From star to schmuck

[Thundercleese]

This is pretty much just to air out my grievances and maybe give a heads up to anybody who might have anything to do with how the game is programmed (and I have no idea if you're watching or not, whoever you are):

a) Players decline much too sharply much too early in their careers. Once they hit 35 they become rapidly more useless as the season progresses. Obviously not every player is built to play until they're 38 or 40, but this is happening to EVERY player! I much preferred the EHM 05 system in which speed and stamina declined but the skills stayed more or less the same. Drop them if you must, but not so extremely and not so abruptly! It makes sense to me that a 39 year old player won't hit as well as he did when he was 32 but things like positioning, pokecheck and passing don't just vanish with age.

b) Players IN THEIR PRIME consistenly degrade into useless players. I could list a dozen examples of excellent NHL players who become literally useless while they're still 29-33. I can see how it might be an issue of poor coaching on whatever team they're a member of (it hasn't happened to me yet); I know that sometimes players who have one or two or three excellent seasons just drop off the map, but it seems like these guys just forget how to play, and it happens far too often. When you combine this with the tendency of prospects to be far too underrated and difficult to develop, it makes it very challenging to ice a strong team as you progress through the seasons. Not that I don't enjoy a challenge but when I can foresee a top line with C+'s across the board in shot/scoring, things are maybe going too far.

Thanks for enduring my trip to the soapbox.

[Minstrel]

I don't have any influence on how the game is programmed but I am an external tester and I can say that this issue is being looked into ask we "speak" both from a degrading aspect and a young players not developing/being generated with enough intitial potential skills aspect as well during the patch testing. I'll put for your comments there as well.

[Thundercleese]

Thanks for lookin' out, Minstrel!

[Minstrel]

No problem