SmedBlog: eSports Support - Page 4

Arcsilver · 2012-08-11, 07:30 PM

sounds good to me, as long as it doesn't mess up the core of the game.

super pretendo · 2012-08-11, 08:14 PM

Originally Posted by Arcsilver

sounds good to me, as long as it doesn't mess up the core of the game.

But it will. New players will be generated by exposure that is strictly esports. How many hits do you think some official esports channel will get versus a chanel of community made videos of real player-driven battles throughout the world?

The lack of foresight worries me. Officially supporting esports turns this game into such a tragic malinvestment. Why spend resources on making an amazing open world if ALL MEDIA EXPOSURE will be to some cookie cutter, cancerous esport? Why are you wasting money on what an apparently obsolete playerbase cares about, when you are trying to just get a piece of the CoD pie?

You can't have your cake and eat it too. F2P model doesn't work well for esports either, but is ludicrously profitable for persistent games where players feel continuously invested in the state of the gameworld.

Why? Because esports by definition garner consistent exposure as a spectator "sport". Having a "real" planetside game, then an unrelated, planetside-style esport makes no sense. There will be asymmetric exposure between PS2, the game we are all waiting for, and PS2: Super eSports CoD Edition. There cannot possibly be a balanced potential-player perception between these two unrelated games with the same title. A community made youtube channel with videos of epic battles and emergent fun fights cannot possibly compete with an official, professional esports channel and streams. When you mention PlanetSide 2 to someone, the latter is what they will probably think of.

Splitting up the game into two unrelated games seems to be SOE's ludicrous attempt to have its fingers in both pies. It has a monopoly on the MMOFPS, and good for them, they deserve monopoly profits for innovating out of the astronomically stale and rehashed FPS genre. But now it seems they also want to follow the leader, and somehow take the game in the complete opposite direction. A direction that doesn't even work as well in the F2P model. F2P mmos are ludicrously profitable (Nexon) because players have a sense of persistence, and something being at stake. Something they buy has an effect on the continuity of a gameworld that is always there. The more the gameworld matters and the more immersive it is, the more people want to spend. Generic FPS #420 is nothing special though. But it will cause a flood of players who don't give a shit about what makes PS2 such an amazing game. And this will tip the focus in development and the balance of the game. There will never be a small, side-game of eSports that doesn't get development or media focus, and the two sections of the game live hand-in-hand, and the vision of planetside remains as if the esport part doesnt exist. Utopias don't exist. eSports exist to get as much attention and as many spectators as possible.

I just want a game that doesn't need to be compromised for a vocal minority of players that would love to see the amazing vision of the game compromised so they can have a reskinned Call of Duty, for whatever reason. If you want just another esport, why don't you go play one? it's the hot thing right now, there's a fuckton of them out there. I want PlanetSide. And it totally looks like SOE is going to make a killing, and they will because they innovated. Not because they copied.

super pretendo · 2012-08-11, 07:04 PM

Read my above post. Especially as a F2P game, XXSUPER MOUNTAIN DEW 420XX esports coverage will crowd out user made games of actually epic emergent battles occurring. The game's focus will creep away following the shift in the perception of planetside.

Maybe SOE having an MMOFPS monopoly is a bad thing, since they may hilariously squander it

Duskguy · 2012-08-11, 07:15 PM

dont see how this would work between factions. would be like they are friends just competing.

if it were interfaction, would be like as someone said a sport thing between outfits.

my idea of it would be:
-an announcement for a competition forms, outfits sign up and after x time, applications close and battles start.
-would work like a normal tornament, 3 resource nodes and then the home spawn.
-first team to claim all three nodes for x time wins, or the game ends with whoever holds the majority of nodes after x amount of time. or it could work like Battlefield's ticket system based off of spawning and ticket bleed.
-the winning team moves to the next teir and battles the winning team of another pair.
on it goes till there is one winner.
-then like the olympics, the top team of the three factions battle in a three way fight over 7 nodes, and win based on the same conditions as the previous battles.

super pretendo · 2012-08-11, 07:17 PM

If there has to be vapid esports support, make it like the EVE alliance tournament. Outfits can sign up for a special event that happens every so often with predetermined rules and battle space.

Anabuki · 2012-08-11, 10:58 PM

Originally Posted by super pretendo

If there has to be vapid esports support, make it like the EVE alliance tournament. Outfits can sign up for a special event that happens every so often with predetermined rules and battle space.

This seems to be the best way to go about it. That way, outfits have to come up with their own tactics and strategies based off the current available equipment/stats/balancing, instead of the game changing to revolve around them. Having it only happen once a year also prevents the bitching and moaning when it comes to 'pub' vs competitive balance, but hopefully with good beta testing and initial balancing it should be kept to a minimum. Of course factions/servers can also hold their own smaller scale unofficial outfit tournaments, but the developers wont have to change the game around unofficial competitions.

I think EVE is one of the games the devs should look to in regards to e-Sports, even though it's not a particularly big thing for the average EVE player. As far as I know we'll be most happy with e-Sports as an option for those that want to participate, not as something we have an obligation to participate in if we want the best experience of the game.

vVRedOctoberVv · 2012-08-11, 08:46 PM

I really don't like the idea of "Esports", personally. Sounds like something they're set on doing, or at least trying out, though. I don't see it being a good thing long term.

Braveliltoaster · 2012-08-11, 08:52 PM

this game gets less and less like planetside every day

sagolsun · 2012-08-11, 08:55 PM

Sport is fundamentally incompatible with war because war is not about sportsmanship and a fair fight. Neither is PS2.

The only way e-sports could work in PS2 is a separate server that gets wiped every match. Not sure how much that has in common with PS2.

RSphil · 2012-08-11, 08:58 PM

if they make separate arena style game play will make it like every other game and suck big time.

i dont think this kind of game would be good for Esports. it could be good as a program to watch maybe as in live stream but with free view cameras for the streamer. like a documentary sort of thing. good commentating by people who know what they are talking about.

i think a game of such scale that would be the only way to go. if it put into a crapy small place fighting for 1 base its the same as the rest and no reason to make people watch when they have battlefield, cod, MW ect ect to watch already. this game is different because of its scale and this is something they should not take away.

only my opinion of course and i dont watch esports anyway lol. rather play then watch

BUT i would watch it if it was like i said free view cam with commentary from knowledgeable people. it would like a war doc

Phantasmio · 2012-08-11, 08:59 PM

I really dislike the idea of eSports if it is going to end up affecting the gameplay. WoW, for example, gave the best gear out to those who played a lot of Arena matches, which effectively killed the Battlegrounds feature of WoW by making all gear earned through BGs absolutely useless. The Arena gear was essentially the best gear you could get in that game and if eSports messing up PS2 in a manner such as this, I'm completely against it. If they can avoid changing gameplay, then by all means, include it.

Goku · 2012-08-11, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by Phantasmio

I really dislike the idea of eSports if it is going to end up affecting the gameplay. WoW, for example, gave the best gear out to those who played a lot of Arena matches, which effectively killed the Battlegrounds feature of WoW by making all gear earned through BGs absolutely useless. The Arena gear was essentially the best gear you could get in that game and if eSports messing up PS2 in a manner such as this, I'm completely against it. If they can avoid changing gameplay, then by all means, include it.

RPG is not a FPS first off. I don't see how SOE doing a eSport type of game play would change any of the weapons, armor, or implants either.

sagolsun · 2012-08-11, 09:07 PM

Seems most of the community is against e-sports. I, for one, have trouble understanding how e-sports could fit into the game.

PS2 isn't tennis. PS2 is WAR.

super pretendo · 2012-08-11, 09:12 PM

its not the "gear" that we are worried about. It's the focus of the game. If the game is split into to compartments with wildly different design philosophies, something is already very wrong.

RoninOni · 2012-08-11, 09:27 PM

I think the way to support "eSports" is to not treat PS2 like a sport... but like a war.

Have "war journalists" who stream to the internet. Could maybe be a special character type (ie; war journalists are a 4th faction you select who take no part in the war, they're only their for coverage)

Factions could also have their own "journalist" class but they'd still count as that faction and would have some special rules who knows...

Anyways, this way there's still that twitch.tv focused aspect, but done in a way appropriate for the type of game it is.