Another interesting point was raised to me tonight...when it was noticed that 3 of the top teams in the league are currently CPU teams. The suggestion was made to remove the restriction on playing games against teams in the other conference. This would basically put us back to the way we did things last year...with just playing as many games as you feel like and trying to keep up. The thought behind it is that it would give us more control in making sure the playoffs aren't full of CPU teams (though, with the way I've been losing to CPU teams...I can't actually say that playing them would do anything to help)
Personally, I don't really like the idea. I think it would create more chaos (more games to play in that 5 day window) without necessarily making for a better situation. As for CPU teams making the playoffs, obviously, I wouldn't want the playoffs full of them...but if it happens, it happens. In a way, that's as close to a realistic and competitive league as we're going to get. The seasons would get pretty boring if we were all just steamrolling the CPU every game.
This idea was also brought up in relation to all the injuries though...and that at least that way, you wouldn't randomly discover you've lost a player in a simmed game. Of course, this doesn't mean that player wouldn't get injured while you're playing anyway...but the idea of having control over it was brought up. This one, I definitely agree with...but again, I don't know that it would really change the outcome any. There could easily be just as many injuries...but yeah...you'd at least know it was your "fault".
I get the argument...but honestly, I don't think it would change my playing habits, or how I'm approaching this franchise at all. I definitely don't want to burn myself out trying to play all 82 games...and then hoping to do that for 2-3 seasons. And I feel like getting through multiple seasons should be our #1 objective. The point was raised that with the NHL's points standings, conference games really don't have any more significance than out of conference games...and I agree to an extent. But there are still more conference games...and if you can consistently win those games, I think you'll be more likely to make the playoffs.
Honestly, my biggest hope when simming all these other games is that no team would get a huge boost from them and that we'd all be around .500 in out of conference games. That might happen...or it might not happen. There's really no way to know. Ultimately, I feel like we're just trying to make the best of a shitty system, and there's no guarantee of anything being the right answer. Hell, we already could have had the argument of whether injuries should have been turned off.
"There are too many injuries. It's killing the game."
"Injuries are a part of the sport. Taking them out would make it too unrealistic."
"But having so many injuries is unrealistic."
"Without injuries, you'd never have to use your younger players."
And so on...and so on. If the game was actually programmed competently and didn't play like complete crap, we wouldn't even have to be discussing these things. Just wanted to put all this out there in case anybody has any points to make. For me, I'd just like to keep playing and see what happens. I have zero expectations from this game, so it's easy for me to not really be surprised by any of the crap it throws at us anymore. Just like with Madden...I'm not playing in an online franchise to be "the best". I'm playing because I'm a fan and it's basically an interactive way to follow my favorite team.
EA... I'm running out of wingers... Alfie and Franzen both got hurt in the first sim, and then they added Quincey to that list. Then in this sim Abby got knocked out for 41 games. I got Franzen back for the Tampa game and he gets train wrecked away from the puck with 40 seconds to go and is now gone for another 42 games. Awesome.
