Re: Online Multiplayer Mode is Dead (for PC at least)

To me the fix is to have all game modes going at all times.  SIM and 2v2 will never be populated, but if people want to wait for a match, more power to them. 

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@7AnimalMother wrote:

To me the fix is to have all game modes going at all times.  SIM and 2v2 will never be populated, but if people want to wait for a match, more power to them. 

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Well said, and Sim was never populated in past TW games either. Anyone starting to set up a game he likes would be best, as others would join if they like the set up as was done in the past. I guess it comes back to how EA did the standing for each modes. I know I've done hard pass many times when I saw what mode was available on any given day.

@7AnimalMotherYeah, You're on console. I meant to state that I was on PC version.

PC version isn't as generous as console versions when it comes to population, and that's something they need to work on and should have already been working on.

To be fair, if you had to endure the wait times for players on PC you'd agree 100% with me.

There should have been a crossplay option from day one. We are in 2024 and every AAA gaming company has crossplay at this point.

There is a MOUNTAIN of difference due to it being the first EA PGA game on PC in the last 10 years.

And about pro. It is for the casual beginner. If you have put 200+ hours into this game like myself you'd stray FARRR away from it.

If you put 100 casual golf gamers in a room, I'd GUARANTEE upwards of 65% would agree that Tour skill is the preferred game skill.

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@GhillieGuy wrote:

There is a MOUNTAIN of difference due to it being the first EA PGA game on PC in the last 10 years.

And about pro. It is for the casual beginner. If you have put 200+ hours into this game like myself you'd stray FARRR away from it.

If you put 100 casual golf gamers in a room, I'd GUARANTEE upwards of 65% would agree that Tour skill is the preferred game skill.

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Well this is why you're wrong, you're talking about only PC players, probably most of the oldest players in the game. Amateur/Arcade was always the most popular on consoles. And it doesn't matter how many hours and experience a gamer has in golf games. Some of the best players in the game were playing Amateur. Even Sloaner who can play and dominate any mode was playing a lot of Amateur.  He and other experience players were very vocal in another thread about this Arcade mode. Most of the best Arcade players can play any mode they want and prefer to play Arcade.  In EA Rory, the dev mentioned that the Battlefield course was the most played and by far.  That's not Tour players playing that.

In TW series, I had a lot of problems to find a game where there was no mid-air spin. And it was taking me sometimes a long time to get a game if I started with one with no mid-air spin, users were backing out. Even some well known Tour players didn't want to play analog, they wanted to play sticky and adjust the strike meter on the ball. If EA was coming back with the old setup, it would be the same on consoles.

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@GhillieGuy wrote:

And about pro. It is for the casual beginner. If you have put 200+ hours into this game like myself you'd stray FARRR away from it.

If you put 100 casual golf gamers in a room, I'd GUARANTEE upwards of 65% would agree that Tour skill is the preferred game skill.

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Yeah. I understand there are different populations based on platform and sympathize with those who bought on PC.   You may be right on PC players playing more TOUR, but I think Katybee hit the nail on the head on the console populations leaning more toward PRO.

I'm a guy who plays lots of PC games and builds his own PCs, but I have never been comfortable playing sports games there.

I don't like ported games.  If a game was made for console, it's better on console.  If the game was made for PC it's better on PC.   Most sports games are made for console and ported to PC.  They were meant for a controler setup.     Whereas FPS, RTS, Strategy, MMORPG all shine on PC and need a mouse and keyboard.

I personally think an open sandbox multiplayer environment is a bad idea.

The game would be much better served in a more structured environment, where there are Country Clubs where people can find places to land and feel comfortable where and who they play with. 

This also allows EA to offload a large share of work to the community.

Myself I only play online with a small core of acquaintances. I'm not sure why you would want to match up randomly with someone you don't know, who may be unpleasant to be around, or not even complete the round.

@ELF014I have 4 friends I play with which is fun. and we do private matches because the online matches don't have our preferred skill level on some days.

The reason why I would match up against random people is because of the leaderboards. It gives more of a reason for the competitive player to play competitively online. You get a reward of having your name on the top of the leaderboards. Ultimately It just gives more of a competitive motive. If there was not competitive drive in EA PGA I'd never play online with randoms and probably play the game much less.

Tour was fine on pc when the game launched because the old aiming arc made it accessible to the average player (and the average player isn't very good at the game, regardless of platform). Nowadays, especially after gamepass, pro match play is where I'm getting the most matchups.

I don't think difficulty is as relevant as the conditions. Low wind tour seems easier to the average player than high wind pro. Today's match play setup is a good example.

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@lolwhat1234 wrote:

Tour was fine on pc when the game launched because the old aiming arc made it accessible to the average player (and the average player isn't very good at the game, regardless of platform). Nowadays, especially after gamepass, pro match play is where I'm getting the most matchups.

I don't think difficulty is as relevant as the conditions. Low wind tour seems easier to the average player than high wind pro. Today's match play setup is a good example.

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It's probably a hard pass too today. Tour strong wind, nope won't play that. Pro foursome, it takes forever, won't play that. Forward tee Sim low wind, MAYBE I will play that later. And they force you to use your created golfer, if you just join the game and haven't build your golfer, you can't compete on that either.

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@GhillieGuy wrote:
@7AnimalMotherI don't understand the philophosy of "pc players play tour, but console players play pro." What's different about console skill levels to PC skill levels?

(Speculation)Is it cause when the game goes on sale and more console players buy it. They are new to the game, so they only play pro for the next month?
It's not because it's "naturally more popular". I TRULY think it's the beginner skill level, and people play the game as pro when they first start out. And they will casually play the game as pro if they are CASUAL golf gamers that got the game on sale for 15$.

Im not disagreeing that pro is more popular on console. I just don't understand why.

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Nothing to do with beginner skill level, at all. Most play Pro and Arcade because it's more fun.  Arcade has been explained many times, it's the game where the winner is decided by who hole out the most times. That's why these guys can play -30 and better.

That's where you have been confused throughout this whole thread. It has nothing to do with casual playability. The best arcade players play a game that is less like golf and more like jarts. We try to put the ball in the hole from the fairway, putting is failure.

https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion/Not-for-arcade-players/td-p/12455407

@Katybee_1313 To me that sounds like a golfing community that was created back in the old golf games (Woods PGA 14, or Rory) when playing "arcade" mode.
That community may still be around and may say "putting is a failure" when they play pro.

But I genuinly don't think the AVERAGE Pro player thinks that way.
As I never have because to me, there's more skill to be had in Tour.

I think the community of people that think "putting is failure" are just stuck in their old ways.
Times have changed from the old days when it comes to play style and skill meta's.

To touch more up on this I made a seperate thread.