even worse. I'm still scratching my head with the addition of total control 1 button dekes. It seems we want to keep making offense easier but making defense more difficult and calling that skill gap... skill gap can work both ways though.. we add 2 dekes and remove the ability to dump the puck.. why? I'm sure now that it's implemented we can never get rid of the total control system but it didn't do the game any favors in increasing skill gap. Should have just made the lacrosse goal/ hipcheck a bit easier if that was the purpose. 

The game needs to be better, deeper, and more fun. We are minimizing skill gap with 1 button dekes and icon passing. We have nothing of note added to make playing feel rewarding, the player builder system is old and limits imagination and balance. Lastly, the game just isn't that fun anymore..  make it fun!