Genesis League Goals - Beta review
The newest addition to the Splinterlands team game lineup, called "Genesis League Goals" launched their Beta yesterday.
I have been putting money into GLX (token) for a fairly long time now and before I go further, after seeing the game, this is the first time I can genuinely say that I fear for my investment. Right now, as much as it might sound harsh, I honestly think that the MLS footballers that were supposed to promote this will be too embarrassed to do so when they see the game.
I am kind of torn. I dont want to blast the game outright, being invested in it, but on the other hand the football fan in me needs to be restrained. And when I say restrained, I mean glued to the ground, using a mix of concrete and epoxy resin.
- Im Croatian so by default I'm a huge football fan.
That means I watch A LOT of football. - Ive played Football manager since the early 2000s. So for about 20 years. That means I know what a football game should look like.
Both those things, unfortunately, seem to be detrimental to me liking this game.
The biggest fault this game makes is that it LOOKS ALMOST NOTHING like a football game.
It has 7 players instead of 11 and the way the players are set up on the pitch is extremely weird.
The reasoning they gave for removing 4 players from the game is that the gameplay is more fun.
My dudes... MY DUDES.
You dont make a tennis game and put 3 players on each side of the net because you think that would make a "more fun" gameplay experience.
You dont reinvent the game youre trying to emulate!!! Whats worse is that it uses the MLS brand.
Its clear what the MLS is. You might as well made a volleyball game with MLS player faces.
The other thing is that the screen youre looking at above moves and you cant actually see the goals at most times. Its like a conveyor belt moving up and down. Its extremely weird looking and its just wrong. It looks wrong.
Something that is the common theme of this game.
IT LOOKS WRONG.
Let me repeat once again in case it isnt clear. Wrong, WRONG, WRONG!
Its not the graphics, I dont care about the graphics, the way it looks is just wrong!
The other prerequisite for a football game is that it has some kind of familiar formation on the screen so it indeed reminds the player that what he is playing is actually a football game.
Something like this.
This is a screenshot from one of my FM saves. See, this looks like a football formation. It can be nothing other than a football game.
The way you set up your team up front before starting a match is also... you guessed it, wrong. It looks wrong. But since you dont actually have normal football formations it doesnt matter that you dont have a say how you place players.
I honestly dont get it. Its the biggest sport in the world, it is fairly obvious what a football video game looks like and they do this? 🤷♂
Alrite... alrite. Lets look at some good things and how to make this not a disaster.
The game seems to be made to cater to mobile gamers. That is one saving grace considering how big the mobile game industry is and how popular football is.
Again, this needs to be fixed to look like an actual football game.The gameplay is arcade-y, easy to get into and seems fairly addictive. That is a very big positive.
It has the MLS brand tied to it. Again, this needs to be fixed to look like an actual football game to utilize that to the max.
The player stats, even though theyre completely wrong and make no sense, can in a way offer a meaningful effect on gameplay which will facilitate the card economy. So some actual strategy does exist which is again good.
How to FIX the faults?
Here is what you do to make this game... not be wrong.
- Shrink the screen so everything fits and what youre looking at looks like an actual football pitch. You can do this multiple ways.
One way to do it is to start with a wide shot of the pitch with only player names. You dont need their faces. Names and numbers. Once the player is clicked, you zoom in into that part of the pitch to do an action.
The other way to do it is to keep the names and numbers like it is the case in Football Manager with no faces and you can still fit it on the screen. Maybe when you click the player icon it gets larger to showcase info.
If I can make a 4-4-2 formation on my smartphone using the icons, you can sure as hell fit everything on one screen. 😅
- 11 players. Not 6 players, not 9 players, not 36 players. 11 players. There needs to be 11 players.
Focus on making the game look right. The gameplay seems decent enough for what it is, the mobile approach is good, the MLS brand is extremely valuable.
All you need is to make your football game look like a football game. Thats it. And those blocks on the sides that look like stands. You dont need that, especially in the mobile version.
I wonder if any of the design team has actually watched or played football?
The 7 players thing is really weird. At least reduce to 5 with 2 subs so you have proper 5-a-side.
The graphics I cant describe what on earth is going on there, but having played Champ Manager and other footy games as a kid, this doesn't do it for me at all. Fingers crossed it improves for the general release.
It looks like a game made by a group of people that never watched a football match in their life.
If MLS players started promoting this, and someone saw this on Twitter, actual football fans, like the Troll Football account or similar, that player would be made a laughing stock. This game would become a meme.
I often play FM on commentary. Dont even watch the 3d game. Graphics I dont care about. Its the fact that this looks nothing like a football game is the problem.
You are right. I am surprised they didnt look more closely at https://fantasy.premierleague.com/ and implement the NFTs/tokenomics and keep similar gameplay to it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
Don't forget to join the Hive FPL mini league, by the way. Follow @hivefpl for more information
maybe that is the marketing idea 😂
The team behind the game know very little about football. I've seen their social media activities, they probably call it soccer.
I was watching some of the town halls and yeah, im not sure they do.
Need to get on our FPL Discord for the bantz. I think they should call in the Hive experts. for a small amount of GLX payable.
That'll probably help. It's strange that they tried to create a football game with very little knowledge of football.
Honestly, I'd be happier if they simply named it something else and not give me the impression that it's a football game I'm playing.
I have started with CM 2000. I wish HIVE would have such a football manager game :)
They do actually . It's called Rabona .
How to play it?
It was called Rabona, game is dead.
it is football how Mericans see it :D This was my first comment when i seen the gameplay
i had no idea what to expect from the gameplay, now seeing it i feel that they should have kept 11 players, cheaper packs and made it a bit more complicated. maybe have the option to pick where to pass but also include the defensive moves. so if you pick to pass short left and i pick to defend the short left it is a dice drop and it calculates everything based on stats.
or just make it "simple" and go the manager route.
You can always add complexity. First I need it to look like football.
that would probably fix half of it. but i am not sure could it be done with this 7 player system. we will see.
I agree. The game leaves much to be desired. I mean managing 11 players would be difficult, but it is called football. 7 players that will just get old quickly and you should be able to select your own formations too. An ancient Czech football manager had like 15 different stats and some were hidden. A lot more enjoyable, albeit not good for mobile.
This looks a lot older than that even being just released.
Still trying to figure out why they call it beta when it is definitely alpha. Most of the features are not even implemented...
Why would 11 be difficult? You can fit players on the screen. Thats not hard if you work on it a bit.
And its using MLS players so its supposed emulate the MLS in some way. Or am I being wrong here?
Gameplay will be adjusted over time I assume. Right now they need to make it understandable for players, when they boot this, what theyre actually looking at. And that what theyre looking at, needs to be clearly football.
An average today's person has an attention span lower than a goldfish. Such people just can't be expected much from. 11 players... yes it is 4 more players complex than 7. So I understand why they made this decision, especially with such simplistic gameplay.
But to keep people playing, they need to either automate it and focus on management like Splinterlands, or make it more interesting. It doesn't even have sound effects. So it leaves much to be desired here!
This was always my worry with the game. In many publications, I asked questions about whether it will mirror an actual football game or it will be...this.
I think, just like you, we have a lot of foundation grounded in football, so it affects the way we'll perceive the game. I've not gotten the chance to play it, so I'll reserve my feelings.
American sports are a bit more "action packed" than football so compressing the field, will reduce the tactical side of it and increase the number of goals that both teams can score. This could align with the American market but will definitely not align to niggas like us that actually live and breathe football.
I dont know man. This just doesnt look like football to me. They can do whatever they want with the action or gameplay or whatever but there is no reason for this not to have a classic football design so its visible what this actually is.
Here is a football game from 1982. 40 years ago. It still looks more like football than this. You know exactly what youre looking at.
The MLS League runs from March to October so I would say there was somewhat of a rush to get a product out fairly promptly. That said I agree with you over the player numbers. I would have though that it would be better for them with 11 players as you would have to buy many more packs. I would say it is a coding scale issue. I see Cuntz and Jercic have a good partnership. Fair play 😃
Im honestly afraid this game becomes a laughing stock and a meme if any MLS footballer actually promotes it on his account.
Id rather no one sees it in this state.
Actually, you are wrong about the MLS. They made some deal with the MLS Player Association. I checked that months ago MLS has some NFT deal with Panini only (or the other big paper sport card supplier?)... MLS P.A. is basically an union. I suppose, you know the unions... :) (Still can be great for advertising it.)
Brandon Vazquez already post a short video, few weeks ago:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CuAkG1eNZ2A/
The 11 players game mode option's gone. (They put approx. 50% of MLS players in the game. They just said, all players are too much, however perhaps not all players joined to this MLSPA workers union, as some very big names are missing, like Insigne.) I agree, it is wrong.
It was mentioned immediately, when they showed the first pictures about the game (month+ ago), they should start to change things very fast, as it is going generally to a wrong way, more likely going nowhere.
I don't really see any other way, like turn it into another kinda football game, as at the moment, it is kinda nothing. Not football manager, nor playable football game, nor arcade, and not a healthy combination of these. I wrote to you my only ideas, try to change the design to foosball, button football, beach football, or indoor football, what partly explain the 7 players, and the gameplay, the plenty goals, wild results.
I follow it since few months, probably you don't do it closely, however I really disappointed about the non-transparency, delays, and of course, the result. (Really annoying they can't answer straight-forward for important questions, like the coach things, what about we know basically nothing.) Also, there is no basic gameplay, but they are already focusing, posting about the sellable other gizmos. Skills, slots, drinks i dont even know what else... (shows me, they don't work as a team, i suppose the work not divided equally, or some of them are way behind the timeline with his/her part of the job)
And if you were upset about how it looks. Another addition, what will drive you nuts. There will be only ranked games. So even the WP writes, there are tourney, league, cup rewards, in TH they said, those are additional things in the future, perhaps in next year.... :) :) Have you ever seen any kind of football game without competitions? Without some league system (with prizes, relegation, promotion etc.) and at least 1-2 cups? (That's really easy to do, and it's a must from the beginning... I got really upset when Aggro said it. I was thinking about it for a while, but still no reasonable explanation came up, only 2 little things... 1., americans, always think differently, 2. they have no clue about football)
Obviously the team won't be able to do much with the design (I really don't get it what caused so long delays, after seeing the result.), max change it, polish a bit, so probably the above mentioned alternative football formats could save something, wouldn't turn away almost every football fan newcomers from the game, after the first look.
And I don't want to mention the tiny fact, that the MLS regular season ends in October, the Play off in November (early dec?) and good if a full version, p2e game will come out in the q4... but i guess new season cards will be out in January... that's another nice move towards the early investors, Hivers, who got involved in it... and of course, they don't get back anything compensating delays, basically max 1-3 months play with this season cards, meantime, other game's asset holders (SPS), who did not even spend a single cent on GLG, still receive airdrops for nothing... that's very wrong, too!
and if i still want to top that, they just post a proposal for buying back packs from 2nd market, as the prices are at the bottom, nobody buys packs from official site, as everybody lost confidence because of constant delays and seeing the result, early investors (and speculators) are throwing away packs for 1-1.5$ after the insane GLX airdrops. And what is the solution? Buying those back from the GLUSD, what they could collect... instead of admit their faults and try to correct it as fast as they can.
Its still related to the MLS. It wont matter for regular people if its union or whatever as long as the players promote it.
As long as there is a clear design decision im fine with it. As long as it is something. This here doesnt look like anything really.
I had a lot of understanding until the point I actually saw it. I dont know, but it feels like the developers working on this are extremely poor. Maybe im wrong, maybe its the lack of funds but the fact they released this as if everything is fine with it, ready for beta testing shows that there is something very wrong there.
Ill give the game a shot once it comes out. The game looks terrible but there might be some redeeming features. If splinterlands does well, maybe they get some decent devs on GLG and maybe they manage to find 1 person that has watched at least a single football game in their life to help design this.
The crypto space is dumb, and often doesnt make sense. So who knows... stranger gambles paid off.
I think, that was some kind of wake up call for them, when in the last TH, they mentioned in the end (with laughing), it will maybe come out in August or Sept. How I saw the reactions (I thought the same), majority was not simply disappointed, but bloody upset about what the hell they are doing with these constant delays, especially after seeing the pictures from the gameplay. Half year delay within 9-10 months, that's some result... so I suppose, that's made them release it + nobody bought packs from them since months. + they have to do it because of packs, cards tied to MLS seasons, and its almost August, 5 months left from the year... ( same like plenty others, i don't understand what they were doing in the last half year)
The most annoying, the pol correct answers from them. Speaking, but saying nothing, or if you ask certain things very specifically, so they couldn't resist, turn away from the question, they simply don't answer at all. Throwing misleading answers in discord chat... (Friday they said, coach abilities will be released early this week. Yesterday, it turned out no way, they did a very small work with the balancing, as the lot of wild results are not simply few bugs... all coaches vs each other 400 combinations, and they couldn't yet balance it... but at least they could admit... not even that.)
Let's hope so! 😀
Meta Quest is so overrated, it's way too slow and always strays too far into the Middlefield. You should get something else there. Btw, how is Twitter not on the field? Dafuq you doing?
lol. This I just threw on the screen quickly. I dont actually use that page. ;)
Thought so, let's try to make sense of that.
I feel like the Defense should be full of Banking Apps, Coach will be Calendar App and Settings are co Coach. Goaly can only be App Store, keeping everything in check back there. Put some Fitness Tracker into the Middlefield and Social Media Apps into the offense. That's about it, go Champions League now.
haha. good one.
It gets to be disappointing this wait for GLS, the game looks nothing like a soccer management game, so little I think the developers understand something about soccer, I believe that if they used the monsters of Splinterlands in this and the battle mode was this would make more sense than it is now, I hope this raw version can be completely reformulated for a true soccer manager, I think someone could indicate games in this style for this team like Solare, Online Soccer Manager, Futster, Rabona or similar.
Just in case I'm already removing my GLX stacking for sale, I will not risk waiting to melt the price with this strange gameplay.
I am not criticizing your publication @lordbutterfly , but the game.
Ill stick to the game for a while more to see what the devs have to say. If they become defensive and start defending the way the game looks right now, im out.
If its a football game it needs to be a football game.
The way we're seeing it now is that his team has been coming up with a lot of new stuff for the past few years, which is great. That I will now see its prices going up.
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 28/58) Liquid rewards.