by Sherlock 117 » Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:24
I disagree with your two opinions Al:
1) Everyone would basically choose the "strongest" 1 or 2 characters (Roddick, Nadal, Agassi), where by strongest you actually mean easiest to win matches with (not the same).
2) Matches will be boring because of this.
I know you don't like me to refer to other games, but since VT3 matchplay system basically forced everyone to use the pros it is the perfect place to look at whether or not it worked. In my opinion, it provided the MOST variety of any online tennis system I have ever seen.
Sure, Hewitt was the most frequent opponent I came across because he was the "strongest" in the same sense you used earlier. But I also ran across plenty of Nalbandian's, Ferrero's, Roddick's, Ancic's, Henman's, Monfils's etc. They could all win if played properly, and they could all be beat by a good enough player with a different pro. I ended up using Monfils because he was the player who matched up best with the type of strategy I like to use. Each pro had definite weaknesses that could be exploited (though Hewitt's were a little tougher to exploit).
I feel like TS4 would be similar. You would get many people using Roddick, Nadal, Agassi, as exhibited by the numbers on the 2K Open. But as also exhibited by the 2K open, you would get really fun matches because they are more balanced. Also, as people play the game more and play against more Roddick's, they learn how to exploit Roddick's weaknesses better. The "strongest" character will still be the most used, but I don't think the tour would culminate with 60 Roddicks and 4 Nadals. The distribution you gave would actually be pretty pleasant in my opinion, and would give MORE variety than what is currently on WT.
I disagree with 2, for the same reasons others have mentioned. Yes, playing 3 Roddicks mean that they will all have a big serve and powerful strokes, so they will all have similar strategies. But their strategies and tendencies WILL be different.
