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VEM "Virtual Equipment Module”

• denn13 43 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 9:05 AM

  For those of you who do not know what VEM is…  VEM stands for…           “Virtual Equipment Model”. What VEM does is change the properties of the game as you get better to ensure you don’t get too good at it. It is set up with preset variables and as you play if you do better than a predetermined threshold set by WGT then the game changes the characteristics of the virtual equipment to screw with your game... In other words, they really think that if they screw up your game it will seem more challenging to you… All it does is piss me off.

   I realize that there is another page for VEM, but there is no place to add a new post.  I know that everyone "WHO KNOWS ABOUT VEM" have different opinions about it.  I was surprised to find out that some nuts even like it, but I hate it, it's unfair and takes all the professionalism out of the game.  I love this game and play to get better, but how can I get better if I can’t improve on a shot, because I don’t know if VEM has screwed with my game!  PLEASE leave my game alone and let me get better or worse on my own.  It seems that it’s put there to make the game more challenging… LOLOLOL… all it does is piss me off in the worse way.  After you have played a couple of hundred games, you can usually tell if the shot you made was a good shot that was screwed with by VEM, but sometimes your just not sure.  I think it’s dirty for WGT to be screwing with our games and then there’s the fact the VEM will drop your ball in the weeds or water, take the ball away from you, and then make you pay to replace the ball that VEM made you hit into the weeds or water.  That is stealing the equipment you’ve paid money for.  One example of VEM is, on one shot the wind was blowing to the right 8mph, so I was going to compensate by going left, but I hit a bad shot to the right… but the damn ball went left… A LOT.  It is not challenging to me to have my game sabotaged by VEM.  Usually I get mad and stay away for a few days because of VEM.  Sometimes I will go long periods of time and not buy anything because of VEM.  Why would I want to reward WGT for having a software program that will purposely make me miss?  IT TAKES THE FUN OUT OF THE GAME…

• ScottHope 10,436 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 9:29 AM

  You are wasting your money on good quality balls whilst using inferior irons & wedges. The starter clubs are not known for their accuracy or consistency so I would replace those if I were you, then you might feel differently about the game.

   

• denn13 43 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 10:01 AM

  ScottHope:

  You are wasting your money on good quality balls whilst using inferior irons & wedges. The starter clubs are not known for their accuracy or consistency so I would replace those if I were you, then you might feel differently about the game.

  Scott you obviously did not read my post, you just glanced over it.   I was not referring to what you're talking about I'm referring to VEM screwing with your game.  I keep a word document open on my left screen that shows how far to hit the ball to the green, and I have a tool like the putter pal that works with putting and driving.  In reality I should be able to hit the ball within 3 yards of the hole on every shot, but sometimes I might get as close a  yard from the hole, and the very next time I play that green, the same shot might not even get me on the green.  If you're doing the same thing over and over and all of a sudden the results change, then VEM has just sabotaged your shot.

• ScottHope 10,436 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 11:01 AM

  I don't disagree with you about VEM but the lack of precision of the starter clubs is more likely to be the major culprit of your inconsistent shot results.

• andyson 6,415 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 11:04 AM

  denn13:

  What VEM does is change the properties of the game as you get better to ensure you don’t get too good at it. It is set up with preset variables and as you play if you do better than a predetermined threshold set by WGT then the game changes the characteristics of the virtual equipment to screw with your game...

  Yes, if your skill level improves above a certain level the game changes to make it more challenging to score well.  The key phrase is "if your skill level improves".

  As one retired old fart to another.......You have played the front 9 of Kiawah 175 times since October. 

  Looking at your October Kiawah scores vs today's scores they're the same!  38s, 36s You ain't improving.  Even after 175 rounds on Kiawah front 9 in the last 3 months!  You ain't improving.

  Why would VEM bother making the game more challenging for you? If anything, VEM would be making the game easier for you.   It does work both ways.

• budfan4861 183 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 11:12 AM

       Denn, i wanna see your point of view, just as i have wanted to see the point of view of every single individual who has come here over the years and complained about the VEM. But i can't...i just can't. Now this is just my opinion, but i've always believed that it is the VEM that makes this game what it it, At least it is to me. I've never understood why some people can't get it through their heads that if the VEM was taken out of this game, part of the realism of WGT would go with it. 

       Do you play golf in real life as i do? if not, then perhaps you'll never come to appreciate the VEM. If you do, then i would encourage you to think about it like this. In real life, i get VEMMED....a lot. I can't tell you the number of times i've hit a shot, thought i hit it good, only to end up left, right, too long, or too short. Now i thought i got it good. But what i actually did was allow the club to open or close at impact which resulted in my hooking or slicing it. Or i chose the wrong club for the yardage i had left to the green. Ive had the wind push my ball in a direction it shouldn't have because i hooked or sliced the shot that bad. I've been in the rough greenside looking to just pitch it on. All i had to do was just get under the ball, elevate it, and i was good to go. But i missed it...simply didn't make good contact on a shot that 95% of the time i can hit...but i didn't this time. All of the above scenarios happen to me all the time in real life. And the VEM brings all that to my game in cyberspace.

      My WGT game is much better than my real life game. Aim to compesate for the wind is easier. I certainly hit more fairways. Most of the time, i'm close as far as club selection goes. My putting (such as it is) is better. I appreciate the VEM. I need it...because without it, this game could get real easy. It's the VEM that from time to time puts me in a situation where i really have to think about what i'm gonna do next.

      I want to encourage you to embrace what the VEM brings to this game, because without it, i believe things would be drastically different...and not for the better.

• chuddlymccannon 298 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 11:20 AM

  Don't forget putting.............. VEM and it's stupid wall at 0.2 from the hole cost me a stroke every game. lol  I know it's only one stroke but come on man.  I'm not that good I've only hit 29 twice so leave me alone.  I want to make legend and I want to do it soon, after that u can put the wall back up at 0.2.  OK?

  LMFBO

• denn13 43 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 3:41 PM

  andyson:

  denn13:

  What VEM does is change the properties of the game as you get better to ensure you don’t get too good at it. It is set up with preset variables and as you play if you do better than a predetermined threshold set by WGT then the game changes the characteristics of the virtual equipment to screw with your game...

  Yes, if your skill level improves above a certain level the game changes to make it more challenging to score well.  The key phrase is "if your skill level improves".

  As one retired old fart to another.......You have played the front 9 of Kiawah 175 times since October. 

  Looking at your October Kiawah scores vs today's scores they're the same!  38s, 36s You ain't improving.  Even after 175 rounds on Kiawah front 9 in the last 3 months!  You ain't improving.

  Why would VEM bother making the game more challenging for you? If anything, VEM would be making the game easier for you.   It does work both ways.

  Andyson,

  As far as me playing Kiawah 175 times... I was told by a couple of legends and a tour pro that if you want to get better stick to one course until you do get better.  If VEM is screwing up my game I'm sure that it will follow me (which it does) when I play on other courses.  I have shot a 6 under before (on St. Andrews) and in that particular game VEM didn't screw up my game.  I have missed the hole before 18 inches from the hole slightly uphill with no side to side slope and dinged the meter.  When the ball got close it took a hell of a turn.  How could that be fun or constuctive to my game?  VEM might be fun for you, but when I'm playing good or bad I don't need something interferring with my game.

• denn13 43 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 3:59 PM

  budfan4861:

       Denn, i wanna see your point of view, just as i have wanted to see the point of view of every single individual who has come here over the years and complained about the VEM. But i can't...i just can't. Now this is just my opinion, but i've always believed that it is the VEM that makes this game what it it, At least it is to me. I've never understood why some people can't get it through their heads that if the VEM was taken out of this game, part of the realism of WGT would go with it. 

       Do you play golf in real life as i do? if not, then perhaps you'll never come to appreciate the VEM. If you do, then i would encourage you to think about it like this. In real life, i get VEMMED....a lot. I can't tell you the number of times i've hit a shot, thought i hit it good, only to end up left, right, too long, or too short. Now i thought i got it good. But what i actually did was allow the club to open or close at impact which resulted in my hooking or slicing it. Or i chose the wrong club for the yardage i had left to the green. Ive had the wind push my ball in a direction it shouldn't have because i hooked or sliced the shot that bad. I've been in the rough greenside looking to just pitch it on. All i had to do was just get under the ball, elevate it, and i was good to go. But i missed it...simply didn't make good contact on a shot that 95% of the time i can hit...but i didn't this time. All of the above scenarios happen to me all the time in real life. And the VEM brings all that to my game in cyberspace.

      My WGT game is much better than my real life game. Aim to compesate for the wind is easier. I certainly hit more fairways. Most of the time, i'm close as far as club selection goes. My putting (such as it is) is better. I appreciate the VEM. I need it...because without it, this game could get real easy. It's the VEM that from time to time puts me in a situation where i really have to think about what i'm gonna do next.

      I want to encourage you to embrace what the VEM brings to this game, because without it, i believe things would be drastically different...and not for the better.

  Budfan,

  I do not play golf in real life, I'm in a wheelchair and will be the rest of my life, so the only enjoyment I can get as far a golf goes is this game.  Let me ask you this, in real life golf is someone there to screw with your game?  Do you have someone changing out your clubs with shorter or longer clubs when you're not looking?  Have you ever accidently hit the ball in the same direction that the wind is blowing and see the ball go in the wrong direction?  I would be a MUCH better golfer in this game if VEM was not there to sabotage my game so many times.  I'm sure you can tell when VEM has sabotaged a shot of yours and I'm always playing with someone who will shout out the old... "WTF".  Knowing that VEM exist anytime I miss a close shot I always have to wonder if VEM did it to me again.  This might be fun for a lot of people, but trust me... it is NO fun for me.  I can barely afford the moderately priced balls and when I ding a ball with a back wind and the ball falls short 10 yards into the water, VEM just stole a ball from me and WGT has made money off VEM because in the end I'll have to replace the ball.  I just do not understand the mentality of someone who likes their game being screwed with and thinks it’s a good thing.

• denn13 43 Posts

  Sat, Feb 1 2014 4:17 PM

  Let me say to you something I told someone else, that I cannot understand the mentality of someone who likes to have their game screwed with... that just doesn't make sense to me.  I will never embrace VEM sabotaging one of my shots.  There are many other ways the game could be improved to make it more challenging without sabotaging one of your shots, for instance;  they could make it so that the higher the tier you're in the closer you would have to get to the ding on the meter.  In other words if you miss the ding left or right it could send the ball further to the right or left, but it would be consistent.  How is anyone supposed to get better if the game itself is not consistent?  VEM is the worse thing I have ever encountered in any type game.  Now add the fact that when VEM sends your ball into the weeds or water, WGT gains money from that because you will have to pay to replace the ball.  If there was no VEM and it was my fault that the ball went into the weeds or water I could easily deal with that, but when I lose a ball because of sabotage it infuriates me.