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Expectations.
That, alone, is the variable that results in all of these discussions.
Expectations of OOTP? To create a game that is fun, challenging, and profitable.
Expectations of customers? ...
Here's where things get complicated. I would venture to guess few of us share a similar path. Whales simply want to win, so they put money in place of time. Many with time invest it with some being successful and others not based on their understanding of the game's structure. And others simply want a baseball related game to check in on everyday, gambling points to find that Mickey Mantle card in today's packs.
As has been said before, the ones most successful will either - or in combination - spend money, spend time, and will make an effort to study every detail of the game. The rest of us will squeeze out some lesser form of success; some being happy and content; others being unsatisfied.
That being said, I, personally, DO have one primary complaint... I think top-value cards (Perfects and Diamonds) are handed out way to fast early on. Here we are in Week 10 and almost all rosters in the top three levels are 2/3rds Diamond and 1/3rd Perfect cards. I do understand the need to feed the whales, but it seems to me a much better game if Gold and Silver cards had a longer lifespan than 6 weeks. I think it's fair to say that any new cards released from this point on that aren't at least Diamonds or Perfects simply are not interesting any more. Everyone is waiting for the Perfect Card that is better than the last Perfect Card that came out.
Back to the discussion at hand, I can only imagine how many seasons OOTP has run in its tests to try and balance the game. Thousands? Ten's of Thousands? Hundreds of Thousands? And all those results have ended up defining the game as we see it today.
The game works. It may not be what many of us would design ourselves, but we also haven't seen those thousands of test runs that OOTP has.
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HRB
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