There seems to be a huge issue with MLB The Show 22 as many players have opted to not play this game nearly as much. The skill gap for online play specifically has been decreased, meaning that better players are not able to win as many games as they used to. This could be a bad sign as we are only five weeks into the game’s lifespan and today we are going to dive a bit deeper into exactly why it is bad for the game that people are opting not to play.
Having some score predictions in the game would make it better as they did add a few solid things to the game. Let’s talk about the game and why this is not a good sign.
Skill Gaps Are Good for Competitive Play
Players want to take as much variance out of video games as possible and leave it purely based on the skill of the players. With MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty mode being the major mode in the game where players create teams and face off against one another. However, the better player should win.
One thing that seems to have extreme variance is hitting. You can have your PCI (plate coverage indicator) completely off the baseball and still hit a home run and be rewarded for not being solid. In theory, the lesser player is going to like it as they feel like they can compete with anyone. However, the better player is being unfairly punished for no reason.
What About the Rewards?
MLB The Show 22 does an incredible job at allowing players to play for some of the best cards in the game (known as the Grind for 99). The biggest thing that this goes for is ranked seasons as each season is going to be giving players some great players the best cards in the game. Their ranking is a solid indicator of how solid a player is and that is being taken away.
Another factor is in the battle royale game mode where the teams are even in terms of card overalls and the objective is to win 12 consecutive games to receive a flawless reward. With the skill gap no longer in the game, that means it is even more difficult to win games and makes the game a lot less fun to play.
Conclusion
The developers over at San Diego Studios have designed the game eliminating the skill gap between players and that could be the downfall as the game was released on April 1 to people who pre-ordered the game. Now that those same people are pointing out legitimate issues, this could be scary. The skill gap is arguably the worst it has been since the 2018 iteration of the game and there were not too many people harping on it being an issue.
I was always taught to either get better at the game, which MLB The Show offers to their players through multiple offline modes to get used to the difference in the pitch speed to have the PCI in the correct spots.
I thought the skill gap was solid enough in last year’s version of the game to the point where it makes the most sense to not lessen it even more than it already was and had a bit of a sweet point. Reward the players that have a skill for getting their PCI on the ball and swing at the perfect time.
Another issue is the “perfect perfect” outs. A “perfect perfect” is when a player lines up the PCI directly on the ball and times their swing at the optimal moment. However, on a recent San Diego Studios livestream, the developers said hitters have an .840 expected batting average on those types of situations.
Why not just make it like NBA 2k and make it an automatic hit like how if you perfectly time a release on a shot, it will go in? Reward players for doing difficult things, like perfectly timing a swing and pitch location.
“Unable to type with boxing gloves on. Freelance organizer. Avid analyst. Friendly troublemaker. Bacon junkie.”
