EA PGA Golf dying a slow death?

RNG some times it goes this way and some times it goes that way with no rhyme or reason is why a lot of people left. IMHO

I sorta agree with the continuing to challenge aspect, but I think it's more than just that &  I don't think it's any one thing. I've never bought into RNG complaints as that sorta goes mostly away as you level up your golfer, but I can see some players getting tired of the grind to get there. But going with the no-one-thing thinking, I believe people may not be playing it as often for different reasons.

So for me, I was happy to login and do the daily tournaments then maybe play against the AI to level up my player as they worked to optimized the game and work on the ideas form the community(realizing they could do it all). Then, for whatever reason they decided to rotate the dailies and for someone that doesn't play at the higher levels it meant some days it wasn't worth logging in. Plus something happened in the 4.0 patch so that what I was getting drastically dropped. I file that under fixing something that wasn't broken and making it less enjoyable.

Then once you get good enough, playing against AI in quick rounds gets old as they play so badly, so you always win. Plus you can't play against a friends created player as they didn't bother to make those playable as AI. This has been something you could always do in golf games. Well, at least till EA stopped publishing golf games and the only player in town decided to not even add AI and wanted you to enjoy playing against golf ball trails. Then there is the career mode. I kept away as I heard people were having a lot of issues with it, and even if that was fixed, apparently you can't play it again without creating another player. Plus from what I see people say they get for winning doing well in career, I just didn't understand why they would be so stingy there.  I file that under not being respectful of people's time. Sure some don't mind, but some do. Plus why would you even code it that way?

Then there is customer engagement. It seemed great out of the gate. They even asked for ideas to make the game more enjoyable and the community delivered in spades. Being a long time gamer I've learned to be wary of EA. This was new and I thought very cool of them to do that. They delivered the 3-Click mechanic and then just disappeared. I sorta of understood this as the game seemed to be released a little before fully cooked like the trend of games this year. Not only did it need performance improvement, but it seemed barren and needing things to be added post-launch. That takes time. So I'll admit it, I spend some more real-world money to get some cosmetics to enjoy playing my rounds more. But since then, I see them doing things nobody has asked for seemingly all based around the in-game currency.  Making it harder and harder to earn enough to make a dent in the store. Just feeling things where getting worse than better.

So it feels to me dev team is being directed more to do things to keep getting back in our wallets than delivering things THEY ASKED our input for. I kinda think the business thought is not to put much more into this first game and work harder to add more into next year's release.

For me, they reinvigorated my love of golf games, but by changing things that were enjoyable, adding things nobody asked for and just leaving the community to twist in the wind, they have driven me, at least partially, to PGA 2k23 for my fix hoping EA will fix and add things that would bring me back and stay, as it's basically the best looking and mostly the better fun to play but for a few things. If they can stop making decisions that are driving people away and deliver on things that would retain customers, people will be back.

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@ELF014 wrote:
@CanukWolfI don't disagree with you overall. But I believe the majority of people have leveled up as far as you can go and the game is far too easy to play.

Even with no specs or skill points assigned, you can shoot low scores once you understand the intricacies of the game.

I believe 98% of us have shot 59 or better in this game, regardless of the difficulty settings.

Playing with friends on-line has become pretty much a birdiefest.

I personally enjoy figuring out how to get up and down when I have put myself out of position. This game doesn't offer that... it is far too easy to place the ball inside 5 feet of the flagstick once you are 50 yards away.

Serious players will/have dropped off... and it is this core group that gives games longevity. They require challenging gameplay and an environment to compete with like minded individuals. Things this game is currently missing.

I'm hoping someone upstairs is taking notice. I'm not bashing the game or the developers... just trying to get them pointed in a better direction.

I think it is pretty evident the exodus has started and the game is not quite 3 months old.

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for most people this is an e-sport where competing against other players is why they are here.   Whether that is in online tournaments or head to head.   And off the bat that can be frustrating for the avg to lower skilled players being that the game has a very small playerbase and no match maker rating system.   But what the score is in relation to real life golf,  literally does not matter.  This is a video game.     But The most requested feature by monstrous proportions on this forum and reddit since launch is turn based multiplayer,  they have yet to agree to add it.     Before that it was  3 click which they did give us,  although mysteriously don't have online matchups for 3 click so it was pointless to add and I guarantee all those players went  back to 2k sports.     I personally kept requesting that quitters in the online mode forfeit for a loss and don't deny wins of the other players.  Claiming disconnection issues has absolutely nothing to do with EA and is the players problem.     It seems this is now the case so I'm grateful for that and my hats off to EA.  It seems they snuck this in quietly and I'm grateful.

Only things I really want now is turn based head to head online matches.  Just like they have in the ai offline modes.  And  a way to chat with other players during the game on the pc.   The fact this game has no social aspect and no turn based head to head modes is simply astonishing.    I honestly think they made this game out of nostalgia and really don't care how popular it is.  They made it for people like you,   not realizing that golf is still a sport even in a video game and they seemed to  have no idea what makes a sport a sport at the launch. And they knew people like me would buy it anyway out of nostalgia since I been missing it for 15 years.  WGT and 2k golf never had that same graphics and play control feel and I play this game every day.

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@RichAC wrote:

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I honestly think they made this game out of nostalgia and really don't care how popular it is.  They made it for people like you,   not realizing that golf is still a sport even in a video game and they seemed to  have no idea what makes a sport a sport at the launch. And they knew people like me would buy it anyway out of nostalgia since I been missing it for 15 years.  WGT and 2k golf never had that same graphics and play control feel and I play this game every day.

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I have no idea how you can say the game was made for people like me. Other than the graphics, career mode and challenges (nice idea but has no staying power since the rewards mean nothing after you have maxed out your character), there is little reason to play the game.

I think the swing and ball mechanics overall are terrible and ill conceived. 

I do understand your point about scoring against what is in real life doesn't matter, and that may be true competing against live competition. But against an AI it would be nice to mimic actual PGA scoring as this is the experience we are wanting to emulate. Rather than the birdiefest this game is regardless of the difficulty settings.

EA needs to find a way to ramp up difficulty so that the career mode stays viable. Not sure how on-line play is going to seperate the competition if everyone is making birdies on every hole.

And I mean ramping it up based on the players skill level, and not through an artifical method like a random dispersion zone. Something else I would like to be able to disable in the game.

@RodSirloinNo... while you are allowed to have your opinion, I have to respectfully disagree with you.

Missing a birdie or an eagle isn't what should be separating whether you win or not. Making a birdie or an eagle should separate players. In case no one explained this to you, but PAR is the expected score on any golf hole.

The game as it is now makes career mode irrelevant. As I have said previously, I am pretty confident 95% of those that are playing this game have shot sub 59, and many have done this at the hardest difficulty settings.

I have no issues making a game this easy for those that want it. I am just lobbying for those on the other end of the spectrum looking to keep the game viable.

Looking pretty is only fun to be around for a fleeting moment, we need some substance. Apparently that timeframe is about two months.

By the way bro... playing in a birdiefest is boring to me, I would much rather be trying to figure how I can get up and down for par or bogey because I got myself out of position on a hole.

This game has 20 shot types, and I have not found any advantages using more than about 8 of them.