I've come to the conclusion that Bort is a good coder but mediocre game designer. He comes up with good ideas often enough (the entire game is a pretty good idea), but much of that gets corrupt when he listens to the drooling masses. The drooling masses of the game often request things that make the game worse without thinking out the long term results. It seems many features are added for the sake of adding them, rather than improving the game. Every major change related to player development has been a huge flop (VA is the only redeemable one, but even those are fairly boring). New training system, advanced equipment, endorsements, and even veteran abilities haven't improved gameplay. The sim engine gets worse and worse each season (surprisingly, the opposite of what I would have expected - I was amazed how good the game engine was early on). The one constant improvement has been the addition of customization of strategies. The defensive play maker (and future offensive one) will add plenty of new dynamics to the game and keep it interesting. Developing a player will always be fairly boring, and I don't think any amount of gimmicks will improve that. Players just need to become more involved in strategies and helping teams out to get the most out of the game. The Peewee and Casual leagues are another step in the right direction.
I try to just block out the gimmick features of the game. The sim being a disaster right now bothers me and could be the one thing that drives me and most of my GMs away from playing. A busted sim where a kicker can pancake the hell out of anyone on kickoffs and gunners have no chance to get through any linemen is not fun to play. The constant drastic changes are also very annoying, as those who are the most successful and do things right tend to get punished for it. There is no way to predict what build might be good in the future, and it becomes a crapshoot. Once we get to the point that players reach their plateaus, fewer things will need to be nerfed since everything will have been seen before. If the sim stabilizes and is not completely retarded by that point, it should be fine. I have enough Flex Points to last me for the next year or even two with player retirement, so I have no reason to give up any time soon, even if the game gets horrible.
I try to just block out the gimmick features of the game. The sim being a disaster right now bothers me and could be the one thing that drives me and most of my GMs away from playing. A busted sim where a kicker can pancake the hell out of anyone on kickoffs and gunners have no chance to get through any linemen is not fun to play. The constant drastic changes are also very annoying, as those who are the most successful and do things right tend to get punished for it. There is no way to predict what build might be good in the future, and it becomes a crapshoot. Once we get to the point that players reach their plateaus, fewer things will need to be nerfed since everything will have been seen before. If the sim stabilizes and is not completely retarded by that point, it should be fine. I have enough Flex Points to last me for the next year or even two with player retirement, so I have no reason to give up any time soon, even if the game gets horrible.
