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Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Aging PvP multiplayer games
In my ongoing quest to improve my skill and performance in World of Tanks, I am watching good players on Twitch streaming their games. Streamed games are far better suited to learn from, as they aren't the carefully handpicked exceptional replays you find on YouTube. So I was watching QuickyBaby's Centurion AX Tech Tree Showcase, in which he is playing a line of tanks from tier 1 to tier 10. And at tier 1 he encountered a player who had created an account to play over 11,000 games with the same tier 1 tank.
Why does somebody play all his games in a tier I tank? Because that way he can achieve a 70% win rate. Not only does playing the same tank over and over result in you probably having better skills than the actual new players in tier I; you will also have a crew with far better skills, as well as the best equipment on the tank. Having better concealment and view range you can basically be mostly invisible, killing "noobs" without them even knowing what hit them. In World of Tanks that is known as seal clubbing. And it obviously leads to a bad new player experience, which then increases the problems all players suffer when a player base shrinks over time.
If the advantage of a veteran player in a multiplayer PvP game over new player was only skill, that would still be acceptable. But as most games have other forms of progress, an aging PvP multiplayer game ends up with veteran players beating up new players in matches that wouldn't even be fair at equal skill. Even I, and I am really not a very good player, can get excellent results with low tier tanks, just because I put equipment like binoculars and camo nets on them, and a 100% skill crew. I mostly play through low tiers quickly in order to reach the higher tiers of a tank line, but if I wanted to pad my win stats I could just farm noobs to the detriment of the overall game.
I was wondering whether PvP multiplayer games shouldn't have reverse progress: The more you play, the less strong your characters / vehicles / whatever would become. A veteran would have the increased skills of playing a lot, but not an already more powerful starting position. Instead he would have weaker stats than the new players, which would make the game a lot more fair. Playing a lot gives you medals and status, but would decrease your power. When you think you have become too weak, you could always start over, losing both the status and the handicap.
Why does somebody play all his games in a tier I tank? Because that way he can achieve a 70% win rate. Not only does playing the same tank over and over result in you probably having better skills than the actual new players in tier I; you will also have a crew with far better skills, as well as the best equipment on the tank. Having better concealment and view range you can basically be mostly invisible, killing "noobs" without them even knowing what hit them. In World of Tanks that is known as seal clubbing. And it obviously leads to a bad new player experience, which then increases the problems all players suffer when a player base shrinks over time.
If the advantage of a veteran player in a multiplayer PvP game over new player was only skill, that would still be acceptable. But as most games have other forms of progress, an aging PvP multiplayer game ends up with veteran players beating up new players in matches that wouldn't even be fair at equal skill. Even I, and I am really not a very good player, can get excellent results with low tier tanks, just because I put equipment like binoculars and camo nets on them, and a 100% skill crew. I mostly play through low tiers quickly in order to reach the higher tiers of a tank line, but if I wanted to pad my win stats I could just farm noobs to the detriment of the overall game.
I was wondering whether PvP multiplayer games shouldn't have reverse progress: The more you play, the less strong your characters / vehicles / whatever would become. A veteran would have the increased skills of playing a lot, but not an already more powerful starting position. Instead he would have weaker stats than the new players, which would make the game a lot more fair. Playing a lot gives you medals and status, but would decrease your power. When you think you have become too weak, you could always start over, losing both the status and the handicap.
Labels: World of Tanks
- posted by Tobold @ 9:26 AM Permanent Link
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"if I wanted to pad my win stats I could just farm noobs to the detriment of the overall game"
We casual noobs might spoil your farming plans. We aren't as biddable as you might think.
Anyway, you don't have to worry about your actions being to the detriment of the overall game. That is the job of the developers. If they think something is to the detriment of the overall game, they will surely address it in due course.
We casual noobs might spoil your farming plans. We aren't as biddable as you might think.
Anyway, you don't have to worry about your actions being to the detriment of the overall game. That is the job of the developers. If they think something is to the detriment of the overall game, they will surely address it in due course.
This isn't a problem just with aging PvP games but modern video game theory as a whole. Ever since "progression" became an intrinsic component of every style of game, video games as a whole have lost a difficulty progression.
It used to be expected that the further into a game you progressed, the harder it would become. Now, through a combination of developing player skill over time, gear/ability increases often rapidly outpacing monster "stat" increases for the sake of being "cool" or allowing the player to feel "empowered", and just an overall desire from developers to avoid "player frustration" the difficulty curve of many modern games is either a flat line, or a downward slope resulting in the endgame actually being EASIER then the beginnings where a player is simultaneously dealing with learning the skill set of the game, acquiring "gear" or other progression stat buffs, and often working with a more limited pool of abilities.
These issues are simply expedited and compounded when introduced with competitive pvp and a "pay2win" power structure.
It used to be expected that the further into a game you progressed, the harder it would become. Now, through a combination of developing player skill over time, gear/ability increases often rapidly outpacing monster "stat" increases for the sake of being "cool" or allowing the player to feel "empowered", and just an overall desire from developers to avoid "player frustration" the difficulty curve of many modern games is either a flat line, or a downward slope resulting in the endgame actually being EASIER then the beginnings where a player is simultaneously dealing with learning the skill set of the game, acquiring "gear" or other progression stat buffs, and often working with a more limited pool of abilities.
These issues are simply expedited and compounded when introduced with competitive pvp and a "pay2win" power structure.
"I was wondering whether PvP multiplayer games shouldn't have reverse progress: The more you play, the less strong your characters / vehicles / whatever would become.
How do you propose this would work in games where RNG elements have, arguably, heavier weighting than stat progression?
How do you propose this would work in games where RNG elements have, arguably, heavier weighting than stat progression?
There are players/platoons that farm newbs in every tier. I never encountered many in lower tiers, at least not enough to affect the new player experience IMO.
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