I’m going to make a list of all the things I did to make it to World Series. Some may help you. Some may not. But the most important thing is that you know that I made it to World Series.

1. Somehow make it to the 800’s.
2. Before each game, practice hitting against Billy Wagner on Legend.
3. Stop practicing after 5 minutes because you can’t freaking hit Billy Wagner on Legend.
4. Be the home team.
5. Have Mantle, Ruth, Dibble, Hersheiser, and other very good players.
6. Strike out a lot. (Hitting not pitching).
7. Keep your hits for each game under 5 (Hitting not pitching)
8. Beg your pitchers to stop missing their spots.
   Also 8. Get all of your wins on walkoffs in the last inning after being outhit all game.
9. Make it to 886 three times and lose.
10. Miraculously get two consecutive disconnect wins to get to 898.
11. Give up a game tying homerun in the top of the 9th to Larry Freaking Walker in the 898 game.
12. Pause and literally cry for about a minute.
13. Win on a duck snort over first base in the 12th that scores Your 47 speed Stan Musial from second.

Anyway. If you do most of these things, I don’t see why you can’t be a World Series Champion Hero just like me.

I think it’s just a Baby Ruth.

I’ll accept a 98 for speed if every time he steals a bag, he lifts it over his head and refuses to give it back.

@raesONE said in I am World Series. You can too.:

@vagimon said in I am World Series. You can too.:

@will_cusk3 said in I am World Series. You can too.:

biggest flex of the year

You are not wrong, my friend. As I mentioned at the beginning, the most important thing I wanted people to take away from this was that I made it to World Series- a feat that I am in complete disbelief that it actually happened. It was honestly, just a string of very good luck. All the bad things that usually happen to people playing ranked, happened to my opponents. Having said that, I’m still just tickled pink that I made it.

Congrats on making it and kudos for your honesty. Don't mind a flex when you admit it was one.

Thanks, man. It’s nice to be able share your success with people who actually know what you’re talking about. I tried to tell my coworkers but I think they just judged me for still playing video games at my age.

@Ikasnu said in A Quick Note and Friendly Reminder:

@vagimon said in A Quick Note and Friendly Reminder:

@Ikasnu said in A Quick Note and Friendly Reminder:

@DrewshBag420 said in A Quick Note and Friendly Reminder:

@GrandpaShaft said in A Quick Note and Friendly Reminder:

They will fix nothing

Run along troll

To be fair, since 17 the final patch usually comes in late may-early June. I could see some very minor things being tweaked, which will make a very little footprint on how the gameplay actually plays. Next patch is going to seal 20 for the rest of its cycle.

That’s a little disconcerting. The pessimist in me fears the next patch will deal more with too much xp being rewarded in some game mode rather than anything to do with hitting or pitching.

That's about what I expect to. We will get a line that says "improved pitcher acuraccy" and notice no change to boot. Beyond that, I don't think we see anything.

Maybe we’ll get more terms to label why our contact is bad: rolled over, out in front, cracked bat, closed eyes, limp wrists, dropped shoulder. The possibilities for this patch are endless.

My hope is that this strategy starts to backfire. This is the only game I really want to play, but I absolutely hate it. It makes me miserable. I would consider myself an average to below average player. I would be much more likely to spend money on a game that gave me consistent and repeatable feedback on my input, rather than most of my outcomes just chalked up to chance. I feel as if there’s no point to having better cards. I would like Mantle, and I would be tempted to spend a little of my actual money to acquire him if I thought that for one second, he would make that much of an impact on the game. This game feels so off right now, and hopefully enough of the marginal players will start giving up on it like I am tempted to do. Then maybe they will reconsider the type of game they want to put out.

@halfbutt said in 109 mph exit velocity:

How does a well hit ball with 109 mph exit velocity become a routine fly ball? Anyone have an explanation for this? Launch angle was good. So the ball just hit a huge amount of resistance? The air was really humid that day? Windy?

At this point, nothing surprises me. If the giant gorilla from the Ready Player One movie started randomly showing up in the outfield to swat would be homeruns out of the sky, I probably wouldn’t bat an eye. There’s plenty of lag today for anybody who’s interested. Get it while it’s hot.

Me playing a ranked seasons game: I’m so frustrated, I want to die. I’m never playing again.

Me five minutes after turning off my PlayStation: That wasn’t so bad; I think I’ll hop into another game.

Hey everybody,

I am attempting to flip some cards to make some money. I need everybody else to stop doing this. You are free to buy cards, but I need you to stop selling them. Thanks. Also, if we happen to play online, don’t throw me fast balls. I can’t hit them. I also can’t hit sinkers, or splitters or sliders or any type of curve. Or forkballs. Don’t throw those either. To be on the safe side, don’t throw me anything. Just stand there.

@DriveByTrucker17 said in Yellow exclamation mark:

Why does this site need so much maintenance?

Way too many good okay results on perfect responses with perfect punctuation.

@Thierry007007 said in MLB The Inconsistency:

@vagimon said in MLB The Inconsistency:

Do we have any hope for it playing differently next year? If it plays the same, are you buying it again?

I’m hoping the processing power of the PS5 could help solve issues with the game. The game lack variety in every departments.

Yeah, hopefully the increased frame rate will help. I don’t see them doing anything with the matchmaking system though. And I’ve said this before, but I think there are too many batting stats and pitching stats that impact the outcome of each batted ball for their not to be a ridiculous amount of RNG. It would be nice to be able to stream line that to where pitching stats impact speed and movement and ease of hitting one’s spot, but do nothing when the ball is hit.

Do we have any hope for it playing differently next year? If it plays the same, are you buying it again?

Just lost a 1-0 game in the 10th. I struck him out 19 times. He struck me out 14. Giolitto’s pitches were so fast that I couldn’t see them. Maybe it’s just eye fatigue, but his 95 mph fastball seemed like 115. It was such a helpless feeling. I think I need to take a few days off from the show.

@ComebackLogic said in How does this game affect people?:

Used to get mad, don’t bother anymore. I’m just not as invested in the game as I used to be, I don’t want to make WS, I don’t want to try and improve my in game abilities and I don’t even care about winning any more. This is a direct result of coming to the realisation that this game is designed in such a manner that improvement and success are simply an illusion. User skill is a factor, but not a decisive factor in any way.

The game feels a lot like a slot machine to me, you just keep doing the same thing, hitting the same button, until you randomly hit the jackpot. User input? Well, I guess someone has to pull the lever or push the button on a slot machine, so without user input, it wouldn’t play, but getting rewarded isn’t a matter of skill, it’s just when the game decides to reward you for something you’ve been doing for 8 innings already to no avail. Gameplay has been terrible since ‘18, the only thing they improved this year was to increase the rate at which success is awarded when hitting. In turn this has given us a dismal year for pitching and defense. I used to love DD, now I just play it because that’s what I do. Collect the same cards every year and suffer the abysmal gameplay. Maybe I should just quit.

I agree completely. I believe that better players generally win because they more consistently get their PCIs in a place that gives them more favorable dice rolls. But as we all know more consistent pci placement won’t always lead to a win. What’s frustrating is that you know when the dice rolls are not going your way. After a few innings of having two out of your three outs each inning coming from good pci placement that results in the ball thudding off the bat and winding up in the middle of the outfield, you begin to realize how little control you have. And for the pitching, when a pitch goes in the opposite direction of where you aim it that leads to a homerun 90% of the time, it just serves as another reminder how random the gameplay is. There’s another post on the forum that asks people about the importance of the gameplay experience. Honestly, I’m finding it hard to find really any positive gameplay experiences at this point. I feel like I’ve taken the red pill and all I can see is a black screen full of green ones and zeroes, and win or lose, I walk away unsatisfied. I think I’d like to quit too, but I’m having a hard time finding games that can keep my attention any more.

In a small sample size for me, he’s 0-2 with an 11.00 era. I am notoriously bad at blowing games though. So it’s not entirely his fault. I’m sure after a few more outings, I can get that era below 10.

I should probably know this, but I don’t think I’ve ever tested it. Is the timing window to get perfect contact on, say, an up and in fastball earlier than to get perfect timing on the same pitch thrown to the outside of the plate? Obviously, in real baseball the timing windows are different because you have to let an outside pitch travel more through the zone before contact. This just occurred to me, and in the few moments I’ve wondered about it, I can’t recall needing to swing earlier or later based on the location of the pitch. The pitch speeds are so fast I just look fastball and my whole body jerks and I mash the swing button. Has anybody tested the timing discrepancies between an inside and outside pitch?

@The_Joneser said in Here’s a theory, grab your tinfoil hat!:

@Jeviduty said in Here’s a theory, grab your tinfoil hat!:

I disagree 3 million percent with the notion of the reticle ruining anything. I'd also kindly suggest that perhaps you'd enjoy playing this game on directional.

I actually enjoy this game very much... I'd be a strange glutton for punishment if I didn't, considering the amount of my time I spend playing it. And, yes, I know people love their reticle and will dutifully defend it against me and the brethren of "unskilled" directional players who bemoan its existence (yes, I believe directional with analog input provides a better experience).

Here's even more speculation: I think a person's opinion on that also has something to do with how they choose experience the game. Some like to make it about themselves, and their skill. Me, I like to think of the the little people I help along with my controller as having minds and actions of their own... you know, so when George Brett chokes and pops up a hanger that he otherwise times nicely, that's on him for being distracted by his hemorrhoids, not on me for failure to execute the proper input. Don't even get me started on that head case Vlad out there in right...

I’ve never actually used directional, so I don’t really know how it works. I know you can set the direction of where you want to attempt to hit the ball, but is the stick that controls the direction designed to be pulled toward pull on an inside pitch and then push on an outside pitch and then left neutral on a ball down the middle? If that’s the case, it does seem relatively realistic. And the addition of having to time your stride in relation to that seems pretty challenging as well.

I do like zone (I can’t believe I’m actually blanking on what it’s called when you use the pci. I think it’s zone) because you have the illusion of more control as far as positioning to hit high balls and low balls and what not, but maybe the combination of what you mentioned would feel more fluid.

A lot of pitcher’s will try to beat you up and in with him because of his weird swing, so you have to gear up a little more with him to hit the hard stuff. But if you do that, he plays just fine. I actually really like the way he plays.

@Red_Ted_is_back said in I just read all five Game of Thrones books:

Do you agree that including Lady Stoneheart in the TV series would have been pointless?

By the way they handled the last season as a whole, yes. They didn’t give themselves time to do that arc justice Or any of the other possible subplots that were being developed in the books either. Hbo was willing to do 10 or twelve episodes for the last season, but ole D & D were like, “Nah, we’re straight. We’re going to wrap this up in a tight six.”

@SaintSKDE said in MLB The Show 20 is depressing AF:

I got the game at $25 and I feel I got ripped off. I have been playing The Show since maybe the PS2 days. I love 19 and the gameplay but this year's game is making me hate the game. The hitting timing is worse to compare last year if I see the ball, I swing but it tells me that I am late or early, no matter what the pitch speed is. Everyone kept on spamming 100 mph fastballs and sinkers where you would need ninja like reflexs to hit the ball and even if you time the ball correctly, your PCI screws you up. I am not having fun with this game and I am disappointed.
P.S.
To get Mickey Mantle, you would need to spend around $300 dollars just to get the most expensive cards or get lucky with the packs. SDS is becoming EA's little brother.

There are some cards in the game, like Mantle, where you would either need to grind a lot, flip a lot, or win a lot and sell the rewards. But you can still field a very competitive team without necessarily doing much of the things I mentioned above. It might just not to be the name recognition cards you might want. I have Mantle and Trout and can get pretty much any other card I want. That’s all with no money spent. Having said all that, and to your main point, I also generally find this game pretty depressing. But it has nothing to do with what cards I’m using. Actually, I guess I’m at the stage that happens after depression. My feeling toward the game is more of a melancholy acceptance of the way things are instead of the sorrow and frustration I used to feel.