Over the last decade, sports games have had a bad reputation for a number of reasons. For one, many gamers decry how they rarely change with each yearly installment, as the only thing that ever seems to really change is a team's roster. On top of that, heavy-handed monetization practices have made some sports franchises can feel like a leech on gamers' wallets. Madden NFL and FIFA are typically the targets of this criticism, but one sports franchise that tends to stand apart is MLB The Show, with MLB The Show 23 continuing the series' tradition of genuinely trying to enhance the overall experience year after year.
MLB The Show 23 sees the series at its most innovative and experimental, with new single-player modes, fine-tuning to its gameplay mechanics, and some major changes to its hallmark multiplayer mode, Diamond Dynasty. After years of a linear, straightforward content system, developer San Diego Studio opted to switch things up and introduce season-based content releases. Now that a few months have passed, however, it seems this new system isn't without its flaws, with many players frustrated with how content is currently coming out and worried that things are only going to get worse in the future.
MLB The Show 23's Diamond Dynasty Content Isn't Player Friendly
Before MLB The Show 23, Diamond Dynasty was viewed as one of the more accessible card-collecting game modes in the sports genre. SDS made the mode very accessible for players who didn't want to spend money on microtransactions, with many of the best cards available to those who simply put in the time to play the game. It's been a point of pride for many Diamond Dynasty players to build an impressive team with "no money spent", but MLB The Show 23 has been making it more and more difficult to do that with its new season-based structure.
In MLB The Show 23, SDS introduced content seasons and card sets. Certain card sets can only be used in certain seasons, but to counteract the decline in viable cards once a certain set cannot be used, SDS has made high-level cards more plentiful. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a major imbalance for the availability of high-level cards, as in Season 2 of Diamond Dynasty, SDS has put the vast majority of them behind card packs.
These are cards that SDS more than likely knows players will want to use, and that would make great additions to any team, but they are often prohibitively expensive to acquire. Meanwhile, the cards that are available to earn for free are often lackluster to those in packs, compelling players to either open their wallets or grind for an inordinate amount of time. It creates a system that feels antithetical to Diamond Dynasty's past design philosophies, alienating those who usually enjoy the game without spending any additional money.
Season 3 Of Diamond Dynasty Will Be The Most Important Yet
MLB The Show 23 will soon enter Season 3 of its Diamond Dynasty content, and it will likely determine the fate of the mode's future content drops. Once Season 3 begins, cards from Set 1 will no longer be available in competitive modes, save for any card players designate as a Wild Card. This means players will only be able to use cards from Set 2, Core cards, and those released in Set 3. If SDS continues to release high-level cards the way it has in Season 2, more than a few players may get turned off by the lack of freely available cards and decide they've had enough of the mode's increased monetization.
MLB The Show's Diamond Dynasty has historically been a bright spot among heavily monetized sports games. To see it go down a similar path to FIFA, Madden NFL, and other live-service games would be a disservice to the fans who have stuck around for so long. Hopefully with Season 3, SDS will recognize the frustration of its fan base and offer more cards for players to work for rather than pay for.
MLB The Show 23 is available now on PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
