Forum Discussion

Re: EA PGA Golf dying a slow death?

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.

28 Replies

ELF014
2 years ago
@CanukWolf I 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.
CooloutAC
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@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.
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.
ELF014
2 years ago
@RichAC wrote:
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.
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.
RodSirloin
2 years ago
@ELF014 If you’re getting every single birdie, every single eagle on every single course during every single play, you’re just a good player.

I can’t do that, my goal is to do that because in the old TWs what separated the men from the boys was who could hole out in a match. If you missed a birdie or eagle, you lost and that’s how it should be.

You can’t reasonably request more difficulty to make it harder for you being exceptionally good at the game because it’ll ruin it for everyone else who’s not in the top 5%.

So what happens if they make it harder then you master that…you want it harder again? When does it stop? There is only so much they can do to make the difficulty reasonable without added terrible mishit factors like HB Studios did. I couldn’t even get FIRs on a regular basis. It was the worst!

Start holing out every match, that’s what the next level should be for you. That’s the way it’s always been and how it should always be.

Literally, this is the hardest version of golf EA has ever made. I’m very close to getting all birds and eagles 90% of the time after two maxed out players playing four rounds per tournament, but damn man I miss putts regularly. I could hit a putt from anywhere on the TW series. I was hitting aces, hole outs like crazy back in the day, not now.

I really hope they leave difficulty alone. At the end of the day we have to be reasonable and leave it enjoyable for new players. I think you’re just bored man and need some online ranked play with maybe some CC stuff too. Careful what you wish for bro.
ELF014
2 years ago
@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.
RodSirloin
2 years ago
@ELF014 Of course missing a birdie or eagle is what should separate who wins or not, that’s how the game works. True mastery is who can hole out or not while covering a certain baseline of play, it’s the facts of this series and always has been.

If you have no issues with making this GAME easy for those that want it easier, why do you keep saying GAME instead of the desired mode? Maybe lobby for a harder sim or tour instead of the entire game? Pro and Amateur are fine and shouldn’t be touched at all, with putting fixes pending that is.

The facts are, this is the hardest EA golf game to date from the TW series 2006 and up. The harder they make the core game, the more new players will be turned off. Those are undeniable facts.
ELF014
2 years ago
@RodSirloin wrote:
@ELF014Of course missing a birdie or eagle is what should separate who wins or not, that’s how the game works. True mastery is who can hole out or not while covering a certain baseline of play, it’s the facts of this series and always has been.

If you have no issues with making this GAME easy for those that want it easier, why do you keep saying GAME instead of the desired mode? Maybe lobby for a harder sim or tour instead of the entire game? Pro and Amateur are fine and shouldn’t be touched at all, with putting fixes pending that is.

The facts are, this is the hardest EA golf game to date from the TW series 2006 and up. The harder they make the core game, the more new players will be turned off. Those are undeniable facts.
I think GAME is applicable because it applies to the whole application and not just a subset.
I can't say if this is the hardest game of the series, but when you promote it as a simulation it falls well short of that mark.
And making a game harder does not turn off new players, it turns off the fringe players. The core players that play it long term need this. 2K is a great example... it has a fair base difficulty setting for the starting player, but many struggle with it. They could lower the settings but their egos get in the way. But on top of this 2K provides additional difficulty levels for the more advanced players.
EA has basically catered to the casual player, all difficulty settings are within their skill set with a little practice.
The demographic for the player that is going to play this long term is the more serious golfer, as shown by the 2K community. The casual player will move on soon enough to the next pretty game.
If they want this game to succeed they need to learn from their past and the current success of their competitors.
To me this is a rebranding of their previous franchise with better graphics and even less features in many places.
There was a reason they left the market 8 years ago. I would rather not see that again.
PalomaMarvel24
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
Adding sliders would be one solution to this. Other EA games like FIFA, NHL, and Madden have this feature. Super gamers could set sliders to highest difficulty to get the challenge they want. Arcade players like me who enjoy birdiefests could set sliders for least difficulty l.
This experiment happened with UFC3. There was a subset who wanted more challenges and the game got harder as each update occurred. The game virtually became unplayable for arcade players. I almost traded in the game until a large group of arcade gamers complained and requested sliders. By the next update, sliders were implemented. When this update happened, the complaints have plummeted from both sides.

Adding the sliders might be the feature that could save the game.
vanKlNG
2 years ago
Golf is a social game, that’s where they fell short massively. To not implement any online features is what has killed it, releasing a course every season doesn’t hold much appeal to people if you can’t enjoy it with friends/other players.

You’ve got to put things into context, if every person who bought the game knew before hand that there were no online features, no alt shot, one online game type, various bugs some major/minor, no shot replays, no online comms, poor customisation. I think you can assume the majority wouldn’t have purchased it.

I feel really short changed as do a lot of people and that’s not acceptable. You asked if it was dying a slow death? No, it died instantly after the PGA championship, that’s when the player base knew that EA weren’t serious about improving this game for the fans.
CooloutAC
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
I find it boring not competing against live human competition. But I guess thats just me. Well I think thats most people who play pc games, but it feels like just me in this forum thats for sure lol. I treat this just like real golf, while you want it to BE real golf which I hate to tell you. is impossible. But the problem for me is the same problem for all of online gaming for the past 15-20 years. The anonymity and the fact people don't respect or treat it like a real sport. So a handful of rotten apples always dominate and ragequit the playerbase. For me there was no point in buying this game since I'm simply "not good enough" to even compete anymore. It was great right before this latest patch before they introduced turnbased they did something to increase the amount of players in faster que times. It was great I was getting foursomes for the first time since launch, so it didnt matte as much if one of the top 50 was in our group. I still had a schance at a win or draw stat with the other 3.

But now, that me and many others were crying for turnbased, the game has now died. Because now its match play and you can't even dodge these guys that are "just way too good" to play against since they also removed the countdown before it starts to prevent that. And if i'm not playing against the top guys, i'm getting the dreaded "unable to find a match" most of the time. So its a case of "be careful what you ask for" To me this is the worst state the game has been in and it must be blamed on the current changes imo. The best state the game in only lasted a few weeks before they changed it. its kind of sad at this point.
ELF014
2 years ago
@RichAC I only play online with friends. But can't you play Strokeplay events?

EA really needs a handicap system in place to filter similar skilled players... maybe with an option to open up the filter if you have difficulty finding a match or if you are willing to play people significantly better than you.

Say it is based in handicap groups of 5 strokes... if you can't find a match... you could include opponents that are 5 strokes better than you... or 10 strokes... etc.

And ratings would be based on the strength of your opponents. Which I assume may already be happening.
CooloutAC
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@ELF014 wrote:
@RichACI only play online with friends. But can't you play Strokeplay events?

EA really needs a handicap system in place to filter similar skilled players... maybe with an option to open up the filter if you have difficulty finding a match or if you are willing to play people significantly better than you.

Say it is based in handicap groups of 5 strokes... if you can't find a match... you could include opponents that are 5 strokes better than you... or 10 strokes... etc.

And ratings would be based on the strength of your opponents. Which I assume may already be happening.
I gave up on the game. I mishit alot now for some strange reason and everyone just hits perfect shots. i was like 95-80 record before the lm match play patch. I always considered myself an avg gamer. But now I can't even come close to a winning a match. stick a fork in this game. Same old problem for the past 30 years with online gaming. too many unicorns lol.

Shame on me for even wanting turn based match play, it only helped to kill the game faster. woops.
ELF014
2 years ago
@RichAC I think if EA did a better job of balancing the difficulty levels and locking these parameters to the events, it would allow people to find where they belong.

On top of that, creating a handicap system to group like level of players together would go a long way to keeping matches competitive where everyone would have a chance of success in every match.
LuvMyXBOXPS5
Rising Traveler
2 years ago
I got the game a month ago and have had a blast but now I've maxxed out my player and it's becoming stale.
I like career mode but it's getting very repetitive with playing the same courses. Also online I am getting a bit tried of even though I really bought the game for offline/career mode.
I really want to keep playing, it's a really solid game after the last patch, but the game needs to give me some incentive to keep playing or it's just becoming boring.
I also noticed on Twitch hardly anyone plays this game live. Maybe I've seen 1 live player in the last week.
EA really has to do something to get more people playing this game. And I'm not talking putting it on Gamepass/EA Play. That'll give it a shot in the arm but they need to introduce more game modes into the game.
SlimDown57
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@SurfinSantaCruzThey need an "all play" mode like they had on Nintendo easy enough for 8 year old.
frankhjr
2 years ago
@ELF014 Couldn't agree more. I don't play the tournaments because of the scores I see posted and am afraid to play online because I really don't need to see someone posting birdie or better on every hole against me. I have a very fragile ego 🙂.
A handicap system would be a big incentive for me to try online. At least I would know I would more likely be matched against someone in the same competitive category.
ELF014
2 years ago
@frankhjr Ideally you need to find a group of like minded people to play with. 2K23 has a handicap system that you can enable for private matches, it is too bad EA doesn't have something similar.

But then there is a lot missing from this game. And if we base what is going on in the EA eco system with this forum. Things have gone very quiet.
LuvMyXBOXPS5
Rising Traveler
2 years ago
@SlimDown57how about just the same online options like every other game has in 2023. Hell, I'll even take the online options from 20 years ago in Tiger Woods 2004!
LuvMyXBOXPS5
Rising Traveler
2 years ago
@ELF014 I played 2k23 today for the first time like in a month. Just playing the 3 round 4 player tourney was so fun and relaxing. I didn't care if I won or lost. It was just simple and perfect.
PalomaMarvel24
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@SurfinSantaCruz wrote:
@ELF014I played 2k23 today for the first time like in a month. Just playing the 3 round 4 player tourney was so fun and relaxing. I didn't care if I won or lost. It was just simple and perfect.
Current EA PGA Tour is already DOA. I prematurely traded in 2K23 due to swing timing. I bought 2K23 again and gave it a second chance. One big thing I noticed is the swing timing can be turned off for beginners and other fixes for it. I am enjoying the updated 2K23. I like the clothing selection as well where I can dress my golfer like Nelly Korda. I did not realize that 2K is only one swing timing fix away to being the Real Deal.
ELF014
2 years ago
@PalomaMarvel24 wrote:
@SurfinSantaCruz wrote:
@ELF014I played 2k23 today for the first time like in a month. Just playing the 3 round 4 player tourney was so fun and relaxing. I didn't care if I won or lost. It was just simple and perfect.
Current EA PGA Tour is already DOA. I prematurely traded in 2K23 due to swing timing. I bought 2K23 again and gave it a second chance. One big thing I noticed is the swing timing can be turned off for beginners and other fixes for it. I am enjoying the updated 2K23. I like the clothing selection as well where I can dress my golfer like Nelly Korda. I did not realize that 2K is only one swing timing fix away to being the Real Deal.
You have always been to disable the swing timing... and on the lower skill levels the swing path allowance is quite wide.
I still find that the speed of the swing in 2K23 is far too fast, especially for partial swings, pitches and chips. If they returned to the swing that was in 2K2019 things would be much better.
PalomaMarvel24
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@ELF014 wrote:
You have always been to disable the swing timing... and on the lower skill levels the swing path allowance is quite wide.
I still find that the speed of the swing in 2K23 is far too fast, especially for partial swings, pitches and chips. If they returned to the swing that was in 2K2019 things would be much better.
Something just feels different when I swing. When I originally played 2K23, all my shots biased towards the right after second patch. When I played again after a long time, I do not see my shots biased towards the right. Something must have been fixed. Maybe the shot timing being off did not work originally. The fix just made that game more fun.
LuvMyXBOXPS5
Rising Traveler
2 years ago
@PalomaMarvel24 I've always liked the swing mechanism in 2K23. I just like the swing timing and the speed of the swing. it feels just perfect.

EA Golf, the swing is so slow and clunky. But now after watching youtube videos on the different type of swings Im use to it. I still prefer 2K23's though.

That was one big hurdle that I had to get over when I finally started enjoying EA Golf. I had 2K in my head while trying to play EA Golf. Once I dedicated myself to learning EA GOLF without any influence from 2K, then I really bought into the game and was preforming well.
LuvMyXBOXPS5
Rising Traveler
2 years ago
@PalomaMarvel24 I know this is an EA forum but does 2K23 have something similar to EA Golf's daily tournaments? That's the one thing I really like for EA golf over 2k23 unless I am unable to find that mode or what it's called in 2k23.
PalomaMarvel24
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
@SurfinSantaCruz wrote:
@PalomaMarvel24I know this is an EA forum but does 2K23 have something similar to EA Golf's daily tournaments? That's the one thing I really like for EA golf over 2k23 unless I am unable to find that mode or what it's called in 2k23.
I think they are the societies, but I don’t play that mode in 2k23. Big difference with the EA PGA Tour and 2K23 is the store. More selection in 2K23 and I don’t have to log in every day to get specs for 2K23. Career mode is where I get my stuff and I don’t need to do daily tournaments. In EA PGA Tour, I need Tournaments, Career Mode, and in the past Daily Quest to get specs. I just played 2K23 last night for the first time since November of last year.