I was asked to make a random write up, here it is. This is my opinion on where this franchise went wrong and by proxy what happened to the community. XB1 Nhl releases have been trash. I would suggest that anyone who thinks otherwise here is actually a fan of the community rather than the game. Goaltending was garbage, the skill gap was non-existent, and competition as well as interest fell harshly. Basically the game was trash and people here had a collective crisis on whether to face reality or hold hands and convince eachother everything was ok. Then, the community shifted from the old days of intense rivalry, provocative chirping, and team alliances to circlejerking, creating idols, and working on obtaining a 99 friend rating. That's not to say those who reached the level of celebrity status are bad people; it is the ones who collectively decided to ride them like ponies that are the ones who made the greater community seem awkward to be around. Then Tris decided to make partnerships with EA (smart move), which then created vacancies for internet hockey celebrities to go for the right to have a paid trip to Vancouver to ensure that the game would live up to the standards of the community. No offense to those lucky few deemed internet hockey leaders but where were you during the beta testing of these shitters EA calls NHL games? I'm sure the answer lays in EA only flew them out to appease a mass of people, and that they really didn't have a say in making the games other than appearing on camera to represent a subculture in the game. Nonetheless I was asked to give my thoughts on this game and community. So here we are at present day, people still like to play internet hockey (which is good), however the community, the game, and the health of the league itself is a shell of its former self. Anyone who says otherwise is either new or deluded IMO. Tl;dr Internet hockey was good in old gen because the game was good and people worried about winning rather than a 99 friend rating. Internet hockey today sucks because the game is trash and the community is more worried about policing offensive language and propping eachother up. Tell me where I'm wrong.
I think alot of the "influencers" that got to go preview the game just get too awestruck to be chosen for something and become Yes Men as soon as they step foot in the building, thus achieving nothing but getting some free packs to rip on their youtube channel. That's just my toxic opinion though.
This isn't me having an issue with them. They can't really control the D-riders. The problem is the D-riders and EA trying to cash in on them. The whole process seems to me to be a complete joke in the sense that they send out the A-listers, give them some camera time, vomit some shithole mechanics and then ship off the game. It's not good. The influencers morph from people who have a labor of love for the game to people who now will not bite the hand that feeds them.
" and the community is more worried about policing offensive language and propping eachother up." this part needs to be emphasised, people dont buy in to "friendly" competition. Rivalries are also a huge part of sports and we wont get that by forcing everyone to be a nancy boy.
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Mostly agree with this, though I think there is a new generation of kids coming on this game and doing it just as hard as we used to. I'd say more than half the people I see in bidding I've never heard of before, and they're going for 3M+. Meanwhile I've dropped from 3M+ salary, to just barely squeaking in a 500k bid. Might just be we're out of touch. LG, from a purely numbers standpoint, has many more signups than back in the day, so objectively it is much more popular. Definitely light-years ahead of the VHL days. I do think the skill gap has closed big time since those days, and there are many more people considered elite than there used to be. Still, it feels less fun, and you made some good points.
When I wrote this I wasn't referring to numbers comparing the VHL or numbers comparing even the infancy of the great ActiveD transition from VHL to LG. This isn't a grandfather looking through a photo-album saying "We are on the wrong side of history." What I am talking about is the peak in interest and buzz right before XB1 and the subsequent loss of said interest and buzz. People may say nothing changed on XB1, I'm trying to say that the game became terrible and by proxy the community suffered. There is nothing to be addressed aside from shitter games. That's what this thread is about.
I'm not one to tell people how to act with eachother, but the dawn of the 99 friend movement really made me not want to do Media or any other extra-curricular.
Ya it’s because you are 31 years old (if your bio is correct). Video games aren’t as fun when someone is 30 compared to 12... I dunno why must be some rocket science explanation.
Or it could be, like Nicky pointed out, that the game has just been underwhelming year after year? Also, don't know what adults you've been speaking to, but your hobbies become more fun as you age, as you have less time to do them.
For those who play other games competitively (or atleast try to), they can easily see this issues with NHL and its competitiveness right now. There is such a small skill gap that, like what nick said, the best way to stick out is to befriend. Rarely are there EASHL players grinding away nowadays to hone a new skill or to improve as a player. It's just time wasted when games of 6v6 are Team1 vs. NHL19 versus Team2 vs. NHL19. Most of what I see people trying to improve at are ways to benefit or counteract a hinderance by the game or its tuner. The game and its "engine" control how you play and when the individual can actually set themselves apart from the pack without the game holding them back, NHL is worth playing competitively again. And as a result of that, people get frustrated (especially the most competitive players), act like immature kids, be toxic.
I saw this starting years ago and raised a big stink about it. People may remember it as the In-Group.
