SmedBlog: eSports Support - Page 7

**Malorn** · 2012-08-12, 04:15 AM

I think differently about this now.

Ruffdog · 2012-08-12, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by Malorn

You're much better off spending those dollars on marketing and making the Massive Epic Planetside experience better instead of making PlanetSide 2 into something it's not.

My thoughts too. I'd much prefer seeing the 2000 player ceiling raised, more conts per server, more servers overall.

If e-sports happens, it happens. Personally speaking with very little free time, I will be spending it shooting, not watching.

Helwyr · 2012-08-12, 04:45 AM

Originally Posted by Smed

Dissapointed a lot of folks? For throwing an idea out?

Well we like so much of what we have seen and heard for PS2. You can only disappoint when the expectation is for something good. Pretty much everything we've heard until recently about PS2 has been awesome, and then all of sudden it's esports and NPCs/PvE, I really thought it was a troll at first. Combine the two together and it has a lot of us scratching our heads thinking wtf is going on?

Tzitzimitl · 2012-08-12, 04:47 AM

Smed I believe a concern that has been implied but not been discussed as much is balance. The reason I bring this up is that in game like this where the scale of battles can vary in size, balance that is mainly focused on esports size battles can have ranging effects.

To give an example: A liberator could potentially be considered OP in battle that is small(roughly 50vs50) as there would not be as much AA/enemy aircraft counter it. However as soon as you bring in more people lets says, 200vs 200 it is easy to see that the liberator is not OP because of the increased amount of AA/ enemy aircraft. Also lets say these 200vs200 battles are the battles to non-esport players fight in.

Now lets say the esport battles are 50vs50. Since in those battles the liberator is OP and the balance focuses around esport size battles, it gets nerfed. Now the balance team decides that to they will nerf its hitpoints and its damage so it is balanced when it comes to 50vs50 battles. This nerf makes it balanced in 50vs50 but makes it under-powered in 200vs200. Effectively gimping a vehicle that was fine in the non-esport battles.

To sum it all up, balance will affect all players but will affect non-esport players much more than esport competitors. This is what one of the main concerns is if esports is implemented. However I would like to add the closer the esport battle sizes are to actual battle sizes the less and less this becomes a concern. Actual battles = battles that non-esport players participate in.

Now lets say you don't balance for esports. What starts to happen is that strategies/setups appear that are far superior to any other strategies/setup people can use. Pretty soon the esports arena start becoming who can the execute the most broken strategy the fastest. And these strategies only change when there is a balance change for the other players. So basically this means that in order for your esports scene to be taken seriously it must be focused on the esports battles rather than balancing for actual battles.

Again actual battles = battles that non-esport players participate in. Anyways this is an issue that i wanted to bring up when setting up your esports scene

EVILPIG · 2012-08-12, 04:47 AM

I know SOE is hot on eSports, but not for Planetside. No way. Let the battle for Auraxis be just that. No eSports, no stupid battledomes.

However, Bullet Run should be all about eSports. Make that a good game with Teams and it could have a pro circuit.

sumo · 2012-08-12, 05:10 AM

i never cared about e-sport. so the way i see it is: dont spend any resources what-so-ever on e-sport.

GhettoPrince · 2012-08-12, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by RoninOni

QFT,

**Malorn** · 2012-08-12, 05:49 AM

Reading Smed's response. If it's Television that you are going for and not the traditional ESport it may help to change the terminology you use.

Televised PS2 where outfits are tracked and watched over a period of time in the world could be quite cool and entertaining. As long as what we are watching is real PlanetSide and not some staged competition.

If what you have in mind is sort of like the Hunger Games where there's lots of cameras everywhere and you watch a battle unfold and create a cool way of watching players having fun in the game - that's awesome. Having outfits enter competitions for achieving certain things like capturing the most facilties or holding the most territory or something like that and following them over the course of a few months (season) - that could be cool.

I wouldn't call that an ESport though. I call that playing PlanetSide and having it stitched into entertainment where people could follow around outfits and players they liked who did cool and entertaining things. Yes, that would be fun to watch and be good entertainment. Id' call that PlanetSide TV, not an ESport.

Sunrock · 2012-08-12, 06:09 AM

I think Mr. Smedley does what he does best. Coming up with some stupid idea that will totally ruin the game. And introducing "e-sports" to this game sounds like it would be his best shot at it.

Thomas · 2012-08-12, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by Sunrock

I think Mr. Smedley does what he does best. Coming up with some stupid idea that will totally ruin the game. And introducing "e-sports" to this game sounds like it would be his best shot at it.

The only idea that Smedley has mentioned so far that I haven't been 100% behind is the NPC armies.

These ideas are also not Smedley's, they are the whole PS2 team's ideas with what they want to add to Planetside 2 in the future.

Don't be a rude piece of shit to Smedley.

RoninOni · 2012-08-12, 06:25 AM

Originally Posted by Thomas

The only idea that Smedley has mentioned so far that I haven't been 100% behind is the NPC armies.

These ideas are also not Smedley's, they are the whole PS2 team's ideas with what they want to add to Planetside 2 in the future.

Don't be a rude piece of shit to Smedley.

QFT.

It's really disheartening when you see key personnel in a project come and talk with a community and someone's just gotta spit in his face.

It's perfectly fine to disagree with the ideas... (I've stated my strong aversion to NPC combat drones repeatedly :P ) that's why they are ideas and why he's presenting them to the community. But back up your opinions with reasoning and logic and heart... not baseless insults.

You also might want to catch up on the course of the thread... because he's talking less about eSports (save perhaps some limited outfit vs outfit special events) and more about live streaming of actual planetside

Sunrock · 2012-08-12, 06:26 AM

Originally Posted by Thomas

The only idea that Smedley has mentioned so far that I haven't been 100% behind is the NPC armies.

These ideas are also not Smedley's, they are the whole PS2 team's ideas with what they want to add to Planetside 2 in the future.

Don't be a rude piece of shit to Smedley.

De deserves that from what he did the the NGE he came up with to SWG. Also the nerfs he did to EQ. And he will most likely continue his path of destruction.

igster · 2012-08-12, 06:31 AM

I have mixed feelings over this. I love e-sports... however... mainly I love games that were designed from the ground up specifically for e-sports.
There is some scope for this - I remember the outfit wars and the many outfits that took part in these still talk about them today... funnily enough mainly the ones that did well in them! *8)

If I were Smed, I'd get the feedback from some of the people involved in e-sports like @Totalbiscuit, James Harding(@follow2GD) , @djWHEAT, @robertohlen, Sundance DiGiovanni(@MLGSundance). I'm pretty sure I've heard them all say before that you should design the e-sports in from the ground up rather than simply think you can turn any game into an e-sport.

Some formats simply suit it better. Arena style play etc. But when you take a game designed for a sandbox and try to mould it into an Arena style play, you quite often end up with breaking the original game in many ways (look at the trouble caused in games like WoW, Diablo III in terms of class balancing)

Sighpolice · 2012-08-12, 06:40 AM

Hmmm I can see how esports works in round based games, and no doubt there would have to be some sort of "Arena" based continent for this to work.

But isn't that segregating the player base? I believe I saw a dev talking about never doing that as PS2 needs a community and people to make it work, creating two communities is effectively splitting the population? The people who would want to watch it live, would stop playing to watch it, the top players will go off to fight these battles, and who is left behind to deal with the real threats and conquer bases for their empire?

I am not saying it's a bad idea, only that it needs to be done correctly for it to work, and that is a fine line they are drawing for themselves. Good luck to them.

Boomhowser · 2012-08-12, 06:57 AM

don't know much about esports to be honest but from what it sounds like its not for me.

But in all honesty without knowing how its going to be implemented I cannont judge the impact on my gaming fun, For all I know it could be the greatest idea to hit planetside in the last 9 years providing of course it dosent mess with the enjoyment of the game for those who wish not to participate.

I'll answer in more detail once I know more!